Latest Plan for Corzine to Consider: Private Lanes on the Turnpike

By NATE SCHWEBER
Published: July 9, 2008

First, Gov. Jon S. Corzine all but offered to lease the New Jersey Turnpike to the highest bidder. Then he floated the bizarre bureaucratic notion of creating a public benefit corporation so the taxpaying public could, essentially, become a private entity and operate the turnpike and other highways (which are now run by a different quasi-public agency).

He proposed an 800 percent toll increase to pay for the state's aging roads and draw down half of its more than $30 billion in debt.

Now, after all those ideas have been shot down, Mr. Corzine is considering a new prospect for financing critical infrastructure and reducing congestion on the road: Privatize individual lanes.

"It does make you wonder what's next," said Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonprofit research organization.

On Monday, the State Senate president, Richard J. Codey, a Democrat of Essex County, unveiled his proposal for a private company to build an extension on the turnpike from Exit 8A to Exit 6 and on the Garden State Parkway from Exit 82 down to an exit in the 30s for drivers willing to pay extra to avoid traffic.

At the same time, State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, a Democrat from Union County who is chairman of the Economic Growth Committee, offered his own twist, suggesting that the new lanes be reserved for buses and trucks.

 

 

For 10 years, South Bronx residents have been fighting to get the state to tear down an old expressway so that a greener and more sustainable mixed-use neighborhood can take its place. The community's vision fits nicely with the goals of the city's long-term sustainability plan, PlaNYC2030. But will the city embrace this precocious community-based effort?

Oklahoma City swaps highway for park

Tear it down. Build a park.

The aging Crosstown Expressway — an elevated 4.5-mile stretch of Interstate 40 — will be demolished in 2012. An old-fashioned boulevard and a mile-long park will be constructed in its place.

Oklahoma City is doing what many cities dream about: saying goodbye to a highway.

More than a dozen cities have proposals to remove highways from downtowns. Cleveland wants to remove a freeway that blocks its waterfront. Syracuse, N.Y., wants to rid itself of an interstate that cuts the city in half.

Letting the Market Drive Transportation
Bush Officials Criticized for Privatization

By Lyndsey Layton and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 17, 2008; A01
...
"It's almost sort of un-American that we should be forced to sit and be stuck in traffic," said D.J. Gribbin, the department's general counsel and liaison to the White House, who worked closely with Duvall on the project.

For Gribbin, Duvall and Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, the goal is not just to combat congestion but to upend the traditional way transportation projects are funded in this country. They believe that tolls paid by motorists, not tax dollars, should be used to construct and maintain roads.

They and other political appointees have spent the latter part of President Bush's two terms laboring behind the scenes to shrink the federal role in road-building and public transportation. They have also sought to turn highways into commodities that can be sold or leased to private firms and used by motorists for a price. In Duvall and Gribbin's view, unleashing the private sector and introducing market forces could lead to innovation and more choices for the public, much as the breakup of AT&T transformed telecommunications.

...
William Millar, who heads the American Public Transportation Association, says he set up three appointments with Duvall to try to influence how the Urban Partnership money would be spent, but each was cancelled. "They just see no role for transit," Millar said.

Duvall, 35, is a fourth-generation Washingtonian whose father is a well-connected lawyer. He had no transportation experience when he was plucked from his job handling corporate mergers and acquisitions at Hogan & Hartson and was offered a political appointment at the DOT in 2002. "It was a friend of a friend of a friend sort of thing," he said

States Restrict Truck Traffic
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
A move is on across the USA to unsnarl interstate highways where escalating truck traffic is adding to congestion and rattling drivers of passenger cars.

Truck-only lanes and a plan to divert some truck cargo to ships along the Atlantic Coast are among the initiatives getting scrutiny from state and federal agencies. About 75,000 more big rigs cruise onto already crowded highways every year.
...

The issue is largely one of congestion rather than safety. The percentage of U.S. highway deaths occurring in crashes involving large trucks is down slightly since 1998.
The American Trucking Associations, which represents about 40,000 trucking companies, generally does not oppose free truck-only lanes, senior vice president Tim Lynch says.

Foes raise stakes on I-80 tolls
By Paul Nussbaum

CLARION, Pa. - Brent Olson, the balding and soft-spoken general manager of a modular-home factory, is an unlikely Paul Revere.

But here he is, part of a growing revolt across northern Pennsylvania, sounding the alarm: The tolls are coming, the tolls are coming.

"We're really upset. This is going to have a drastic impact on our economy," said Olson, general manager for Commodore Homes, walking across a vast production floor where a small army of carpenters, welders, plumbers, roofers and electricians completes a home every 40 minutes. "I have a sickening feeling about it. We all do."

 

Welcome to SheridanSwap, a news and information resource for the campaign to decommission the Sheridan Expressway in the South Bronx. Hosted by the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, SheridanSwap will offer updates on local and city-wide efforts to replace the Sheridan with affordable housing, open space, and more. Check back regularly for profiles on Alliance members, details on the Community Vision for the Sheridan lands, and tips for advocating for the Sherdian's replacement over the coming year.

Campaign Funds for Alaskan; Road Aid to Florida

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
WASHINGTON, June 6 - It is no secret that campaign contributions sometimes lead to lucrative official favors. Rarely, though, are the tradeoffs quite as obvious as in the twisted case of Coconut Road.

The road, a stretch of pavement near Fort Myers, Fla., that touches five golf clubs on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the target of a $10 million earmark that appeared mysteriously in a 2006 transportation bill written by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska.

Mr. Young, who last year steered more than $200 million to a so-called bridge to nowhere reaching 80 people on Gravina Island, Alaska, has no constituents in Florida.

Stuck in traffic?

2/28/2007 09:01:00 AM
Posted by David Wang, Software Engineer

There's nothing worse than getting stuck in traffic when you have some place to go, so I'm happy to tell you about a new feature on Google Maps that can help. For more than 30 major U.S. cities, you can now see up-to-date traffic conditions to help you plan your schedule and route. If you're in San Francisco, New York , Chicago, Dallas, or any of the other cities we now include, just click on the traffic button to show current traffic speeds directly on the map. If your route shows red, you're looking at a stop-and-go commute; yellow, you could be a little late for dinner; green, you've got smooth sailing.

We can't make traffic go away, but we hope Google Maps traffic info helps you avoid it whenever possible.

Labels: Google Maps, traffic

L.A. officials press state for funds to widen 405 Freeway
Area officials put on a full-court press in Sacramento after bond funding for new carpool lanes is threatened.
By Duke Helfand, Times Staff Writer
February 21, 2007

SACRAMENTO - After an intense day of lobbying in the state capital Tuesday, Los Angeles' top leaders appeared to be winning their fight to secure $730 million in bond money to widen one of the nation's most congested freeways, with one powerful legislator threatening to hold up funds for transportation projects statewide if the city and other congested areas don't get what they need.

More than a dozen Los Angeles-area elected officials - including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, County Supervisor Gloria Molina and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) - descended on the Capitol to voice their unhappiness with a recommendation by the California Transportation Commission staff to omit new carpool lanes for the 405 Freeway and other local projects from an initial funding list.

Metro at odds with officials on highways
Regional transportation plan gets cold response from feds, state board

By Jim Redden  

The Portland Tribune, Feb 13, 2007 (28 Reader comments)

For months Metro leaders have said that the old way of solving transportation problems no longer works.

Led by Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, officials at the regional planning agency repeatedly have said that building new highways is no longer the solution for the area’s growing congestion problems.

Instead, Burkholder and the others have said that the Regional Transportation Plan to be adopted next year will stress such land-use goals as encouraging people to live closer to where they work and shop, in part by encouraging more mass transit.

January 30, 2007
Highway Exhaust Stunts Lung Growth, Study Finds
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

A new study suggests that children who grow up within a third of a mile of a freeway may be sustaining permanent respiratory problems.

Researchers studied developing lung function in 1,445 children living in 12 Southern California communities for eight years, from age 10 to 18. They found that the closer the children lived to a freeway, the more likely they were to experience reduced growth in lung function as measured by the standard tests.

"That living near freeways is a health issue is something we've known about for a long time," said Gennet Paauwe, a spokeswoman for the California Air Resources Board, which financed part of the research. "All of this points to the fact that California's air pollution control program needs to continue with its aggressive reduction in air pollutants. But I think this would translate to any other part of the U.S. where people are living near heavily trafficked roadways."

The findings were published online Friday by the British journal Lancet.

GUEST QUARTER: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Benefiting from a Cover Up

Cities reap rewards for decking highways with parks

By PETER HARNIK and BEN WELLE

U.S. cities are increasingly putting freeway segments underground and covering them with parkland. Whether called a lid, deck, bridge or tunnel, there are already some 20 highway parks in the country, several under construction - most notably, the Rose Kennedy Greenway park atop Boston's Big Dig - and at least a dozen more in the planning pipeline. As urban auto impacts become less welcome, these decks have moved from the novel to the expected. Despite the sometimes considerable cost - as much as $500 per square foot - they are no longer classified as porkbarrel. They've been redefined as amenity investment with high economic payback.