InfoHive – Transportation – Page 203 – Just another WordPress site

5 Results from a Pay as You Drive State Pilot Program. 3rd party procurement Opportunity.

Oregon is the only state to be testing, pay as you drive, taxing structure for its citizens.

How does it work? A green box is attached to a car’s steering column, and reports speed, braking, and distance to a 3rd party contractor.

The fee for pay as you drive in Oregon? 1.5 cents per mile.

Unlike the gas tax a Prius and F-150 would pay equal amounts.

It changes driving habits. One Prius driver reported breaking less.

A non-GPS device option will be available for statewide use, to quell concerns of privacy advocates of a state tracking its residents.

California will begina similar pilot program in 2017.

Governing | A Real Way to Replace the Gas Tax

AG Opinion Request: Privacy. License Plate Readers. Data Use. Fine for No Insurance. Vendors Beware.

What’s happening in the dark world of data collection by the government? A vendor has approached Bowie County about a license plate reader that will search if the vehicle is insured so the county can then levy fines against uninsured vehicles.

The county says we don’t know if its legal. Wants the AG to answer that question.

Oh and by the way if this data system is legal, can we use it to fine people and split fees? Because red light cameras were so popular.

RQ-0062-KP

AG Opinion Request: Chair of Transportation Committee Asks About Design Build. 3 Points to Know Now.

The question before Attorney General Paxton: Can TXDOT enter into Design Build contracts in fiscal year 2016-2017 with funds appropriated for that year.
Why is this a question? Design Build Rider 47 to HB 1 and the Transportation Code Conflict.
- Rider 47 has a higher threshold, $250 million, than statute, which has a $150 million threshold
Opposition thinks Rider 47 is unconstitutional. Can’t go changing substantive law in the budget, but you can as long as no court or parliamentarian stops you.

RQ-00063- KP

Lt. Gov: New Advisory Board for Ports & Upcoming Interim Select Committee

Lt. Gov. Patrick announced a new port subcommittee on the Transportation Advisory Board.

What the future holds for this subcommittee:

tracks interim charges for Senate Transportation
Will lead to a Interim Select Committee on Ports
Potentially a Joint Interim Select Committee on Ports

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Launches New Port Inititaitve

3 Ways Business is Pitching Transportation Funding in Land of Cheese Heads

Transportation funding is a Return on Investment:
- it is an enhanced tax base
- promotes new development
- provides a safe, efficient and reliable mode of transporting raw materials, finished products and people
Delays in transportation cost people and businesses money
Fuel efficeint cars are good for the environment and our pocketbooks but bad for transportation funding, and we can fix that

Green Bay Press Gazette | Invest in transportation infrastructure

The Other High Speed Rail. Missed Deadlines. Over Budget. 5 Warning Signs.

The Los Angeles Times in a special piece dove deep into the California high speed rail project and found it likely over budget & late.

5 reasons why:

No Settled Route. The deadline for phase 1 is 2022, and there is no set route throught the mountains. To connect L.A. and S.F. via high speed rail will require 36 miles of tunnels into the mountains.
Rising Costs. The 1st phase, according to a confidential 2013 report, is 31 % over budget. The state has not used the state’s main project manager report for the project, and disreagrded the cost in its 2014 high speed rail plan.
Voters approved bonds for a $33 billion project. The estimated cost is at least $68 billion.
Litigation delays. Eminent domain that hits the courts takes time and casues project risk.
Permit delays.

In 2012, the cost estimate for the project had risen to $98 billion. The cost estimate was trimmed to $68 billion by elimating service from LA to Anaheim and from SF to San Jose.

LA Times | Special Report $68-billion California bullet train project likely to overshoot budget and deadline targets

Rural Road Funding. 2 Reasons Funding Remains Inequitable. 4 Ways to Fix it.

Background

Oil producing counties are a state revenue source. Eagle Ford Shale counties alone contribute $323 million of severance tax receipts a year.
Unfair revenue exchange with oil counties. In the same year that DeWitt county contributed $57.5 Million in severence taxes, it received $112,000 from the comptroller for money generated from gasoline tax remittances and overweight axle fees
- Now the oil producing counties are left with dangerous roads. This was the catalyst for a county transportation infrastructure fund grant program

Time for the state to stop getting a “free ride.” Oil counties want the Texas Legislature to:

Establish requirements and timelines on how repairs should be made
Establish requirements for how the money is distributed — including the loose wording that only requires a county have increased energy production
Must be an ongoing program for transportation funding
Must have greater trickle down to the oil producing counties

Victoria Advocate | Texas counties call for oil, gas tax distribution reform

Trend: Hyperloops. Pods. Coming to Austin. Economic Development Looking

What, the Jetson’s have arrived in Austin? personal rapid transit pod proposal is making the rounds in Austin.

What proposal? its a 5 year old study that has been in the hands of the conomic development community that focuses on pod transportation in and around UT

Funding Options? Richard Garriott, USA PRT Inc., the group behind the Austin proposal, says private funding.

What’s the initial build cost? < $100 million

Austin Business Journal | Austin’s futuristic rapid transit pod system: Can Garriott pull it off?

Trend: Self Driving Cars. 2 Regulatory Hurdles.

“flow of traffic” programing for freeway/ highway driving, this means so the car goes with the flow of traffic at a rate of speed higher than the speed limit
- How do you write a law to allow the car to move at the faster than the posted speed limit sign?
Tailgating
- Self driving cars can be closer to the cars around it without causing accidents

The Recorder | The Road Ahead for Automated Cars