Category Archives: legislative trend

Business Trend. Local Trend. Top 3 Concerns. Self Driving Taxis.

Pittsburgh is home to a new fleet of Uber’s self-driving taxis. For the Ying of self driving taxis, is the Yang of safety experts.

The safety concerns:

  • self driving technology is not ready for primetime.
    • It’s like the safety experts think self driving taxis are the Kaepernick of transportation world. 
  • PA has no self driving car statutes or regs.
    • e.g. Who do we sue if there is an accident?
  • Self driving cars have gone off bridges and Pittsburgh has a lot of bridges
    • building bridges…

Federal Grant to Test Alternative to Gas Tax

Which state received this federal grant? Delaware  Department of Transportation

What alternative to the gas tax is Delaware testing? Mileage based tax

Grant amount: $1.49 million federal grant

Are other states involved?  yes, 5 Atlantic Coast states are testing a mileage based transportation funding mechanism

What does the pilot program look like?

  • Transportation officials will track the driving habits of 50 volunteer Delaware motorists
  • The goal is to assess a charge based…

+1 County Requires Permit for Eminent Domain. Texas High Speed Rail.

The County: Freestone County

The County Commissioner vote: Unanimous

The requirements on high speed rail:

  • require permits if high speed rail crosses any Freestone County roads and/or right-of-ways
  • high speed rail must prove eminent domain

Freestone COunty Judge Grant view:  “the Surface Transportation Board states that the Federal Government lacks the authority to grant eminent domain power to Texas Central Railway”

Freestone County Times | County Adopts Budget, Sets Tax Rate,…

INTERIM. Sharing Economy. Taxing Ride Share Apps. 3 Pieces Informed Intel.

Massachusettes ride share legislation will tax ride share transactions via app.

What you need to know about taxing an app:

  • 20 cents per trip tax, with a breakdown of:
    • 5 cents to taxi industry
    • 10 cents to local governments
    • 5 cents to a designated state transportation fund
  • The app tax revenue will be given to the taxi industry as a subsidy for the purposes of:
    • new technologies
    • advanced service safety
    • operational capabilities
    • support workforce development.
  • Its the first…

INTERIM. 2016 Comprehensive Ride Share Texas Report.

What entity produced a ride share report? Texas A&M Transportatin Institute

What are the report highlights?

  • Defines ride share or transportation network companies
  • Defines the 5 Servies ride share provides:
    • ride sourcing
    • ride splitting
    • car pooling
    • taxi/car service
    • other: food delivery, courier, helicopter…
  • Lays out the 6 state policy areas that cover transportation network companies:
    •   Permits and fees.
    •   Insurance and financial responsibility.
    •   Driver and…

INTERIM. Self Driving Ride Share Launches.

Where: Pittsburgh

When: August 2016

Who: Uber and Volvo, the wonder twins, have joined forces to form of self driving ride-share

Why Pittsburgh?

  • Carnegie Mellon Robotics Program has produced the biggest names in the field. 
  • A leader in their pack joined Uber in early 2015

Bloomberg | The autonomous cars, launching this summer, are custom Volvo XC90s, supervised by humans in the driver’s seat.

Local Trend. Robot Delivery. Traffic Trends. Sharing Economy

Which city is testing robot delivery systems on sidewalks? D.C.

The company: Starship Technologies

Did it require a city ordinance? Yes to rolling permit the delivery devices to operate on the sidewalks

Will it lessen traffic? Yes, it can reduce the number of delivery trucks

Should we be paying attention? Yes, D.C. was one of the first cities to embrace the sharing economy

Governing | Coming Soon to D.C. Sidewalks: Delivery Robots

Western High Speed Rail. Where Are They Now?

California is building a state funded high speed rail system.

Is the project behind schedule? Yes. The 1st segment moved its completion date from March 31, 2018, to August 2019. 

What is causing the delay? Acquiring land which means Eminent Domain Delays.

How many land parcels are required for the Valley portion of the high speed rail first leg?1,590 parcels of property. 841 parcels were secured as of last week.

For 1 segment, the Fresno-Madera segment, what are the current cost…

2017 Promises. What the Right Says about Grimes County. High Speed Rail.

Empower Texas makes these points about Grimes County enacting county construction permits that will affect high speed rail:

  • Big Business is looking to profit from eminent domain
  • Rural counties oppose the project because of eminent domain
  • Rural counties will not benefit from the project
  • Texas Central Rail has assumed eminent domain authority

Empower Texas | Eminent Domain for High-speed Rail Faces Hurdle in Grimes County