Steve Keen did the great service of reading the FCIC report and confirming my impression (obtained without reading it) that it was not worth reading. And a few posts prior, he reported that Wendell Cox and friends are out with another edition of their annual Demographia report, showing, once again, that the ratio of house cost to income tends to be higher in metropolitan areas where housing development is relatively restricted, and lower where developers find it relatively easy to get clearance to build. (Their report is international in scope but I will limit my comments to their analysis of US conditions.) (more…)
Archive for the ‘transit’ Category
Grant funding and transit efficiency
January 27th, 2011 by Administrator
A couple of years back I attended a conference where somebody– I think it was a couple of Chicago payrollers– reported on the bus rapid transit system of Curitiba, Brazil. It’s considered by many (and I have no information to the contrary) to be a cost-effective implementation of pretty good transit service (better than we have, anyhow) at modest cost. They actually got to compare notes with the former Mayor who is considered most responsible for the design of the system. He was quoted as saying, “I’m glad we don’t have as much money as you have in Chicago, because surely we would waste it.”
What reminded me of this most recently is this release from Sen. Durbin’s office, anouncing or reannouncing the awarding of various grants. In particular:
Illinois Department of Transportation (Chicago Metro): $341,694 in TIGGER II funding to install automatic shut-down and start-up systems in an estimated 27 locomotives in the Metra fleet, which operates in the Chicago metro area. Metra estimates that by shutting down instead of idling the locomotives, the automatic systems could save an estimated 800,000 gallons of diesel fuel and reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 80,000 tons per year.
If the information is to be believed, an investment of $341,694 “could save” 800,000 gallons of diesel per year. Now, I don’t know how reliable that estimate is, but let’s assume it’s way too high, really only 200,000 gallons will be saved. And what does Metra pay for diesel, surely not less than $2.50/gallon. On these very conservative assumptions, it would take less than 9 months’ fuel savings to pay for the devices. (And that’s not even considering the savings from not having to go thru the grant process.) And if they lacked the cash, they certainly could have borrowed it, paid extortionate interest, and still come out ahead in a year.
So why didn’t Metra do that? Are they stupid? Or corrupt? Of course I have no way to know, but I think there’s another reason. I can imagine how the decision was made:
Technical staffer: We can buy shutoff devices, pay for them with fuel savings in less than a year. May I place the order?
Manager: Would this qualify for TIGGER funds?
TS: Huh?
M: It’s a grant program. I don’t remember where the acronym comes from, but it’s federal money we can spend on things that save energy and reduce emissions. This sounds like it would qualify. The Board prefers that we use federal money instead of Metra’s “own” money.
TS: I suppose it would qualify. What do I do now?
M: Go talk to the Metra Department of Getting Grants. They’ll take care of it, you’ll just have to get them some pictures, brochures, maybe some other paper. Shouldn’t take you more than a week or two.
TS: Well, OK. Will I get a bonus for this?
I have no idea who will get a bonus, but I know who is spending more and waiting longer than necessary for a cost-effective investment.
Missing from Chicago’s Transportation Platform
January 8th, 2011 by Administrator
Eight area advocacy organizations have issued “Chicago’s Sustainable Transportation Platform,” recommending public policies for a better transportation system. Since I’m a paying member of at least two of the eight, and on the mailing list of a well-funded third, I had hoped that maybe a few sensible things would be included. You can decide for yourself which of the ideas are sensible (“Design streets that are safe and convenient for all users.”). Pretty much all of them could be construed as “Create additional jobs and funding opportunities for us and our friends,” but that’s true of most public policy discussions.
I’m mainly concerned about what’s missing, for instance:
- Obtain transit funding from those who benefit from transit service– the owners of land and other privileges in areas served by transit.
- Reduce the number of free and subsidized parking spaces provided at public and nonprofit facilities, including libraries, police stations, educational and medical institutions. Use the resulting revenue to reduce taxes on productive activity.
- Improve transit governance by requiring the majority of governing boards of CTA, Pace, Metra, and RTA to be regular transit users, and no board member who takes fewer than five transit trips in a month can receive pay for that month.
Other ideas?
Speculators pay > $250,000 for Chicago taxi medallions
December 30th, 2010 by Administrator
Chicago Dispatcher reports that the City of Chicago has auctioned another 50 taxi medallions. Ten of these were reserved for working cabbies and went for $150,599 to $180,101. Of the remaining 40, half were bought by Paul Widmarck for $259,999 each, and the other half by Leonid Sorkin for prices ranging from $252,800 to $254,700. I assume that the total proceeds, something under $12 million, will be used to help plug the City’s current budget deficit. I suppose that’s better than giving medallions away, but a policy of collecting annually the rental value of a medallion would provide a continuing income stream to the City and prevent speculation.
The ten owner-operator medallions “are designated, and must remain, Owner/Operator Medallions.” It will be interesting to see how this is enforced over the years.
The speculative prices over $250,000 compare to past sales which, to my knowledge, have never exceeded $200,000. Shortly before the sale, Chicago Dispatcher provided a graph of medallion price trends. Certainly looks like a speculative bubble to me. But you probably should ignore me. Had I had been prescient enough to know what would happen to medallion prices, I would have bought a couple dozen (on credit) five years ago.
Real estate can help pay for transit
December 22nd, 2010 by Administrator
Haven’t posted much lately; busy with other things, including trying to clear off my desk. In the process of which I found some notes of interest
How do you fund transit in the “most liveable city in the world?” Vancouver uses the real estate tax to cover about 35% of its operating shortfall (net of fares). Fuel tax covers an almost equal amount (See this pdf). One can imagine how well Chicago’s transit system could run if funded this way, assuming also that it was competently planned and managed.
Unfortunately, Vancouver fails to fund capital costs in this way, relying instead on what Canadians call “senior governments,” meaning provincial and federal funds. Probably that has something to do with the continuing real estate bubble in the area.
I also found notes I took at a conference in July concerning Japanese high speed rail services. Japan is said to be the only country with privately-owned high speed passenger rail. How is it funded? Hint: JR-East, one of the big operators of high speed trains, gets 32% of its gross revenue (see this pdf) from real estate it owns, and intends to grow this to 40 by collecting more of the value that good transport gives to real estate.
Patriotism of people who didn’t hang up
November 14th, 2010 by Administrator
The headline on the Rasmussen report is 41% Now Say “Buying American” Is Top Factor When Purchasing a Car. If this means that a very large proportion of auto buyers prefer to buy US-built even if it might not be the best deal, it would indicate that many people are patriotic and willing to sacrifice for their country. That would be significant for any reformer, showing that many people are seriously committed to national welfare, and we need only find a way to connect with them.
But when we look at the details of how the survey was done, we find that:
- It uses robocall technology, and covers only those who do not automatically hang up when receiving a robocall. (Pollsters say they make adjustments for age, race, gender, political party, which might help overcome this limitation.)
- It’s not limited to people likely to buy new cars in the near future, nor to people with any interest in or ability to buy any car
- Many of the calls were made on Veterans’ Day, when some people might be in a particularly patriotic mood
- Only 29% of the total respondents think that “buy American” means “buy a car manufactured in the United States.”
Imho the most patriotic thing Americans can do regarding new car purchases is to forego them, buy a bicycle and/or transit pass, and avoid going into debt. (Only 27% of new car buyers pay cash.) The benefits in terms of reduced petroleum dependence outweigh anything from purchasing domestic brands.
Unfortunately, many employers choose locations which are accessible only by automobile, so not everyone has this option. If fewer of us chose to have cars, this problem might be less common.
Medallion prices now posted by Chicago Dispatcher
October 3rd, 2010 by Administrator
Now that Chicago Dispatcher is posting Chicago taxi medallion sales prices in a defined area of their web site, it may no longer be useful to post any of them here. (Chicago Dispatcher’s print edition was the source for all recent reports I posted, but posting of the information on the web wasn’t consistent.) They continue to calculate an “average” monthly price; unfortunately it seems to be a mean or mode, not a median. At last report (pdf), this figure was $183,000, indicating little change in recent months.
Let’s you and him pay to maintain my land value
September 14th, 2010 by Administrator
Chicago Metropolis 2020 has issued a new report about Illinois transportation. (Right now, the report is on their front page; I don’t see a permanent link.) Their stated objectives are things I support, including better and more attractive public transportation as well as a more efficient freight system. They acknowledge that coordination and planning need to be improved, and that good transportation is an important component of a strong economy.
They also point out that much of the current system is in bad shape, and that billions of dollars would be required to bring it up to a reasonable standard. They quote estimates of $45 billion over ten years to refurbish and expand Chicagoland public transportation, and $171 billion over 30 years for transit and highways statewide. They propose to pay for this using an increased motor fuel tax, increased and more market-sensitive tolling, and innovative financing techniques (about which more is below). They do not claim that these sources would be fully adequate to the “need.” (My own opinion of fuel taxes is that, yes, they ought to be increased, but whatever amount is raised should be devoted to the budget of the military, who spend a lot of money attempting to maintain petroleum supplies. ) (more…)
LVT comic book
June 23rd, 2010 by Administrator
Scott Baker and Eric Johnson of Common Ground-NYC have produced a nice little comic book (pdf) introducing how the land value tax can work. Of course it is focused on New York, and on transit rather than other public services, but the principle comes thru clearly.
