What is old becomes new again. Local Aerial Transit.

Where: Park City, Utah

What: An aerial transit project to move persons through the city and to mountain recreational spaces

How would it impact private property? There are  338 private properties within a 100-foot distance of the conceptual alignments

Cost estimates:  $60 million to build + more than $3 million to operate and maintain annually

Park Record | Concept for Park City aerial transit system shows lines would fly close to private property

How Texas Leads Global EV Adoption

What makes Texas the best state for leading global EV adoption over California?

  • Texas electric grid isn’t connected to there states (it has a deal with Mexico, not Oklahoma)
  • 90% of the state’s electric load is a deregulated market
  • ERCOT is innovation friendly
  • ERCOT is looking at coordinating electric vehicle charging with periods when renewable energy output is highest
  • In October 2020 ERCOT joined Global Power System Transformation Consortium

Clean Technica | How Texas Can Lead The Global Electric Vehicle Transformation — Yes, Global

COVID. Is there a value on curb space?

How could local governments charge for curb space use?

  • Micro-mobility lane use for bikes and scooters
    • Scooters and bikes are ideal for a micro mobility lane as they don’t mix well with automobiles on roadways
  • Micro-mobility parking. As sidewalk space is increasingly used for outdoor dining space, curb space could house e-bike and scooter docks
  • Ride Share drop off zones
  • Expanded outdoor dining
  • Car Share parking

Governing | What’s a City’s Curb Space Worth?

Meet the New Kid on the Block. VOLCON

Who is VOLCON? An electric dirt bike manufacturer

Where is Volcon located? Austin TX

What’s Volcon claim to fame? ” first all-electric, off-road powersports company,” 

What’s the impact to Austin, TX? People say things like Austin “is becoming the electric vehicle capital of the world.”

Austin Business Journal | Another electric vehicle company, Volcon, launches in Austin with $6,000 dirt bikes

The Gig Worker Ballot Prop in California. Environmentalists Take a Side.

There’s a ballot proposition in California that would change current state law treatment of gig workers as employees.

Who supports the proposition: Tech companies

Who opposes the proposition: Labor and now Environmentalists

Why are environmentalists in on this? The environmentalists say that the proposition would be bad for the environment because only if gig workers are treated as employees will companies pay more attention to the carbon emissions of vehicles in their business models.

Have scientists said anything about carbon emissions and ride share? Yes, it is estimated ride share increases the carbon emissions that it is replacing

Sacramento Bee | Environmentalists oppose Uber, Lyft on California’s gig worker initiative. Here’s why

Hypersonic Flight Consortium Led by Texans

The consortium: Department of Defense’s national consortium for modernizing hypersonic flight capabilities

The official name: The University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics

The Texans: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station

Partner universities:

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Arizona
  • University of Tennessee Space Institute
  • Morgan State University
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Purdue
  • University of California-Los Angeles
  • Georgia Institute of Technology

Why should we pay attention? First-of-its kind Consortium will be critical to advancing hypersonics research and innovation

Texas A&M Today | Texas A&M System To Lead $100 Million Hypersonic Research Consortium

Will COVID eliminate the gas tax?

To be fair, the gas tax wasn’t performing to meet infrastructure needs before COVID either.

What is the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials advising?

  • The believe in a user-pay principle where the amount you drive determines what you’re paying, but COVID shows the weakness in this plan too
  • A solution: Federal COVID funding relief package

How is COVID impacting transportation revenues?

  • Maryland is cutting $3 Billion form its transportation plan
  • California estimates a revenue hit of $1.2 Billion that will hit primarily transportation projects
  • This fall, New Jersey law required an automatic rise in the gas tax by 9cents because of low revenues
  • National League of Cities survey of its members say 65% are delaying or canceling capital expenditures and infrastructure projects
  • Pennsylvania Department of Transportation estimates $550 million in losses
  • Oregon has a diversified transportation funding system with 35% coming from a tax on trucks and has fared better

Smart Cities Dive | The gas tax was already broken. The pandemic could end it.