Increasing numbers of commuters are using buses as a faster and cheaper way to get to work, new figures show. Urban municipalities are expanding bus services — and adding features like wireless Internet access — in an effort to target white-collar and business employees who might otherwise drive their cars.

Listen to the story by Kathleen Schalch on NPR’s,  All Things Considered.

A second article on I-70 planning . . .

BY BOB BERWYN
summit daily news
October 20, 2006

COPPER MOUNTAIN – There is widespread consensus among I-70 coalition members that mass transit needs to be a big part of any long-term solution for the I-70 mountain corridor. But federal and state highway officials said transit proponents shouldn’t rely on massive government funding.

Planning and building a transit system will require not only innovative technology, but an equally creative financing mechanism, most likely through a combination of statewide taxes and bonds, experts said Thursday during the I-70 Coalition transit workshop and retreat at Copper Mountain.

Through 2010, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has budgeted about $65 million for I-70 corridor improvements, with a bigger pot of about $1 billion available for strategic projects. Funding beyond 2010 is uncertain, said CDOT’s Joyce Bunkers.

“There is no silver bullet for funding,” added Brian Pinkerton, CDOT program engineer for Region 1, which covers most of the I-70 mountain corridor. “Without some kind of change, we will not have enough money to keep roads and bridges in current condition,” Pinkerton added.

The most frequently discussed transit alternatives, including various fixed guideway systems running from DIA to the Eagle County airport or beyond, could cost as much as $6 billion. For the sake of comparison, Pinkerton said CDOT’s annual budget runs about $800 million.

And the federal government is probably not in a position to pony up that kind of additional cash, said Charmaine Knighton, of the Federal Transit Authority (FTA). Knighton outlined several funding programs for transit systems, and explained that the FTA is looking for projects that give some real bang for the bucks. Under a rigorous evaluation and rating system, the agency looks at the ratio of cost to passengers carried per mile. Other criteria include whether the system serves low-income populations, whether there is employment near stations and whether the projects offer environmental benefits.

“It’s very expensive terrain to put any kind of a system in, whether it’s highway or transit … it’s an extremely expensive environment to work in,” Pinkerton said, briefly touching on the challenges of addressing environmental concerns, as well as potential impacts to communities along the corridor.

While he didn’t mention any specific towns, concerns are greatest in Clear Creek County, where any type of highway or transit construction is sure to have significant impacts to communities like Georgetown, Idaho Springs and Silver Plume.

The federal government is looking to move the most people for less money, Pinkerton said.

“For every dollar spent, how many people go how far?” Pinkerton said, simplifying the FTA’s funding equation. “I don’t think the money is going to come from one particular source. It’s going to have to come from a multitude of financing options,” he concluded.



Statewide solution

Those options could include a statewide sales tax or a levy on gasoline, said Alan Matlosz, senior vice president of George K. Baum and Company.

“There is no limit to the amount of money to fund the project … the difficulty is, you have to pay it back,” said Matlosz, whose company provides investment banking and financial advisory services to local governments throughout Colorado.

Matlosz outlined several ways that the I-70 coalition might be able to raise the money through existing mechanisms already authorized under state laws, including formation of a metro district that could levy property taxes, or a regional transportation authority that could be funded by sales taxes.

A regional transit authority would require a complex intergovernmental agreement and voter approval for a sales tax increase, vehicle registration fees of up to $10, as well as a 2 percent lodging tax could also be levied by a regional transit authority, Matlosz explained.

Focusing in on the eight counties represented in the coalition, Matlosz said that, based on some table-top calculations, a 1 percent sales tax could raise about $52 million annually, based on current taxable retail sales in the region. A $10 vehicle registration fee would generate another $2.24 million, he said.

Dallas, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Atlanta and San Jose all have sales-tax-funded transit projects, he said.

“They’re easier to get passed – people just don’t like property taxes,” Matlosz said.

A statewide one-cent gas tax hike could raise about $25 million annually, while a 10-cent hike could fund about $4 billion worth of improvements, Matlosz said.

“There are mechanisms to raise funds through a district or transit authority. The challenge is to figure out what to tax, where to tax and how to spend the money,” he concluded.

“This state has never had a designated funding transit source,” said I-70 coalition director Flo Raitano, adding that a one-half percent statewide sales tax could finance about $4 billion worth of bonds.

Raitano said the gas tax idea warrants caution and sensitivity to the concerns of people living in rural areas who, out of necessity, drive a lot.

The transit workshop wrapped up Friday with a facilitated session aimed at identifying areas of agreement and disagreement on transit performance criteria and on management and operating principles.

The coalition website is at http://www.i70mtncorridor.com.
For more info on transit options, go to http://www.i70mountaintransit.org.

Communities, counties and nonprofit organizations discuss opitions for the main east-west transporation corridor in Colorado

BOB BERWYN
summit daily news
October 19, 2006

COPPER MOUNTAIN – Although the idea of mass transit in the I-70 corridor may still seem like pie-in-the-sky stuff, a pair of neighboring states have aggressively pushed ahead with their own plans to address transportation needs in urbanized corridors.

Thursday, Project managers for New Mexico’s Rail Runner system and the Utah Transit Authority outlined their efforts at the start of the I-70 Coalition’s transit workshop and retreat at Copper Mountain.

Government leadership and buy-in from the business community were crucial to designing and executing transit plans in both cases. In the Albuquerque to Santa Fe corridor, Gov. Bill Richardson put some of his political capital on the line, said Rail Runner project manager Chris Blewett.

“He (Richardson) said, ‘I’m going to have the first phase of this done in two years.’ It was the most important statement he could have made,” Blewett said.

“A lot of people thought this was crazy … People kept saying, ‘You can’t do this.’ We didn’t accept any of the conventional wisdom. We kept saying, ‘Why not?’” Blewett said. “There was a lot of skepticism. People say nothing ever gets done in New Mexico. That may have worked to our advantage,” Blewett said.

The first phase of the project, between Belen and Albuquerque, was completed in just more than two years, just slightly behind the schedule announced by Gov. Richardson, Blewett said, going on to explain that it required an innovative approach.

“We used a streamlined procurement process. We had no public process and not a single intergovernmental agreement, we didn’t do ridership projections, and we had only three budget meetings in two-and-a-half years,” Blewett said, eliciting a laugh from the crowd. “We tried to make this thing believable and real.”

“We tried to adopt a European attitude,” Blewett continued. “This isn’t about today. This is about New Mexico’s future.”

Dillon Mayor Barbara Davis said the I-70 Coalition could take a page from the New Mexico playbook by trying not to get too bogged down in the process and losing sight of the long-term goal.

Along Utah’s Wasatch Front, squeezed in between the mountains and the Great Salt Lake, key stakeholders recognized that transportation is the backbone of the state’s economy, said Steve Meyer, engineering and construction manager for the Utah Transit Authority. About 80 percent of the state’s population lives in the corridor and the movement of goods constitutes a $100 billion per year industry, Meyer explained.

Meyer said winning over the private sector was key to moving ahead with the mass transit project in the corridor, where ridership is already double the projected level. Meyer said the state transit agency took a bare-bones, no frills approach – for example buying used railroad cars from other areas. The Utah rail system will serve demand equivalent to an entire lane on I-15, he said.

“It shows you can get it done,” Vail town manager Stan Zemler said after the morning session. “We need to cut the same path and not accept no. And we need to find a statewide solution,” Zemler said. “We need to keep an eye on the PEIS process and make sure it offers a multi-modal solution with transit as a component,” he said, referring to a current Colorado Department of Transportation planning effort. “We have to get a transit corridor secured and a commitment to transit,” Zemler concluded.

Breckenridge town manager Tim Gagen said the I-70 question requires a statewide solution.

“My guess is that RTD will be expanded to play a statewide role,” Gagen said, explaining that there is no reason to re-invent the wheel by creating a new agency.

Gagen said there is still the looming question of how to integrate the short-term demand for more highway capacity with the long-term need for a transit alternative.

Both Zemler and Gagen said the examples from Utah and New Mexico were illustrative, but emphasized that the I-70 corridor is a unique scenario requiring a unique solution.

The workshop and retreat continues today with sessions on funding, as well as a transit technology expo.

A growing number of New Yorkers are deciding that if the trip to work takes more than a half-hour, then someone else can do the driving, a new survey by the Census Bureau shows.

In the metropolitan region, which for years has been home to the nation’s longest average commute, tens of thousands of workers have stopped driving to their jobs and switched to riding subways, trains, buses and ferries, according to an analysis of the data released this week by demographers at Queens College.

More than 2.5 million residents of the region — about 2 of every 7 commuters — regularly rode some form of public transportation to work in 2005, up from about 2.2 million in 2000.

The latest figures reinforce just how unusual New York is in its reliance on public transportation. No other American city makes half as much use of mass transit. Of the 6.2 million transit riders in the country, more than 40 percent live in the metropolitan region, which, by the federal government’s definition, includes the city and 18 surrounding counties in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“The reason there’s much more of a noticeable shift in New York City is that there are alternatives,” said Charles Komanoff, a transportation consultant in Manhattan. “In the rest of the country, you don’t have much substitution; you can’t. In New York, you can and you do.”

The shift to mass transit is not saving New Yorkers any time, though. The average length of the trip to work for city residents was more than 39 minutes last year. In the region, the average trip was more than 33 minutes, down only slightly, if at all, since 2000.

Read the full article in The New York Times . . .

Missoula is proving that something can be done about high gas prices, according to Senator Max Baucus. The city is doing its part to develop public transportation and embrace alternative fuels in a state where residents think nothing of driving long distances to recreate or visit family.

“We’re not a seaport state or a barge state, we’re a highway state,” Baucus said after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which he performed with Mountain Line board of directors chairwoman Debra Parker. “We’re really all connected by our transit system.”

The state’s mass-transit system is set to expand, Lynch added. Currently, Montana operates 12 rural bus systems, but that number is expected to triple in the next few years – an expansion made possible by dramatic increases in transportation spending by the state.

Mountain Line provides about 730,000 rides a year with 20 fixed-route and seven para-transit buses, and ridership is steadily increasing, Earle said.

“It’s increased 6 percent just in the last year,” Earle said.

The new 35-foot Gillig Phantom buses will replace five 12-year-old buses that, with 500,000 miles each, have reached the end of their life span, he added. The new buses run on B20, a fuel mixture using 20 percent biodiesel.

Read the full article in the Missoulan . . .