January 2017 – InfoHive – Transportation

Hoosier Legislature. Ups the Ante on Eminent Domain for Railroads. Read the Bill before it arrives in Texas.

Indiana’s House Bill 1260 requires railroads to demonstrate public use before proceeding with eminent domain.

WIMS AM 1420 | H.B. 1260 co-authored by State Rep. Jim Pressel goes to Senate

Chesterton Tribune | Soliday bill would require public need prior to eminent domain taking by RRs

NW Indiana | House approves rail eminent domain changes

5 Ways Self Driving Cars Help Local Governments.

Self driving cars estimated to help local governments by:

Adding an “excess of half a trillion dollars” via Morgan Stanley’s Autonomous Vehicles & Municipal Bonds
Creating more efficient roadway use
Dramatically reducing parking garages and parking spaces
Parking structures can be redeveloped to higher value developments, increasing property tax revenue
Increased safety will reduce emergency room visits with the reduction in traffic accidents

There will be some revneue offsets for local…

5 Elements for Connected Car Legislation.

What elements do these groups need to consider in their recommendations for regulation?

identify what’s necessary to isolate critical systems in a vehicle from the rest of its software
relevant standards for firewalls and anomaly detection systems
techniques to prevent or discourage malicious intrusions
best practices for storing the data generated by connected cars
timeline for implementing all of this

Where did these criteria for connected cars come from? The Security and Privacy in…

5 Reasons CA's High Speed Rail is 7 Years Behind Schedule. Eminent Domain is not Imminent Domain.

50% over budget ($3.6 billion in excess)
topography- dense urban areas, soggy lands, mountains
acquiring land takes time- eminent domain is not imminent domain
sluggish environmental approvals
failing to unlock federal money quickly enough

National Review | TPPF’s Chueck DeVore| California’s High-Speed Rail: Slow, Expensive, and Bound for Cancellation

Case Study. State Moves to Limit & Expand Eminent Domain. 2 Ways it would impact roads & rail.

The State: North Carolina Legislature is considering HB 10 which would extend the authority of eminent domain by allowing it to connect customers.

The bill’s language: “Connection of Customers. – For the public use, private condemnors, local public condemnors, and other public condemnors in subsections (a), (b), (b1), and (c) of this section shall possess the power of eminent domain and may acquire by purchase, gift, or condemnation any property for the connection of any customer or…

TREND. 2018. The Year of Self Driving Cars. TAMU + 5 TX Cities.

The self driving car program: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s national Automated Vehicle (AV) Proving Ground

The Texas designation as an AV Proving Ground: Texas AV Proving Grounds Partnership

Texas Department of Transportation
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Transportation Research
Southwest Research Institute
32 municipal and regional partners

Are there others in the U.S.? Yes, 9 in total

The real world roadway scenarios to…

Attorney General opinion. Motor Vehicle Registration. All about procurement.

The BIG issue: Does the DMV need county sign off to use a 3rd party vendor?

The answer: No.

The jockeying among levels of government behind the issue: The Transportation Code gives both the state DMV and county tax assessors authority over aspects of vehicle registration.

2017 clarification forthwith…

Texas Attorney General Opinion KP-129