Transit Funding

California Senate to Vote on Climate Change Fees

Posted by Eric ⋅ 12 August 2008 ⋅ 2 Comments

UPDATE (25 August 2008): The bill that is the subject of this post, AB 2558, was withdrawn by Assemblymember Huffman, and will be replaced later by another proposal. I know there has been a lot of statewide material on this site lately — more local coverage will resume soon, but I did not want this … Continue reading →

Can MTC Take the Heat?

Posted by Eric ⋅ 29 July 2008 ⋅ 6 Comments

We have discussed here before, or at least introduced, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Transportation 2035 Plan, which is the latest update to the Regional Transportation Plan. The RTP provides a strategy for how to use the $223 billion of transportation funding that MTC expects will become available to the Bay Area over the next 25 … Continue reading →

Just Say No to Roads

Posted by Eric ⋅ 14 July 2008 ⋅ 7 Comments

Suppose you expect to have a generous chunk of cash at your disposal — to the tune of over 200 billion dollars — and suppose that you rule over a congestion-prone corner of the world where over 80% of trips are made in an automobile, and where transportation is responsible for a full 50% of … Continue reading →

The Transit Terminator Strikes Again

Posted by Eric ⋅ 12 June 2008 ⋅ 9 Comments

Courtesy Los Angeles Times. Is this déjà vu, or what? Our dear, allegedly green “Governator” — on the front lines fighting global warming — refuses to put the money where his mouth is by terminating $1.4 billion of transit funds in the May revise budget? Oh, right: this also happened last year. So whatever happened … Continue reading →

Alert: Stop Raiding Transit Funds

Posted by Eric ⋅ 14 February 2008 ⋅ 1 Comment

Here we go again: another battle in the ongoing war to prevent the raiding of funds allocated to public transit. An urgent message comes from the Transportation and Land Use Coalition: Please call your state legislators TODAY and register your opposition to the latest redirection of public transit funds! In response to a directive from … Continue reading →

Even-Kheeled Thoughts

Posted by Eric ⋅ 31 January 2008 ⋅ 3 Comments

Despite the most recent furor about eliminating all fares on San Francisco Muni, the Chronicle recently reported the completely unsurprising result that fare-free Muni would be, to say the least, a poor idea. The faulty underlying supposition was that in light of the fare evasion problem, Muni might not be collecting much more money in … Continue reading →

The True Cost of Driving

Posted by Eric ⋅ 26 January 2008 ⋅ Leave a comment

A post at The Capricious Commuter, a blog that Erik Nelson writes for Inside Bay Area, discusses how although we seem to keep good track of how much it costs to build, improve, and subsidize transit, the mathematics that covers those equivalent costs for automobiles, roads, and parking is far less clearly tabulated. The result … Continue reading →

Stopping this New Start

Posted by Eric ⋅ 12 September 2007 ⋅ Leave a comment

The Overhead Wire has a great post up about some mischief lurking in the halls of Congress concerning funding for transit projects around the nation. Currently, the New and Small Starts program provides funding for fixed guideway transit — rail projects, but now also bus rapid transit. However, the Federal Transit Administration has issued a … Continue reading →