Chair Houghton: Roadways Still Need More Funding Options

What transportation funding options does Texas have:

  • Bond issues
  • Public-private partnerships and
  • Massive voter support last November for using $1.7 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund

TXDOT Chairman Houghton says it’s not enough. What options did he offer:

  • He avoided talk of the gas tax
  • He supports solutions that “will require new thinking, planning and new funding.”

NBCDFW

Gas Tax Hike Supported by Republican Governor

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley unveiled a tax trade plan which:

  • Increases the gas tax by 10 cents, AND
  • Cuts the income tax.  The State 

She’s not alone among Republicans. Her fellow Republican Governor’s open to gas tax hikes are:  South Dakota  Utah  Iowa Tennessee  

The supporting arguments for a gas tax increase:

  • Need for transportation infrastructure
  • The gas tax has been untouched for years in their states. 

High Speed Rail & Eminent Domain Power

Texas Central Railway has clarified its website regarding eminent domain. The clarification was picked up by the Dallas Business Journal.  

Texas Central Railway (TCR)  stresses that eminent domain is a last resort after all voluntary options are exhausted.

TCR further offers this message on private property rights:

“The project is committed to respecting and honoring the private property rights of our fellow Texans. This reflects our personal values and simply makes good business sense. As such, the project is committed to negotiating and settling with landowners fairly and transparently and in a way that seeks ‘win-win’ solutions.”

Rail: Commuter Trains from Austin to San Antonio

Rail is coming to Texas. High Speed Rail is working hard to become a reality. Commuter rail is growing, and joining this push is Lone Star Rail District.

Lone Star Rail District wants to link San Antonio and Austin via commuter rail. Think CalTrans from San Francisco’s penninsula. 

Lone Star Rail is having a series of 5pm public meetings to build support:

  • Jan. 20, Carver Cultural Center, 226 N. Hackberry Street, San Antonio
  • Jan. 21, Carver Museum and Library, 1165 Angelina Street, Austin
  • Jan. 26, San Marcos Activity Center, 501 E. Hopkins Street, San Marcos
  • Jan. 27, Elgin High School (5:30-8:30 p.m.), 14000 County Line Road
  • Jan. 28, Georgetown Chamber Events Center, 1 Chamber Way, Georgetown
  • Jan. 29, Seguin, Coliseum, 950 S. Austin Street, Seguin

Austin Business Journal

Tollroads Are as Popular as Kilts in Texas

Stands to reason that kilts may be more popular than  toll roads based on a recent TXDOT meeting inDallas.  TXDOT proposes toll lanes for portions of Interstate 35E and U.S. Highway 67 in Southern Dallas. People were not pleased.

80 people showed up to voice opposition. including, the Dallas Zoo, which was not thrilled about making it harder for people to get to the zoo, but because TXDOT borrowed the Zoo’s giraffe logo for the project. Reasons for the opposition:

  • harm economic development of the outlying areas
  • unfair to not allow all citizens equal access to the roadways
  • the problems for delays in the roadways in downtown Dallas, not the roads in Southern Dallas
  • the elusive specter of eminent domain to obtain land

3 projects that recently proposed tolls were recently called off in the Dallas area. Citizens objected to the tolls. Local governments in the area objected to the toll lanes.  

Dallas Morning News

8 Reasons to Abolish the Gas Tax

8 Reasons why the Gas Tax should be abolished courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

  • Cars are more efficient, eroding the projected growth of the tax 
  • Purchasing Power of the Gas Tax has slipped
  • Diversions
    • 1/4 the federal gas tax is diverted to:
      •  mass transit in 6 metro areas &
      •  other programs:  street cars, ferries, sidewalks, bike lanes, hiking trails, urban planning and  landscaping nationwide
  • Federal spending on “other programs”  has increased 38% since 2008, while highway spending is flat.
  • Texas recovered only 88 cents of every dollar
  • 7 states and Washington, D.C. eceived more than twice as much.  
  • “States can build cheaper in any case, since the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rules and Buy America procurement provisions that accompany federal funding don’t apply.”

WSJ

Trend: How to Lower Traffic Fatalities With Love From Sweden.

A record low number of Swedes died in traffic accidents in 2014. Sweden’s traffic fatalities run at 3 per 100,000. In the US, it is 11 per 100,000.  Sweden’s fatality rate is nearly 1/4 of the U.S.’s.

What did the Swedes do right that has so many Americans studying Swedish transportation?

  • Engineering: roads that are designed for safety, not speed.
  • Lower speed limits in crowded areas
  • Safer pedestrian crossings with bridges and flashing lights 

Nordstjernan

Property Values Harmed by High Speed Rail?

Landowners are voicing concern about the impact of high speed rail on property values. Varied landowner comments on high speed rail include:  

  • noise nuisance
  • transportation benefit
  • unknown impact on property values

​The selected routes impact the fewest land owners. Houston Business Journal    

Previous citizen meetings have focused on the effect of using eminent domain to build high speed rail. Information Intelligence