Coincidence? Maybe, Maybe Not
Last Friday, December 9, the Detroit News published the Antiplanner’s critique of Detroit’s proposed Woodward light-rail line. On Tuesday, December 13, “the feds, the governor and the mayor” decided that bus-rapid transit makes more sense, so they killed the light-rail plan.
Highway Cost Overruns
Numerous state highway programs have suffered cost overruns, say the Gannett papers (which include USA Today). What’s striking from the story, however, is how small and rare the cost overruns really are. The papers found overruns in 19 states, but they focused on projects that actually had overruns and did not reveal how many projects […]
Fast Spending on FasTracks
The projected cost of the Denver-to-Longmont, or Northwest, rail line–one of six approved by Denver-area voters in 2004–has risen from the 2004 estimate of $462 million to $1.4 billion. For all that money, RTD won’t even get to own the rail line, but will merely rent it from BNSF. Moveover, most of the route from […]
Moving in for the Kill–or to Be Fleeced?
The Voice of Orange County reports that opponents of California’s high-speed rail boondoggle are “moving in for the kill.” But the article presents no clear path for killing the train to nowhere. While there are lawsuits, opponents in Congress, and critics in the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, the final decision will be made by the […]
Driverless Cars Take Off
Self-driving cars will transform mobility, says Sebastian Thrun, the engineer who led the development of the Volkswagen and Google self-driving cars. The fact that Thrun’s article is featured in the New York Times constitutes a major endorsement from America’s “newspaper of record.” This is the only major endorsement for driverless cars as represented by Thrun. […]
Remember When Transit Used to Be Efficient?
Arlington County, Virginia wants to spend $261 million building a streetcar line that, just four years ago, was expected to cost $100 million less. The streetcar’s costs are now expected to average $50 million a mile. That’s quite literally insane. When San Diego built the first modern light-rail line, which opened in 1981, it cost […]
If You Don’t Like the Data, Attack the Messenger
California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office announced this week that the state is about to waste $6 billion or more starting construction on a high-speed rail line that will never be completed. “The availability of funding to complete a usable segment is highly uncertain,” said the report, to which the Antiplanner responds, “Duh!” Yet some people aren’t […]
Remember When “Transit” Meant “Transportation”?
Portland’s TriMet transit agency is spending more than $370,000 to install solar panels on a downtown building. This will initially save the agency less than $3,700 a year, and even if the savings increase over time, when interest is counted there will be something close to a 100-year payback period. Someone comments on the above […]
Detroit Light Rail
Detroit’s plan to spend $550 million building a nine-mile light-rail line on Woodward Avenue would be laughable if it weren’t wasting so much money that could actually do something useful if spent on something else. Detroit leaders have convinced themselves that light rail is world-class transportation, that it will be the lynchpin of Detroit’s recovery, […]
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 […]
Reviving California High-Speed Rail
The California High Speed Rail Authority has reason to be thankful this week as the U.S. Department of Transportation gave it another $900 million, keeping hopes alive for the state’s rail program. That means the feds have given the state a total of about $4.5 billion which, when matched with state bonds (which can only […]
New Concept: Compare Benefits with Costs
The San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is considering the possibility of using benefit-cost analyses to decide how to spend federal and state taxpayer dollars. This “new” technology dates back to 1848, so you can see why regional planners might be just discovering it now. As presented in the San Jose Mercury-News, benefit-cost […]
