BAF IN THE NEWS:
The Concrete Producer: Slim chance for another infrastructure ‘stimulus’
The $50 billion infrastructure initiative President Obama announced in his State of the Union address ignited hopes that federal spending on local public works projects would be heating up just as stimulus funding was cooling down. But political realities surrounding federal deficit reduction imperatives have doused the optimism. Those same realities make Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray's $100 billion infrastructure spending initiative, offered on March 12 as part of the Democrat's fiscal 2014 budget proposal, more pipe dream than potential pipe-laying reality.
Downtown Express: Official previews city’s post-Sandy plans
http://www.downtownexpress.com/2013/04/03/official-previews-citys-post-sandy-plans/
“New York City has always been vulnerable to coastal flooding,” said Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (E.D.C.), “but what Sandy and the new flood maps from FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) show is that our vulnerability is actually greater than we had understood.
NATIONAL NEWS:
NPR: Arkansas Oil Spill Sheds Light On Aging Pipeline System
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/04/176189205/arkansas-oil-spill-sheds-light-on-aging-pipeline-system
Amber Bartlett was waiting last Friday for her kids to come home from school. One of them called from the entrance to the upscale subdivision near Little Rock, Ark., to tell her the community was being evacuated because of an oil spill. Bartlett was amazed by what she saw out her front door. "I mean just rolling oil. I mean it was like a river," she says. "It had little waves in it." ExxonMobil, the company that runs the pipeline, says it has collected hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and water from Bartlett's neighborhood.
PBS: After Oil Spill in Arkansas, Weighing Risks of Keystone Pipeline Extension (Video)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june13/oilspill_04-03.html
An oil pipeline rupture caused the evacuation of more than 20 homes in Mayflower, Ark. The accident raised questions about the safety of the proposed Keystone Pipeline extension. Judy Woodruff hears debate from Anthony Swift of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Andrew Black of the Association of Oil Pipelines.
New York Times: Pipeline Spills Stir New Criticism of Keystone Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/us/pipeline-spills-stir-new-criticism-of-keystone-proposal.html
Two recent oil pipeline spills have prompted new criticism from opponents of the proposed Keystone XL project, while raising more questions about whether the federal government is adequately monitoring the nation’s vast labyrinth of pipelines. An Exxon Mobil pipeline ruptured in central Arkansas on Friday, leaving a sheen of oil on nearby streets and causing the evacuation of 22 homes in the small town of Mayflower.
Washington Post: The Keystone XL Pipeline and its politics, explained
With the controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline extension surfacing yet again — opponents will hold a rally Wednesday night in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood, outside a fundraiser President Obama is headlining–we thought we’d clarify a few points about the contentious project. (For more details, read Steven Mufson’s new e-book, “Keystone XL: Down the Line.”)
Washington Post: Arkansas to probe Exxon Mobil oil spill (Slideshow)
The Arkansas attorney general is pledging an investigation into why the Pegasus pipeline in the central part of the state burst late Friday as the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issues a correction action order — which prevents operations on the failed part of the pipeline until further notice.
DC Streets Blog: Streetfacts #2: Americans Are Driving Less
http://www.streetfilms.org/streetfacts-2-americans-are-driving-less/
We continue our Streetfacts series by looking at the data on driving in the U.S. Beginning in 2005, per-capita driving has declined every year. That's not a blip, it's now an 8-year trend. The reason? Neither the state of the economy nor changes in gas prices offer a satisfactory explanation. Social preferences and demographic shifts seem to be playing a role. Young people today are less likely to own a car or have a driver's license than young people several years ago.
STATE NEWS:
Washington Post: Metrorail comes up short when comparing the world’s transit systems
After reading your column “Metrorail’s goal of an easy-to-use, self-service system is far from reality,” I couldn’t help but think of a recent trip I took to another city, far away. My wife is from Taiwan, so in October we spent 10 days there, mostly in the capital city of Taipei. We are not regular users of Metrorail but use it enough to be reminded of its annoying aspects, most of which are mentioned in your column.
Bacon’s Rebellion: A Light Rail Public-Private Partnership in Virginia Beach?
Philip Shucet, savior of the runaway train project that was Norfolk Light Rail, has submitted a proposal to to extend the rail line into Virginia Beach. Under the proposal, the Tide rail service would become operational in the Virginia Beach Town Center, nearly halfway to the Oceanfront, by November 2016 — at least four years earlier than under current projections. Moreover, the project would require no federal funding.
Fast Lane: Transit center opens in converted factory; Macomb facility puts McDonough County on the map
http://fastlane.dot.gov/2013/04/transit-center-opens-in-converted-factory-.html#.UV17GqJwpc8
I had plenty of reasons to be happy about Monday's opening of the Macomb Transit Center in western Illinois. First, when I was growing up in Peoria, we thought of McDonough County as something of a neglected land --we even called it "Forgottonia." The roads were crumbling, and they seemed to have been forgotten by state and national leaders.
NorthJersey.com: NJ Transit chief says rail cars moved to low-lying Meadowlands facility just before Sandy flooding
NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein acknowledged publicly on Wednesday that the agency actually moved rail cars and locomotives into its flood-prone Meadowlands rail yard for storage just before the yard was inundated by superstorm Sandy's floodwaters in October. The move resulted in millions in flood damage to the rail equipment.
NJ.com: NJ Transit boss: No fare hike for riders in 2013-14
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/nj_transit_boss_no_fare_hike_f.html
NJ Transit riders will not see a fare hike for the fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30, 2014, the agency’s top official said. With the declaration at a state Senate Budget Appropriations Committee hearing today, NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein kept a pledge he made in April 2010 not to increase fares for the next three years.
Greater Greater Washington: Maryland, Virginia, fund these projects!
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/18310/maryland-virginia-fund-these-projects/
Maryland and Virginia will both enact major new transportation funding bills this year. Neither bill says exactly which projects will be funded, but here are the top 10 projects in Maryland and Virginia that most deserve to get some of the funds.
Boston Globe: Legislative transportation plan puts Green Line grant at risk, MBTA says
Aides to Governor Deval Patrick and the MBTA warned on Wednesday that a scaled-back transportation proposal unveiled this week by legislative leaders could result in fare increases and force the state to pick up a large share of the Green Line extension’s costs. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority warned that it would lose out on more than a half-billion dollars in federal grant funding for the project under the proposal unveiled by state lawmakers Tuesday.
Gigaom: Zappos CEO rethinks urban transportation in Vegas with 100 Tesla Model S cars
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars revitalizing downtown Las Vegas into a tech, startup and culture hub. And now the head of the online shoe retailer is ushering in an ambitious urban transportation project called Project 100. It could make downtown Las Vegas free of personal cars, using a combination of on-demand Tesla Model S cars (100 of them), shared bikes (100 or those), shared neighborhood electric vehicles (yes, 100 of those, too) and buses (you can guess it, 100 shuttle stops).
Boston Globe: MBTA could have 1 bidder for $1b rail contract
One of the two companies competing to provide Greater Boston’s commuter rail service is threatening to drop out if the MBTA does not provide key information by Friday, potentially leaving the state with only one bidder for the largest contract in Massachusetts history. The MBTA had promised to create an even playing field in the competition for the $1 billion-plus commuter rail contract, even though one of the bidders, Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail, currently runs the system and has close personal ties to state transportation leadership.
88.7 KUHF: Houston Mayor Prepared To Discuss Local Texting While Driving Ban
While the Texas Legislature will make a second attempt to write a texting-while-driving ban into law, Houston Mayor Annise Parker this time doesn't want to hope for Gov. Rick Perry's support. The city has launched an awareness campaign, and Parker says she would consider a local ban on texting if the measure fails again in Austin. Two years ago, the state Legislature passed a bill that outlawed texting while driving. But Gov. Perry, saying it would “micromanage the behavior of adults,” vetoed it.
Politico: Morning Transportation
By Adam Snider and Burgess Everett
4/4/13
CONTRACT TOWER SAFETY NUMBERS PEELED BACK: Bloomberg’s Alan Levin scoops on some recent FAA internal studies that show in the vast majority of airports with contract towers, safety numbers did not change pre- and post-tower. The numbers are right in line with DOT Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator’s op-ed earlier this week that said closing down the contract towers would not decrease safety but could make things less efficient at airports affected by the sequester cuts to tower contracts. The study of more than 200 towers found 615 crashes occurred near airports in the five years before the contracted towers opened while 618 such crashes happened in the five years after the towers opened. But as we reported earlier this week, many communities want towers to stay open for the economic benefits like keep aviation businesses going, more so than from safety concerns. Bloomberg: http://bloom.bg/XP2qCE
At odds: An AAAE study finds that the “cumulative hazard to aviation safety and lost efficiencies” from closing the towers would hit $2.5 billion over the next six month, including as many as 615 lives lost, 101 destroyed aircraft and thousands of additional flight hours due to inefficient use of airspace. http://bit.ly/14FPl1s
A NATIONAL CONVERSATION ABOUT A NATIONAL CONVERSATION: AAA chief Robert Darbelnet is warning that America isn’t ready to have a national debate on a VMT fee to replace the gas tax, even though policy makers agree it’s a good long-term fix to structural imbalances in federal revenues and spending. “The federal government playing the lead role to implement VMT and quickly bring the concept to a nationwide market might actually do more harm than good,” Darbelnet wrote in Public Administration Review. Darbelnet was rebutting a policy paper (http://bit.ly/17dzA1l) in the review from two Indiana University professors issued who argued that “if the federal government takes the lead, many states are likely to follow” a path toward VMT. The professors, Denvil Duncan and Public and Environmental Affairs Dean John Graham, say drivers could self-report their car odometer readings or use a third party to tabulate mileage each year, which would alleviate the government tracking concerns. Burgess reads the papers so you don’t have to: http://politico.pro/XNGMyy
VIRGINIA IS FOR TRANSPORT LOVERS: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s tweaks to lower some fees and tax rates in his transport compromise bill did the trick — the amended bill passed both chambers. The saga that brought out opposition from Grover Norquist and GOP gubernatorial candidate and Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli has now come to a close. Or has it?
Laying groundwork: The Examiner caught up with Dem governor candidate Terry McAuliffe as he lobbied Richmond Democrats to approve the transportation bill. He indicated that should he win this fall, the transport situation could be revisited. “As governor we can come back and work on some of those things,” he said he told Democrats. http://bit.ly/13RTTCD
TIGER GRANTS LIVE: Avoiding yet another attempt to zero them out, DOT’s TIGER grant program will see another round of funding this year, MT confirmed. The $500 million program has taken a slight haircut due to sequestration, so $474 million will be dispensed at some point. A DOT official said it’s too early to say when the grants will be distributed; they dropped in late June last year.
FIRST LOOK — US Airways and NextGen: US Airways will announce today that it’s the first airline to win FAA certification on its Airbus A330 planes for SafeRoute, a series of four “flight deck applications” that are part of the broad effort to upgrade to NextGen. The apps will use the ADS-B system that’s installed on the planes and is a key part of the NextGen effort. “US Airways and our other airline partners understand and embrace the opportunities and savings ADS-B provides for operators,” said Terry Flaishans, president of one of the tech companies that partnered with the airline.
A REASONED REPLY: NATCA sent over a response to the new Reason study on air traffic control facility consolidation. The tower group “supports facility consolidations and realignments where they enhance operational services and the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System.” NATCA is “collaborating” on the new New York integrated control facility. “We also support the implementation of NextGen as a way to modernize the system over the long term. Unfortunately, sequestration is hampering these critical efforts,” NATCA said.
MAILBAG — ASCE backs Casey water bill: The American Society of Civil Engineers is endorsing Bob Casey’s inland waterways investment bill. “Increasing the user fee on the inland waterways system from 20 cents per gallon to 29 cents is long overdue and will allow for an increase in overall spending on the system,” ASCE lobbyist Brian Pallasch wrote to Casey. “Hopefully the RIVER Act can work with WRDA legislation in order to more robustly fund inland waterway systems.” The Senate is expected to work on the river Trust Fund when the bill comes to the floor this spring. Pros get the letter: http://politico.pro/16oA4yu
GIVE KIDS A BOOST: Most parents already know it, but MT considers this a public service mission: You should be using a booster seat for your kids — even if they’re six or seven years old and want to sit like a grown-up. NHTSA’s 2011 version of the National Survey of the Use of Booster Seats, released Wednesday, finds that fewer kids are riding with just seat belts and more are using a boost seat with the seat belt. For kids aged 4-7, the seat belt-only crowd fell from 32 percent in 2009 to 25 percent in 2011, the study found. NHTSA’s conclusion: “...parents are increasingly following NHTSA recommendations and not graduating their children prematurely to seat belts.” More: http://1.usa.gov/10w0z3a
DENIED: FMCSA has denied applications from Mexican trucking companies Transportes Mor SA de CV and Adriana De Leon Amaro to take part in the cross-border trucking program, the agency says in a notice in today’s Federal Register. The two carriers did not pass a pre-authorization safety audit. http://1.usa.gov/YT62CE
PI THEFT — US Airways boosts lobbying outreach: The airline has added Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to its roster of lobbyists, according to Senate lobbying disclosures.. The company spent $2.8 million on lobbying the federal government in 2012, when it had Ogilvy Government Relations, Podesta Group, The Cormac Group and Vandor Strategies on retainer.
MORNING VIEWING: Check out this POLITICO roundtable with Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush on this week's top stories like Obama's power players, immigration vs. guns, Christie's Rice layup and more. politi.co/Z9xYhC
CABOOSE — Senator caboose: A caboose as our caboose — this shot from circa 1930 features “The Senator” rail car with some senatorial-looking men in suits. Shorpy: http://bit.ly/XY9ubG
Politico Pro: AAA chief wary of quick push for national VMT fee
By Burgess Everett
4/3/13
Winning support for a tax on vehicle miles traveled has a big public image problem: fear of the government riding shotgun in your car.
AAA CEO Bob Darbelnet is warning that drivers’ privacy concerns would make it too difficult for Washington to push for switching from a gasoline tax to the distance fee, even though many policy experts argue that the change could be the best way to fix the shortfall in highway funding.
“The federal government playing the lead role to implement VMT and quickly bring the concept to a nationwide market might actually do more harm than good,” Darbelnet wrote in Public Administration Review. “The public needs to read about this in the local newspaper, see it on the local nightly news, understand the policy underpinning ... and maybe even participate in a pilot test.”
Darbelnet was rebutting a policy paper in the review from two Indiana University professors issued last month who argued that “if the federal government takes the lead, many states are likely to follow” a path toward VMT.
The professors, Denvil Duncan and Public and Environmental Affairs Dean John Graham, say drivers could self-report their car odometer readings or use a third party to tabulate mileage each year, which would alleviate the government tracking concerns. Odometer reporting could be audited through car registration information, insurance companies or even private data collection sources such as Carfax.
But Darbelnet said so far, education campaigns on both Capitol Hill and in the media have fallen short, and debate over VMT has been confined to academia and think tanks.
And the U.S isn’t ready to have a debate about a distance-based fee, he said, citing “the strength and pervasiveness of public rejection of things unfamiliar” as a major barrier, even if Washington were to embrace low-tech reporting methods to overcome tracking concerns.
The low-tech methods are so far getting a good response for the Oregon Department of Transportation at its closely watched pilot program, in which most drivers have opted for reporting devices that plug into their cars’ diagnostic port to record mileage.
ODOT didn’t even offer a government-supported GPS system to verify mileage, but did make third-party options available. Success with the non-GPS methods has indicated “there’s no need for GPS as a national system,” ODOT alternative financing director Jim Whitty said in a recent interview.
House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) has agreed with Darbelnet’s arguments in recent policy speeches, noting that the political will isn’t yet there for a federalized program. He also has declined to endorse a bill from Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) to implement a national pilot program for VMT, and has favored letting the states serve as laboratories.
For transportation spending advocates, letting the VMT debate get hijacked by privacy concerns could hurt their sustained push for a more robust national transportation spending bill. Darbelnet said that’s a real possibility given the lack of public knowledge and an “underlying privacy fear by lawmakers.”
“There is a risk that transportation investment — which most agree is a proper function of government — gets caught up and bogged down in a debate about liberty and individual rights,” Darbelnet wrote.
BAF IN THE NEWS:
The Concrete Producer: Slim chance for another infrastructure ‘stimulus’
The $50 billion infrastructure initiative President Obama announced in his State of the Union address ignited hopes that federal spending on local public works projects would be heating up just as stimulus funding was cooling down. But political realities surrounding federal deficit reduction imperatives have doused the optimism. Those same realities make Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray's $100 billion infrastructure spending initiative, offered on March 12 as part of the Democrat's fiscal 2014 budget proposal, more pipe dream than potential pipe-laying reality.