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Texas is moving ahead with privately built high speed rail. The first public meetings began this week to discuss the proposed Dallas-Houston leg. Federal Railroad Administration and TXDOT jointly held the meetings. At issue were:
For the list of public meetings: Go here. [TX Tribune]
Empower Texas opposes a lot of things, including changes to the gas tax. In the penned opposition, note their last paragraph:
The biggest advocate for a gasoline tax hike in the state senate is Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas). He talked a lot about his desire to hike taxes and revenues for several years. And he lost. To a guy promising not to raise taxes.
Gas tax is a campaign issue for Empower Texas. [Empower Texas]
Proposition 1 on the November ballot would provide an additional $1 Billion to transportation funding. TXDOT estimates that the state under funds transportation by at least $5 Billion per year or $10 Billion each time the Legislature meets.
Organizations are lining up to support Proposition 1 including Texas Good Roads and Transportation Advocates of Texas. [Houston Chronicle]
San Francisco’s Prop A on November’s ballot has the primary goal to reduce the number of cars and car lanes. San Francisco is willing to spend $500 million, in its tiny 9 mile by 9 mile area, to add bike lanes, improve CalTrain down the peninsula, update traffic signals to move buses more expeditiously, and improve pedistrian paths. [SFGate and SF Chronicle]
A proposed new toll road in North Texas by the Texas Turnpike Corporation has garnered the attention of activists. Lots of activists.
A public forum was shut down by the Fire Marshall. The next public forum included heated and vocal opposition. Last week there was an organized protest by Texas TURF. And now Breitbart, the same organization for which Michael Quinn Sullivan writes, posted in opposition to the toll road.
Besides the disdain for toll roads, the proposed North Texas road may be built with wminent domain exercised by the private entity, the Texas Turnpike Corporation. Activists are not pleased. [Breitbart]
Ride sharing is now regulated by Austin City Council. Taxi companies are not pleased. Refreshing our recollection, the District Attorneys in Los Angeles and San Francisco recently sent ride share companies a list of concerns about the legality of ride sharing.
The legislative and regulatory issues are plenty- properly licensing drivers, background checks for drivers, tort liability issues for injured riders, and the kicker- how to tax ride sharing. [KUT]
High Speed Rail is moving forward in California. The California Supreme Court this week cleared the path for high speed rail after challengers attempted to block the bullet train. The $68 billion dollar bullet train is moving forward. [WSJ] [LA Times]
The statewide Prop. 1 for $1 billion in additional funding for state transportation projects will be joined on the November ballot by local transportation funding propositions. Austin has a $1 billion funding package of its own to expand roads and additional rail. [KUT]
Tax policy can be complicated to explain and hard to depict with graphics. The good folks at the Transportation Research Center at Texas A&M have solved this dilemna for us. They have an easy to follow graphic on the gas tax and all state highway funding. It’s beautifully executed. [Transportation Policy Research Center at Texas A&M]
There are animated speakers who talk about the need for increased transportation funding and then there are animated depictions of transportation funding. This is the latter. The Texas A&M Transportation Policy Research Center animates Prop 1. [Transportation Policy Research Center]