MoveNews #79 for the week of November 29, 2009

Regional

Pay more for public parking?
By Move SD volunteer Greg Konar

Move San Diego strongly supports the performance-based parking proposal soon to be considered by the San Diego City Council. This program has a multitude of benefits.

Three benefits that are very much in alignment with Move San Diego's goals are:

• Promote transit use (particularly in downtown area)
• Cuts-down on cruising (lower greenhouse gas emissions)
• Lower Vehicle Miles Traveled

This is an incredibly smart program – a true milestone event in the history of San Diego planning. It has the genuine potential to help revitalize our older commercial business districts which goes hand-in-hand with improved transit. Recently, members of the Budget & Finance committee raised concerns regarding the programs' revenue generation and staffing requirements. Some characterized the program as a "money-grab" or "hidden tax scheme".

We see it much differently. The goal of the program is to manage parking. It is the product of a multi-year effort and is based on a carefully administered and highly successful pilot study. The program would generate enough revenue to pay for all of the new parking equipment and the two additional permanent staff with a very healthy surplus coming to the City.

At the same time the program is likely to decrease parking violation revenue and the need for enforcement staff. The real hidden tax is the parking violation revenue. In fact, today, violation revenue actually exceeds meter revenues.

The status quo is actually a hostile environment for motorists who want to park on City streets. With performance based parking the potential exists to eliminate parking time limits altogether and let the pricing do the work. With this, the City could dramatically reduce its enforcement staff.

This is a program with real substance. We urge people to think about his proposal as a market means to managing parking. If the City continues to enable cheap, convenient and easy parking, there is less incentive for people to do anything else but drive and park.

For more info see: http://docs.sandiego.gov/councilcomm_agendas_attach/2009/Budget_091007-2a.pdf

National

Subsidyscope Reveals Spending on Transportation Subsidies
Subsidy Scope, September 28, 2009

Even before the stimulus legislation passed, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was on track to spend more than $71 billion in the fiscal year that ends September 30. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act gave the department another $48 billion to hand out, bringing the total to $119 billion. Transportation-related spending by agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, and tax breaks for benefits like parking and transit passes, nudge the number even higher.

Where did all this money go? How much of it went toward subsidy programs? ...

Among the findings:
More than $45 billion of federal transportation spending in FY2008 was directed to programs that contain subsidies, an increase of around 20 percent since FY2000. Comparing direct payments such as grants by transportation mode, in FY2008, $30 billion was spent on highways, nearly $9 billion on mass transit, nearly $3 billion on aviation, $1 billion on rail, $387 million on maritime and $126 million was spent on other programs such as pipelines and recreational trails. Spending on tax breaks and risk transfers, such as loans, totaled less than $4 billion.

The biggest transportation tax break goes to employees for parking costs. In fiscal year 1998 the government lost an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue through this benefit. By fiscal year 2008, the number almost doubled to nearly $3 billion. By fiscal year 2014, it's expected to reach almost $4 billion. ... The tax break for employer-provided transit passes grew almost seven-fold, from $70 million in fiscal year 1998 to $480 million last year, and is projected to reach $660 million in FY 2014. While the gap is narrowing, employers still subsidize driving over transit by a margin of six-to-one.

Staff at the BBC have been banned from taking domestic and short haul flights to reduce the company's carbon emissions. Executives have been told they can only fly when traveling by train adds more than three hours to the journey. The edict, from the BBC's commercial arm, means that staff have to take the train to all domestic locations, as well as European cities as far afield as Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Bordeaux. In addition, they must formally explain why a meeting cannot be held using one of the company's five videoconferencing suites before they can book a long-haul flight. The company's environmental department also undertook a study of all journeys taken in the year prior to introducing the policy and found that switching to the train would save the organization money." One of the complaints was that rail travel would be more expensive than flying, but we analyzed the data from an entire year and that was just not the case," said David Halford, Head of Ethical Sourcing at BBC. "We are definitely quids in because of the policy."

Fast Facts

For every 100 pounds taken out of the vehicle, the fuel economy is increased by 1-2 percent. Based on a gallon of gasoline costing $2.58, this translates to savings of between $0.03-$0.05 a gallon. Not only can you save on fuel economy with a lighter vehicle, this also makes the point for cleaning out that extra "junk in your trunk" adding weight, which can make gas dollars add up.
      Source: Environmental Protection Agency

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MoveNews #79 was edited by Carolyn Chase and published by Move San Diego, Inc. as a service to our members. You may subscribe, unsubscribe, or send article suggestions by sending an email request to: info@movesandiego.org

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