Responsible Transportation Policy, from Washington Policy Center

February 6th, 2008

Here’s an interesting post on the Washington Policy Center’s website:

Five Principles of Responsible Transportation Policy

Washington Policy Center encourages five principles of responsible transportation policy to help guide policymakers in returning to a system that provides people’s freedom of movement.

  1. Tie spending to congestion relief
  2. Respect people’s freedom of mobility
  3. Invest resources based on market demand
  4. Improve freight mobility
  5. Use Public/Private Partnerships

Read the memo at: http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/

The Vancouver gambit for building roads and transit in Seattle

January 15th, 2008
When British Columbia announced its $14 billion plans for new transit early this week, it upped the stakes for competition among West Coast cities in the transit Olympics. It also injected itself in what will be a hot debate in Washington state, starting in this session. That's the question of using private investments to build the next generation of transit and highways. It's called P3, for private-public partnerships. You take private money (often pension funds) to cover all or part of the costs of a new project, and then pay off the private partner with tolls or fares ...

The road ahead on federal transportation funding

January 13th, 2008
How is the U.S. going to fund surface transportation improvements in the future? Congress created the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission in 2005 to look at just that question and their report to Congress is due out Tuesday, Jan. 15. But Ken Orski, a Washington, D.C.-based transportation consultant, has a sneak preview. He reports that it includes some fairly controversial recommendations regarding tolling, congestion pricing, public private partnerships, and the future of the gas tax, all front-burner issues here in the Great Nearby. Are you bus and rail commuters ready for a "federal ticket ...