Creative Financing Bites Muni
San Francisco Muni may have to pay $68 million to banks and insurers as a result of some “creative financing” done 8 and 9 years ago. As previously described in the Antiplanner, in the early 2000s the Federal Transit Administration encouraged transit agencies to sell their equipment to banks and then lease it back. The […]
Ten Best Transit Cities? Not!
Someone asked the Antiplanner to comment on this list of the supposed ten best transit cities in the nation. The list includes, in order, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Washington, San Jose, Honolulu, and Salt Lake City. This is supposed to be for students, but it must really be for students who […]
Back in the Air Again
The Antiplanner is in Washington DC today to testify before a Senate subcommittee about the role of urban transit in the lives of elderly and disabled passengers. My testimony argues that, as I pointed out here a few days ago, most senior citizens will continue to drive as long as they are able. When they […]
The Myth of the Senior Transit Rider
According to Transportation for America–which is largely a shill for the transit and high-speed rail industry–the nation about to face a new crisis: a shortage of mobility “options” for retiring baby boomers. According to a report published by the group on June 14, “By 2015, more than 15.5 million Americans 65 and older will live […]
The Wrong Measures
Late last week, with great fanfare, the Brookings Institution released a new report on “Transit and Jobs in America.” Too many people, the report found, live too far away from a transit stop, so it urged more investments in transit so that more people can use it. Data in the report itself discredited this logic. […]
2009 Transit Data
The Federal Transit Administration has published the 2009 National Transit Database, which includes loads of information on every federally subsidized transit system in America. Unfortunately, the data come on about 20 hard-to-read spreadsheets (this version, known as the “data tables,” are easier to read but harder to use for calculations). So, once again, the Antiplanner […]
No
That’s the answer to the question (raised here in September), “Should transit agencies buy hybrid buses?” At least, it is in the case of The Rapid, the transit agency for Grand Rapids, Michigan. With the usual fanfare, The Rapid took delivery on five hybrid-electric buses some three years ago. These buses cost $510,000 each, or […]
Why Transit Will Never Be Energy Efficient
At a recent presentation, the Antiplanner mentioned that transit is not energy efficient because most transit vehicles run nearly empty most of the time. A “gotcha” look appear on the face of an audience member, who said, “but what if more people rode transit?” Yes, and cars would be more energy efficient if they were […]
Transit Unions: Victims or Bullies?
A Portland transit union leader says his members have been “victimized” by a free-market group that posted their salaries on line. But who is the real victim here: the people collecting the salaries or the people whose taxes pay the salaries even if they never ride transit? Back in June, a free-market group in New […]
Debate Post-Mortem
The Antiplanner’s debate with American Public Transportation Association President Bill Millar focused on transit privatization. The Antiplanner argued that private operators would provide excellent, low-cost service where the demand for such service existed, such as in dense cities and low-income neighborhoods, while still providing adequate demand-responsive transit (like SuperShuttle) in low-density neighborhoods where demand was […]
The Case for Privatizing Transit
The Antiplanner will be presenting a new paper tomorrow at the Cato Institute titled “Fixing Transit: The Case for Privatization.” The paper was not yet posted on the Cato web site, but you can download an advance copy. Most transit systems in America were private and profitable, if declining, as late as the 1960s. Since […]
I-70 Train Plan Will Lead to More Congestion
The Colorado Department of Transportation recently announced how it plans to try to fix the capacity and congestion problems in the Interstate 70 mountain corridor. The plan has two major problems. First, it’s going to take 20 years or more to implement, and second, it will do nothing meaningful to relieve the worst area of congestion from east of Idaho Springs to west of Georgetown.
