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Jump ahead to the Mass Transit / Car Pooling Section Return of the Warm-Monger: People who do not believe in a Creator are living in a world defined entirely by chance. As easily as it emerged in randomness, it could disintegrate into chaos. Their lives are fragile tendrils clinging for support to the slender reed of a world governed by habit rather than purpose. They are only too easily gulled by the soothsayers, the naysayers, the doomsayers. Report says food, biofuels could worsen water shortages. Surging demand for irrigation to produce food and biofuels is likely to aggravate scarcities of water but the world's supply is not running out, an international report said on Monday [8/21/2006]. Hurricane forecasts: Good headlines, bad science. Predictions are fraught with inaccuracy. While there is skill in forecasting whether a particular season will be active overall, there are no definitive scientific methods for predicting the exact number of hurricanes that will form during a particular year. Despite claims to the contrary, no verified means exist to pinpoint an area or region a hurricane will impact. Katrina, Rita Actually Helped Wetlands, Study Says. A new study makes the provocative claim that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita actually helped stabilize coastal wetlands by depositing tons of silt and sediment — even as the storms devastated dozens of square miles of the low-lying areas. Public Health or Brockovich Wealth? The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has just announced it's giving its highest honor to Los Angeles paralegal Erin Brockovich, best known for her virtual beatification in the allegedly "based on a true story" film of the same name. Julia Roberts portrayed her as having the mouth of a hooker but a heart of gold. Yet the Hollywood Brockovich is bunk, and this is not Harvard's finest hour. The Case For Thinning Our Forests: According to a recent study by the USDA Forest Service, there are four factors working together that have resulted in the type of unnatural wildfire we are now regularly seeing: weather, the abundance of fuel in our forests, lack of moisture and the terrain. Obviously, humans have no real control over the weather (including the lack of rain) or the terrain. So, logically, we need to focus on the one factor we do have control over — fuel buildup. The Editor says... The next two items are important, because many bad ideas originate in California and then spread to other parts of the country. Banning fireplaces? Nights spent by comfy fire may be numbered. The sound of soft crackling from a fire burning in the fireplace is as comforting as the warmth it generates, but it may also be a sound that will soon become extinct. If new regulations proposed by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District take effect next year, burning wood may eventually become a thing of the past. Proposed ban would snuff beach bonfires in San Francisco. For as long as anyone can remember, building a fire on the beach has been one of the simple pleasures of life by the sea. But if the Park Service has its way, the tradition will soon be extinguished at Ocean Beach, the last stretch in San Francisco and one of the few beaches statewide where bonfires still burn legally. Air Conditioning Ruling Puts the Freeze on Consumer Buying Power. On January 13, a federal appeals court overturned a Bush administration rule that would increase energy efficiency standards for central air conditioners and heat pumps by 20 percent. The court ordered the Bush rule be replaced by a proposal from the Clinton administration that would require a 30 percent increase in energy efficiency. Environmentalists and energy conservation obsessives declared the court's ruling "a big victory for consumers." They also declared up is down, black is white, night is day, and pigs really do fly. Well, actually they didn't. But they might as well have. Editor's Note: This is another example of the courts acting as a legislature. Study's Authors "Surprised" to Find Nearly Half of Earth's Wilderness Intact: The findings of a new study showing that nearly half of the Earth's surface remains an untouched wilderness came as a surprise to the authors of the report. The True Path to a Cleaner Environment: We're in for a litany of woe now that the World Summit on Sustainable Development has begun in Johannesburg, South Africa. But let's not fret. Let the doomsayers have their day. Let them discuss how they meant to say "global warming," not "global cooling" 30 years ago. On the other hand... why bother? Rat Study Shows Dirty is Better than Clean. Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate. The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick. The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. The space shuttle is a major polluter. The Shuttle is the largest of the solid fuel rockets, with twin 45 meter boosters. All solid fuel rockets release large amounts of hydrochloric acid in their exhaust, each Shuttle flight injecting about 75 tons of ozone destroying chlorine into the stratosphere. Those launched since 1992 inject even more ozone-destroying chlorine, about 187 tons, into the stratosphere (which contains the ozone layer). The World is Already on a Course Toward Sustainable Development: Additional policies to promote sustainability are unnecessary as resources have become abundant. In Search of Climate Problems: Ross Gelbspan's catalogue of climate problems only seems to stop when he stops listing them or his editors decide they've allocated sufficient space to them, even for an Earth Day. Environmental Priorities Clash With Growth Objectives: Environmentalists raise the prospect of humanity defiling the earth —- with natural resources running out, air and water becoming more polluted and species disappearing. But many experts dispute this view. PC coffee "brewhaha" spineless in Seattle: So here I am in Seattle, America's coffee capital, and the flacks at Starbucks won't even talk to me about the measure on Berkeley's November ballot that would require coffeehouses to sell only Fair Trade, organic or shade-grown coffee. A Really Bad Case of Gas: After campaigning to restore sound science, reason and responsiveness to the regulatory process, the "Reformer with Results" is now standing by one of the dumbest, top-down environmental edicts on the books. Global Green Goals: How Environmentalists Intend to Rule the World. It's the smoking gun. Restructuring the Global Economy is a detailed roadmap to a green future ruled by radical elites from new command structures to be created in the United Nations. Gore's Disastrous Green Agenda: Who is the real Al Gore? An environmental zealot out to shut down our industrial economy. In Their Own Words: Quotes from "The Skeptical Environmentalist", among others. For a dose of eco-humor, visit Eco Enquirer. Lawns lose luster for some homeowners: Why slave over a useless crop of grass when you can have an Astroturf putting green? Enviro-Group Finances Caught on 'Web': If you've ever wondered from where environmental activists get their money, you're not alone, and a Washington, D.C. think tank is drawing a map to help follow the money. The Capital Research Center (CRC) is preparing for its Monday [9/10/2001] launch of How Capitalism Saved the Whales: Fixation on doomsaying can cause environmentalists to forget that the negative consequences of industrialization are minute compared to the positive developments of the industrial age. People are healthier, live longer, and are more productive than ever before in history. But defenders of industrialism can go even further to show that in many cases technological progress has benefited the environment. This is vividly demonstrated in the case of one of the most emotion-laden symbols of environmentalism, the whales. Does it count? Who was responsible for saving the whale from extinction? Was it Greenpeace? No, it was multimillionaire David Rockefeller, who successfully marketed kerosene, which took over the illumination market. Later, Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb ran both whale oil and kerosene out of the illumination market. Some might say that Rockefeller's and Edison's saving the whale doesn't count because they didn't intend to do it. They were just greedy capitalists who cared more about profits than saving whales. How Environmentalism Disdains the Poor: The irony is that Western environmentalist leaders are cutting off the branch on which they sit. Environmentalism is distinctly a preoccupation of the wealthy. Environmental protection increases precisely to the extent that a society becomes wealthy enough to afford it. To the extent they succeed in slowing economic growth anywhere in the world — in rich and poor nations alike — they delay the progress of environmental protection. The Worst Polluters: 0pponents of the free economy long have asserted that environmental pollution is caused by the market system, and have claimed that any person concerned about the environment must opt for some form of statism. If the free market is responsible for pollution, one might reasonably expect that socialist economies would be characterized by an absence of pollution. The reality, however, is otherwise. Running Out of Resources: Environmentalists really hate to admit it, but the worst polluting of the planet takes place in the poorest countries of the world, not the richest. Litigation central: A flood of costly lawsuits raises questions about motive. Did someone mention frivolous lawsuits? Washington, D.C. is the only city in the nation that can legally dump toxic sludge in its waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency issues special discharge permits to the Army Corps of Engineers to transport — in the dead of night — chemically treated sludge from the Washington Aqueduct, a water purification facility, to the Potomac River, where it is dumped in violation of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts. The Corps has admitted dumping as much as 241,500 milligrams of suspended solids per liter into the river. The maximum allowed limit for most states is about 30. The nation's power elite are content with insisting that everyone else comply with burdensome environmental regulations while they ignore them. See for Yourself: How the Corps of Engineers treats Endangered Species Habitat in Washington, D.C. This pollution courtesy of the same people who are charged with enforcing the Clean Water Act. Potomac sludge vs. the California congressman: Rep. George Radanovich is beginning to look a little green around the edges. No, he isn't ill. But the California Republican, who sees himself as one of the more conservative House lawmakers, has angered some of his East Coast and urban colleagues by trying to stop the dumping of sludge into the Potomac River. Sludge fight stepped up: Two Republican members of Congress yesterday [10/03/2002] introduced legislation that would impose strict limits on the amounts of toxic metals and chemicals that can be dumped into the Potomac River. Back to the top of the page The Mass Transit / Car Pooling Section: Information about Amtrak is available here. Editorial comment: The one percent mass-transit sales tax in Dallas generates more than enough money to keep the trains and buses running, even if they're nearly empty, which they often are. I believe the primary purpose of the non-zero price of an all-day train ticket is to keep homeless people from living on the trains. Every time there is a fare increase, it is just another tax increase to raise money for some other project. In this section there is an emphasis on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system, just because that is the system with which I am most familiar. DART operates in a political climate that necessitates awarding "contracts to disadvantaged, minority and women-owned business enterprises." Some of the rapid transit executives have really nice offices, and there is a lot of money being spent on decorating the train stations. DART Rail: 10 Years and Growing. DART Rail ... [is] laying the groundwork for a $2.4 billion expansion that will more than double its size to just over 90 miles. [Do the math. That's about a thousand dollars per foot of track.] US Public Transport Operating Cost per Passenger Mile: Dallas has one of the least cost-effective public transportation systems at 78.9 cents per passenger mile. The recently opened DFW Airport Skylink train system cost $880 million to construct, making it perhaps the most costly mass transit system ever, in dollars per mile of track. Dallas has High Downtown Vacancies Despite Light Rail. The latest available data (9/1999) shows downtown Dallas to be among only four downtown areas with vacancy rates above 20 percent, at 32.0 percent, and second worst only to Oklahoma City. This situation has not improved since light rail was opened (June 1997). DART Gets $700 Million Federal Grant but Doesn't Go to Love Field. While discussing the exercise of the right of eminent domain regarding a DART station near Love Field, some Dallas City Council members raised an interesting question. Why is DART not going directly to the airport? It appears as though the ball was dropped in 2004 when it was learned that the $700 million grant to fund DART would be in jeopardy if the tunnel would be allowed. The 1999 Texas Transit Opportunity Analysis: Dallas Area Rapid Transit. The 1983 campaign for the DART tax referendum made impressive claims to the voters. Voters were told that DART trains were needed to reduce traffic congestion, and that within 25 years: • 160 miles (14 routes) of rail would be built, including a downtown subway. All of this was to be built for $17.8 million per mile. • 500,000 daily riders would be carried on DART buses and trains. • Over 50 percent of downtown commuters would ride DART services. As has become typical in transit, the results fell far short of the promises. … Voters were also told that without DART, Dallas traffic congestion would soon reach Houston levels and that traffic congestion would get increasingly worse without DART. In fact, with DART, traffic congestion in Dallas now equals that of Houston (see above). … Because of its slow operating speed, DART's light rail provides no time savings relative to automobiles. Moreover, time savings with respect to buses are limited by the fact that light rail operates at virtually the same speed as DART's buses. New Urban Rail Not Justified. Despite claims to the contrary, light rail is less safe than buses and autos, and more energy intensive. And commuting by rail is generally slower than by express bus or auto. So what is driving the rush to rail? The federal government has made billions of dollars available. Local and state governments have sought the money simply because it is there. The competition would be no less fierce if Congress had earmarked funding to build monoliths. And, like tax-supported stadiums and convention centers, rail is considered to be a prerequisite to world class city status. Bridge To Our Wallets. A 12-member commission created by Congress in 2005 issued its report Tuesday [1/15/2008], recommending that the current 18.4 cents per gallon tax be hiked over a five-year period by 5 to 8 cents each year. After that, the tax would be indexed to inflation. The goal is to repair and extend the highway infrastructure, expand public transit, boost railway transportation and increase rural access. Public transit and railways? Aren't revenues from the federal fuel tax restricted to financing our roads and highways? Certainly motorists should pay for the roads they use. But it is patently unfair for them to subsidize users of public transportation and rail travelers. Liberalism 101: Transit is one of the greatest failure stories in America, on par with the welfare system prior to the reforms of 1996. Even as subsidies have skyrocketed, transit's share of the transportation market has been steadily diminishing for decades. By any measure, productivity in transit has been declining while the rest of the economy has become much more efficient. And yet, like welfare before it, transit (government-run transportation) is one of the most cherished programs of the left. If you ever feel the need to be compared to Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini, suggest the elimination of government-run transportation systems. Urban Rail: Uses and Misuses. Virtually no traffic congestion reduction has occurred as a result of building new urban rail systems. Virtually any public benefit that has been achieved through urban rail could have been achieved for considerably less by other strategies. … There are simply not a sufficient number of people going to the same place at the same time to justify urban rail. As a result, it is typically less expensive to provide a new car for each new rider than to build an urban rail system. Silent Rage: "This is the quiet car!" The voice belonged to a woman glaring at my kids, ages 5 and 2, standing (quietly, I should add) next to the door. I ignored her and focused on snagging an empty spot on a packed Amtrak train — a miracle the day before Christmas — for our nuclear family with big luggage. (Why Amtrak can't figure out how to assign seats on its "reserved trains" like every major European rail company will have to be left for another day.) In any case, we weren't about to give ours up. The pitch went up a notch: "This is the QUIET car!!" "So be quiet." Ah, my wife to the rescue. How to Unclog the Nation's Highways — Transit is not the Answer. Most transportation planners believe "we can't build our way out of congestion." The problem, they think, is too much driving, and their solution is to pour money into transit rather than roads. Yet transit accounts for only about 2 percent of urban travel, and its share continues to decline. Most mass transit riders in 50 years: Good news or bad? Did you know that there were more people using mass transit during the '40's and early '50's than there are today? I most certainly did not. This is an astonishing revelation when you think about it. First of all, the population of the country was barely half what it is today — and yet more people rode mass transit. Moreover, during the last 50 years we've poured literally hundreds of billions of dollars into the most expensive, glitzy, ambitious mass transit projects in history. Decline in ridership costs commuter rail. The Virginia Railway Express, after years of strong growth, has suffered about a two percent drop in daily ridership that cost the commuter railway more than $1 million in operating revenue. California High Speed Rail: At What Sacrifice? The system, which would connect Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, and areas in between, would require as a down payment a $10 billion bond issue that voters will consider in November. The California High Speed Rail Authority admits the system could cost much more — $37 billion — but the truth is likely to be more like $75 billion. Metro Has A Lesson For Unruly Students. When the last bell rings, thousands of District schoolchildren make their way to the nearest Metro train — their school bus on rails — where many let loose a day's worth of bottled-up angst, energy and emotion. All that the tens of thousands of other riders want, in most instances, is a quiet trip home. Detroit's five most violent bus routes: Death threats, beatings and even stabbings are not uncommon on at least five of the city's bus routes, fueling a mix of fear and anger among drivers and riders who are clamoring for a police presence. Since the start of 2006, the first full year after Detroit cops stopped policing the buses, more than 50 people have been assaulted — five of them stabbed, according to drivers' reports obtained by The Detroit News. Girl involved in bus attack ordered to juvenile jail. The 15-year-old Robert Poole Middle School student whom prosecutors accused of sparking an attack on a city bus passenger in December was sentenced Wednesday to a juvenile jail until she turns 21 or the judge releases her. Woman beaten on bus. As Sarah Kreager, 26, tried to sit down on a Baltimore City bus Tuesday, police say, a middle-schooler told her she couldn't. When she attempted to take another seat, a middle-schooler wouldn't let her. Finally, according to police, Kreager just sat down. She was "immediately attacked" by nine students — three females and six males — from Robert Poole Middle School. … The suspects in the incident are black. The victim is white, according to the police report. Update: Hate crime charges rejected. Prosecutors in Baltimore have decided not to charge the nine middle school students accused in the beating of a 26-year-old woman on a city bus with a hate crime as a judge postponed their trial yesterday until Jan. 31. It happened again! Surveillance Photos Released In Bus Attack. Maryland Transit Administration officials are investigating a second reported assault on a bus in the last week. Meanwhile, surveillance photos have been released and the bus driver has been taken off the road. Patrick Green and Robert Rothe told WBAL TV 11 News that they were antagonized and attacked after boarding the No. 64 bus late Monday night in south Baltimore. The Editor says... If the colors were reversed, these would be called hate crimes and Al Sharpton would be all over it. But as it is, it's just another miserable day on the stinkin' city bus. Pittsburgh: Ineptitude Has Become a Hallmark of the Port Authority. The West Busway cost $260 million to build. At an 8 percent annual opportunity cost of the capital, the yearly capital cost is $20.8 million. Under PAT's projections, the busway will carry an average 11,500 riders or 5,750 roundtrips per weekday through the first 10 years of operation — about 1,600,000 roundtrips per year. That means it is costing taxpayers $13 per day for each commuter using the busway. And since the farebox recovers less than half the operating cost of bus service, the total daily subsidy per commuter is over $16. Philadelphia: Subway attack was to amuse, police say. The four teenagers who ambushed Sean Patrick Conroy in a subway concourse Wednesday [3/26/2008] chose their victim at random and attacked him for no other purpose than to amuse themselves, police said yesterday. … Police yesterday discounted robbery as a motive, and said the youths apparently launched the attack on a lark. The Editor says... If the victim had been black and the assailants had been white, the press would be having a "hate crime" field day. Man dead after beating on Center City SEPTA platform. A 36-year-old man died after being severely beaten by a gang of youths inside the SEPTA concourse near City Hall this afternoon, police said. One youth was taken into custody and police were still looking for three juveniles, possibly four, who fled the scene. Police: Subway attack was random. In a chilling confession in the murder of 36-year-old Sean Patrick Conroy, 16-year-old Kinta Stanton allegedly tells police that he and his friends went out randomly looking for somebody to beat up just for kicks. London's Sweaty, Squashed Underground Riders Balk at $7 Fares. Deran Garabedian is so fed up with the London Underground's erratic service that he'd rather walk 30 minutes to work. He's incensed that fares are going up as much as a third next year. … The cheapest cash fare in central London will rise to 4 pounds ($7.45) on Jan. 1, the third straight increase exceeding the inflation rate. It compares with cash fares of $2 in New York, 1 euro ($1.27) in Berlin and 160 yen ($1.36) in Tokyo. Serial Subway Groper Arrested Once Again. About two weeks after he was released from prison, Freddie Johnson boarded a crowded subway train in Manhattan and illegally rubbed up against a woman, authorities said. It is a fairly common crime on subways in New York. But this was no common criminal. Johnson has been arrested a staggering 53 times — the majority for groping women on the subway, police and prosecutors said. Women-only subway cars in 2008. The subway corporations serving South Korea's capital will introduce women-only cars next year to make rides more comfortable and free of groping male hands, a subway official said on Wednesday [10/30/2007]. "Sexual crimes happen frequently when the cars are packed and people are pressed against each other," the subway official said. The Editor says... When that takes effect, pity the female who -- for whatever reason -- rides the non-segregated train. Mexico City Rolls Out Women-Only Buses. Groping and verbal harassment is an exasperating reality for women using public transportation in this sprawling capital, where 22 million passengers cram onto subways and buses each day. Some men treat women so badly that the subway system has long had ladies-only cars during rush hour, with police segregating the sexes on the platforms. The Editor says... Does this have any relevance to American mass transit? Unfortunately, yes. Experience has shown that Mexicans bring various aspects of their culture with them when they come to the U.S. Who's Riding the Manchester Airport Bus? No One. The city buses that travel to the airport are nearly empty, a symptom of an inefficient system of bus routes that critics say needs to be reshaped in order to improve efficiency, convenience and ridership. In England... Muslim bus driver halts bus to pray. A Muslim bus driver told stunned passengers to get off so he could pray. The white Islamic convert rolled out his prayer mat in the aisle and knelt on the floor facing Mecca. Passengers watched in amazement as he held out his palms towards the sky, bowed his head and began to chant. … After a few minutes the driver calmly got up, opened the doors and asked everyone back on board. Paid for not taking the car to work. Amgen spends slightly more than $1 million per year encouraging the 800 employees at its Interbay campus and 200 in Bothell to bike, car pool, take the bus or share a van. That averages $1,000 per employee. San Francisco: BART Transbay speedup on hold. After pumping $80 million into the project, BART is poised to scrap its long-planned automated train-control system that was envisioned to move more cars through the Transbay Tube during rush hour, officials announced Friday [6/16/2006]. Richardson contributors have rail project interests. Contracting and development executives with a financial stake in the New Mexico Rail Runner have contributed thousands of dollars to Governor Richardson's presidential campaign. They've also provided Richardson with use of corporate airplanes. The $400 million commuter rail system has been pushed by Richardson. Power outages hit NYC subway. Searing heat wreaked havoc on travel plans for New Yorkers as power outages shut parts of LaGuardia International Airport and the city's subway system during the morning rush hour. NYC Subways Adding Dogs, Armed Officers. Teams of police officers equipped with submachine guns and bomb-sniffing dogs have become a part of the landscape of post-Sept. 11 New York, patrolling around Wall Street and such landmarks as the Empire State building. Similar squads are set to begin daily patrols of the busiest sections of the city subways this month, in what officials describe as a first for a U.S. mass transit system. Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway. The NYPD is pulling out all the stops to beef up safety of the subways. On Thursday it launched a new anti-terror effort called "Operation Torch," but the cost of the program is raising some eyebrows. The NYPD's new firepower consists of cops with Mp5 submachine guns, rifles, body armor and bomb-sniffing dogs. New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways. In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city's subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday [2/1/2008]. Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms…. The Editor says... The subways must be really dangerous if the cops carry machine guns. But stop and think for a moment — If they had been patrolling the streets (with their machine guns) around the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001, would it have made any difference? New "Heathrow Connect" Trains - do not want to go to Heathrow! A new electric train service has just started between Heathrow Airport and Paddington Station in West London, UK. … The one mile link between the last station on the mainline and Heathrow Airport itself is priced at six UK pounds, making it the most expensive train fare in the world for the distance. Madison Commuter Rail: Let Taxpayers Beware! How would you feel if you bought a fancy new DVD player for Christmas, only to find the next day the same store was selling another DVD player just as good — but at one-fourth the cost? … We know salesmen rip us off sometimes. But we don't expect that same sort of behavior from public servants, who are supposed to carefully manage our hard-earned tax dollars. Proposed Honolulu Rail Will Rocket Hawaii's Electricity Rates – Who Will Pay?: Nearly all modern-day rail systems are run on electricity. Now Hawaii has the highest electric rates in the country. So the question is, what is going to happen to prices, supply and demand when the rail project is finally built and increases demand on the system? Who is going to pay for the additional oil and other resources to augment the supply? Hawaii Superferry to Set Sail Dec. 1. Hawaii's new inter-island ferry, idled for weeks by protesters and court rulings, will resume daily service between Honolulu and Maui beginning Dec. 1, the company said. … Critics had argued the 350-foot catamaran could harm whales and damage the area's fragile ecology. Update: Superferry awaits signal from Kauai. The Hawaii Superferry, which hasn't sailed to Kaua'i since harbor protesters blocked its arrival in August, intends to resume trips there only if the community signals it wants the service restored, the company's new chief executive said yesterday [5/6/2008]. Where the buses run on time. Companies in Chile pay bus drivers one of two ways: either by the hour or by the passenger; paying by the passenger leads to significantly shorter delays. Give them incentives, and drivers start acting like regular people do; they take shortcuts when the traffic is bad, they take shorter meal breaks and bathroom breaks and they want to get on the road and pick up more passengers as quickly as they can. CTA: Chicago's Unsustainable Transit System Hurts Taxpayers. Anti-car environmentalist groups regularly denounce the automobile-based urban mobility system that prevails in Western Europe and North America. They say automobility is "unsustainable." But in Chicago, unsustainable urban transport bears the logo of the Chicago Transit Authority — CTA. The CTA, as we know it, is fiscally unsustainable, and proof can be found in budget crises that have plagued the system for decades. Chicago Taxes Jump $530 Million to Pay for Mass Transit. A year after Illinois lawmakers began discussing a plan to bail out the Chicago region's mass transit system, the final piece of the plan fell into place. The Chicago City Council in February enacted a real estate transfer tax increase, proceeds of which are to go to the Chicago Transit Authority. Update: New Heathrow Connect Trains – Now Can't Even Connect! The new trains while widely advertised as "Heathrow Connect" have now stopped connecting to Heathrow altogether! Passengers are now being advised to detrain at [the last] local stop and catch a bus to the Airport. Sane and Rational Government? According to the "The Committee for Even Minimally Sane and Rational Government," Austin, Texas, is the largest city in the country that does not synchronize traffic signals; the goal is to make driving unpleasant so people will support more "public transportation." Saw Maniac in Subway Horror. "I screamed for help, 'Please help, please help me,'" Steinberg said. "The Transit Authority people heard me — they just looked. They never stopped to help me, and that disturbs me more than anything else. I begged for someone to call an ambulance and get this guy off me. "He just kept on stabbing me, and stabbing me and stabbing me, and the transit employees kept on working and working and working." Update: Man Pleads Guilty In Power Saw Attack. A man who sliced into a postal worker's chest with a power saw inside a subway station while other people fled for their lives pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree assault. Tareyton Williams, 34, had been charged with attempted murder and faced up to 25 years in prison for the attack on Michael Steinberg last summer. He pleaded guilty in exchange for a sentence of 18 years in prison. Census Shows Commuters are Rejecting Transit. A failure of this magnitude should encourage Washington to re-examine the federal role in transit and determine whether the billions of dollars it takes from fuel taxes paid by motorists to subsidize transit is an effective use of federal money. Under current law, about 18 percent of these federal fuel tax revenues paid by motorists throughout the country is devoted to transit, thereby providing less than 5 percent of commuters with almost 20 percent of the money. Compounding this inequity, transit ridership is concentrated in just a handful of metropolitan areas. Train Defecator Hunted. Police are searching for a man who has been defecating on trains across the country, causing around £60,000-worth of damage. The offender has struck on at least 30 trains since August, mainly in the South East, smearing excrement inside the carriages. Uneasy rider raises a stink. Tossed off a city bus for refusing to change her fragrance, a local woman believes she was unfairly singled out just for trying to smell nice. Natalie Kuhn was getting on her regular bus route yesterday, the No. 137 Dalhousie, when she said she was told by the driver he was no fan of her perfume, Very Irresistible by Givenchy, and she had to get off. Driver to face punishment for kicking kissing girls off bus. A transit agency chief apologized Wednesday to two lesbian teenagers who were kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about them kissing. "Removing the girls from the bus was not consistent with our policy," said TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen. "I want to reiterate that we welcome all riders on our system." "Smart Growth" Research: As much as 20 percent of federal transportation funding goes to transit, which serves less than 2 percent of travelers. … Since transit service is so much slower than cars and is focused principally in the core and central business districts of major metropolitan areas, people who use transit because they do not have a car face limited mobility and diminished job prospects. Environmental regulations may be backfiring. State environmental regulations designed to reduce air pollution and encourage the use of public transportation by keeping parking lots closed until after rush hour may be backfiring because people sit in idling vehicles waiting for the lots to open. Taxing Taxpayers on a Train Ride. Congress deserves much of the blame for Amtrak's losses. Under the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997, the same legislation that created the Amtrak Reform Council, Amtrak was required to submit a plan for its own liquidation if it could not achieve operational self-sufficiency by Dec. 2, 2001. But, after it was clear that Amtrak could not meet this deadline, Congress got cold feet and (in an unpublicized amendment to a defense-spending bill) forbade Amtrak from preparing a liquidation plan. The feds got away with it at the airports, and now the police state extends to the train station. New security measures for Amtrak: Amtrak passengers will have to submit to random screening of carry-on bags in a major new security push that will include officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains, the railroad planned to announce Tuesday [2/19/2008]. The initiative is a significant shift for Amtrak. Unlike the airlines, it has had relatively little visible increase in security since the 2001 terrorist attacks, a distinction that has enabled it to attract passengers eager to avoid airport hassles. More information about Amtrak is available here. Cars are better for the environment than buses. Contrary to what transit advocates would have you believe, taking the bus is more energy intensive per passenger mile than taking a passenger car. The Mythical World of Transit-Oriented Development: In much of the literature regarding Transit-Oriented Development there is an explicit or implicit expectation that people will change their behavior to conform to the worldview of planners. … Steele Park was planned to discourage car ownership and use. The roads are narrow and parking is scarce. Public parking is only allowed on one side of each street in the development. The plan tried to encourage one-car families. Light rail gravy train rolls toward Clackamas. Regional transportation officials are obsessed with building light rail to Clackamas County, despite the fact that rail is the most expensive transportation option being studied, there is no strategy to pay for it, there is virtually no interest among county residents in using it, and it will provide no relief to traffic. Twice the voters have killed light rail, yet Metro officials continue to study it. … Ultimately people cannot be forced to ride light rail, or work near it. If pressed hard enough, they will simply vote with their car tires to move out of Portland. Transit: The Politician's Best Friend. There is only one way to accommodate more highway demand, and that is creating more highway capacity, whether through expansion of the roadway network or more effective traffic management. Any politician who suggests otherwise either defies reality or just doesn't know. Light Rail: The Solution to No Problem. Despite claims to the contrary, light rail does not reduce traffic congestion, and is a highly expensive strategy. US federal research indicates that quality bus systems are one-fifth the cost per passenger mile of light rail per passenger mile, can accommodate the volumes and operate as fast. Offering no speed or capacity advantage over buses, new light rail systems are simply obsolete. Maglev trains — transport tech that simply won't fly. The magnetic levitation (maglev) idea was patented as long ago as the 1930s. For the past four decades, Germany's best engineers have been working out the technical details. But the Transrapid — the monorail maglev system developed by Siemens and ThyssenKrupp that has trains speeding on a magnetic cushion at 500 kilometres an hour — simply won't fly. Taken for a ride: There is no such thing as a free ride. Washington, D.C.'s transit system, known as Metro, provides ample proof. Years ago, when friends or relatives would visit and marvel at our clean, state-of-the-art subway system, I'd quip, "Enjoy it; you paid for it." Federal taxpayers were responsible for more than two-thirds, $6.4 billion, of the $9.4 billion cost of building Metro. Metered Miracles For Motorists: There's a good reason why rails don't work. Denver light-rail lines average just 18 mph, so they attract few people out of their cars. Since most rail riders are typically former bus riders, rails are ineffective at reducing congestion. No money for another study! In 1973 the gullible, but well intentioned folks in Denver voted themselves a half cent per dollar sales tax to purchase a transportation system right out of a "Jetsons" cartoon. It was called Personal Rapid Transit: 100 miles of track with 800 small, driverless, automatic cars that would zip passengers to their destination with the press of one button, without any stops in between. The tax, which was to retire in the early 1980's, is still in place today, but all RTD has to show for this system is some rusted test track by Broomfield. Car-Hating Puritans are Destroying Colorado. New government transit systems will make little difference even in the corridors in which they are built. The much heralded Blackout Lesson: Keep the Gas Tank Full. For the 90 percent or more of commuters who use cars to get to work, this was the lesson — make sure there is always enough gasoline in the tank to get home. The blackout [of August 15, 2003] demonstrated the vulnerability of downtown areas that rely on electric urban rail. The Carpool Canard: Car-sharing is hardly ever practicable. Human needs are too individualized and too unpredictable. The carpool movement is entirely collectivist, in fundamental principle and in form. Related item... Mass Transit Mess: The "Feds," it seems, possess a kind of magical power — call it an inverted Midas touch — that ends up destroying nearly everything it comes into contact with. They can't even give money away without attaching conditions that assure failure. The federal government's role in "assisting" public transit has been variously described as inconsistent and ill-conceived, self-defeating, ineffective, a total failure. Political Correctness and Urban Transportation: Light rail is PC. Busses are PC. Freeways are not PC. How else to explain why voters sometimes are willing to spend vast sums on an outdated, inefficient, costly system for which there is almost no demand? How do they do it? In terms of punctuality, safety and price, the Tokyo subway system is arguably the world's model urban railway. But for overcrowding and groping, it must rank as one of the worst. At peak morning hours, some stations employ part-time platform staff to cram in passengers. With carriages filled on average to 183% of capacity at such times, bones are occasionally broken in the crush. Who wants to live in a society like that? Where Rail Transit Works, and Why. There are two places in the world where rail's success is not accompanied by excess costs and is felt throughout the urban area: Tokyo (Tokyo-Yokohama) and Osaka (Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto). … [But] even if the necessary trillions of dollars could be found to superimpose the Japanese transit systems on U.S. urban areas, they would be far less automobile-competitive here than they are in Japan. On average, urban traffic speeds in the U.S. are at least double that of Tokyo and Osaka. Impatient commuters form impromptu car pools: Traffic congestion has a growing number of commuters [in Houston] ignoring a basic rule from childhood: Never get in a car with strangers. Average Light Rail Line Carries 1/5 Freeway Lane. Proponents often claim that light rail is the equivalent of 6 freeway lanes. An analysis of actual US data on all new light rail systems indicates that no system carries more than 1/3 of the volume of a single freeway lane. The impact on traffic congestion is even less, since on average fewer than 25 percent of light rail riders are former automobile drivers. USA Urbanized Areas over 500,000: a statistical comparison of population, land area and density trends using data from 1990 and 2000. Studies Show Commuter Trains Don't Improve Air Quality. Recent studies in Denver, Dallas, and other cities show rail transit is a particularly ineffective solution to air pollution problems. Rail transit, the authors conclude, has an insignificant effect on air quality, and it actually increases the emissions of some important pollutants. A study by Dallas' transit agency, reported in the June 15 Dallas Morning News, concluded a proposed new light-rail line would reduce regional carbon monoxide emissions by less than one one-hundredth of a percent. Even a larger reduction wouldn't be important, since Dallas already complies with federal carbon monoxide standards. Why Not Just Buy Them Cars? A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis confirms what many light rail skeptics have been saying for some time: It would be less costly to buy new cars for transit riders than build and subsidize new rail systems. The Fed report says it would be considerably cheaper to give a new Toyota Prius to each low-income rider of the St. Louis light rail line, and replace it with a new Prius every five years, than it is to operate that rail line. Editor's Note: That sounds nice, but it's probably not true when all the costs are included. Many of the people who ride the train aren't licensed to drive. Many others haven't driven on a freeway in years, and are likely to cause an accident if given a car. Still others do not have the mental capacity or the quick reflexes necessary to drive on a freeway or anywhere else. And there's one other factor: If you give an automobile to someone (and replace it every five years), that car won't be preserved and protected like a car that someone has bought with his or her hard-earned money. In my opinion, the people on the trains and buses should stay there. |
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Document location http://www.akdart.com/enviro3.html Updated May 9, 2008. Page design by Andrew K. Dart ©2008 |