The Detroit News
Light Rail Proposal Moves Forward

July 16, 2008 Plans for a light rail system in Detroit progressed this week when a regional planning group green-lighted the proposed development. Officials with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments approved a Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) plan to construct and operate light rail service on Woodward Avenue between downtown and Eight Mile.

"This is an important step toward the establishment of a reliable rail transportation system that will assist Detroiters in getting to and from their destinations," Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said in a statement. "This approval of DDOT's rail project will also multiply economical opportunities for business growth." Check out Detroit Light Rail for the rest of the story.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine Promotes New Transportation Plan

Last week, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine unveiled the Commonwealth's transportation plan he will present to the legislature. This is what he says it will do, and how it would be financed:

Goals

• Cut the highway maintenance deficit.
• Increase local road construction funding and restore support for construction projects statewide.
• Invest in targeted projects to reduce traffic congestion in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, the state's two most congested regions.
• Create a Transportation Change Fund to increase investment in transit, rail, and innovations that would reduce traffic congestion. (He offers the example of expanding ridesharing.)
• Provide incentives for cities and towns to take responsibility for their road construction programs.
• Create incentives for localities to use their land more efficiently by providing dedicated funding for transportation improvements in urban development areas.
• Clarifies local government flexibility to use secondary and urban road funding for transit projects.

Financing

• Increase the statewide motor vehicles sales tax from 3 percent to 4 percent. Do it with a one-half percent increase in January 2009 and another half-percent percent in July 2009.
• Dedicate all motor vehicle sales tax funds to maintenance.
• Increase the statewide annual vehicle registration fee by $10 and dedicate that extra money to maintenance.
• Increase the retail sales tax in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads by 1 percent, except for food and medicine. In our region, the money would go to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.
• Increase the statewide grantor's tax by 25 cents, and put the money into the Transportation Change Fund.
• Lock it up: Any of these tax increases would expire if used for any purpose other than transportation.

2008 National Dump the Pump Day

National Dump the Pump day on Thursday, June 19, 2008.

The day is designed to encourage people to get out of their cars and ride public transportation to raise awareness of the financial and environmental benefits of public transportation. Public transportation has the ability to save people money, conserve gasoline, and reduce the harmful greenhouse gases emitted into our environment.

On June 19, public transit agencies from coast to coast will join together to encourage their communities to dump the pump by leaving their cars at home and riding public transportation.

Personally, I have parked my car and opted to take public transit and transportation (a combination of trains and/or buses) to my job for about a year now. It's definitely a lifestyle adjustment. But I think that if more Americans would do this once or twice a week it could have a great effect in reducing traffic congestion, curbing pollution and create household savings.

Find out more at http://www.apta.com/services/dump_the_pump_08/

Commuting costs and housing markets- S&P makes the connection

A link is below to an interesting paper from a Standard and Poors economist. It validates through changes in housing prices what planners have been saying for a long time: exurban, sprawl development is unsustainable. The author makes the case that the recent rise in gasoline prices and heating and cooling costs have made smaller homes closer to work, schools, and parks more desirable and economically stable than McMansions 2 hours from work. Nice to have it wrapped up with a bow from a credible source. Their conclusions:

During market downturns, home prices fall the least in the most desirable areas of a metropolitan region. As housing affordability improves, home buyers who were previously priced out of their preferred towns and neighborhoods will be able to purchase properties in these areas. So, even as overall sales volume drops, relatively stronger demand for housing will limit price declines in neighborhoods with shorter work commutes, better schools, and easier access to parks, recreation, and retail centers. Because of sharp increases in gasoline prices, living closer to work has become an even more important consideration in the location decisions of home buyers. When combined with large inventories of unsold housing on the edges of urban areas, this shift in preferences will mean that prices for homes in outlying neighborhoods will continue their more rapid decline and will be slower to rebound when housing markets finally start to recover.

See link to article at: http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/index/052708_Housing_bubbles_collapse.pdf

Can the Market Drive Transportation Policy?

Last year the U.S. Department of Transportation spent $1 billion. To seed five high-profile experiments, in New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Miami and Seattle, that feature "congestion pricing" -- tolls that increase when traffic is heavy. The idea is to reduce traffic by discouraging some motorists from driving during peak hours.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/16/AR2008031603085.html?referrer=emailarticle

VIRGINIA: Arlington County Looks at Creative Solutions to Moving People in Revised Master Transportation Plan

A national model for multimodal mobility and transit-oriented development since at least 1997, Arlington County's Master Transportation Plan (MTP) is being completely revised to make this widely known western Washington, D.C. suburb even more town-like and livable by 2030, with County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson saying the long overdue revision "pulls us into the 21st century with some truly creative solutions to the growing problem of moving people in an efficient, environmentally sensitive way" by further reducing their need to drive cars.



Source:

Arlington County, VA Press Release