Who says the mainstream media are dead? The Miami Herald just finished a great in-depth investigation into the lies and deceptions behind a 2002 transit tax — and the rail transit disasters that preceded it. (Update: On the other hand, the Herald is cutting 250 jobs off its payroll.)
The Miami Herald wants you to know that it considered Miami’s Metrorail to be a white elephant way back in 1985, right after the line first opened.
When the sales tax was on the ballot, the county transit agency promised to use the money to expand the transit system, build nearly 90 miles of new rail lines, and “bring Miami into the 21st century.” As part 1 reveals, what they didn’t say is that the expensive rail lines they had already built were bleeding the agency dry, and it needed the increased tax just to keep up with basic expenses. Since the tax was passed, the agency has spent more than half the money on “routine transit operations and maintenance” and the city will be “lucky” to get even 2.4 miles of new rail lines (although considering how much rails cost, it would be luckier to get none at all).
A little history: Miami built a 20-mile elevated, heavy-rail line back in the 1980s. It cost far more than anticipated and its ridership fell far short of projections. The experience of this line and similar heavy-rail lines in Baltimore and Los Angeles was bad enough that most cities that have wanted to build rail since then settled on light rail instead. Miami also built a downtown “metromover,” with driverless cars on a 2, later 4, mile route. This was a similar failure.
A Miami Herald sidebar reveals that, when the transit tax was on the ballot, railcars in the Metrorail and Metromover systems were overdue for an overhaul — but the transit agency had no money for the work. After the tax was approved, they planned to use some of the money for the overhaul, but the lowest bid was much higher than they had budgeted. Now the cars are in such bad shape that they plan to simply replace them using sales tax money that was supposed to expand the transit system.
Another sidebar shows how a special commission that was supposed to provide oversight into how the sales tax money would be spent was effectively stripped of all its powers. So much for taxpayer safeguards.
There is no need to swallow the pill pharma-bi.com generic soft cialis and deprived of the treatment, now can avail a high quality treatment. buy viagra from canada It is a medication that is recommended for males all around the world. Key ingredients in http://pharma-bi.com/levitra-7777.html levitra generika this herbal oil are buleylu oil, kesar, zaitun oil, kali mirch, jawadi kasturi, ashwagandha, dalchini oil, kalonji oil, Jaiphal oil, Ashwagandha, Kesar, Akarkara, Javitri, and Samudra phal. It is often an excellent thought to check with a veterinarian before giving aspirin. 3. cialis 10 mg
Part 2 of the series shows how the county commission that oversees the transit agency forced the agency to add a bunch of new bus lines that run practically empty. “Most of these routes were absolute dogs,” says a transit planner. “There was no planning, no research, no advance marketing. We just did it because some commissioner wanted it.”
Finally, part 3 looks at the future of what is basically a hopeless mess. They don’t have enough money to run the system they’ve got, much less build more. Shall they cut bus service? That’s the way to keep your promise to transit riders. Or double the transit tax? Because when a government agency breaks its promises and wastes your money, you should always punish it by giving it more of your money. (After all, that’s what Congress does.)
Miami is just one more example of the points the Antiplanner keeps making about rail transit:
1. Transit agencies might run excellent bus systems. But when they start building rail, they quickly get in over their heads by optimistic forecasts, unforeseen costs, and the sheer humongous expense of building dedicated transit lines.
2. Though all rail systems require periodic expensive maintenance, few transit agencies set aside any money for this because it is easier to spend the money now and let future managers worry about the future.
3. Though the rail systems are usually built to serve downtown white-collar workers, in the end it is the transit-dependent people who rely on buses who pay the cost.
4. There is only one thing rails can do that buses can’t do better, faster, and more flexibly, and that is spend a lot of your money.
Does this mean we could see the rail system in Miami shut down?
Honda introduces
The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the gases believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.
A couple questions.
1. Would emitting water vapor increase humidity?
2. Where does the electricity come from?
http://tinyurl.com/3jph5f
Antiplanner wrote:
“There is only one thing rails can do that buses can’t do better, faster, and more flexibly, and that is spend a lot of your money.”
Antiplanner also wrote:
Part 2 of the series shows how the county commission that oversees the transit agency forced the agency to add a bunch of new bus lines that run practically empty. “Most of these routes were absolute dogs,†says a transit planner. “There was no planning, no research, no advance marketing. We just did it because some commissioner wanted it.â€Â
(!)
Light rail can be cheaper than buses, in terms of cost per passenger kilometre, but it requires a very large number of real (as opposed to predicted) passengers to make it happen. The World Bank did a paper on just this point.
The flexibility of buses means that bus services can appear and disappear at a monent’s notice (too bad if you bought your house because of it, as my mother did). Better, surely, to get the planning right from the start?
Light rail, like buses, run faster on dedicated trackway, although since the costs aren’t ammortised across all the cars, lorries and vans as in a motorway, the costs has to be paid from the off, and assigned exclusively to the transit.
For most systems, light rail is provided instead of buses, because they slide along the rails so gracefully, and so it is more impressive to car drivers – i.e. with little planning, and more wishful thinking. That might work well once, but the light rail system that I tried had wall-to-wall bus decour on the inside.
For every incompetent transit agency, there are dozens of incompetent road bureaucracies who didn’t think ahead of their ongoing if rather boring maintenance needs. Cutting ribbons when new projects p[em–transit or otherwise–is much more exciting.
Napa County and its cities are a case in point, here in the Napa Valley where I live. While the local road gang has been begging the State of California for $200-$300 million to construct new state highway capacity in South County, they also claim a $12 million annual deficit in local road maintenance, which addes up to an estimated shortfall of $500 million+ in maintenance by 2030.
Napa County politicians are also getting ready to ask local voters to pass a sales tax for which 70% would be earmarked for potholes. The original proposal was for 75%, but one local city wanted a bit more for expanded road capacity, despite the fact they can’t maintain what they have now.
So you see, Mr. Antiplanner, your story just reminds me of “pots and kettles.”
>>1. Would emitting water vapor increase humidity?
Yep, that’s why you shouldn’t drink tea or coffee.
>>2. Where does the electricity come from?
The same place it comes from for light rail and kettles and coffee pots.
msetty,
“For every incompetent transit agency, there are dozens of incompetent road bureaucracies”
For every competent transit agency, there are dozens of competent road bureaucracies.
For every transit traveller, there are hundreds of road travellers.
The coffeee pots outnumber the kettles by a huge margin.
Ribbon cutting isn’t a bureaucratic magnet, it is a political magnet. Stop insulting the wrong people.
For every transit traveller, there are hundreds of road travellers. The coffeee pots outnumber the kettles by a huge margin.
And? If presumably gas prices stay high, and transit ridership increases, so what? Are you saying humans in the United States are unable to do anything other than drive, that they are unable to figure out anything else on their own?
Is that an insult to the intelligence of the populace?
DS
The same place it comes from for light rail and kettles and coffee pots
Which in most cases probably means coal, right? If so, the term “zero emissions vehicle” becomes misleading.
“A couple questions.
1. Would emitting water vapor increase humidity?
2. Where does the electricity come from?”– D4p
The real question is where would the hydrogen come from? If you take that into account, a hydrogen car makes a hummer look like a miracle in efficiency.
D4P, Precisely, your argument stands with all of the alternatives to the internal combustion engine that depend on electricity.
Although htdrogen production does seem to be perticularly well suited to solar furnace applications. But that’s a real chicken and egg situaton. Solar furnance hydrogen supply, or substantial hydrogen car demand.
Dan, The facts speak for themselves. In the last ten years real gasoline prices have more than doubled. Transits share of travel has increased by 0.5%. Even if transit uptake increases exponentially it wont match the autos share of travel before you or I are dead and buried.
That’s precisely what I am saying. Humans in the USA drove enmass a century before the ICE replaced the horse. They will drive enmass a century after the ICE auto has been replaced with some more sustainable power plant. Why figure out an alternative to the auto when only one component of the auto is faulty?
That’s high praise to the intelligence of the early adopters. The great unwashed masses will just go along for the ride as they always have done, after all half of every country’s population has below average intelligence.
Ah, got it.
I use this analogy for societal learning in my presentations: think of the growth of societal knowledge as the same as a growth curve. The inflection point (.5) is the “tipping point” where people get it – the ‘a-ha’ moment.
Wrt transport, the American public apparently have had an a-ha moment at around US$3.75/gal. There is rapid movement up the steep part of the curve. Will this learning result in widespread action?
I think it will take not too much longer for it to be common for most of the many families stuck in the car to learn how to chain trips. I think it will take several years for families to want to (and then be able to) dump the behemoth SUV. It will likely be not long after that for some families to move to places that are proximate to services (within a comfortable walk/bike ride) – as we are two-income families and jobs change so living close to work may not work for many.
Certainly many won’t get it. The future mother in law the other day jumped in the car to get an ice cream – she simply doesn’t think about stuff.
DS
“…only one component of the auto is faulty?”
Hah! I’m not going to get into detail, but don’t you think this is low balling it a bit.
Considering the comment I was responding to it didn’t seem appriate to mention the other faulty component in the auto – the nut behind the wheel.
In the context of auto v. transit preference the only component of the auto that it truly faulty is the engine.
In terms of congestion, road width and parking area the size of the average American personal transport unit is faulty but the auto market already offers solutions to that fault.
Maybe off topic, but aren’t those elephants pink?