tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62162484832110013042023-11-15T05:14:54.724-08:00Georgia Sierra Club RAILGeorgia Sierra Club RAILhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03144426316869621013noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6216248483211001304.post-48433086950771807332011-02-16T16:14:00.000-08:002011-02-16T16:14:29.839-08:00[R] "Do Roads Pay For Themselves?"Here's an excerpt from a January 2011 report by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund: <br />
<blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">"Highway advocates often claim that roads 'pay for themselves,' with gasoline taxes and other charges to motorists covering—or nearly covering—the full cost of highway construction and maintenance. They are wrong. Highways do not—and, except for brief periods in our nation’s history—never have paid for themselves through the taxes that highway advocates label “user fees.” Yet highway advocates continue to suggest they do in an attempt to secure preferential access to scarce public resources and to shape how those resources are spent. To have a meaningful national debate over transportation policies —particularly at a time of tight public budgets—it is important to get past the myths and address the real, difficult choices America must make for the 21st century."</div></blockquote>Read the full, detailed report <a href="http://bit.ly/gsBrNj">here</a>. Georgia Sierra Club RAILhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03144426316869621013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6216248483211001304.post-1768838520238337612010-10-29T14:00:00.000-07:002010-10-30T02:30:56.201-07:00[R] Comprehensive Survey Shows Transit Vital to Economy, Education of Metro Atlanta<span id="GroupNewsFeed"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
The Atlanta Regional Commission recently <br />
released the results of one of the most <br />
expansive surveys of transit ridership ever <br />
conducted in the U.S. Based on over <br />
50,000 transit riders surveyed across 20 <br />
counties, the findings indicate that public <br />
transportation is vital to the economy, <br />
health and education of the entire Atlanta <br />
area, as most transit riders depend on <br />
the bus or train to get to work or school.<br />
<br />
Not only are most riders employed or in <br />
school, a large portion of transit users <br />
have the means to travel by car but <br />
choose public transportation.<br />
<br />
Take a look at the entire report on </span><a href="http://www.atlantaregional.com/transportation/travel-demand-model/on-board-transit-survey/onboardsurvey" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">ARC's website.</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> Also see local coverage <br />
by </span><a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/transit-beckons-in-far-571625.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">the AJC</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> and </span><a href="http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2010/07/15/survey-metro-atlanta-transit-riders-are-employed-students" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Creative Loafing</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span>Georgia Sierra Club RAILhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03144426316869621013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6216248483211001304.post-33256456937999696702010-10-29T13:59:00.000-07:002010-10-30T02:28:10.261-07:00[R] How Does Car-Centered Culture Limit Freedom?<span id="GroupNewsFeed"></span><br />
<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="sidebarTitle"></span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">“One of the ad executives I interviewed<br />
said that really people like the idea of <br />
driving more than they like driving. And <br />
so that’s what they’re selling, and that’s <br />
what we're buying. When you first start <br />
asking people, ‘Why do you like your car?’ <br />
All the positives come up first. And then <br />
you dig and you dig, and you start to get <br />
some of the frustrations and the day-to-day <br />
irritations. But that first gut response – <br />
it's almost some kind of latent memory <br />
from the advertising messages” <br />
<em>From a Planetizen interview with Anne Lutz <br />
Fernandez, author of <u>Carjacked: The Culture <br />
of the Automobile and Its Effect on Our Lives</u></em> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Consider the ways that car transportation <br />
limits independence: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>- An exclusively car-centered culture <br />
limits transportation choices.</strong> Since the <br />
automobile became affordable for most <br />
Americans, cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and even our homes have been planned </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">around the car. For those that prefer </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">driving, this is convenient. For those who </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">are unable to drive, cannot afford a car, <br />
or simply prefer to travel by foot or rail, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">this is extremely limiting.<br />
<br />
- <b>Car travel depends on the road system</b>. <br />
Our system of roads and freeways is </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">expensive to build, maintain, and patrol. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like your car, roads never pay for </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">themselves. Even after the initial cost <br />
of </span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">construction, roads require constant </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">upkeep.</span></span></div>Georgia Sierra Club RAILhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03144426316869621013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6216248483211001304.post-27700613380208397452010-10-29T13:56:00.000-07:002010-10-30T02:49:32.049-07:00[R] Debunking O'Toole<b><span class="sidebarTitle"></span></b><span id="GroupNewsFeed"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/06/02/randal-otoole-taking-liberties-with-the-facts/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yshortcuts" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/06/02/randal-otoole-taking-liberties-with-the-facts/</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<h2 class="post-title"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Randal O’Toole: Taking Liberties With the Facts</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">by </span><a href="http://www.streetsblog.org/author/ryan-avent/" title="Posts by Ryan Avent"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Ryan Avent</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> on <abbr title="2009-06-02T12:03:43-04:00">June 2, 2009</abbr> </span></h2><div class="post-entry"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The Cato Institute's Randal O’Toole gets<br />
under the skin of many of those interested <br />
in building a more rational and green <br />
metropolitan geography, but in many ways<br />
he’s an ideal opponent. It would be difficult <br />
to concoct more transparently foolish <br />
arguments than his. The man is an engine <br />
of self-parody.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<div class="figure alignright" style="width: 306px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img align="right" alt="spaghetti_bowl.jpg" class="image" height="195" src="http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06_04/.resized/.resized_300x195_spaghetti_bowl.jpg" width="300" /><span class="legend">Is this spaghetti bowl turning a profit? Photo: <a href="http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/05/18/dont-pluck-the-cloverleaf-a-field-guide-to-highway-interchanges-part-1/">Infrastructurist</a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
A recent <a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/05/28/secretary-of-behavior-modification/" target="_blank"><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">post</span></u></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> at Cato’s @ Liberty blog<br />
provides a nice example. In it, he <br />
quotes </span><a href="http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/05/18/george-will-government-interference/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">George Will’s</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> description of <br />
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood <br />
as “Secretary of Behavior Modification” <br />
en route to calling LaHood a “central <br />
planner in waiting.” </span><br />
This is one thing I’ve never understood <br />
about the libertarian love affair with <br />
highways; they seem utterly blind to the <br />
fact that it has required and continues <br />
to require massive government action <br />
to build and maintain the road network. <br />
The interstate highway system is <br />
perhaps the single largest government <br />
intervention in the economy in the 20th <br />
century. Reading O’Toole you’d think it <br />
was a wonder of the free market. The <br />
source of his blindness on the issue <br />
seems to be due to his belief that roads <br />
pay for themselves, and that congestion <br />
exists only because governments shift <br />
gas tax revenue to pay for transit and <br />
other smart growth projects. Nothing <br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">could be farther from the truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
In the first place, gas tax revenue comes <br />
nowhere near paying for roads. Federal <br />
gasoline tax </span><a href="http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/pix/artbachart.jpg" target="_blank"><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">revenues</span></u></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> cover barely half <br />
of the annual </span><a href="http://www.dot.gov/bib2008/bibpart05fhwa.htm" target="_blank"><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">budget</span></u></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> of the Federal <br />
Highway Administration. Add in diesel <br />
tax revenues and you’re still short. <br />
And that’s just the federal budget picture. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Taking into account all gas tax revenues and <br />
road spending generates an even starker picture. <br />
The Texas Department of Transportation <br />
recently developed an asset value index, <br />
intended to gauge the cost-effectiveness of <br />
a road over the whole of its life cycle. They</span><a href="http://www.austincontrarian.com/austincontrarian/2009/05/do-roads-pay-for-themselves.html" target="_blank"><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">discovered</span></u></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> that most roads don’t come close <br />
to paying for themselves. In one typical road <br />
analysis, it was determined that a real gas tax <br />
rate of $2.22 per gallon would be necessary, <br />
simply to break even. No stretch of road in the <br />
whole of the state covered its costs.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">But that’s not all we should consider. On top <br />
of the cost of the actual road, drivers </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-freakonomics-t.html?ref=magazine" target="_blank"><u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">impose <br />
costs</span></u></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> on other motorists, pedestrians, and <br />
society as a whole. Carbon emissions from <br />
driving impose an annual cost of about $20 <br />
billion on society. Costs from congestion total <br />
nearly $80 billion per year in lost time and <br />
wasted fuel. And the annual cost of automobile <br />
crashes (which claim nearly 40,000 lives per <br />
year) is around $220 billion. In the absence <br />
of driving alternatives, all of those numbers <br />
would be higher still. </span><br />
<span id="more-6300"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">But of course, O’Toole thinks that the reason <br />
we suffer from so much congestion is because <br />
we are diverting money to transit rather than <br />
building more roads. This is completely <br />
incorrect, and a basic failure to grasp economic <br />
analysis. Road space is scarce -- that is, not <br />
unlimited. It therefore has a positive value, <br />
which should be reflected in a market price. <br />
If it isn’t -- if prices are fixed at zero (as is the <br />
case with most roads) -- then a shortage will <br />
result. This is well understood; if the president <br />
attempted to fix the price of any other good <br />
at a below market rate, libertarians would cry <br />
foul and immediately argue that shortages <br />
would result. Yet when free roads produce <br />
congestion, they conclude that the best <br />
solution is to spend taxpayer money on <br />
more roads. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">O’Toole makes a great show of the fact that<br />
transit ridership is low, but the implication of <br />
this factoid is not what O’Toole would have <br />
you believe. For decades, roads have received <br />
massive government subsidies, and drivers <br />
have not been forced to pay the true cost of <br />
their driving. In the meantime, backdoor <br />
subsidies to driving have been rampant. An <br />
example -- most communities have rules <br />
establishing minimum parking requirements <br />
for new construction. Cheap and plentiful <br />
parking is a significant subsidy to driving, <br />
and such parking requirements make it <br />
difficult or impossible to build more compact <br />
and walkable streetscapes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Transit use has lately been on the rise as <br />
congestion and fuel costs have exploded. <br />
Cities with transit systems have benefited <br />
enormously from the availability of a <br />
substitute to driving, and those without <br />
have suffered from their inelastic dependence <br />
on cars in an environment of increasing costs. <br />
<br />
The simple truth is that government has <br />
intervened heavily to create the road <br />
network so beloved by libertarians, and <br />
the country continues to bear heavy costs <br />
as a result. Any clear-eyed examination <br />
of costs and benefits will indicate that the <br />
time to rebalance investments away from <br />
highways and toward transit is long overdue.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></div>Georgia Sierra Club RAILhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03144426316869621013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6216248483211001304.post-7311320127799312832010-10-29T09:03:00.000-07:002010-10-29T09:03:26.885-07:00Next RAIL Committee Meeting Nov. 15thDue to the holiday, next month's meeting will be held a week earlier than usual.<br />
<br />
<i>When</i><br />
Nov. 15th, 6:45 pm<br />
<br />
<i>Where</i><br />
GA Sierra Club HQ <br />
743-B College Ave in Decatur (next to the Avondale MARTA train station)<br />
<br />
<i>Who</i><br />
RAIL Committee members, Sierra Club members, and anyone passionate about improving transit in Georgia.<i> </i>Georgia Sierra Club RAILhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03144426316869621013noreply@blogger.com0