transportation

An update to last week's post, "Everyone knows mass transit is key: CLT, Raleigh GOPers scramble to assure constituents."

The funding for light-rail projects in Charlotte is back -- at the request of Speaker Tillis. Why? Because everyone knows mass transit is key. You can tell by the way the GOPers scrambled to explain the potential cuts to their Charlotte and Raleigh metro constituents. Lordy be... there's a good feeling that comes 'round from being right.

More after the jump...

(Crossposted from Sex, Cash & Politics)

A new study from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) at the university’s School of Public Health provides as much reason as we’ve ever had before to support efforts to build public and mass transit systems.

Just as the North Carolina Senate unveils and debates their Charlotte-light-rail-stripping proposals — and as Charlotte and Raleigh GOP politicians scramble to assure their constituents that such projects are still viable — this new study shows a direct correlation between increased traffic congestion and public health costs stemming from premature deaths and other health risks resulting from air pollution caused by vehicle emissions, in particular fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx).

In America, today, there are three kinds of drivers: those who look at the other gas pumps down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much that guy’s spending on gas”, those who look at their own pump down at the ol’ gas station and think: “Oh my God, I can’t believe how much I’m spending on gas” – and those who are doing both at the same time.

Alliance of Disability Advocates
www.alliancecil.org

ADA-CIL Information Network

Distributed: Thursday, August 19, 2010

SAVE THE DATES

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MEETING ADVISORY

SECOND ROUND OF TRANSIT WORKSHOPS SET FOR SEPTEMBER

Triangle citizens are invited to participate in a second round of public
workshops on future bus and rail options.

These community meetings on the Triangle Regional Transit Program (TRTP)
will offer citizens the opportunity to respond to a technical analysis
of transit corridors under study in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.

The workshops will be held from 4:00 PM to 7:00PM and each session will
have two formal presentations at 4:30PM and 6:00PM

Information presented at each meeting will include each county's
projects as well as the region.

MEETING DATES & LOCATIONS

TUESDAY, SEPT. 14 - Raleigh - Chavis Community Center, 505 Martin Luther
King Jr., Blvd.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15 - Northern/Eastern Wake - Wake Forest Town Hall, 301

An article in today's Smoky Mountain News brings to the fore again the issue of efficient passenger rail service to Asheville, connected to the existing AMTRAK service at Salisbury.

It’s great to see that people are starting to think about hybrid vehicles, but so far, they really haven’t been for me.

You know why?

Because for the most part, they have no...style.

The Prius?
If you look at it sideways, and squint, it looks more like a pepita than a car.

The Insight?
They say it’s stylish...but it looks like a Prius to me.

You know what I want?
I want someone to build the biggest, nastiest, most oversized hybrid the world has ever seen.

Something drenched with chrome, with seating for...many, and a convertible top; and maybe, if all my dreams come true: tail fins.

Something crazy.
Something ridiculous.
Something...American.

Well, guess what?

Somebody’s already gone out and had one built—and ironically, that somebody is Neil Young, Canadian.

Our friends at NC Policy Watch have the good fortune of featuring this excellent post by Dan Besse.

The economic stimulus package approved last month contains nearly $30 billion for surface transportation projects. That will help kick-start spending for a short-term economic stimulus, as intended, but it will put hardly a measurable dent in the backlog of project demands.

In the Piedmont Triad region, for example, one of the largest uses of the transportation stimulus funds will be a multi-million dollar pavement rehabilitation project on a potholed stretch of I-40. That will smooth millions of rides for the next few years, but it won't touch the issue of how to deal with rising travel needs in the long-term.

There have been a lot of goings-on this week at the Bev Perdue Campaign. Most of you have seen the TV ad by now, but we also released a couple of new ideas as part of Bev’s Building a New North Carolina series. Let me tell you about them…

Creating a DOT that works for North Carolina
Click here to read the four-step plan. The gist is that we must get the DOT’s house in order by decentralizing bureaucracy so that decisions are made in the field. Then we must hold contractors accountable so that we get projects on time and on budget. Combine that with ending the $170 million transfer away from the Highway Trust Fund and we can start to reign in the outrageous inflation of construction costs that is skyrocketing the projected costs of our transportation needs.

Cool Cities Assistance Initiative
Many of you may be aware of the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities program. The Sierra Club’s volunteers have done a fantastic job across the state getting their municipal governments to sign the US Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. 37 cities and towns in North Carolina have signed the Agreement, the 4th most in the nation. The Agreement calls on municipal governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 7% from the 1990 level by 2012.

Bev’s Cool Cities Assistance Initiative would give grants and funds to help the cities and towns who have signed the Agreement create their initial emissions reduction plans and then carry them out. The initiative is especially helpful to small towns that don’t have the resources or staff to carry on these projects.

Attention everyone who lives in Durham (city or county), Chapel Hill, Carrboro, or Hillsborough (or inbetween CH and Hillsborough) - you are part of the DCHC MPO (Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization), a government entity. Please take a few minutes to fill out .this transportation survey

One of my friends who took this said that her results were 'skewed' because she doesn't have a car or a drivers' license, as if having a car and license was the natural state of being.