Transportation

 Good article from the Center for Public Integrity on the state of federal transportation policy, seen through the lens of the various groups that are lobbying for a new transportation spending bill. Sometimes this comes down to a public transit vs. highways debate, but constructing one or the other is not that different (in most ways), so it’s hard to see what the problem is for many construction firms. Of course there are specialties to each mode, but the bulk of the work is still in basic civil and mechanical disciplines, pouring concrete and erecting structures. If we build less of one and more of the other, we’ll probably still end up spending the same amount of money. I suppose a perceived threat to one's business is still a threat, even if that perception is misguided.

 It may be in a days work for me as a transport planner, but how to explain the complex interrelatedness of all the aspects of transportation, and how it shapes our world? Land use, air quality, mode shares, travel times - how we move around is affected by and affects many other things. The Transportation Research Board gave out some awards for web site and other things that did the best job of helping to educate people on what transportation means in their lives. Transportation Town, the winner, is an interesting, small-scale planning sort of thing that allows people to make choices and see what happens. Always a good thing.

Find out how your senator voted for transportation (mainly public transit) on this handy chart. Yes, this is one person’s conception of a voting record on the issue, but I’m more than willing to go with what Yonah says.

Interesting about Arizona (noted in the blog comments) and Colorado senators, since they both have major public transit investments that are going forward (CO: FasTracks) or have recently opened (AZ: Valley Metro).

Friday the 10th was the 45^th anniversary of the signing by LBJ of the Urban Mass Transit Act (UMTA), which was the first federal funding for mass transit and has evolved into (the programs of) today’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Maybe within the next 45 years we’ll get some parity between funding for roads and transit.

All of us recognize that the curses of congestion in commuting cannot be wiped away with the single stroke of a pen, or 50 pens that we have here. But we do know that this legislation that we are coming to grips with faces the realities of American life and attempts to put in motion a movement to do something about it.

 

We all enjoy the NASCAR crashes, even though we don't really like watching people get hurt (in real life). That's why this special photo section of the NY Daily News is morbidly interesting: Accidents on Long Island

PBS has a good timeline of the stops and starts of the 2nd Avenue subway construction, with some links to historical New York Times articles.

So we actually have someone coming into the White House that respects rail and infrastructure. Maybe now, passenger rail will be allowed to compete on equal footing (or at least more equal) as a transportation mode. The same for local public transit. Amtrak actually managed to get a multi-year authorization, even with the current president, as the members of congress actually have constituents who are increasingly using rail in their travels. California voters actually passed a high-speed rail funding ballot measure - hopefully now the California High-Speed Rail Authority can make good on its plans.

Obama-Biden have actually talked about infrastructure, and their words are promising. Let's hope they can work some magic to start doing something about sooner than later - infrastructure investments pay off and we could certainly use an investment that pays off right now.

From ED, some basic facts on transportation in the US. Of note - the fact that not owning a car and using public transit can save a decent amount per year (which mortgage companies take into account), coupled with the fact that nearly half the population doesn't have real access to public transit. Then notice that even more drilling for domestic oil production won't have much of an effect for a while (I think ED is shooting a bit long, but at least 10 years is a good guess).

 

So you'd think this would be something our government would be interested in helping out with. Not really. our current misguided transportation secretary used some carefully constructed words to intimate that since the gas-tax funds for road construction are running out (surprise - people are driving less now), they might want to use some of that transit money to fund road construction. Hopefully we've all misconstrued her (nice to hear from the feds that road projects might actually have to prove themselves the way that transit projects do), but no way to tell at the moment.

 

I don't even want to talk about malicious neglect that the current administration has shown towards Amtrak. Oh that we had a good regional rail system in this country (on, and on, and on, and on...)

So what we have at the moment: mass transit use is growing pretty much everywhere in the country, and at the same time the transit providers, often forced to rely on sales, petroleum use, property, and other taxes for operating income, are hurting for money. So they're going to the other source they have - raising fares, and some even cutting service.

But hey, maybe the USDOT will find a way to fund those roads that are being used a bit less now.

I'm a light sleeper, especially in the mornings. Unfortunately I live close enough to a highway (the BQE) and some major arterials to end up getting woken up or kept up by helicopter noise occasionally. I'm not close enough to these things to hear traffic noise, but helicopters don't have to be very close to make lots of noise.

I used to live near midtown Manhattan, and every holiday season would bring the daily drone of helicopter noise as the mechanical birds hovered over midtown for long stretches filming the throngs shopping and skating and just walking about.

Take this awareness test. It's good. It's short. It's better with sound - there's voice narration, but it's not loud or crazy or anything.