The Urban Land Institute’s TOD Council members talk about the prospects and the obstacles for TOD: What used to be a niche market is now the market . . . . For at least the next generation the bulk of real estate development will be higher-density, walkable urban places, and much of it will be served by rail transit . . . . A disproportionate amount of future development will be transit-oriented, fueled by investor interest in TOD, which is at an all-time high . . . Lenders see proximity to transit as good . . . TODs are socially, environmentally and economically responsible . . . . We’re seeing remarkable investments in TOD despite the recession . . .
And more on ULI.org

The Obama Administration took the first step in creating a national freight policy yesterday with the goal of improving the freight network by providing a blueprint that will constrain the cost of trade and hopefully help the economy. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the launch of the Freight Policy Council, which is tasked with creating a national strategic freight plan as mandated by MAP-21.
Read more on the National  Journal’s Transportation Experts blog.

The Loudoun County, VA, Board of Supervisors has decided to fund its $270 million share of the Silver Line to Washington DC's Dulles Airport by taxing landowners around its two METRO stations -- which some say could create a prototype for financing transit projects nationwide in coming decades. The idea that only those residents and property owners who will benefit most from the line would pay for it helped to win the support of fiscally conservative county officials, who couldn't endorse the idea of taxing all county residents. The Board of Supervisors established special tax districts of commercial and undeveloped properties surrounding future stations, with properties within a half-mile paying a tax of 20 cents per $100 of assessed value and properties further away paying less. Most current residential properties would be excluded from this district, though future residential development would be taxed. Earlier, writing on DC Streetsblog, Jay Corbalis, regional coordinator of the developers group LOCUS, wrote that "Politically, value capture impacts fewer people than broad-based taxes like sales and gas taxes, and those who are affected stand to benefit directly from the investment, making it an easier sell."
Read more on the Bacon's Rebellion. Read the earlier story on DC.Streetsblog.

 

The federal gas tax as a major source of revenue for transportation is going down as driving decreases -- VMT in the US as elsewhere in the developed world is on the decline -- and gas tax revenues are likely to go down further as fuel efficiency standards go up. Is the VMT tax a better way to go? San Francisco is studying the option, and it's mentioned as an option in Southern California's Regional Transportation Plan. Surveys show that people hate the concept of the government monitoring odometers but, interestingly, people who are part of  VMT fee studies seem to feel very positive about the idea after they've participated in the trials (40 percent of participants in an Iowa study viewed it negatively before the trial and 70 percent viewed it positively afterward). Is the VMT tax an idea whose time has come?
Read more on Atlantic Cities.

Metrolink just got $60 million from the California High Speed Rail Authority to upgrade locomotives and passenger cars as part of the plan for the two agencies to share track and equiment as well as Prop 1A HSR funding. This so-called "blended approach" to building HSR won significant political support for HSR from elected officials and from communities because it maximizes the use of existing infrastructure -- thereby minimizing impacts on communities, which won't have to find locations for new rail lines and stations -- and provides an infusion of funding for cash-strapped commuter rail agencies. The blended approach will make improvements to the "bookends" of the HSR line -- in Southern California and in the Bay Area -- at the same time that the authority starts building the line through the Central Valley. "This is the biggest capacity-adding project in [Metrolink's] history," said Metrolink Board Chair Richard Katz. "It would not be possible without these funds." The upgrades to high horsepower locomotives will allow Metrolink to add more cars to train "sets" and increase the number of people moved -- which will be critical when HSR adds thousands of passengers to the system. The cleaner-burning engines will reduce emissions by up to 86 percent. The investment is also expected to support 3,000 jobs.
Read more on The Source.

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[caption id="attachment_1745" align="alignleft" width="300"] Electric goods movement?[/caption]

The new technology, called eHighway, uses overhead electrical wires to transmit energy to trucks — much like streetcars. This system, which is being worked on by Siemens, has been proposed as one way to cut pollution on the 710.

Read more in the LA Times. (This was published in May; but I missed it!)

Are you angry over the lack of funding to fix and expand our transportation system -- trains, bus, bike lanes, pedestrian projects and roads? Ken Alpern is mad, but he thinks Measure J is the answer. And he speculates on what it could mean for the region's economy if we built a rail connection to Ontario Airport.

Read more on City Watch.

Writer Daniel Safarik looks at a dozen projects along La Brea from Wilshire to Fountain -- a total of 1,000 apartments and 165,000 square feet of retail that are beginning to emerge as "forests of concrete columns and rebar." He believes La Brea could be the "linear laboratory where LA figures out what kind of city it wants to be."

Read more on the Faster Times website, an independent collective of journalists and writers looking to create a new model for the newspaper.

Or, as Damien Newton writes on Streetsblog: "Essentially the plan is to go bananas on oil drilling."

Read the New York Times. And read Streetsblog.