The current federal surface transportation funding bill expires this summer. A crucial revenue source is the federal gas tax trust fund, now chronically insolvent. The federal gas tax hasn’t been raised in 16 years, and it isn’t indexed to inflation. A highway system built in the 1950s and 1960s continues to wear down under heavy use, increasing funding needs for Read More ›
The much-hyped federal economic stimulus package isn’t looking like it will do all that much for surface transportation. The New York Times reports that the House stimulus bill contains a scant $30 billion for roads and bridges and $10 billion for transit. Turns out most of the infrastructure spending in the bill is not for surface transportation. The new administration Read More ›
I had a telling conversation with an old friend several months ago, a devoted environmentalist who’s a community college biology teacher living south of San Francisco in a pleasant small town abutting the Pacific. I don’t recall how it came up, but she declared, “We’ve just got to get more people out of their cars.” Then came a pregnant pause, Read More ›
This article, published by E&E Daily, quotes Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: “The pro side of [infrastructure investment] is so strong, that it is hard to find any objection to it,” said Bruce Agnew, policy director at the Cascadia Project, a Seattle-based transportation think tank. The rest of the article can be found here.
The voters of Snohomish, King and Pierce counties have turned down Proposition One on roads and transit. The question will be, what’s next? The Cascadia Center offers the following ideas on regional transportation, to help deliver congestion relief and safety sooner rather than later, at an affordable price, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Key Read More ›
State transportation leaders suddenly find themselves struggling with a $1.5 billion shortfall in anticipated federal and state gas tax revenues. This shortfall, primarily due to improving fuel economy in our motor vehicles, has far-reaching implications. Today’s debate in the Puget Sound region is whether to build more roads, or expand our transit system, or do both. But the truth is Read More ›
This article, published by the Tacoma News Tribune, mentions Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: That prompted a blog commentary by Cascadia Center Director Bruce Agnew, about the extensive range of strategies the region will need to solve its transporation problems. The rest of the article can be found here.
That collective shudder across Puget Sound this month had nothing to do with terrorism or tectonics. It was big-league sticker shock. Mired in traffic, our region learned from state transportation planners that expanding the 405, 167, 520 and 509 corridors and undergrounding the Alaskan Way Viaduct could cost taxpayers as much as $30 billion. That’s $30 billion with a “B,” Read More ›