Monthly Archives: February 2017

TREND. Regulating Ride Share Aloha Style. Taxi Argument.

State: Hawaii

Taxi industry is pushing for legislation to require: ride shar edrivers to display the excise tax certificate that Taxis must display.

What’s behind this excise tax certificate push? Taxis claim ride share companies do not pay the state’s excise tax like they do

Other issues at play: Whether drivers pay the excise tax

Hawaii Now | Taxi companies accuse Uber, Lyft of not paying millions in excise taxes

Update. The Other Side of the Coin—- 18 Bills = 9 Bills + Companions. High Speed De-Railment.

Highlights from Texas Central Rail repsonse to the high speed rail bill package:

  • ” a slate of discriminatory bills”
  • it is the “use the power of the state government to single out and kill a free market project”
  • 10,000 jobs are represented by high speed rail project
  • Billions of dollars will be invested in the Texas economy
  • Collaborating with landowners 
  • “a majority of Texans have been clamoring for” this project

WTAW Brazos Valley | Texas Central Partners Reaction To State Legislation…

3 Points. East Texas Editorial Opposed to High Speed Rail.

Tyler Morning Telegraph editorial opposing Texas Centrail Rail raises these 3 points:

  • This isn’t a rural-urban issue. This is a property rights issue.
  • You can’t say this is a private enterprise, promoting free market when you use eminent domain, because eminent domain is the opposite of free market.
  • This is crony capitalism with the government  “thumb on the scale”

Tyler Morning Telegraph | Editorial: Texas bullet train an example of crony capitalism

6 States. New Electric Vehicle Fees.

Considering implementing an electric vehicle fee in 2017 are:

  • Indiana 
  • South Carolina
  • Kansas
  • Tennessee
  • New Hampshire
  • Montana

How does this compare to the current electric vehicle fees? 10 states have electric vehcile fees which range from $50 to $300

Utility Dive | Report: Six states propose new electric vehicle fees

Sierra Club | Flurry of State Bills Introduced, Likely Backed by Oil Industry, to Penalize Electric Car Drivers

3 Ways the Hoosier State Legislature Is Adding Transportation Revenue. Read the bIll.

Indiana is increasing transportion funding tis year by:

  • 10 cent increase in the gas tax
    • adds an annual indexing through 2024, with a cap at 1 cent per year
  • $150 annual fee on electric cars
  •  $15 transportation infrastructure improvement fee applied to all motor vehicles
    • excepted from the $15 fee are vehicles over 26,000 lbs

Equipement World | Indiana House approves 10-cent gas tax increase, electric vehicle fees

Indiana House Bill 1002 (2017)

Regulatory TREND. Procurement Opportunity. Digital Pothole Tracking. 3 Pieces Info to be Informed.

Massachusetts is using technology to fix potholes: MassDOT Potholes Dashboard

Can the public participate? Yes

Benefits of the public input technology:

  •  quicker response and repair times
  •  safer, more efficient travel
  • helps the Department of Transportation to make capital investments that focus resources on roads and “areas that require consistent pothole repair”
  • helps the Department of Transportation to manage its assets in a “cost-effective manner that prevents emergency pothole repairs.”

    • …

18 Bills = 9 Bills + Companions. High Speed De-Railment.

Which members joined forces to file bills to impede high speed rail?

  • Senators Birdwell, Creighton,  Kolkhorst, Perry, & Schwertner
  • Representatives Ashby, Bell, Cook, Schubert, and Wray 

The hot issues in the press release announcement:

  • big bad evil #1 : foreign investments (remember Trans Texas Corridor & Cintra, anyone?)
  • big bad evil #2: it will hurt family farms and private property rights
  • big bad evil #3: this is going to be expensive, more expensive than they are saying
  • big bad evil…

+ 1 State. High Speed Rail.

the State:  Washington

The move toward high speed rail: The Governor calling on $1 million in the Transportation budget to study high speed rail between Seattle and Vancouver

What specifics will the study include:

  • Does the short ditance make rail as competitive as air travel
  • Can high speed rail work with existing rail
  • Proposed station sites
  • Environmental impact
  • Latest high-tech options
  • Projected ridership demand

Construction Dive | WA governor allocates $1M for high-speed rail study

 

36th State Passes Statewide Ride Share Regs. 4 Key Points.

The 36th state to pass statewide ride share regulations: New Jersey

The statewide ride share regulations in New Jersey:

  • insurance coverage standards of $1.5 million in commercial insurance per ride
  • mandatory background checks by the ride share company with disclosures and approval by to the state attorney general
  • To balance the needs of the limoisine industry it cut insurance requirements when no passanger is present and expempting rides from the sales tax
  • $25,000 permit fee for companies

​…

FASTR. New Kid on the Block. Connected Car Data Security.

What is FASTR? The Future of Automotive Security Technology Research

What are FASTR’s goals? 

  • deliver precompetitive technological building blocks
  • to assist automotive manufactures across their supply chains
  • to offer multilayered security throughout vehicles to preserve data confidentiality, system integrity and system availability

What companies are members of FASTR?

  • Uber
  • Intel
  •  internet of things (IoT) provider Aeris
  • Rambus
  • Karamba Security

FASTR.org

SC Media | Uber, Intel and IoT…