Lege Trend: No Tax Transportation Plan. 6 Funding Sources. 5 Policy Priorities.

California is facing a special legislative session on transportation. Republians have a plan to fix transportation funding without taxes by touting these principles:

  • Reform existing laws to get transportation projects moving quickly and at lower costs
  • eliminating redundancies
  • cutting through red tape
  • making a formal commitment to prioritize transportation
  •  without taking any money away from education or the Rainy Day Fund.

And, by using these funding sources for $6 billion in existing state funds for transportation infrastructure:

  •  40 percent of funds in California’s Cap & Trade program: $1 Billion+ annually
  • Existing funds from Vehicle Weight Fees: $1 Billion annually
  •  Invest half of the Governor’s strategic growth fund into shovel-ready roads projects: $200 Million annually
  •   Eliminate redundancies at Caltrans: $500 Million annually
  •   Eliminate and capture savings from 25 percent of long-term vacant state positions: $685 Million annually
  •    Make a formal commitment in the State Budget General Fund to fund transportation: $1 Billion annually

What is California’s transportation funding deficit look like?

  • 400,000 miles of roads
  • $59 billion in deferred road maintenance

Kristin Olsen  Gateway to California Gold Country  Sacramento Bee

3 Ways Car Manufactures Adapting to Modern Transportation Trends

Kids these days are less interested in owning and driving cars. Why drive when you can be driven? What are auto manufcaturers doing to stay relevant?

  • Ford debuted the MoDe:Flex, an electric bike networked to mobile apps
    • its the 3rd e-bike by Ford
  • Elsewhere Ford introduced on-demand car service called GoDrive
  • Ford has a giant pilot program of peer-to-peer rental, allowing owners to retain the rental, like airBnB for cars.

Forbes

High Speed Rail: The National Landscape

Nationally 2 high speed rail projects have moved beyond “gee, wouldn’t it be nice if we could zip between cities on a train at high speeds” conjecture.

  • California has a state funded high speed rail proposal that is in the process of construction
    • Voters approved $10 Billion
    • 520 miles of track
    • has fought landowners and has been using eminent domain
  • Texas high speed rail project is considered to be more than just conjecture & is privately funded.
    • Seeks to raise $10-$12 billion
    • 240 miles of track
    • Has encountred troubled landowners
    • May “avoid some of the intense public scrutiny and endless political interventions to which the California plan has been subjected”

A professor at the  Intermodal Transportation Institute says Texas’ public-private model has the highest odds.

San Diego Daily Transcript

How to improve Transportation without Increasing Funding? Friendly Ride Share Policies

A recent Deloitte University Press Report studying what millenials wnat in transportation plans says that a way to save billions & build a trasnportation system for the future is to support alternative approaches.

The answer, folks, to saving billions in transportation: car-, ride- and bike-sharing.

Deloitte University Press   Governing  American Transportation Association Study

Will every commuter & freight rail in the country be fined on January 1st?

Congress and the Federal Rail Administration are requiring that every commuter and freight train in the country install positive train control by 12/31/2015.

Positive Train Control is anticipated increase train safety. It can cost hundreds of millions to install. Congress allocated no funds to help railways, and included a fine for not installing the safety measure of $25,000 per day.

Rail has known since 2008 of the deadline for positive train control requirements.

Governing