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At CNU, Representative of Texas Legislature says “No Road Pays for Itself”

Over the past two days at the Congress for the New Urbanism Project for Transportation Reform conference, attendees have called for transportation reform at local, regional, and national levels. In a panel debate about the future of transportation funding and the role of regional planning through MPOs, several speakers argued that the foundation of transportation and development funding had to be systematically overhauled.

Mike Krusee, chairman of the Texas House of Representatives Transportation Committee, said that financial problems were more significant than environmental, though they should be tied together in the same discussion. "The reason there's not a new transportation bill is because there is no money. We've hit the wall of unsustainability on how we finance the transportation system," he said.

Krusee asserted it was urgent and necessary to understand the nature of this broken financial apparatus and to develop solutions to fix it. In Texas, he said that, on average, it cost the state 20-30 cents per person per mile to build and maintain a road to the suburbs, yet drivers only pay on average 2-3 cents per mile through the gas tax, vehicles fees, etc. "What we found was that no road that we built in Texas paid for itself," said Krusee. "None."

The expense to build roads and utilities further and further from the urban cores was not only driving costs to unsustainable levels, it created an imbalance in who paid for growth. Over the past 50 years, Krusee argued, the federal government was using tax money that came by and large from cities to subsidize roads to areas without access otherwise. "City dwellers have subsidized the land purchases and the development costs out in the suburbs," said Krusee. What's more, the gas tax, which city dwellers pay when driving on city roads, but which goes to freeways largely outside of urban cores, is "a huge transfer of wealth from the cities to the suburbs to build these rings."

Krusee said building the Interstate system was initially a good thing, because if facilitated interstate commerce and increased the productivity of cities.  Now however, because of congestion caused by ever longer commute patterns, system productivity is in peril. "What's happened is the federal government has basically reneged on the deal. By subsidizing highways out to the suburbs, it's no longer efficient for truck traffic, for goods and services and people to move between cities in the United States because those roads have been hijacked by all the commuters."

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‘The Concrete is Cracking’: Front-Loaded New Transport Bill Gains Steam

With the U.S. unemployment rate hitting 10.2 percent today, its highest level in 26 years, a palpable shift is occurring on Capitol Hill.

20070102_oberstar_2.jpgHouse transportation chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) (Photo: STLToday)

For weeks, we've heard senior Democrats and the transit industry make the case for more transportation spending as a potent job creator, but the lack of funding for a full six-year bill has kept the conversation stalled.

But two things have happened in the week since Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) floated the idea of a "front-loaded" infrastructure plan that would concentrate investment in the first two years:

  • The defeat of two Democratic candidates in Tuesday's off-year elections reinforced that job creation and economic worries are the No. 1 concerns for voters.
  • Gross domestic product may be rebounding, but unemployment decidedly is not.

This adds up to renewed interest in fast-tracking a new transportation bill, perhaps with a two-year window. As House transport committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) told David Rogers of Politico, "The concrete is cracking."

But even if the White House is prepared to abandon its insistence on an 18-month extension of current law, how to pay for new transportation legislation remains a very open question. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), for his part, told Rogers that he likes the sound of Rep. Pete DeFazio's (D-OR) proposed tax on Wall Street oil speculators:

There are some painless ways to fund the highway bill. Transaction taxes, that’s a painless way ... Where are the shared contributions to all this? If you’re sitting there on Wall Street, if you’re Goldman Sachs, if you’re making all this money, if you got all this federal money [in a] bailout, and you are paying all these big bonuses to your folks, where is your contribution to this recovery? That’s why it’s painless.

Clyburn's reference to the "highway" bill brings up another lingering mystery about the type of transportation spending being envisioned by senior Democrats. If the White House does agree to support a new infrastructure bill after health care is finished, will it include policy changes or just new money?

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Thanks a Million

While I'm going to syndicate some stories a little later today, I'm going to be away from the computer for much of this afternoon so their probably won't be another "L.A. Only" story.  But before I sign-off for the weekend, I wanted to take a moment to note an L.A. Streetsblog milestone and thank you all for sticking with me through a chaotic last couple of months. 

Earlier this week, L.A. Streetsblog reached its one-millionth page view.  At the rate our readership is growing, it's going to take a lot less time to reach our two-millionth view; but it goes without saying that Streetsblog wouldn't have had the success we have had as a news source or activism tool without your help, readership, story suggestions, submissions, and comments.

So, thanks a million.  I'll see you all on Monday.

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Update on “Eastside Safety Ride” Next Friday

11_6_09_lahood.jpgRay LaHood likes the Eastside Extension...but will we? Image: The Fastlane

One week from today the Eastside Bike Club, Streetsblog and the Bus Bench will meet at the Union Station Entrance to bike the six-mile Gold Line Extension to document what we see concerning crossings and safety.  I've been getting a lot of questions about the ride, so I'm going to answer as many of them as I can here.

If you have other questions, put them in the comments section, and I'll answer them in the body of the article.

What's the point of doing this ride anyway?

There's been a lot of controversy over safety issues with the opening of the Gold Line Extension.  When there's a complaint or suggestion, the answers have either been that they're going to fix that before the opening or that the person complaining was probably doing their nails and breaking the law.  We're going to ride at street level, witness what the crossings look like at rush hour and come to our own conclusions.  

Why so close to the line's opening?  Won't that minimize the impact of your findings?

This isn't planned as an advocacy ride, more of a fact finding mission.  By riding so close to the line's opening we're giving Metro as much time as we can to make all the improvements that they can.

When did you start hating/stop trusting Metro?

I don't hate Metro.  I actually think light rail is one of the safest forms of transit.  But, that doesn't mean we have to take everything they say at face value.  I wouldn't be surprised if we end up really liking all the improvements and changes that have taken place over the last couple of months.

What's the route?

The route is super simple.  We'll ride south to the Little Tokyo stop then head east on 1st Street all the way to the Indiana stop.  Then we'll head east on Third until the light rail ends at the Atlantic Ave. stop.

What do I have to do to join the ride?

Nothing.  Just show up at the entrance to Union Station by 7:30 next Friday.  If you're under 18, you're required to wear a helmet.  Other than that, I trust you to decide how to protect yourself and if you're ready to ride East L.A. at morning rush hour.

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Westside Kids “Testify” on Bike Plan and Are Heard Across the Country

Today on the Streetsblog Network, a story about some kids in Los Angeles who did their research and came up with several good ideas about improving conditions for bicycle commuters. Then they ran up against the reality that the public forums on the city's bike plan weren't so public. But they didn't let that stop them.

Stephen Box at SoapBox LA reports:

The FIRSTteamWestside (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a group of kids who prepared a presentation that they intended to give at the Bike Plan (draft) workshops.

Their mission was to develop a plan to improve local transportation. They did the research and they prepared and they discovered that the public workshops were not the robust public arena they desired, so they adapted.

Their coach reports, "The kids were hoping to give a presentation at one of the "public forums" but were badly disappointed when they found out that members of the public would not be allowed to speak so they posted it on YouTube and submitted the link at labikeplan.org."

The kids give an amazingly articulate and informed statement, recommending additional bike cars for the region's commuter rail system. The future is coming.

More from the network: The Transport Politic looks at the importance of aligning transitways with walkable neighborhoods. On Transport discusses the concept of "lifestyle centers" and their aspirations to create a sense of community in a suburban mall setting. And Intersection 911 reports on the 38 percent bump in Philadelphia bike commuting during the SEPTA strike.

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Garmin: Chat, Navigate and Steer — But Don’t Drive Distracted

The first time I saw this ad I thought my eyes and ears were deceiving me. But no, there it is: a young woman holding a cellphone toward the camera as "nüvifone" maker Garmin beckons viewers to "communicate while navigating."

"With my nüvifone, I can take calls from my friends while I'm driving to them," she says as she's shown piloting an SUV with two passengers, one of whom accepts an incoming call on a phone mounted to the windshield. (Note to Garmin: Hands-free is not brain-free.)

Maybe the most egregious aspect is the "Do not drive while distracted" disclaimer -- which pops up as the young woman is depicted driving while distracted.

nuviphonegrab.jpg
What the ad doesn't show: The driver plows her SUV through one of the pedestrian-populated shots that follow, and bystanders whip out their nüvifones to call 911, text their friends and photograph the carnage.
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Wanted: Your Photos of Crummy Transit Conditions

boarding_b44.jpgWaiting to board the B44 in Brooklyn. Photo: Benjamin Fried
Our latest call for photos was inspired by the picture at right, taken by Streetsblog New York's own Ben Fried. It's an all too familiar scene -- transit riders crammed together, waiting for a bus (or train) that doesn't come when it's supposed to (if you missed the story that went with the picture, it's here).

Crowding is just one indignity transit users have to face. Others include inadequate bus shelters, nonexistent or vandalized seating, blocked entrances -- you know the stuff.

Send us your pictures of crummy transit service and infrastructure where you live and we'll put together a new slide show. You can e-mail JPEGs to me at sarah [at] streetsblog [dot] org, or tag them with "streetsblog" and "transitfail" in Flickr. Get your submissions in by next Thursday morning.

Our past slide shows have been on bike traffic, space hogs and work bikes. Check them out if you haven't already.
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Today’s Headlines

  • State Legislator Rushes to Protect Their Salary and Car Perks (Times)
  • Punk Duo Expresses Rage at City Commuting (LA Weekly)
  • 10 Questions for City Planning (City Watch)
  • Will Feinstein Support HSR When It Matters (Merc-News via CAHSR Blog)
  • How Important Is a United Front on the Climate Bill? (DC Streetsblog)
  • O.C. Developer Fined for Draining Wetland (Times)
  • A Tennessee Look at the Road Rage Doc Trial (Chattanoogan)
  • Metro Claims They Opened New Website, But I'm Still Getting Error Messages (The Source)

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

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Times Op/Ed on Bike-Car Relationship Reveals the Good and Bad of Thompson Fallout

11_5_09_daum.jpgShe looks like she could handle life on a bike. Join us, Meghan!
Photo: Creepyla.com
Since the Christopher Thompson verdict was announced on Monday, many cyclists have reacted with dismay to the media coverage of the assault, the trial, and the reactions of other Angelenos on message boards and call-in shows.  Cyclists were surprised at the venom shown by callers and mis-information from the host on progressive KPCC's morning show and other radio shows were just as bad.  Surprisingly, some of the best coverage, was from the conservative John and Ken Show, the top rated radio call-in show in Los Angeles.

Today, the Los Angeles Times stepped into the fray with an op/ed by columnist Meghan Daum.  The piece is typical of the good and the bad of the coverage.  Daum seems to think that all cyclists are spandex wearing weekend warriors or communist hippies; but she also charectarizes many drivers as socially acceptable sociopaths.  Consider:

Obscene gestures, vanity plates -- it's all part of the romance of Southern California driving. Road rage? That's just the inflamed passion part of that romance. But anyone who's been paying attention to the road lately has probably noticed a marked, even dizzying -- increase in the number of bikes on U.S. streets.

Ugh.  Stererotypes on parade.  However, our car driving friends fare even worse:

Because there's a larger bone of contention here, which is that cyclists make a lot of us feel like lazy slobs. Whereas drivers sit in an air-conditioned bubble, expending only the energy required to press the gas pedal, tap the brake and change from a '70s classic rock radio station to an '80s classic rock station, cyclists are out in the actual elements doing actual exercise. Whereas drivers are consuming calories by eating an entire bucket of KFC over 10 blocks, cyclists are burning calories and consuming nothing but seaweed at home. Whereas drivers' carbon footprints grow more beast-like by the hour, cyclists create no exhaust other than the sweet fatigue they feel as they drift off to saintly sleep at night.

Of course, moral superiority is insufferable, but you still shouldn't try to run it off the road or teach it a lesson with the family car. You might win on the street, but in court, it's a different story.

While I applaud the general sentiment of her story, that drivers and cyclists need to co-exist and it's incumbent on drivers as the bigger road users to be the bigger people; I have to wonder whether painting with such broad brush strokes, "drivers are slobs" and "cyclists are insufferably smug," is the way to get the message across.

If you haven't checked out Daum's column yet, I would recommend you do so.  If nothing else, the comments section gives you a chance to interact with some of L.A.'s less sympathetic drivers in a forum where their two tons of body armor aren't a factor.  I would leave my own comment, but I have to finish my seaweed before grabbing my cloth bags and heading to a farmer's market.

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CNU Transportation Project Raises Bar on Planning for Livable Cities

max_pic_small.jpgPhoto: npGreenway

The Congress for the New Urbanism's Project for Transportation Reform summit in Portland, Oregon, has brought together transportation engineers, city planners, and transportation reform advocates to share best practice policies for reforming transportation metrics, funding mechanisms, and regional practices that isolate transportation planning from land-use and growth targets.  The highlight of the first day of the program was Portland itself, as councilors from Portland Metro, one of the only elected municipal planning organizations (MPOs) in the country, elaborated on their multi-disciplinary mission, which seeks to limit development within an urban growth boundary and coordinate transportation, parks and recreation, and solid waste management to achieve a more sustainable city.

It's quite a mandate, one that Metro's own councilors and representatives reminded the audience was a work in progress. Despite Portland's reputation among new urbanists and livable cities advocates as a national leader in promoting pedestrian safety and multi-modal accessibility, the region's municipal stewards said they have a long way to go.  

Metro Councilor Robert Liberty said, "I know this is the image many of you have of our region," while displaying a slide of Dorothy and her cohorts skipping along the yellow-brick road to Oz (Portland's green bike lanes do beg at least a chromatic comparison to the Emerald City). In reality, said Liberty, moving onto a photo of one of Portland's many crisscrossing freeways, the city is still fighting off the influence of Robert Moses (who visited in the 1940s and convinced city leaders they should build bigger and faster roads). 

Since 1973, with the passage of Oregon's Senate Bill 100, which led to the original urban growth boundary around Portland, the region has incrementally chipped away at the Moses paradigm of freeway expansion, instead funding light rail, robust bus service, extensive neighborhood traffic calming, and ever more impressive bicycle infrastructure. So thoroughly have Portlanders embraced the bicycle, in fact, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church recently unveiled a new bicycle shrine in its efforts to reach out to cyclists.

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Citizen Journalism: USC Student Reveals Flaws in Citys Street Cleaning and Parking Enforcement

Clarence Eckerson Jr., the mad genius behind Streetfilms, believes that the next frontier of activist journalism isn't going to be written blogs but video blogs.  Sometimes, when I look at the performance of your average Streetfilm  compared to the hits one of my best researched and most popular stories, it's hard to argue with him.

Picking up the mantle of citizen journalist is USC Junior Matt Schraeder who's story on how the city will ticket cars parked on streets due for cleanings is pretty much a must-see piece of journalism.  While you're not going to confuse the above piece with a Streetfilm, Schraeder does take the needed steps to take the film beyond your run-of-the-mill time elapse video to a worthy, well-rounded news story.   He manages to interview officials in the LADOT and Parking Enforcement.  Just add some music, get rid of the sympathy for drivers who park illegally and we're in business!

While you won't catch me crying crocodile tears for the drivers in Schraeder's piece, it's not like they know the streets isn't going to be cleaned when they make their parking decisions, there is a major issue with this ticketing practice.  The City of Los Angeles is in desperate need of parking reform, which should include more rate increases and longer metered hours.  The more the city decides to use the new funds to fill a hole in the general fund and the more it hands out tickets that are more likely to enrage than educate; the harder and more politically unfeasible it is going to be for politicians to make the right decision when it comes to parking pricing and reform.

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Newest Way to Procrastinate on the Internet: Walk Score Adds Transit

11_5_09_walk_score.jpgThe area arond Park-LaBrea is "very walkable." I can agree with that.

Earlier today, Walk Score, the website that ranks areas based on how easy it is to lead a car-lite lifestyle, has taken a big step towards improving its metrics by adding transit data.  As long as a city has google transit, which thankfully Los Angeles now does, you can get a much clearer picture of how easy it would be to ditch your car after moving to a new neighborhood.

The site's usefullness to home buyers and others just looking to move is one of the sites' most useful tools.  Local real estate websites, such as Zip Realty, use Walk Score on their website to help home buyers make decisions.  When we were planning to move to Los Angeles, my wife and I used Walk Score to narrow down the neighborhoods in which we looked for a rental house; so I can vouch for the site's usefulness.  Of course, the site doesn't take into account urban design and safety issues, but between google street view and the LAPD's crime map that information is also readily available.  In other words, Walk Score is a great place to start, but you probably want to do a little more research before signing a lease, a fact Walk Score doesn't try to hide.

Walk Score has a use that they don't advertise, what I call "Livable Streets Trash Talking."  My neighborhood has a Walk Score of 87, which is way higher than the scores for my brother's in Woodland Hills (67), my mom's in Marina Del Rey (71) or my Church's in West L.A. (72.)  Since I work from home, I can also boast that my "office" has a more walkable area than the Flying Pigeon Bike Shop (71) and my wife's office in Brentwood (72).  However, the trophy for having the most walkable community around your office goes to the Bus Rider's Union who edged the Bike Coalition with a score of 98 to 95.

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Boxer Okays Senate Climate Bill, Without Amendments or GOP

The Senate environment committee approved its climate change bill today on a 10-1 vote, shrugging off a boycott by all of the panel's Republicans but missing out on the chance to consider amendments to the lengthy legislation.

070619_boxer.jpgSen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: AP)

The environment panel's chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) had offered Republicans several days to abandon their walkout, promising time to consider GOP amendments and a complete Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) modeling of the bill before it comes to the Senate floor.

But environment committee Republicans were unmoved, insisting on an immediate five-week delay for EPA analysis despite testimony from the EPA that such work would produce little new information. Boxer's GOP counterpart on the panel, Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK), seemed to delight in forcing the chairman's hand as he labeled the no-amendments move the "nuclear option."

The question now becomes whether the specific proposals added by Boxer's panel -- including grant programs for transit and clean transportation that nearly triple the funding approved by the House -- can survive a long slog through as many as five other committees.

Boxer insisted this morning that "many things in this bill ... are going to be part of that comprehensive bill" that ultimately reaches a full Senate vote. But others on the committee acknowledged that the bill's one-party approval would not bode well for its political prospects.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the chief sponsor of efforts to boost the climate bill's clean transportation provisions, described himself as "very, very, very disappointed," particularly given the loss of a chance to amend the legislation.

Carper submitted an amendment that would have added more than $400 million to the bill's annual set-aside of climate money for transit, inter-city rail, local land use planning and other projects.  "I don't like this process," Carper said this morning. "I don't think any of us do."

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The Perils of Cul-de-Sac Development

Loads of good stuff today on the Streetsblog Network.

Portland Transport has a post on the connection between cul-de-sac development and safety for all street users, as discussed at the Congress for the New Urbanism Transportation Summit in Portland.

2233436864_d1836d5933.jpgWhat are the dangers of cul-de-sac development? (Photo: TheMuuj via Flickr.)
For me the highlight presentation on opening day…was about the safety effects of different street network types.

The study was based on looking at all cities in California with population of 40,000 or greater. The surprising finding was that cities built before 1950 are safer (in terms of both serious injuries and fatalities for all classes of users: auto drivers/passengers, cyclists and pedestrians) than cities built after 1950.

The differences appears to be in the type of street network. Compact street grids seem to be safer, compared to the arterial-collector-local street 'tree' style of street network popular in post-war development.

No link to the study itself yet, but we're interested in hearing more.

More from around the network: Urban City Architecture launches a series of posts on the pressing issue of pedestrian safety in Miami. Bello Velo reports on a new driver education campaign designed to improve cyclist safety in Huntsville, Alabama. And Copenhagenize is looking for your opinion on the safety of daylight headlight requirements.
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Today’s Headlines

  • Imagine, a Ciclovia for Los Angeles (Times)
  • LA Weekly Reviews the Best Eats on the Blue Line.  That Must Have Been Some Fun Research...
  • ...But They Also Offer a Harsh Critique of Villaraigosa and Measure R (LA Weekly)
  • Two Peds. Killed by Freight Train in Fullerton (LA Now)
  • Drunk Driver Slams Into Cop Car in NoHo (Daily News)
  • Vancouverites -- Even Drivers -- Want to Keep a Lane for Bikes on Burrard Bridge (Sun via Planetizen)
  • London's Mayor Boris Rides to the Rescue on His Trusty Bicycle (Guardian)
  • Go Metro, to Go Look at Cars? (The Source)
More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill