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Monthly Archives: September 2011

Can Buses Compete with Planes?

By | | News commentary, Transportation
28 Comments

The House of Representatives agreed to extend reauthorization for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for four months and for surface transportation for six months. That’s not as long as the two years the Senate wanted for surface transportation, but apparently House Republicans weren’t ready to give up the gas tax (which would otherwise have expired at the end of this month) as a bargaining chip for a more sensible reauthorization bill.

Reauthorization of the FAA has foundered on the essential air service program which subsidizes commercial airline service to about 100 rural communities in the lower 48 states and another 45 communities in Alaska. This subsidy cost about $170 million in 2010, some $12 million of which went to the Alaska airports.

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Louisville Bridge Is Falling Down?

By | | News commentary, Transportation
11 Comments

The Interstate 65 bridge across the Ohio River was closed after inspectors found “two cracks in a load-bearing structure of the bridge.” Naturally, this has generated huge traffic jams, as many people in southern Indiana use the bridge to commute to Louisville and the six-lane bridge carries 60,000 to 90,000 vehicles a day.

Flickr photo by Cindy47452.

No doubt this is going to lead to all sorts of shrill demands that Congress hastily pass a transportation bill so that plenty of federal money will flow to fix and replace structures like this. And maybe some of this will be justified; after all, the bridge, and a lot of the rest of the Interstate Highway System, is almost 50 years old.
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Flickr photo by wblo.

Still, there are many bridges that are a lot older than 50 years. Is the problem with this bridge due to poor design? Flawed construction? Inadequate maintenance? Answers to questions like these will help people decide what actions are appropriate. The Antiplanner’s position remains the same: If we really need it, we can pay for it through user fees, not taxes. For highways, that means, whenever possible, tolls, and this bridge provides an excellent opportunity for tolling. The only problem is that the wheels of government probably can’t move fast enough to implement tolling to pay for any costly repairs.

Life in the WUI, 2011

By | | Public lands, Wildfire
12 Comments

Unlike much of the rest of the country, the Northwest has had a mild summer. But at the end of August we finally had a few thunderstorms, and they naturally lit some wildfires. So we are getting another lesson in modern wild land fire suppression.

Mary Bernsen photo of backfires started by a helicopter. Click any photo for a larger view.

The Shadow Lake Fire is far from the biggest fire in our area–that distinction probably belongs to the High Cascades Fire, though that is really several fires so it is hard to tell. But the Shadow Lake Fire is right next to a major highway where the Antiplanner often cycles. It also seems to be sending more smoke our way than any other fire.

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Arizona Judge Orders More Transit Subsidies

By | | Transportation
4 Comments

When the Arizona legislature cut state subsidies to urban transit, an environmental group challenged the cuts in court. The federal judge agreed with the environmentalists and ordered the state to restore the subsidies.

How can a judge order a legislature to spend money that the legislators felt they didn’t have? Apparently, the state had written an air quality plan for the Environmental Protection What are ejaculation problems?- There re are various types of ejaculation problems buy viagra without consultation in men: PE- Due to condition, the ejaculation occurs quite before the man and partner feel satisfied. In case purchase cheap cialis try content the situation gets serious rush to a physician seeking for help. Radiating pain http://www.learningworksca.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/027-Bakersfield-College-Math-History-Handout.pdf buy viagra online may be felt by some patients in the UK. Thus, it is recommended that you should try Kamagra at least 4-5 times before you seek an alternative treatment and it involves the placement of various thin needles inside the skin at certain strategic viagra canadian pharmacy locations. Agency promising, among other things, to reduce air pollution by funding transit. The Antiplanner is skeptical that the transit subsidies in question will do anything to clean the air, and they almost certainly won’t do it cost effectively. But the state did make the promise, so unless it rewrites its air quality plan it will probably have to comply with the judge’s order.

Deadline Headaches

By | | Housekeeping
5 Comments

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U.K. HSR Questioned

By | | Transportation
20 Comments

The venerable Economist has come out in opposition to a $52 billion plan to build high-speed rail from London to Manchester and Leeds. As the magazine-that-calls-itself-a-newspaper explains in an accompanying article, the new line would take two decades to build and produce questionable benefits for the nation.

While rail proponents claim that new train lines will create “a golden age of prosperity,” the Economist is dubious, noting that it is more likely that fast trains will benefit some cities at the expense of others. “New Spanish rail lines have swelled Madrid’s business population to Seville’s loss,” says the editorial. “The trend in France has been for headquarters to move up the line to Paris and for fewer overnight stays elsewhere.”
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“Mature economies rarely see huge benefits from a single project,” says the article. The $52 billion would “yield a higher return if it were spent on less glitzy schemes, such as road improvements and intra-city transport initiatives.” Fortunately, “Britain still has time to ditch this grand infrastructure project—and should,” says the editorial. “Other countries should also reconsider plans to expand or introduce such lines” as well.

What’s the Opposite of a “Clean Extension”?

By | | News commentary, Transportation
28 Comments

While the Antiplanner was in Montana, President Obama asked Congress to pass a “clean extension” of the surface transportation laws. By this, he meant that Congress should continue spending money like a drunken sailor the way it has been spending it for the past several years (more specifically, spending it faster than it has been coming in).

But what he meant is not what he said. Instead–apparently aiming at the actual reauthorization–he argued that, “We need to stop funding projects based on whose districts they’re in and start funding them based on how much good they’re going to be doing for the American people.” There are a couple of problems with this. First, it wouldn’t happen with a “clean extension” of the transportation bill, which doesn’t do this.

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