TRANSPORTATION - Miscellaneous - Independence Institute

If They Only Had a Streetcar 0
- May 7, 2012
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 […]
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The Highway Trust Fund Is Doomed 0
- May 4, 2012
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 […]
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Transit Score Not Believable 0
- May 1, 2012
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, […]
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You Lose Some, You Lose Some 0
- April 30, 2012
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 […]
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The Hidden Cost of Congestion 0
- April 27, 2012
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 […]
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Living in a Fantasy World 0
- April 26, 2012
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 […]
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