Red Clay Citizen

Transportation: A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

Credit to Kevin Siers who draws for the Charlotte Observer, which published this.

Dole Presses Tippett about Equity Formula

Transportation Secretary Lindo Tippett (D-Cumberland) recently got a letter from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) inquiring as to why the Yadkin River Bridge project -- which bottlenecks I-85 near Salisbury -- hasn't been upgraded as has been promised for years. Tippett claims it's inflation that keeps this project (and others) from being built.

But Secretary Tippett and his good buddy N.C. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand (D-Cumberland) are happy with the status quo. Not only do projects, rather mysteriously, get done more quickly down east, the Equity Formula directly benefits eastern N.C. (not least their home town of Fayetteville) because it allocates resources based on factors other than vehicle usage and maintenance needs.

Senator Rand and Secretary Tippett also enjoy a special relationship that probably helps explain why transportation dollars get pumped down east -- away from where construction projects are actually needed, and towards constituents who have kept these two in power for years. Indeed, Secretary Tippett admits at a 2005 Fayetteville loop ribbon-cutting that "approximately $1.2 billion is allocated for loop projects in the final 2006-2012 State Transportation Improvement Program for loop projects, including $258 million for the Fayetteville Loop, which is more than any other loop in the state." (Emphasis mine.)

That's right, Secretary. Charlotte's loop, which was started in 1989 and is still not complete, suffers because of the accelerated Fayetteville loop that was started in 2003. I'll leave our readers to contemplate the reasons for this.
-Max Borders

Lessons for Light Rail from Chile

N.C. gubernatorial candidate Michael Munger downloads his observations from Chile in a podcast on Chile's transportation nationalization and public sector takeover (particularly after Chile has made so many pro-market reforms in other areas, such as social security).

Any lessons for buses and rail transit in North Carolina? (Hint: Post nationalization... ridership down, operates at big loses, and longer commutes. At least nobody profits. Listen very carefully to his discussion of incentives, private and public.)
-Max Borders

(PS: Munger's never going to be Governor if he keeps taking these kinds of trips. The opportunity cost is a campaign trail waiting for his whistle stops.)

They're Going to Ruin the Plans for the Train!

Triangle Transit has launched a new bus line running from Wake Forest, down Capital Blvd and into Raleigh, almost mirroring the proposed first leg of the Triangle rail line (from Downtown up Capital Blvd to Durant Road).

But, if they run buses there and people then ride the buses, then there won't be much need for a ridiculously expensive fixed-path train, now will there?

Oh wait, you mean we should actually just increase bus service instead of building $3 billion in rail lines to carry 1/5th the capacity of people?  Novel concept, but surely not enough to keep the central planners from their fantasy of taxing us into rail here in the Triangle.

Light Rail's Disease

Rarely in history have we seen so many people fall for such a singularly dumb idea.
-Max Borders

What's This? Another New Road in Eastern NC?

Yep, while Raleigh, Charlotte and other metro areas sit in traffic congestion, word comes today that another bypass project in Eastern North Carolina (Camden County to be exact) has been completed.

Construction is virtually complete on a section of U.S. 17 that establishes a four-lane highway from Camden County to points west.

Construction began in February 2006 and was completed five months early. The project was originally scheduled to be done three years from now.

Strangely, it was first reported in the Virginian-Pilot.  I guess our equity formula is so screwed up that we're building more roads to benefit Virginians than we do North Carolinians.

And how about that completion date!  Way to go DOT!  Completing a road originally scheduled to take 5 years in 2 years.  I wonder if that happens in any other parts of the state?

Gas Prices: Ga Ga over Transit?

So, with gas prices going up to record levels, is transit suddenly becoming a silver bullet?

NO, says Randal O'Toole. Here's why:

"Journalists are all gaga over reports of a 4 percent decline in driving and a 3.4 percent increase in transit ridership. But do the math: transit only carries about 1.5 percent of urban travel. Increase that by 3.4 percent and you can’t come close to making up for a 4 percent decline in the other 90-some percent.

Put it another way: APTA reports 86 million more transit rides in the first quarter of 2008 over the same quarter of 2007. The average transit ride is about 5.3 miles, to that’s about 455 million passenger miles.

Meanwhile, the Federal Highway Administration reports Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in the first quarter of 2008 than in the same quarter of 2007. At an average occupancy of 1.6 people per car, that’s 15.4 billion passenger miles. The increase in transit ridership made up for only 3 percent of that amount.

Oh yes, that 4 percent drop in driving? It was for March, 2008 (the declines in January and February were only about 1 percent). But APTA’s report for March shows a 0.8 percent drop in transit ridership from March 2007. That’s some rescue!

Transit is not replacing driving because transit doesn’t go where people want to go when they want to go there. Instead of substituting transit for driving, people are trip chaining, carpooling, or just skipping low-priority trips.

Even to the extent that a few people take transit instead of driving, they aren’t saving energy. As the Antiplanner has shown, most transit uses as much if not more energy as cars. So if you ride transit, you are merely making someone else pay your fuel bill."
-Max Borders

Just a Nickel (on every $10 purchase)

Here's Bruce Siceloff on light rail, though sadly employing the "nickel" sales tactic politicians are fond of:

The measure would allow Triangle voters to consider implementing a half-cent sales tax dedicated to public transit. Proceeds from the tax -- a nickel on every $10 purchase -- could cover more than half the cost of a 27-year, $8.2 billion rail-bus plan proposed recently by a three-county citizen advisory panel.

Remember, it's just a nickel. On a $10 purchase, it's just an extra nickel. Wouldn't you want to pay that? For the 'common good?' Nevermind whether you or not live in Knightdale or Holly Springs, North Durham or any other unserved part of the county. It's just a nickel for the rich folks.

Let's pass over that those nickels add up -- particularly the poor. Let's pass over that those people and all their nickels (nickel after nickel) amounting to billions, will be taken from the economy so that wealthier people in North Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Cary will have a shiny new train to rival Charlotte's. Doesn't this smell funny to anybody?
-Max Borders

Charlotte Observer: CATS Propaganda Arm

This is a bad piece of journalism - worst I've seen in a long time. Here's some of the fuzzy math and omitted information from the cheerleaders for Charlotte's rail system:

The average Lynx trip costs $2.70 in operating dollars, but that doesn't include the cost of building the line. [Right, what's that TOTAL cost per passenger?] Three-quarters of the train's $462.7 million cost came from federal and state grants [someone has to pay for that]. When CATS' portion of the train's capital cost is included, the per-passenger cost jumps to about $4.50. [So why not tell us the total capital cost instead of making it look like rail is cheaper than buses?]

The average bus trip is about $4.30, which doesn't include the cost of buying the bus. The cost is rising quickly due to fuel prices. [This is the most egregious bit. 1) Compare bus ridership to Lynx ridership, first. Then, 2) compare capital costs to capital costs. Then get back to me.]

The whole section quoted above is worthless at best, misleading and mendacious at worst. It doesn't matter if you packed that train to the gills. There will never be enough riders to make it cost effective. Never. (Update: the paper seems to justify omitting the total cost by saying that Mecklenburg residents don't pay for it directly (i.e. the rest of N.C. and taxpayers around the U.S. do. Concentrated benefits and dispersed costs.)


-Max Borders 

Gas Prices: Incentives (or Disencentives) Matter

People will change their behavior if it affects their pocketbooks. Incentives matter. Is that free-market fundamentalism or a law of economics?
-Max Borders

Light Rail: Blueprint for a Boondoggle

The multi-billion dollar dreams of government planners are now complete for yuppies and developers to salivate over. If you think this is a good idea, here are some thoughts for you.
-Max Borders

Light Rail: Some Thoughts

For the proposed Triangle light rail system, consider this:

- $3 billion will serve (at most) 3 percent of the population on any given day.
- Less than 1 percent of congestion will be relieved. Some light rail traffic is lunch-goers and site-see-ers.
- If the most ambitious estimate - 25,000 per day - is true, you could buy every potential rider 4 Toyota Priuses.
- Or, you could buy each of those people a Prius and buy 2000 miles more roadway for them to drive on.
- Where are they planning light rail? Chapel Hill, Cary, North Raleigh and Duke -- the wealthiest parts of the state. Is this so wealthy people don't have to take buses?
- You'll be subsidizing 90-95% of mostly wealthy people's tickets.
- The average light rail line in America takes only 1/5 the riders of the average comparable highway mile. It costs 5 Xs as much.

Chew on those tidbits for a while.
-Max Borders

Oops... Accidentally Deleted "A million a Mile?"

According to the Greensboro News & Record, State Rep. Nelson Cole seems to peg the cost of road construction at $1 million per mile - no wonder we're running out of money for roads...

Here's the excerpt:

"The cost is going to equate to what it costs us to pave 20 miles of new road, and we just can't afford to do that," said Rep. Nelson Cole, a Rockingham County Democrat who is chairman of a pair of key committees on transportation. He estimated that compliance with the law this year would cost at least $20 million, largely for computer upgrades.

(Commenters, please feel free to repost your comment. Accidents happen.)

Tolls and HOT lanes in N.C.?

Taft Wireback has a good piece on tollways for the News & Record. Pay-per-use is the way forward.
-Max Borders

Bus Ridership Increases, Wait for Trolley Drums

Just you wait. Modest (20 percent) increases in bus ridership due to high gas prices will go toward justifying a light rail line for yuppies in Cary, North Raleigh and Chapel Hill.
-Max Borders

Raleigh Among Worst for Commuting

Raleigh is among the worst for commuting times, says Forbes. Great! That's why we should build light rail, so we can relieve less than one percent of congestion. (Duh.)
-Max Borders

Priorities Off the Rails

Big blue ribbons are found on big, big pigs. $8 billlion!
-Max Borders

An Idea for Charlotte

Since Charlotte's LYNX Blue Line light rail doesn't have turnstiles or ticketing gates you must pass through, they basically have an honor system of paying your fare to ride the rail.  They threaten you with a $50 fine if you are caught, but that enforcement is probably quite difficult to pull off.

Maybe they should borrow an idea from Vancouver where transit police there are tasering people who do try to skip out on paying the fare.

The country's only armed transit police have been tasering passengers who try to avoid paying fares.

According to documents provided in response to a Freedom of Information request, police patrolling public transit in the Metro Vancouver area have used tasers 10 times in the past 18 months, including five occasions when victims had been accosted for riding free.

That'll scare me into buying a ticket a heck of a lot more than a fine.

(And no, you squeamish lefties, I'm not really advocating this, just though it was interesting.)

Durham: And Speaking of Light Rail

According to this article (registration required), Durham is thinking of copying Chapel Hill by providing "free" (read: fully tax-subsidized) bus transit. Now, notice that Chapel Hill's massively increased bus ridership has been used to justify building light rail. Notice also that Durham is slated to get part of the light rail line that planners hope to build in the Triangle - despite myriad problems, low density, exorbitant costs, etc. etc. I wonder: is this sudden spell of generosity to Durham denizens merely a pretext to set up the argument to justify the construction of light rail in the Triangle? I'm just asking.

It also leads me to ask a fairly obvious question: why can't all these yuppies that the taxpayers of N.C. are going to be subsidizing to take rail transit ride a bus? Surely it costs less by about a factor of 20-or-30.
-Max Borders

Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce GHGs?

Nope.

See, The Drought was Good for Something

Faster trips to the beach this summer!

Clayton bypass to open one year early.

See ya'll in Atlantic Beach!

Triangle Rail: You Want my Opinion?

The people trying to build pyrami- uh light rail in Raleigh are asking for opinions. Whether or not that was another April Fool's joke, I'm giving mine. There are a lot of justifications for light rail, and none of them are any good:

1) Gas prices are getting to be too high, so people need alternative transportation.

While gas prices are at numerical records, as a percentage of income they aren't as high as the early 80s. Further, some of the TTA trains will run on diesel, which is more expensive than gas and more polluting. According to expert Randall O'Toole, the average light rail uses more energy per passenger and pollutes more per passenger mile than cars. If we're talking about subsidizing the working poor, there are a lot better ways to do it (like give them tax waivers on gas). North Carolina has the highest motor fuels taxes in the Southeast last time I looked.

2) It will change land use patterns to make cities more livable and less energy dependent.

Uh huh. So you're going to spend billions to build rail where rich white folks (who can afford gas) travel, make those areas more congested. When you do so, you can count on housing prices in those artificially scarce (subsidized) areas to go up, making housing less affordable. Poorer people will move to the suburbs away from the subsidized trains and pay higher gas prices to commute into town. Brilliant. While you might get the accretion of special interest dollars around the choo choo - making wealthy folks have a better urban experience - you're sacrificing dollars that would be spent on a distributed transportation system (roads) to one, big monolithic, centralized system that will cost at least 5 times more than a highway lane, but carry only a fifth as many people. Everyone else gets to subsidize the "urban livability" of the few - to the tune of billions. Perverse--that is, even if you think crowding people together around trains makes for livability. I'd rather have a yard for my little boy to run around.

3) It will help relieve traffic congestion.

1%, 2% at most - for maybe a year or so. This is not significant.

4) Auto travel is subsidized, so why not transit?

O'Toole: "So transit costs are nearly three time auto costs, while transit subsidies are more than eight times auto costs."

Light rail is, and always has been, a kind of totem. People worship it, but it has no magic in the real world.
-Max Borders 

Better Than Light Rail

Idea for commuters, better than light rail.
-Max Borders

Why Roads Don't Get Built in NC

Kinston, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Transportation will spend $800,000 to study the possibility of a rail link to the Global TransPark near Kinston.

Seriously?  I had to double check the calendar and make sure it wasn't April Fools Day.

You've got to be kidding me.  What idiot bureaucrat thinks it's a good idea to poor more money into this boondoggle project?  I want him or her to step forward and take credit for this absurd idea so we can all throw eggs at them.

And we wonder why our roads never get built and the ones that do fall apart.

Legislative Lowdown: Transportation

Today's meeting of the Joint Committee on Transportation Committee held few surprises though the Department's report on how they have been addressing the shortcomings found in a department wide review by consultant McKinsey & Co. was an interesting exercise in corporate culture techno-babble. The entire multi page handout was emblazoned with the words "NCDOT Transformation."  Tons of lip service was paid to accountability, performance metrics and controls.  All of the performance enhancing rhetoric in the world won't fix a bureaucracy that is controlled by a good old boy network that uses cronyism as its main tool. 

The committee also heard presentations from the choo-choo people in Charlotte and Raleigh.  Charlotte is singing the praises of light rail's economic impact on the areas of the Queen City served by the train.  This appears to be their lead tactic to secure funding in the future.  They claim that property values near the train have increased  more than the rest of Charlotte.  They also outlined the plan to build Charlotte's version of Grand Central Station uptown. The total funding request for the Charlotte Transit system is $470 Million for the next 15 years.

Not to be outdone by their big brother to the west, the Triangle Transit Authority gave the next presentation using Charlotte's experience as justification for their efforts.  TTA General Manager David King, formerly of the NCDOT, (King fell on his sword during the Ferry Division's infamous "booze cruise.") cited Charlotte's successes to push for more funds for the Triangle's own choo-choo. Their funding wish list includes new taxes for the Triangle in the form of a 1/2 cent sales tax to go along with the money they already get from the State and Federal government and the rental car tax. TTA's wish list adds up to $2.3 Billion.  'Em trains are high class travelin'!

Civitas Blueprint Series

Civitas is rolling out it's series: "Blueprint for North Carolina". The education and transportation blueprints are live.

Citizens, thought leaders, and elected officials are encouraged to give these a close read. (Budget & Taxes, Healthcare, and Immigration are to follow...)
-Max Borders

More on the Elon Transportation "Poll"

The Elon “poll” (scarequotes, because the methodology and presentation of the results strains the limits of legitimacy) found that 66% support a $2 billion statewide transportation bond. It also found that voters don’t want higher taxes on gas, cars, or property to pay for transportation projects. The question is, as one of my colleagues points out: do voters understand that bonds mean higher taxes?

Of course not. And Elon doesn't want them to, either--otherwise we might see far different results.

I'm always astounded at how readily the press laps up the results of the Elon Poll. Just a tiny bit of critical analysis would yield all sorts of problems both in the approach and the execution. My little tinfoil hat theory is that the press is simply eager for stories of great big shiny public works projects that - while they destroy prosperity - make great frontpage stories. Of course, the media have also bought into light rail fetishism and urban planning backwardness. (Witness WRAL's trips to Charlotte and sundry other attempts to convince people that rail transit is some sort of silver bullet.) Polls of under-informed voters are likely to validate the biases of the media and the pollster--all for the sake of a grand illusion that will pull the wool over the eyes of the citizenry and pluck more money from their paychecks.
-Max Borders

Transportation: Another Transpartisan Truth?

Moves towards privatization, tolling, and congestion pricing are starting to capture the imagination of people around the country. In this very good (long, but well worth the read) piece in the Washington Post, the author profiles one Assistant Secretary of Transportation, Tyler Duvall, who has been laboring to move us away from the centralized, corruption-laden and inefficient pork-barreling of roads to the distributed, dynamic and common-sensical approach of congestion pricing. Of course, some lefty Congressman in the piece (DeFazio from Oregon) decides to call him a neocon - twice - in an attempt to invalidate Duvall's insights and willingness to change (nevermind that Oregon was the original pay-per-use pilot):

"Tyler Duvall is a little pointy-headed neocon with grand ideas about the future of transportation, and they all involve tolling," DeFazio said. "He's bright, young, energetic -- just totally wrong, and has a bizarre, neocon view of transportation."

Neocon, huh? One need only read this important testimony from the big lefty thinktank the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) to see that Duvall is neither crazy, partisan, nor necessarily neocon:

If we do not want to see even higher levels of congestion when Congress revisits the TEA-21 Act in 2009, moving forward this year to remove restrictions and provide incentives for the greater use of tolls to expand our nation's infrastructure will be critical.

Who woulda thunk it? Progress, apparently, is "progressive". Looks like status quo bureaucrats are going to have to acknowledge that, as Duvall says, the "genie is somewhat out of the bottle" when it comes to letting the market drive transportation. Oh, and if you hear some recalcitrant lefty whine about "equity" -- just ask them: where are the equity considerations in the regressive half-cent sales taxes meant to fund light rail?
-Max Borders

Train to Utopia

Joe Coletti takes an imaginary ride on the utopian TTA train:

STAC’s plan shares with the original Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) proposal the goal of using existing rail rights of way for Amtrak and freight carriers. I live close to both the existing station in downtown Cary and the proposed Northwest Cary station and decided to see what it would be like to ride the rails to work in Raleigh.

After a 20-minute walk, I arrived at the station. Most days, 20 minutes gets me to the office. While I could have driven to the station, the trip is only about a mile and a half, which would have meant my car was doing its worst emission damage for the entire trip to and from the station – not a good green life.

The train portion of the trip itself was 10 minutes from platform to platform. Commuter rail would have two more stops, in West Raleigh and at N.C. State, to make the 8.4-mile trip closer to 15 to 20 minutes.

Once at the Raleigh station, there is still another 10-minute (half-mile) walk up Dawson Street to get to the Locke Foundation. Commuter rail would therefore more than double the length of time it takes to get from north Cary to Raleigh while providing almost no clean air benefits. For those who live in southern Cary, Apex, or Holly Springs, the train would be a complete waste of time, money, and effort.

None of this even begins to take into account the added inconveniences of not having a car at work. I sometimes stop at the library, the grocery store, the pizza place, or the dry cleaner on the way home, but that would likely not be an option with Triangle rail for some time and then only if development actually happened as planners hope.

How easily shiny, flashy things cripple the common sense of the citizenry. Thank goodness for people like Joe who can set them straight.
-Max Borders
(Read more about the folly of light rail here, here, and here.)

Road Rankings

John Hood has run across some interesting road rankings given by folks who ought to know -- truckers. Check out his post, in which he reports that Texas wins the top spot.

As it happens, I just got back from the Lone Star State and I have to admit there roads - even the urban thoroughfares of Houston - were in fantastic shape. Now, how about sending a delegation from the former "good roads state" to find out what we can do to get caught up.
-Max Borders

Geau Beau: Pay-as-you-Go

I think there is a lot to this model and we should give it careful consideration. (HT: Chris Hayes). Stay tuned for our upcoming "Blueprint for Transportation in NC" -- due out early next week.
-Max Borders

Triangle Rail Folly: It's Not About Viability

Check out this quote from STAC member Michael Shiflett regarding the proposed fantasy rail plan for the Triangle region.

"It's all about marketing," committee member Michael Shiflett said. "Most people are concerned about the environment. Most people are worried about how much they spend on gasoline, insurance costs. I think there's something in mass transit for everyone, whether they believe it or not."

Aha!  So it's not about viability of the project or whether its cost-benefit analysis is sound, the future of the Triangle's rail project comes down to those who want it creating the proper marketing plan to convince you (the taxpayer) that it is in your best interest when they know it isn't.

Sounds eerily familiar to the rhetoric we hear out of Orange County regarding the transfer tax, doesn't it?

Government planners knowing better than you how your money should be spent, but needing to convince you to vote against your own personal interests (more money in your pocket) for "the greater good."
Next stop, why don't you just let us take your entire paycheck and do that.  We'll tell you where to live, how to live and what to do.  But trust us, we have your best interests in mind.

Transportation: Hats off to NC Justice Center

NC Justice Center has put out their new "At the Crossroads" agenda, which has a number of recommendations for transportation reform. In short, it's pretty good. Next week Civitas will release its "Blueprint for Transportation in North Carolina". Observers of the political zigzag in North Carolina may be surprised at the overlaps between our respective recommendations.

To point out a couple of points of divergence, Civitas does not buy into "smart growth" and so-called anti-sprawl measures, which we believe are counterproductive when it comes to both environmental protection and urban livability. Of course, we also think light rail as a form of transit is not only regressive, but a kind of fetish that comes at astronomical (opportunity) costs. Nevertheless, while "At the Crossroads" includes smart growth and rail transit as elements of its overall recommendations, these are mostly muted. Their focus remains primarily on changing both the revenue model and the allocation model for transportation funding and construction statewide.

As a note, I believe both the Civitas and the NC Justice Center approaches to transportation reform will also mean a lot to the preservation of beautiful natural spaces around the state. After all, unnecessary roads don't get built under our common schemes.

NC Justice Center (and, thus also NC Policy Watch) rarely have overlap with the Civitas Institute when it comes to most political issues. Our philosophies are very different. But when it comes down to the future of our state, if we find areas of common ground it becomes necessary to put down our pens-as-swords and extend the olive branch of transpartisan cooperation. This is only my opinion of course, but partisans, politicians, and bureaucrats should pay close attention to both of our recommendations before going any further down that tortuous, crumbling road -- built at great cost by the status quo.

Kudos to NC Justice Center.
-Max Borders

Transportation: Stopped Clock, Twice Daily

Three cheers for Jane Pinsky over at the Pulse for this post.
-Max Borders (The worst person in the world.)

Boudreaux on the US Infrastructure

In reply to this:

So America's infrastructure has suffered what you describe as "decades of underfunding and inattention" ("Before Another Bridge Falls," 23 February 2008).  This fact should shake the foundations of your faith in big government.  Adequately supplying public goods such as roads and bridges ranks among government's least objectionable and most widely agreed upon duties.  And yet government fails even at this core task.

Perhaps one reason for this failure is that government has loaded itself with too many other tasks that drain its attention and resources away from attending well to its chief duties.  Or perhaps government, even at its finest, is incurably clumsy and untrustworthy.  Whatever the reason for government's failure to supply sound infrastructure, don't you see the danger in entrusting this same agency with the power to govern our diets, to "redistribute" our incomes, to regulate our industries, and, indeed, to intervene in nearly all of the ways that you famously demand?

Sounds like a critique of N.C. state government one of us would have made on this blog. North Carolina has over 2500 bridges in poor repair, according to the Reason Foundation, and ranks 31st in overall road performance.
-Max Borders

False Advertising

Oh those sneaky politicians and the way they will change the name and hide the true meaning of something just to trick people into raising taxes.

Don't be fooled by the so-called, "Congestion Relief Fund."  It's a tax increase to build trains.  And as Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley said best, "I don't expect the transit plan to create a significant reduction in traffic on the roads."

If they were truly concerned with reducing congestion, we'd be building more roadway capacity, not building some fantasy train system that at most will take 3% of the cars off the road (which will be replaced with 2-3 years of growth).

Trains - 5x the cost and 1/5th the capacity of roads.  So how do we reduce congestion?

Transportation: Sigh...Fitzsimon Lying by Omission Again

Why does Chris Fitzsimon continue to rehash this already debunked argument? Because the left believes the more you repeat a lie (even if by omission), the more likely people are to believe it.

Transfers from the HTF - statutory or raided - need to go.
-Max Borders

Transit Fund: How to Pay for Billion-Dollar Boondoggles

According to this article in the Triangle Business Journal, some transportation geniuses are deriving new ways to drain more of your money in order to subsidize overpriced mass transit for wealthy folks so they don't have to lower themselves to taking buses. Of course, such projects never reduce the traffic they claim to reduce (usually 1 percent for about a year) and instead create more congestion around the lines they "develop". Turns out it's a special interest boondoggle that people, who will never see it, will nevertheless have to pay for -- concentrated benefits, dispersed costs. Scarce resources that should go to roadways go to gilded trolleys, instead. Utterly fetishistic, but I digress.

I'll pass over how the author of this piece - one Chris Baysden - doesn't offer anything in the way of a dissenting opinion about the wisdom of such a monstrous creation. (Then again, from what I've seen of the TBJ, that pub hasn't seen any corporate welfare it didn't like.)

Apparently, this eh hem trust fund will be modeled after the phenomenally successful Highway Trust Fund (HTF) that has been raided and misused countless times by the Governor, the General Assembly, and the less-than-scrupulous political appointees of the Board of Transportation. We can only expect this one will enjoy all the stewardship of the old HTF if it emerges - snarling, hungry and breech born - into this world.
-Max Borders

Transportation: Urban vs. Rural

Following up on my post yesterday on the over-spending of transportation dollars in eastern NC, I found this new ad from Richard Moore quite enlightening.

More Problems with DOT

The N&O has this article on the newly completed I-795 between Wilson and Goldsboro.

Two thoughts from this:

1. There's an I-795???  Does this just not prove the point that transportation funding is royally screwed up in NC when we've got Interstate roads between two small-medium eastern NC towns, yet I-85, I-40, I-540, I-485 and all the other metropolitan areas suffer in congestion.

The Eastern NC domination of politicians (Hunt, Easley, Basnight, and Rand) have so bastardized the Highway Trust Fund that we're building loops around Wilson, Wilmington and Fayetteville before we finish loops around Greensboro, Charlotte and Raleigh.

2. Another botched paving job?  Really?  You'd think after the I-40 fiasco they'd try to not let that type of thing happen again.

It's time for serious reform of DOT.  Blow it up and start over -- it's just not serving the citizens of NC any longer.  If this was a parliamentary system and we could hold a "no confidence" vote, I don't know that anyone would vote to sustain it.  However, I'm doubtful anything will happen as long as the leadership in the Senate remains and until we get a governor from west of I-95.

More on Raleigh's Train Envy

As Max has pointed out below the problems with the reporting on the trip of the Raleigh officials to worship Charlotte's "Golden God", Raleigh officials can't even get their stories straight on the reason to have transit. (N&O article here.)

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley (R) - "A good transit plan will stimulate economic development," Gurley said in an interview. "I don't expect the transit plan to create a significant reduction in traffic on the roads." (Emphasis mine).

Wake County Commissioner Betty Lou Ward (D) - "The bottom line is that as our population increases, the roads don't get much wider, and we get stacked up in traffic."

So which is it, are trains for economic development or for congestion relief?

I'm sure there are better ways to achieve economic development than increasing taxes by $6 billion, and we already know that trains won't do jack for congestion relief due to: 1. the lack of density in the Triangle. 2. The sheer fact that trains carry 20% of the riders of roads at 500% of the cost.

Let's end this fantasy now.

WRAL "Reporting": Staggering Light Rail Bias

WRAL's reporting: Wow, look at Charlotte's new half-billion dollar phallus. That's 21st Century stuff, there. The Raleigh delegation loved it, too, and we want one here, since Charlotte has one. We want to be a world class city!

>>No reporting on how much this cost the citizens of Charlotte, the taxpayers of N.C., or the rest of the country (because, you know, Charlotte got federal funding, which the triangle won't get).
>>No reporting on how much MORE this would cost the Triangle.
>>No reporting on the impracticability of linking separate clusters of activity.
>>No reporting on the difficult issues of Triangle density.
>>No reporting on any skeptics or dissenters to the project in Charlotte.
>>No reporting on any skepticism or dissent in Raleigh.
>>No reporting on the fact that Charlotteans would pay more than $30 per round trip if they had to pay full costs and didn't impose those costs on other non-riders around the state.
>>No reporting on the fact that this will cause more congestion and has no environmental benefit whatsover.
>>No reporting on the fact that this is a subsidy for the wealthy.
>>No reporting on the fact that this carries 5 time fewer people than the average freeway lane, but costs 5 times as much.
>>No reporting on the fact that there are unfinished projects around the state that are unfinished so that Charlotte could get this.
>>No reporting on the fact that this is a fetish and only a fetish.
>>No reporting on the fact that the "bus" that was 20 mins later to their destination would have arrived on time had they not built light rail in the middle of the busway.
>>No reporting on the fact that busways and increased buses are - at least - ten times less expensive, more flexible, and just as comfortable. (They're just not urbane enough for Charlotteans who demand gilded trolleys.)

Now, Triangle denizens have phallus envy. And WRAL is feeding it. Bad journalism.
-Max Borders

If Not NoVa, How Triangle?

In a huge blow to the DC area's Metro expansion hopes, the Federal government and the Department of Transportation said today they had serious concerns about the financial viability of the proposal to extend the rail line through Northern Virginia to Dulles Airport.

So, if it isn't financially and technically viable or sound to extend the one of the nation's busiest rail lines through a region that is more densely populated and with worse traffic congestion than the Triangle, how would it be viable here?

How Should Cities Pay for Roads?

That is the question this WRAL article asks as Mayor's from around the state gathered yesterday to discuss local funding of transportation projects.

Interestingly, Mayor Meeker says property taxes in Raleigh went up recently to pay for roads.

That's funny, what was that article yesterday that said you just spent $1 million renovating a restaurant's lobby for them?

Maybe the Mayor needs an economics lesson in opportunity cost.  Using money on something (downtown corporate welfare -- restaurants, convention center, hotel, renovate Fayetteville Street, an amphitheater, etc.) means that money can't be used somewhere else (roads, police, fire).

So, Mayor Meeker, it's a bit hypocritical of you to say that Raleigh doesn't have enough money for roads, when you sure seem eager enough to give it away on your pet projects downtown.

And this isn't just confined to Raleigh, it's going on in every city and town.  Wilmington's convention center, every dollar spent on "economic development", Charlotte's downtown arenas.  I could go on and on and on.

But it's time for all these politicians to stop whining about not having enough money and wanting to raise our taxes when they would rather spend it on their pet projects and not meet the needs of all citizens.

I Love Roundabouts

If I were king, I'd take almost every major intersection in this state and replace it with a roundabout (traffic circle).

The reason they have not taken off here, is that people aren't educated on how to use them. In fact, most folks freak out when they approach one (what's worse is when they get outfitted with stop signs). But if we put in a lot of them (a LOT), we'd all learn fast. Besides, its just: "look left upon approach and yield to the folks in the circle. Once we passed a tipping point, people would find them as wonderful as i did when I lived in the Cote d'Azur and Britain. (No jokes, please.)
-Max Borders

Light Rail for the Triangle: Be Careful What You Wish For

Results from a poll reported in the N&O today caught my attention. The left-leaning group Public Policy Polling asked respondents if they "would say yes to one of three tax options for transit improvements if it would reduce traffic congestion." The majority of folks were agreeable to some sort of tax increase. Of course the vague term "transit improvements" will be manipulated in the future to mean "light rail." Also left out of the question is any clarification of just how much these "transit improvements" may or may not "reduce traffic congestion."

I think it is safe to assume that light rail guru Randal O'Toole (aka the Antiplanner) was not included in the survey. Check out his blog - he has simply been on a roll of late. Folks clamoring for light rail in the Triangle, pay attention:

"Is there anything that transit agencies and rail advocates say about light rail that isn’t a lie? They call it high-capacity transit and it isn't. They claim they build them on budget and they don’t. They claim rail reduces congestion, and it increases it. They claim light rail catalyzes economic development, when all it does is catalyze more subsidies to development.

Light rail is really just one big, fat lie."

A Good Idea on Roads?

Here's an interesting idea posted in the News and Observer, which basically means you pay tax based on the number of vehicle-miles you use. They asked for comments, so here's mine:

If this idea were implemented in isolation, it could be a good idea. In other words, it must be an "instead of" proposition, not an "addition to" proposition. We should definitely be using more pay-per-use systems. But it has to be a discreet system. Bureaucrats have a knack for adding a good idea to a lot of bad ideas, which renders the good idea inert -- and amounts only another means of bleeding people of resources. So why pile an additional tax onto the current taxation system, even if it - in isolation - seems fairer?

Overhauling the revenue side must come with an overhaul of the distribution side. Gross distortions in allocations have dogged NC since the Equity Distribution formula was created. Places that need resources get them, while places losing drivers - (like Eastern NC for example) - get more roads. This system is broken. We need to be more efficient with allocation more than we need new revenue streams. We already spend 10 times what SC spends per capita on roads, and yet they rank much higher than we do on most performance measures. In short, we must think about this holistically. (Allocate by projected vehicle miles, collect by vehicle miles.)
-Max Borders

Basnight: Transportation Funds & Power

What's obvious in N.C. is the power Senator Marc Basnight (D-Dare) exerts in the General Assembly. Our intuitions should also lead us to an, at least, partial explanation of that power in the accretion of transportation funds around his constituents' counties (courtesy of John Hood and especially this pdf):

What leaps right out at you is the color-coded graph, which appears to demonstrate conclusively that the counties getting the best transportation deal are located mostly in the northeast corner of North Carolina – which happens to be the domain of longtime Senate leader Marc Basnight – and in some pockets of the western mountains.

I wonder: if one were to scrutinize Marc Basnight to the degree they scrutized Jim Black, would they find more paper bags, cash and quid pro quo patronage? You bet your driveway they would. It's time bloggers and savvy journalists started looking more carefully at this man's activities -- past and present.
-Max Borders

Schofield Silliness #375

Rob Schofield closes his latest screed about transportation in the Triangle with some fantasyland thinking:

Happily, the group is not without promising models close to home. Just this week, Charlotte unveiled its new light rail system to rave reviews. While the system will undoubtedly suffer growing pains, it was clear from the enthusiastic response of Queen City residents that North Carolinians hunger for new and modern approaches. Any committee that calls itself the 21^st Century Transportation Committee ought to take at least some steps to tap into that hunger.   

Rave reviews? How about customers for rave reviews? But it really doesn't matter if they meet their targets, Charlotte's still got some 'splaining to do.
-Max Borders

Gyping Charlotte's Light Rail

Look out. People may just start gyping Charlotte's Lynx system. It seems they have some sort of honor system that will be policed by the occasional ticket checker (according to this article):

Smith said he wasn’t sure what to do with his ticket once he bought it.  “In other cities like Chicago, Boston, there are turn styles you pass through so you get on.  I was kind of confused how I would get on, how they would make sure I would pay.”

We're told there will be random ticket checkers on trains, but we didn't actually see any.  If you get caught without a ticket you’ll get kicked off and pay a $50 fine.

OK, let's see: If you pay $1.30 per trip, that's $2.60 per day for the average commuter. Now, if you figure you'd get checked once a month (and slapped with a $50 fine), it's still worth it for commuters to try, since you'll pay $52 per month otherwise. I imagine people will ride it and see what frequency they get checked. If it's less frequently than once per month, they may just start gyping it. (Nevermind that if they had to pay full market cost of their ride, they'd be paying orders of magnitude more.) Still, I'm just saying...

(Update: MeckDeck on ridership blues and one commuter's choices.)
-Max Borders

Buses Ain't So Great Either

I had hoped to respond with a link to reader's email on Friday, in light of a piece I did for the N&O on light rail. The trouble is, every time I write for them, their circumlocution office fails to put my pieces on the Web. I'm not sure why I'm not Webworthy, but beggars can't be choosers, I suppose. I won't wax conspiratorial, but will chalk it up to bureaucracy.

In any case, if you read "Buses, Not Trains" in the paper on Friday, you'd have thought I was making an argument for buses, not trains. Unfortunately, that was the N&O's title. I merely wanted to contrast buses with trains to give people an idea of just how big a fetish light rail has become in the eyes of those ensnared by smart growth groupthink. Anyway, here's a reader's response on the problem of buses, too:

In the article "Buses, not trains" in the Nov 16, N&O, Max Borders quotes Randall O'Toole: the "majority of light-rail systems consume more energy per passenger mile than the average passenger car."

This is true for many (most?) bus systems as well. According to the 2005 National Transit Database (the most recent data), the Triangle Transit Authority used 455.7 gallons of diesel for 2474 actual miles and 7257.7 passenger miles (all in 1000s). This equates to 5.43 actual mpg and 15.93 passenger mpg. And it's diesel pollution too, which is far worse on health than gasoline.
-Max Borders

Light Rail Math: You Call This "World-Class"?

Randal O'Toole blogs today about Seattle voters rejection of a massively expensive light rail system. Light-rail advocates in Charlotte and the Triangle should pay attention to this alarming stat:

"The average urban freeway lane costs about $10 million per mile. The average light-rail line costs about $50 million per mile and carries only a fifth as many people. Seattle’s proposed lines were going to cost $250 million per mile, making them 125 times more expensive at moving people than a freeway lane."

Let me repeat...the light rail system would be 125 times more expensive at moving people than a freeway lane.  Now, the numbers that O'Toole uses may be off a little bit, but even if they are within reason we can draw some conclusions for NC.

For example, the South Corridor line in Charlotte cost $463 million to build 9.6 miles of track (2006 estimates). That comes to $48.2 million per mile. Conversely, for the same amount of money, Charlotte could have built eleven and a half miles worth of four-lane highway for the same amount of money. This calculation does not even take into account a comparison of future operating and maintenance costs between the two - a comparison that would make light rail look even worse. So the opportunity cost of the light rail line (which most people will never use) is a new four-lane highway that covers even more miles. Which do you think would ease traffic congestion more? The planners in Charlotte chose light rail.

Is this the kind of cost/benefit analysis we can expect from a "world-class city"?

Now think about your daily commute. If you could choose between a completely new, additional four-lane highway to drive on, or a goofy train system that you have to drive to, pay to park, pay for fare, wait until the next train comes along, have multiple stops and then most likely have a sizable walk to the office - which one would you choose?

 

Folly Trolly Claims First Victim

...that is, apart from taxpayers. (See more.)
-Max Borders

McKinsey Report: $2.5 million to Describe Government

According to this piece in the N&O, McKinsey - the management consulting company - got $2.5 million to makes the following assessments of the DOT:

A consultant's evaluation of the state Department of Transportation found the agency to be inefficient, unfocused and inflexible. The report by McKinsey & Co., an international management consultant, is based on surveys filled out anonymously by nearly 9,000 employees and on interviews with dozens of state, business and local officials. The employ