DC Transit Edition

I hope that I am not alienating any of my loyal readers around this great big country with my coverage of the Washington DC area Metro system. I do try to keep the Newsline sidebar all nice and multi-geographical... There are a few reasons I like blogging about DC's Metro:

1. I use it all the time, and it's got a lot of problems, which means I am never short on material.


2. It's still a great system, and should be held up as a model for other cities.


3. It's in the nation's capital, which means it should act more like a model for other cities.

My friends over at DCist have a similar preoccupation with Metro, and yesterday, they put up a particularly good roundup of all its latest travails.

Transit Roundup

We've got transit news across the nation this morning. Some is good, and some is not so good. But nothing is what I would call predictable, with support and opposition coming from everywhere but where you'd expect it.

A Sense of Place

The Washington Post has an absolute must-read on suburban development today, and you guessed it, the theme is the American Dream. There is way too much here for me to blog about right now (God forbid I leave my dear readers with a post that is not fully developed) but expect a parsing attempt soon.

I will, however, leave you with this...

How do you think Richmond is going to react when people begin to refer to it as a 'far-flung suburb of DC'? It isn't any easy question to answer, but I will say with certainty that the minute such a phrase appears in print, Metro will never again receive another dime of VA state funding...

Opinion: Getting There in America - We Want Amtrak!

This essay originally appeared in the Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star on Sunday, March 27, 2006.

by Colin Peppard
Friends of the Earth Transportation Policy Coordinator

Over the last year, I have been traveling by rail through communities across the nation, speaking with local officials, business groups, and residents about Amtrak.


Everywhere I go, people tell me the same thing. Amtrak gives them a critical link between nearby cities and forms the backbone of their regional commuter and transit systems. No one wants anything but more and better Amtrak service.


As one official in Michigan told me, “If we had more trains, we’d put more people on ‘em.” And people are not just talking, they’re walking (or riding, as it were). Amtrak has set ridership records in each of the last three years.

Whadya think...taxes or tolls?

Say you're governor. Your state need improved transportation desperately, but you have no money. What do you do? Existing tax revenues are spoken for, intractable legislators refuse to allow new sources, bond authority is maxed, and angry commuters are writing letters from the dashboards of their Camry.

What if you could charge drivers a fee, though? You could use the revenues to finance the road. That's exectly what Virginia did back in 1984 with the Dulles Airport Toll Road. The road carries about 200,000 cars a day at 50 to 75 cents a ride. Not bad.


Recently, though we have all been shocked, shocked, to hear that some of this money might be used to help build a long-planned rail line out to Dulles. With talk of toll increases, the chattering classes are signaling all kinds of unrest in the 'burbs.

I am sure you can all guess it, but I will suspend my opinion of this in deference to you, dear reader. What say you? Tolls? Taxes? Roads for rails?


Post a comment and let me know what you think....

Tolls or Taxes, part deux...

Yesterday I posted about the idea to use tolls from roads to fund rail and asked you, dear reader to tell me what you thought. The email I have received has generally been supportive of the idea. Says one reader:

"Don't these people realize that a train out to the airport is going to reduce traffic and make their commutes easier?"

Well, dear reader, I think your answer is 'no', if you look at today's headlines. The pols are all over the place on this one. The Democratic Fairfax County Board Chair feels the deal does not protect commuters who pay tolls. Another Dem doesn't think the new manager can be held accountable to the public, either. The Republican Speaker of the House, in a moment of lucidity, said

"It's fair to say that I'd sure like to do something. But I don't know what that is."

He went on to add that one of several private companies that bid on authority over the road might be able to manage it better.

The problem with all of these statements is that none of them look at the big picture. You cannot evaluate the situation based on a single metric. The price of tolls, commute time, public accountability, the construction of a rail line, revenue for the state - all of these are important. But this is an issue that needs to be examined in the context of the entire transportation system.

The question that needs answering is which of the proposals will add the most to Northern Virginia's transportation system...

I love April 1st!

Those of you dear readers who tune in regularly have seen my recent preoccupation with the deal to fund a rail line out to Dulles Airport with toll revenue from passenger cars. I apologize for this, but the idea of funding transit with highway money is just too sweet to let go of. I promise that this will be my last post on the issue.

So I have been working for the last few days on a tour-de-force post that would lay out a well reasoned and cogent argument supporting the idea of building this rail line, funding it with tolls, and keeping authority where it is, with a quasi-public agency.

But columnist Steven Pearlstein has apparently been listening in on my phone conversations and hacking my email, because he stole all of my arguments and published them today! What's worse, his writing is quite a bit better...

Anyway, you should read it. It is very well done. I credit myself.

Posted on March 31, 2006 in DCMetro, Funding, Land Use and Development, Politics, Transit | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Steven Pearlstein taps my phone

Those of you dear readers who tune in regularly have seen my recent preoccupation with the deal to fund a rail line out to Dulles Airport with toll revenue from passenger cars. I apologize for this, but the idea of funding transit with highway money is just too sweet to let go of. I promise that this will be my last post on the issue.

So I have been working for the last few days on a tour-de-force post that would lay out a well reasoned and cogent argument supporting the idea of building this rail line, funding it with tolls, and keeping authority where it is, with a quasi-public agency.

But columnist Steven Pearlstein has apparently been listening in on my phone conversations and hacking my email, because he stole all of my arguments and published them today! What's worse, his writing is quite a bit better...

Anyway, you should read it. It is very well done. I credit myself.

Posted on March 31, 2006 in DCMetro, Funding, Land Use and Development, Politics, Transit | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The road ahead...

I usually try to work some sort of bad transit or train pun into my titles, but today, I'll very consciously play the asphalt card. Why? Because unless newly-nominated Transportation Secretary Mary Peters brings some new thinking to the US DOT, asphalt is all we have to look forward to.

Jon Talton, a columnist with the Arizona Republic, has some experience with Peters. She headed up the Arizona Department of Transportation, and as Talton points out, earned the respect of pretty much everyone she worked with.

Mary Peters... brings bipartisan praise and a solid resumé. James Matteson, the retired Phoenix transportation director, worked with Peters when she was head of the Arizona Department of Transportation. He calls her "a very good manager and one who understands the political process, unlike many in my profession." Peters "proved that a non-engineer can be a great manager of engineering activities."

But as Talton wisely points out, Peter's is faced with a far greater challenge than simply being a good manager. Instead she must fill the leadership gap that the president and congress have so irresponsibly abdicated. But even if she found teh courage to strike out on her own and spearhead a new effort to rethink America's transportation system, she faces some of the most ideologically entrenched interests - on both sides of the political ailse - that American politics has ever known. And it begins at the front door of the White House.

If the president could leave ideology at the door, he could create an admirable legacy by focusing on the Transportation Department's stated mission of "ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future."

There should be plenty of room for conservative ideas, such as toll roads, pricing specific highways based on congestion and giving states more flexibility in making public-private partnerships.

At the same time, rebuilding the intercity rail system should be a national priority. High-speed rail corridors in heavily populated regions would ease congestion on both highways and in the air. Existing corridors in the northeast, Pacific Northwest, California and elsewhere are already successful.

We'll see what the November elections bring, and if the outcome has any affect on the direction of transportation policy in Washington. And we'll be waiting to see what kind of opening hand Mary Peters plays if she is confirmed this month.