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A new report by the Congressional Research Service notes that traffic congestion has reached crisis proportions in some places. But, the report notes, not everyone agrees that congestion is a major national problem warranting a federal government response. Because congestion tends to be geographically concentrated in major metropolitan areas, past Congressional action has tended to favor a predominantly state and local response. The report speculates that Congress may well decide to continue with this approach in the next reauthorization of the guiding federal transportation policy legislation, known as SAFETEA-LU, which expires October 1, 2009. States and localities that suffer major congestion would be free to focus their resources on congestion mitigation, while those who are relatively congestion-free could devote their Read More ›

As part of its current budget proposal, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Los Angeles County is planning to add eight more “Metro Rapid” bus rapid transit routes to the 20 that will already be in operation by later this month. The LA Times reports. If you’re someone at all inclined to take the bus to and from work once or more a week, see how this sounds. Service on the Metro Rapid Program, implemented in June 2000, is 25% faster than regular service because the buses make fewer stops and run every three to 10 minutes during peak travel times, the MTA says. Also, the Rapid buses have equipment that extends green lights or changes red lights 10 seconds faster. Read More ›

For a nation thought to embody the concept of “Big Government,” Canada has some lessons for advocates of private investment in the West Coast’s lagging transportation infrastructure. The Los Angeles Times reports that while efforts have stalled in the state legislature to broaden private sector involvement in the enhancement of California’s transportation system, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger found inspiration for that cause during last week’s visit to Vancouver, British Columbia. At a Vancouver construction site that he dropped by, workers were busily boring a tunnel for the type of public works project that the governor has been unable to get off the ground at home: one owned and operated entirely by a private company. A 12-mile rail line that will connect Read More ›

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell meet tomorrow in Vancouver to strategize on greenhouse gas reductions. The Governator has made climate change Priority One for his administration, winning new state goals to lower carbon dioxide emissions in coming decades, and recruiting other Western U.S. governors and Campbell to commit to similar targets. Campbell and Schwarzenegger have also been talking up a so-called “hydrogen highway” stretching from California to B.C. The idea is that in the future, lower-polluting cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells will become prevalent, and an infrastructure of hydrogen fueling stations will be established along major north-south corridors such as I-5 and Route 99. Campbell has announced plans for such a network within B.C., Read More ›

In a Puget Sound Business Journal op-ed titled “Green Wheels Are Spinning For Venture Backers,” Cascadia Center Director Bruce Agnew and Senior Fellow Steve Marshall write that transportation’s sizable contribution to carbon dioxide emissions necessitates more investment in green vehicle technology. They say such investment can yield further improvements in promising battery technology for low-emission electric and electric-biofuel hybrid cars; plus intelligent systems to integrate plug-in hybrids with the power grid and with intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. Drawing on a presentation from Cascadia’s “Jump Start To A Secure, Clean Energy Future” forum last month at Microsoft’s Redmond campus, Agnew and Marshall write: Tom Alberg, a managing director of Madrona Venture Group, of Seattle, said Read More ›

On days when telecommuting won’t work, I park my car on a side street in West Seattle and take the bus downtown. After one or two round trips per week for four months, I’m not on the verge of driving instead, but I’m pretty unimpressed with King County Metro’s on-time performance. The #54 is regularly five to ten minutes late getting to its Alaska Street stops on the way downtown, and two days in a row last week, between 2:30 and 4:00 p.m., the #55 bus from downtown back to West Seattle was running at least ten minutes late. The first time, when it finally did arrive, we sat through a green light while the driver finished up a personal Read More ›

In a Seattle Times op-ed published today, the former chief examiner of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, George Kargianis, and former state Supreme Court justice Phil Talmadge assert Sound Transit’s proposal to build light rail across Lake Washington to Eastside suburbs via the I-90 floating bridge just doesn’t pencil out. We have taken no official position yet on either the Eastside light rail proposal or the larger November, 2007 roads and transit ballot measure of which it is a part. However, our Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute supports system wide, time variable automated highway tolling; taxpayer-friendly design-build contracting; enhanced opportunities for public-private partnerships to build and operate transportation infrastructure; improved transportation technology to help address congestion; regional governance in Read More ›

“Provincial Government Wants Cab Companies To Go Green,” is the top story today in Vancouver, B.C.’s morning paper, The Province. British Columbia Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon is urging the regional board charged with granting taxi licenses to dispense them only for highly fuel efficient or hybrid vehicles, in order to help reduce the province’s cumulative greenhouse gas emissions by at least one-third in the next 13 years. Fewer tailpipe emissions from petroleum-based fuel, combined with greater use of cleaner liquid fuels plus ongoing adoption of liquid fuel+electric-powered hybrid vehicles, is green. Eventually, as lithium ion battery technology continues to improve, expect to see more plug-in hybrids in Vancouver’s taxi fleet and on the streets of Cascadia’s big cities – Vancouver, Read More ›

Monday, May 7th’s “Jump Start To A Secure, Clean Energy” conference – staged by our Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute with the cooperation of co-sponsors and event host Microsoft – garnered front-page, top-fold coverage the next day in the Seattle Times. The article was titled, “Fans Of Plug-in Cars Build Their Power Base.” The same story, by reporters Hal Bernton and Mike Lindblom, ran in the Yakima Herald-Republic. The Seattle-Post Intelligencer’s Robert McClure covered the conference as well; in “Visions Of A Northwest Hybrid Car Future Abound.” Crosscut publisher David Brewster provided reportage, background and analysis, in “Will Plug-in Cars End The Age Of Oil?” Along with several other newspaper editorialists and opinionators, Gary Crooks of the Spokane Spokesman-Review attended Read More ›

Cascadia Center “Jump Start” Conference Live-Blog Post #2 REDMOND, WA. — I’m live-blogging today from “Jump Start To A Secure, Clean Energy Future,” the conference our Cascadia Center For Regional Development is co-sponsoring at Microsoft’s Redmond campus. (My first live blog post of the day is here). Underway now is the panel, “National Security Imperatives For Flex-Fuel Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles.” It features Anne Korin and Gal Luft, Co-Directors of the Institute For The Analysis Of Global Security; and former CIA head and National Commission On Energy Policy Commissioner R. James Woolsey. In an exclusive video address to the conference, Woolsey said: This war against terror is the only war we have fought, since the civil war, where we finance both Read More ›