Bay Area transit ridership down despite subsidies, enticements
02/09/15 Filed in: Transportation
Planning | MTC
In today’s Chronicle,
Matier & Ross write about how regional transit
ridership in the Bay Area has down for decades
despite the many billions of dollars MTC has put into
construction projects. This begs the question “Why?”
For us, the answer is simple: MTC’s unique
combination of indifference, incompetence and
unwillingess to do the hard work of policy
development has created a politicized unaccountable
system that works great for contractors, but does
little for Bay Area residents and commuters. See
related several posts on this site:
Bay Area
Basics; a
case study we did on MTC called Politics Trumps
Outcomes;
and a comment letter on how to set up a new
transportation pot of money so that it is not
wasted, as MTC’s resources have been.
Read More...
TRANSDEF Files STB Challenge
02/09/15 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail
In the second of two
lawsuits filed today, TRANSDEF joined a coalition of
non-profits and Central Valley county governments
to challenge the decision of the federal
Surface Transportation Board (STB) preempting the
application of CEQA to California’s HSR project.
In what we consider to be a shocking use of state
power, the California Attorney General has
previously sought to eliminate the application of
CEQA to the state’s HSR project.
On October 9, 2014 the CHSRA petitioned the STB to block California courts from issuing injunctions that could stop construction of the HSR project. In an ugly turn of events, the STB issued a ruling on December 12, 2014 that blocked not only injunctions but all application of CEQA to the HSR project. Read More...
On October 9, 2014 the CHSRA petitioned the STB to block California courts from issuing injunctions that could stop construction of the HSR project. In an ugly turn of events, the STB issued a ruling on December 12, 2014 that blocked not only injunctions but all application of CEQA to the HSR project. Read More...
TRANSDEF Files Caltrain Electrification Lawsuit
02/09/15 Filed in: High-Speed
Rail |
Transportation
Planning
TRANSDEF today joined
in two litigation coalitions to file suit. In the
first lawsuit, it joined the Town of Atherton
and the Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail to
challenge the Caltrain electrification
EIR.
TRANSDEF’s concern here is that spending $1.5
billion on electrification will not do much to
help ridership. That same money would have a much
bigger effect on ridership if it were spent to
build the Caltrain Downtown Extension to the
Transbay Transit Center. Worse, by trading its
current surplus capacity to the California
High-Speed Rail Authority for electrification
funding, it places a cap on its future ridership.
In an era of climate change, in which we need
transit operators to greatly expand their
ridership, this is a profound strategic error.
For thirty years, Caltrain has wanted to electrify, but never had the money. TRANSDEF believes that this longstanding desire blinded it to the agency’s best interests. We see this as tragically similar to the Biblical tale of Esau selling his birthright to his brother Jacob because he was hungry one night.
TRANSDEF filed extensive comments on the DEIR and the FEIR. See the Caltrain Electrification page for he background. Read More...
For thirty years, Caltrain has wanted to electrify, but never had the money. TRANSDEF believes that this longstanding desire blinded it to the agency’s best interests. We see this as tragically similar to the Biblical tale of Esau selling his birthright to his brother Jacob because he was hungry one night.
TRANSDEF filed extensive comments on the DEIR and the FEIR. See the Caltrain Electrification page for he background. Read More...
Cap and Trade Guidelines for Transit
02/06/15 Filed in: Climate
Change |
Transportation
Planning
TRANSDEF filed
comments on January 30, 2014 on the draft
Guidelines for the State Transportation
Agency’s distribution of cap and trade
funds to transit and intercity rail. The program,
called the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital
Program, will receive an ongoing 10% of cap and
trade auction revenues. The final
Guidelines were adopted today, and differed
from the draft in the areas highlighted in yellow.
None of the changes responded to our comments.
Our comments addressed the ongoing problem with large transportation projects: they promise too much and deliver too little, at a vastly higher price than initially promised. We wrote up a case study of MTC which we called Politics Trumps Outcomes that identifies the politicization of project selection as the root reason why the Bay Area has lower transit ridership now than it did thirty years ago.
Our comments addressed the ongoing problem with large transportation projects: they promise too much and deliver too little, at a vastly higher price than initially promised. We wrote up a case study of MTC which we called Politics Trumps Outcomes that identifies the politicization of project selection as the root reason why the Bay Area has lower transit ridership now than it did thirty years ago.