Let’s Be Like Europe and Build More Trains!
One recently revealed aspect of the European debt crisis is the role European passenger trains played in running up national debts. The Greek rail system, for example, has debts of $13 billion, or about 5 percent of Greece’s gross national product. Rail workers get paid so well that it would be cheaper to hire taxis […]
Back in the Air Again
The Antiplanner will be in Washington, DC this week to release American Nightmare and a new paper on transportation finance. On Tuesday noon, May 14, the Antiplanner will be one of three speakers at a hill briefing sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute on transportation. At the briefing, the Antiplanner will present a new paper […]
Why Didn’t He Take a Stand on Pot?
When a president takes a stand on a highly controversial issue like gay marriage in an election year, you know he is doing it solely to motivate his base. How so? The job of the president has nothing to do with who can and cannot get married, so in announcing that he supports gay marriage, […]
The Wildlife Service (Extermination Service, That Is)
A little-known agency in the Department of Agriculture is an out-of-control destroyer of wildlife, reports investigative journalist Tom Knudson in a lengthy series of articles in the Sacramento Bee. The agency, which calls itself the Wildlife Service, kills hundreds of thousands of animals each year. Thousands of non-target animals, ranging from endangered species to people’s […]
The True Cost of Driving
Some smart-growth advocates argue that, even though housing costs more in cities than in suburbs, transportation costs in cities are so much lower that the total cost of housing plus transportation is lower. The problem with these claims is that they are based on average transportation costs. As Steve Polzin, a transportation researcher from the […]
Transportation Notes from All Over
The city of Detroit decided not to build a light-rail line down Woodward Avenue, so some private foundations are trying to raise the $137 million to build it instead. Are they nuts? Do they really think this is the best use of their money? In 1996, the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union forced the county […]
If They Only Had a Streetcar
Kansas City sold $295 million worth of TIF bonds to revitalize a part of the city known as the Power & Light District. The developer who benefitted from this money says “the development was successful as part of a broader effort to re-energize the city’s downtown.” Unfortunately, tax revenues are less than a third of […]
The Highway Trust Fund Is Doomed
Congress is wrangling over how to spend federal gas taxes, with the Senate wanting to spend about $15 billion per year more than revenues while the House modestly wants to spend only about $10 billion per year more than revenues. But according to the Congressional Budget Office, the money they have to argue about will […]
Transit Score Not Believable
The Oregonian brags that Portland is “the 10th best city” for transit in the United States. But a close look at the web site doing the ranking reveals this may not be true. First, they only counted the nation’s 25 largest cities for which they had data. This means cities such as Honolulu and Oakland, […]
You Lose Some, You Lose Some
In February, Amtrak proudly opened what it claimed was the first high-speed rail line outside of the Northeast Corridor. An investment of $32 million in train control and signaling systems now allow it to run trains the 80 miles between Kalamazoo, Michigan and Porter, Indiana, at 110 mph. Since trains were previously operating at 95 […]
The Hidden Cost of Congestion
Nine months ago, Los Angeles had to close a major freeway for maintenance for a few days, which some people predicted would lead to such terrible traffic jams that they called it carmageddon. In fact, a lot of people stayed home and the predicted jams didn’t materialize. Instead, Los Angeles is now experiencing a population […]
Living in a Fantasy World
Here’s a great idea: when people stop driving their cars, build light-rail down the freeways and turn the rest of the freeway space into buildings and parks. Think about what that means. Despite claims that rail transit can move as many people as a 10-lane freeway, the reality is that the average two-track light-rail line […]
