Monthly Archives: April 2016

Lege Trend: Golden State To Tighten High Speed Rail Oversight

What part of high speed rail is the California Legislature looking to reign in? More oversight for the high speed rail project

What sparked this change? Bipartisan concerns over high speed rail after a  report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office that triggered  questions about the project’s cost, schedule and scope.

What will California’s AB 2847 do?

  • Planning Disclosures. Require the rail authority to provide detailed cost, schedule and scope information about each segment  of…

Why 1 State will Stop Giving Cities Transportation Funding

Which state has been divying up federal transportation dollars with cities? Missouri

Which federal funds will stop being handed over to cities?

  •  a small urban surface transportation program for Missouri’s smaller cities
  • a bridge replacement and improvement program aimed at larger urban areas

Why will Missouri tighten the reigns on these federal funds? Missouri is under no legal obligation to divy up the federal funds to cities

Governing | Missouri May Hold On to Transportation Money…

Lege Trend: Increase Transportation Funding. Increase Economic Input for State. 3 Points. New Study.

Which state is looking at economic gains from a $10 Billion transportation investment? Georgia

What economic gain is estimated from the transportation funding investment? $2 billion

What transportation gain is estimated from the new funding? 5% reduction in congestion.

Governing | Study: Georgia’s $10B Traffic Plan Could Reduce Delays

INTERIM. Sharing Economy. City to Require Business License from Ride Share Drivers. Key Intel.

Which city will require a local business license for ride share drivers? San Francisco

How were drivers alerted of this new city regulation?  With notification by letter to all 37,018 drivers

What revenue will be generated? $3.37 million a year

Can drivers operate without a license? If and only if the driver works less than 7 days. 

How much does the license cost? $91 if the driver makes less than $100,000/year

AutoBlog | Uber and Lyft drivers need to obtain business licenses…

INTERIM. Ride Share Data. New Report. Government Data Requests Impact 11+ million.

Where did the ride share data report originate? UBER produced its first ever transparency report

The numbers of data requests from July 2015 to December 2015:

  • 33 requests from government agencies
  • 11,644,000 riders affected
  • 583,000 drivers affected
  • California, NYC, and Chicago governmental entities requested the most data
  • 517,000 riders & 14,000 drivers impacted by a Houston, TX data request
  • 370 riders & 370 drivers impacted by a San Antonio, TX data request

Uber | Transparency…

INTERIM. Sharing Economy. 5 Statistics about Taxi Use Decline.

  • Since ride share began in L.A. pre-arranged taxi rides fell 42%
  • Since ride share, the total number of L.A. taxi rides have fallen 30%
  • The impact of ride share is felt most by taxi service in tourist and nightlife areas
  • In San Francisco, the number of trips taken by taxi is down 2/3 in 2 years
  • The downturn in taxi use has hit taxi drivers most.
    • Taxi Drivers take home $400-$500 per week. 
    • Down from $800 a couple years ago

The decline in taxi ridership in Los Angeles mirrors trends in…

Transportation Project. Land Speculation. Indictments in North Texas. 3 Key Informed Intel.

What law enforcement agency was investigating land deals in North Texas? U.S. Department of Justice

What transportation project is involved? I-35 E expansion in Denton County

What crimes are alleged to be involved in these land deals?  conspiracy to commit mail fraud

What makes people believe real estate development was land speculation?

  • accused of deceiving the Texas Department of Transportation by
  • buying frontage land low
  • asserting that the land was under development
  • and…

Transportation Funding Allocation in a Southern State. 4 Key Informed Intel.

Which state passed a new trasnportation funding formula? Alabama

How will Alabama be alocating tranportation dollars?

  • New tax revenues will be allocated equally to all counties
  • The first $500,000 per county is specifically designated as bridge and road dollars

What is the goal?

  • Spread transportation dollars more equally throughout the state
  • Not only allocate trasnportation funding to large projects

What new funding is involved? A 6 cent increase in the gas & diesel taxes

Alabama SB…

5 Ways Houston Port Growth Impacts Texas infrastructure

Does increased Port of Houston traffic only translate to more cargo ships?  No, it also means:

  • strains on local roads with large trucks transporting cargo goods
  • strains on railroad infrastructure as railroads transport cargo goods
  • port channel dredging
  • maintaining sturdy docks
  • Port Infrastructure

What part of the country does the Port of Houston serve? The goal is to make the Port of Houston  “the distribution hub for the central U.S., from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi…