Research update 9/25/07

Worsening Congestion
2007 Urban Mobility Report, Texas Transportation Institute, 9/18/07

Worsening congestion, the study notes, is reflected in several ways:
• Trips take longer
• Congestion affects more of the day
• Congestion affects weekend travel and rural areas
• Congestion affects more personal trips and freight shipments
• Trip travel times increasingly are unreliable

The report identifies multiple solutions to the congestion problem
that, researchers say, must be used together to be effective. These
include:
• Get as much service as possible from existing infrastructure
• Add road and transit system capacity in critical corridors
• Relieve chokepoints
• Change usage patterns
• Provide choices
• Diversify the development patterns
• Keep expectations realistic

Relieving congestion will require comprehensive set of strategies
TRIP, 9/18/07

Massachusetts Gov pushes 3 casinos to stem toll, tax hikes
Boston Herald, 9/18/07

Loosening the beltway
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)
announced that it had settled on terms with a private-sector
consortium to finance, build, and operate four new high-occupancy toll
(HOT) lanes
Leonard C. Gilroy, Reason, 9/17/07

A plan to get Maryland out of hole
Slot machines to close a $1.5 billion shortfall, and also provide funds
or health care, transportation and environment
Baitimore Sun, 9/18/07

Study confirms traffic woes
Institute report shows cost of congestion up 24%
Texas Transportation Institute, McGurk, Enquirer 9/18/07

Keep Washington Rolling campaign to cost millions
Touts roads, rail tax plan
Seattle Times, 9/18/07

Chicago's disgrace - NTSB issues a damning post mortem on rail failure
Just how bad things got at the CTA
Chicago Tribune, 9/18/07

CTA's deeper crisis
Lack of training and ignored warnings about safety
Chicago Tribune, 9/18/07

Brave New Boomers
Transportation Is a Key Issue
Gowan, Washington Post, 9/16/07

Committee recommends user fees for NM roads
A way to bring more money into New Mexico's underfunded transportation system
AP, Santa Fe, 9/15/07

Bridge impasse
Repair funds diverted
Star Tribune, 9/15/07

Las Vegas rail finds it difficult to get on track
High fares and long walks to stations have combined to hold down ridership.
An extension to the airport is pushed.
Yoshino, LA Times, 9/14/07

Five hours on the bus - everyday
Riders face longer commutes, higher fares and possible cuts on the horizon
Cepeda, Chicago Sun Times, 9/14/07

Service cuts and fare hikes for Pace and CTA riders put off until Nov. 4
Yet governor and legislative leaders worlds apart on how to provide
long-term funding plan to keep transit system from falling apart
Ryan, Chicago Daily Herald, 9/14/07

Funding for bridges served with side of pork
Senate set aside $1 billion for worn spans and 2.5 billion for earmarks
Star Tribune, 9/13/07

Gov. Deval eyes road to lea$ing
Road leasing to private companies
Boston Herald, 9/11/07

Time to Pull the Plug on Dulles Rail
Transit doesn't provide automobile competitive mobility
Cox, The Heartland Institute, 9/11/07

Roads endangered by permissive permits
Thousands of overweight trucks are on highways, with states' permission
Statesman.com, 9/11/07

Take on Traffic
Public support for $1.45B toll plan
American-Statesman, 9/11/07

Deception on Capitol Hill
Ethics Bill makes it easier to enact special interest measures
Robert Novak, Townhall.com, 9/10/07

Mass Transit: Separating Delusion from Reality
Congress has failed to make the connection between wasteful transit spending and inadequate roads and bridges.
There is simply no hope for reducing traffic congestion with transit.
W. Cox, The Heritage Foundation, 9/10/07

The city works – for those in power
Has a “light-rail mafia” managed “to direct rail construction contracts and
urban-renewal subsidies to themselves” as a new book by O'Toole suggests?
Portland Tribune 9/7/07

ATR opposes raising fuel taxes
No quick fix for transportation spending
Americans for Tax Reform, 9/4/07

Public transit riders brace for cuts, fare hikes
Nation's second-largest transit agency warns riders that
it might have to eliminate 39 bus routes and increase fares to
contend with a $110 million state funding deficit.
Chicago Tribune, 9/1/07

Moyers on earmarks
Pork & Corruption
Spending priorities out of wack
YouTube 7/28/07

The Road to Political Pork
House Transportation Spending Bill
Taxpayers for Common Sense, 7/24/07

Judicial Watch fingers congresswoman
$550,000 in federal transportation funds for a teapot museum
Does It All Matter, 6/21/07

Testimony before National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission
Optimism that a reformed federal-aid highway program, with a well-funded,
highway user fee-based Highway Trust Fund has excellent potential to solve
the most pressing national surface transportation needs
Cohen, American Highway Users Alliance, 3/19/07

Orwellian Toll Roads
Is this the Future of Transportation Funding: Using satellites and GPS to track drivers
in order to tax them for the miles they travel? A $700,00 feasability study.
CFIF.ORG, 3/9/07

Transportation Funding Friction
Gas Tax confrontation
Reeves, Austin Chronicle, 2/16/07

Constitutionally protected highway funds
..in opposition of Georgia mandate
JoeVentures.com, 2/2/07

Nature of urban gridlock
Interactive Animation
UC Berkeley Center for Future Urban Transport, Volvo Center, 4/21/06

Toll Roads ‘HOT’ Funding Topic
P. Sigmun, CEG, 5/16/05

Don Young's World
Highway trust fund looks more like a politician's slush fund.
Slivinski, American Spectator, 8/16/05

Transportation (In) Equity Act: A Legacy for Losers (Taxpayers)
Citizens Against Government Waste, 7/28/05

Toll Roads ‘HOT’ Funding Topic
P. Sigmund, CEG 5/16/05

Government Performance Project
How well each state manages infrastructure
Hawai'i rated among 5 lowest states
GPPonline.org, 2005

Administration supports enactment of a six-year highway, highway safety, and transit authorization bill.
Pres. G.W. Bush statement of adminstration policy
The American Presidency Project, 3/30/04