Never Enough $$
I apologize to all of my blog fans out there (all 2.5 of you) as I have not kept you abreast of the goings on in the transportation and development arenas. A partial excuse for the absence was my preparation for the FE Exam this past weekend, but other than that, it is unacceptable to keep my massive audience waiting! So let’s get down to some business… High Speed Rail continues to be in the news as well. Perhaps more compelling are the stories about Spain, China, Russia, and Brazil’s plans to ramp up their rail construction efforts. Unfortunately, America still appears to be forgoing the evolution of people movement by spending a paltry $8 billion on an HSR plan to be spread among the entire nation. But where the US seems intent on being fashionably late to the HSR party, she makes up for being giddier than a cash-strapped FIT student at the grand opening of an H&M where the first 200 people get a limited edition t-shirt- probably not even 100% cotton- for new streetcar lines! And let’s face it, there is only so much diffused Zac Posen apparel to be had, and in this this case, federal funds available to build all of these transit lines. Countless cities are busy drafting, submitting, and It can also be said that the theme of the hour for governments has been to do more with less…but to initially request more in order to begin installation of “more with less”. Mayor of Los Angeles, Mr. Villaraigosa, has pushed the Feds to fast track a 30 year plan to outfit LA with a transit system worthy of its population size and responsive to its extreme traffic dilemmas. Whether condensing a 30 year plan into 10 years of intense construction and implementation is possible looks surprisingly more hopeful than one might think in this political and financial climate. Other the other side of the coin, the ability to plan, engineer, and construct to achieve such a vision of unified metropolitan transportation in the abridged timeframe is wholly feasible. 
Locally, Pennsylvania is riddled with transportation funding drama in the form of a repeal of I-80 tolling by the FTA, which will fly in the face of the stipulations established by PA’s Act 44 which called for increased funding for transit infrastructure throughout the state. This leaves highway funding in jeopardy and the transit systems of Philadelphia and the-sometimes-forgotten-but-resurgent Pittsburgh without money for capital improvements. Until the federal law regarding new highway tolling is amended, by which the revenue from the tolls on a given road are not mandated to be used solely for that road, cities and regions will have to find new revenue sources to fill in the funding gap. To that end, raising gas taxes is wildly unpopular so cities and other municipalities are looking to raise taxes (albeit at diminutive rates) on current items and in some cases on goods that weren’t taxed prior; take sugar for example. And unlike gasoline, raising the user fees of such inelastically demanded products like sugary snacks is a way to raise revenue, but not to the degree that it forces people to make serious behavioral changes that would engender massive public outcry.funding strongly advocating for the new lines to decrease congestion and create the necessary infrastructure to encourage private investment. While some of the schemes are sincerely warranted (Exhibit A), others lack serious merit (Exhibit B),especially in the face of contrary zoning schemes surrounding potential stations.
