{"id":176835205,"date":"2010-08-09T16:53:25","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T16:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=176835205"},"modified":"2010-08-09T16:53:25","modified_gmt":"2010-08-09T16:53:25","slug":"things-i-want-for-christmas-in-a-new-transportation-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=176835205","title":{"rendered":"Things I want for Christmas (in a new transportation bill)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark R. Brown<\/span><\/p>\n

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Let me bore you with a federal transportation policy post!<\/p>\n

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Why your transit system sucks (from U.S. PIRG “A Better Way To Go” report)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

SAFETEA-LU<\/a>, the funding and authorization bill that guides federal transportation spending, expired last year and a new bill is in the works. With each subsequent iteration, federal transportation bills have made more provisions for alternate modes, but highway spending<\/a> still dominates. $40 million in the highway account is allowed to be used by states as flex funds for alternate modes, but the ultimate decision of how this money is used is up to state DOTs<\/a>.  Though I\u2019m no expert in federal transportation policy, here are the things I think should be included in the next bill: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Gas tax alternatives<\/strong> \u2013 a vehicle miles tax (VMT) is an equitable way to tax people in proportion to how much they use our roads. The bank account will also take less of a hit as more fuel efficient vehicles fill the streets. It makes sense to charge people in proportion to the amount they use a service or good.  Fuel consumption will soon be an outdated proxy for road usage.  <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mandated multimodal funding <\/strong> \u2013 SAFETEA-LU marketeers made a big deal about flexible spending for alternate modes.  Big deal. These spending decisions were mostly left up to state DOTs.  This is fine if you\u2019re in a progressive part of the country, but many state agencies still think highways are the bee\u2019s knees (I love 1920\u2032s slang<\/a>).  This is like giving a blank check to a crack addict. Just as there are dedicated funds for highways, there should be a mandated percentage of funds going to walking\/biking\/transit. Or give more power to MPOs and cities to decide how to spend the money. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Increase federal match for transit <\/strong>– say you want to build a highway. No problem. The feds will give you 90% of the cost. A new transit line? You\u2019re lucky if you get a 60% match<\/a>. [Note that this is a 40% local match for transit while Maryland requires a 50% local match for bike\/ped projects.]<\/em> This is partly due to the huge demand of the New Starts<\/a> program and the dearth of funding available for such projects. Oh yea, and highways don\u2019t pay for themselves, and transit shouldn\u2019t be held to a more stringent standard which requires unrealistic \u201ccost effectiveness\u201d goals. Show me one cost effective highway. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Incentives for more domestic light rail\/commuter rail car manufacturers<\/strong>. All this know-how is in Europe and Japan. We need to bring it here and base our manufacturing sector on sustainability instead of waste.  Lately, when I walk by cars stuck in traffic, I see a racket.  Huge subsidies given to car manufacturers, who in turn spew out millions of cars on asphalt roads which employ millions of contractors and engineers so even more people can have their own steel box which shuttles them around in the most wasteful, environmentally and physically harmful way possible. Why not put these subsidies into a product which has a future and is actually good for people?<\/p>\n

Transportation for America has a transportation bill petition <\/a>with some interesting comments.<\/p>\n

Download full  \u201cA Better Way to Go \u2013 Meeting America\u2019s 21st Century Transportation Challenges with Modern Public Transit<\/a>\u201d U.S. PIRG report.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\nhttps:\/\/carfreebaltimore.com\/?p=365<\/a>oldId.20100809165325534<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark R. Brown Let me bore you with a federal transportation policy post! Why your transit system sucks (from U.S. PIRG “A Better Way To Go” report) SAFETEA-LU, the funding and authorization bill that guides federal transportation spending, expired last year and a new bill is in the works. With each subsequent iteration, federal … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Things I want for Christmas (in a new transportation bill)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176835205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176835205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176835205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176835205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176835205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176835205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176835205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}