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News clippings related to transit, mobility and quality of life
MoveNews #105 for the week of June 13, 2010
Support MoveSD
Support MoveSD: VOTE NOW for our Cox Conserves Hero!
Move San Diego Volunteer Board Chair Marcela Escobar-Eck is one of three finalists for the Cox Conserves Heroes Award. Nominated as one of San Diego's environmental heroes, Marcela makes great strides in ensuring a greener tomorrow by championing sustainable land use planning and transportation.
Online Voting is open now to designate Move San Diego as the recipient of a $10,000 cash donation if she wins the most votes. Voting is open through June 19th at 5pm.
VOTE NOW: http://www.coxconservesheroes.com/san-diego-ca/2010-finalists-vote-now.aspx
More info: http://movesd.org/Downloads/CoxAward.pdf
California
Transit improvement key to state greenhouse law
Sacramento Bee, Jun. 7, 2010
If California's sweeping greenhouse emissions reduction law, SB 375, is to succeed, the state will have to do a better job of providing public transportation, a new report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) has determined. The 2009 law, known as the Sustainable Communities Strategy, by Sacramento Sen. Darrell Steinberg, the Senate Pro Tem, and based in part on Sacramento's "Blueprint" land use process, requires metropolitan areas to design growth so that new communities are less dependent on automobiles. The ULI report concludes the law could help urban areas become more economically and environmentally sustainable, if implemented correctly.
The report authors say more public transportation, including buses, trains, light rail and shuttles, will be a key factor in allowing communities to be built more densely. "The coverage and efficiency of these services must keep pace with the anticipated increase in urban and suburban density," the report says. "Improving the service levels and ongoing investment in transit capital improvements and operations creates transit certainty, a critical factor for supporting the growth of compact communities."
Transit agencies statewide, however, including in Sacramento, have been cutting service and raising fares for several years during the economic downturn.
National
FTA Requests Public Input on Criteria for Evaluating Major Transit Projects
Federal Transit Administration, June 3, 2010
The Federal Transit Administration is asking for public comment on how to change the way major transit project proposals seeking federal funding are rated and evaluated.
The FTA published the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in the Federal Register on Thursday, June 3, 2010. In doing so, the agency seeks public comment on how best to evaluate significant transit infrastructure investments by looking for ways to measure cost-effectiveness, including broad public benefits such as economic development, land use and environmental impacts in the evaluation process.
"Major transit improvements are at the center of President Obama's goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower oil consumption, and improve our quality of life," said FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff. "The Administration is developing criteria that will appropriately measure all of the benefits these projects bring to their communities. We need the public's input to help get it done."
The rule is part of an ongoing effort to change how projects are selected to receive federal financial assistance in FTA's New Starts and Small Starts programs.
In addition to soliciting public input on the federal government's docket website, www.Regulations.gov, the FTA is planning to hold a number of public listening sessions.
Comments must be received by August 2, 2010.
Rulemaking link [Docket No. FTA-2010-0009]: http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=0900006480afab90
Nimble Cities: Step Up With Your Best Urban-Transportation Ideas
We want your best proposals for solving an increasingly relevant problem: how to move the most people around and between cities in the most efficient, safe, and perhaps even pleasurable manner. And then we want you to vote on which of those submissions you think are best.
This is not an academic exercise. The majority of the world's population already lives in cities, and by 2030, this number is predicted to grow to 5 billion. Globally, it's estimated that by 2050, 75 percent of the population will live in cities. Already, cities and regions ranging from Jakarta, Indonesia, to New York are bedeviled by gridlock and underfunded infrastructures. Moreover, transportation already accounts for 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, and the number is rising. Transportation is also costing us even more: At the turn of the 20th century, U.S. households spent about 2 percent of their income on transportation. That figure is now around 18 percent, and it's also rising. ... The world is moving to cities for the reasons they always have: because cities are centers of opportunity, of social connection, of innovation. But social mobility requires real mobility, and the cities that will succeed will be those with the fastest flow of ideas and the most efficient and robust links between people.
Study sees transit saving Californians' energy, cutting greenhouse gas
Sacramento Bee, Nov. 21, 2009
A study says Californians could save billions each year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by developing neighborhoods within easy access of public transportation.
The study - "Windfall for All: How Connected, Convenient Neighborhoods Can Protect Our Climate and Safeguard California's Economy" - was conducted by Oakland-based TransForm, formerly the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. TransForm is a coalition that includes nonprofits, environmental advocates and labor unions.
The study concentrated on four metropolitan centers: Sacramento, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego.
If all residents in the four areas lived in transportation-friendly communities, the study said, they would save $31 billion per year on transportation costs and emit 34 percent less greenhouse gas.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2009/11/21/2338759/study-sees-transit-saving-californians.html#ixzz0qImrv3Hq
Fast Facts
If all residents of Sacramento, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego lived in transportation-friendly communities, they would save $31 billion per year on transportation costs and emit 34 percent less greenhouse gasses.
Source: TransForm, Windfall for All: How Connected, Convenient Neighborhoods Can Protect Our Climate and Safeguard California's Economy
MoveNews #105 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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