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News clippings related to transit, mobility and quality of life
MoveNews #89 for the week of February 21, 2010
Regional
NCTD Invites North County to a Four-City Celebration
The North County Transit District (NCTD) invites the community to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the COASTER train with a "COASTER Crawl" on Saturday, February 27. The event will carry customers to the rail line's northern stations in Oceanside, Carlsbad Village, Encinitas and Solana Beach where merchants will offer special COASTER Anniversary product promotions. As an added incentive, on Saturday, February 27 a second COASTER customer can ride free when accompanying a fare-paying customer or monthly pass holder. This two-for-one promotion runs for the entire day.
See details and Coaster schedule: www.GoNCTD.com
California
This month the California Transportation Commission (CTC) will begin public hearings to gather input on the draft update to the state's Regional Transportation Plan Guidelines. The update primarily addresses changes to regional planning brought about by the passage of California's Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375 of 2008). The Southern California CTC meeting is scheduled for April 7-8. The revised guidelines are anticipated for adoption by the Commission at its April 2010 meeting. To find out more about the meetings, check the link above or contact Susan Bransen at the CTC at (916) 653-2082.
A week after President Obama signaled that he would call for an overall 3-year budget freeze (exempting military/defense/security and entitlement programs), he followed through today, releasing a budget that shifts resources into priority programs and putting a long list of other on the chopping block.
The Department of Transportation didn't see much movement in either direction, however, getting a small bump from $77 billion to $78.8 billion. In fact, the president's budget makes it clear that the transportation numbers included are only "placeholders" that demonstrate the need for the federal transportation program to be "fundamentally reformed" to "deliver transportation investments based on greater use of analysis and consideration of program performance."
In the mean time, Obama's budget calls for an extension of SAFETEA-LU through March of 2011, and offers baseline funding for all of the current transportation programs, including:
$42.1 billion for highways
$10.8 billion for transit
$2.8 billion for rail
$16.5 billion for air infrastructure
... Diving a little deeper, however, there are some notable shifts in the administration's DOT priorities that give us clues to exactly which path Obama is choosing. The president proposes to seed a national infrastructure bank (NIB) with $4 billion. This policy has been one of the president's preferred transportation financing mechanisms since his campaign. In this version, he combines elements of the TIGER program he created last year, and the existing TIFIA program. Obama would create an Office of Livability in the Transportation Secretary's office, funded with $530 million to promote smarter, more sustainable transportation planning and decision-making.
International
Upwardly mobile: MIT professor speaks out on transit, technology in emerging economies
CNNMoney.com, January 19, 2010
Ralph Gakenheimer is a Fulbright Scholar, World Bank Advisor, and MIT professor of urban planning who has emerged as one of the leading experts on transportation in developing countries. ... Fortune contributor Carolyn Whelan caught up with Dr. Gakenheimer on the sidelines of a mega transportation meeting in Washington, D.C. last week to get his current thinking on mobility in the developing world, and the technologies that will make the world go. ... For a sense of the trajectory, motorization is increasing 10% a year in China, where a 30 minute trip has tripled in little time to 90 minutes. The Chinese make about 1.8 motorized trips a day. That is 3.6 in the U.S. and rising. ... Urban populations doubling every 20 years in India and higher birth rates, longer life spans and more vehicle trips per day across the developing world are increasing the imperative to improve mass transit systems.
Q. Will any transit technologies round trip to the U.S. once they are tested and perfected elsewhere?
A. Bus rapid transit, or BRT. It's the greatest thing to happen to transit since the streetcar in the 1870s. The system basically builds on big buses using the best technology from trains like smart cards, signaling and sensors in dedicated lanes. These systems were hatched in 1970s Brazil but due to their efficiency and affordability are drawing the attention of urban planners in Asia and the U.S. It's not sophisticated but when brought together in a highly coordinated system moves people faster than cars at up to one-fiftieth the construction cost per kilometer of a subway.
Data from operating BRTs demonstrates that BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) can induce mode shift from private cars to transit..
Source: Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida
MoveNews #89 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
NOTE: if there is no link provided to an item, then there is no additional content on that item. All links were current as of the date of publication.
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