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Toll Battle Wages Across the U.S. All Eyes Look to Texas.

Highlighting a Texas Turf Anti-Toll protest, Bloomberg looks at the battles waging against toll roads.

Kentucky: Toll Fees to replace an ailing bridge to Ohio were blocked by Tea Party legislators
Congress: FedEx Corp. and McDonald’s Corp are working to keep barriers to toll roads on Interstate highways in tact
Connecticut: Repub…

Truckers v. Conductors: A Transportation Cage Fight

More and more big trucks are on the roads, hauling goods to and fro. Good for the economy. Bad for public safety according to troopers who the New York times labels as unwittingly lobbying for an increase in rail.

Naturally the rail industry wants more rail and the trucking industry wants more and bigger trucks on the road. The rail industry is ginning up support from troopers through a non-profit.

Posted by adminApril 1, 2015Posted inlegislative trend, railways, roads

4 Ways to Make Transportation Assets Earn Funds for the State

Transportation agencies throughout the US have tapped creative earning strategies to enable their assets to generate more transportation funding:

Open rest areas and welcome/visitor centers on highways to contract vendors to sell food, goods and services
- Bring Food Trucks to RestStops
Corporate-branding sponsorships.
- Sponsors to offer roadside assistance.
- Virginia has a 3 year contract with GEICO Insurance for sponsorship of r…

Bill Filing: Rainy Day Fund to Pay for Shale Roads

House Bill 3825 by Rep. Landgraf would transfer $50 million per year from the Rainy Day Fund to Texas counties to help offset the impact of oil and gas drilling operations.

Chairman Darby has issued a statement in support.

Permian Shale

7 Things to Know about TPPF Proposed Transportation Reform

This week, TPPF released, the Road Forward, a transportation reform proposal.

No need for more transportation funding: Prop 1 filled the funding gap
End diversions
Reform Transportation procurement (Pg. 19 has 11 recommendations)
Remove Restrictions on Innovation in the Transportation Code
Stop accepting federal funds for urban rail
TXDOT overestimates growth
Toll Roads help solve transportation problems.

High Speed Rail at Cy Fair Chamber of Commerce

The Dallas-Houston private high speed rail proposal presented to Cy Fair Chamber of Commerce this week. Former Harris County Judge Eckles, who leads the Texas Central High-Speed Railway (TCHSR), presented these facts about high speed rail:

it will be privately funded
the project will be overseen by TXDOT and Federal Railroad Administration
travel time bewtween Houston and Dallas would be 90 minutes
“TCHSR can pay a reasonable amount of money plus …

84R Bill: Oil and Gas Funds for Transportation

Senator Uresti’s SB 1788 would allow counties, producing oil and gas revenue, would be allowed to keep the royalty payments generated from the minerals under county property and dedicate that money to road funding.

This bill would override a 1960 Attorney General Opinion, WW-870, by Attorney General Will Wilson.

Posted by adminMarch 19, 2015Posted in2015 legislation, funding, roads

Regulatory Road Block for Self Driving Cars

California was one fo the first states to create a regulatory framework for testing self driving cars. Way back in yesteryear, 2012, California created its landscape for regulating selfd-riving car testing.

A regulatory hiccup, in the form of no rulemaking to verify safety, has caused California’s innovativeness to stall. It seems no one can agree on the standards that should be imposed upon automotive makers that determine whether self driving cars are safe for the road. The compe…

LBJ Freeway a Poster Child for Successful P3 Project

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Stephen Goldsmith holds out the LBJ Freeway as an example of how P3s (public-private partnerships) are delivering value.

Relying on Fitch Ratings issued in February, Goldsmith describes the LBJ Freeway as construction “has proceeded on schedule and on budget, and operations are on target to begin during 2015.”

Governing