Free Republic

Nearly one in three motorists who use the Intercounty Connector without an E-ZPass transponder don’t pay the toll later, making Maryland’s newest and most expensive highway home to a toll violation rate four times higher than the state average. Individual motorists racked up as much as $1,418 each in unpaid tolls after driving on the ICC, or Route 200, as many as 430 times during the first six months of this year. A rental car company owed $4,263 in ICC toll debt, while a construction company accrued $2,241 for 65 unpaid trips during that time. The new 18.8-mile highway between...

Experts are warning of a coming crisis: a shortage of truck drivers. The Associated Press reports demand is so high that more than 100,000 trucking jobs are expected to go unfilled each year through 2016. Mohammed Khan, the Director of the Great American Truck Driving School in Detroit told WWJ’s Sandra McNeil he’s seen a 50-percent jump in enrollment at his school since 2010. “People do want to become truck drivers. The fact is that the demand just ups the supply right now,” said Khan. ”There are a lot of truck driving jobs that are wanting because they just can’t...

The prices that Americans pay for gas at the pump may reach an all-time high this summer. The average price is $3.70 per gallon, which is an increase of 30 cents since July and the climb in price from July to August was 9 percent. The increase is particularly concerning because a reduction in global demand, caused by a persistent world-wide recession, has kept demand for gas relatively low. Some have predicted that the price of gas will reach $3.90 per gallon before Labor Day. Gas prices have risen each month for seven straight months this year.

Yes, transit in the Milwaukee region should be improved to give citizens, especially the many inner city residents without driver's licenses, better transportation options. And, yes, the state should ramp up transit aid and road maintenance even at the expense of new highway projects. But none of that means that reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee County should be delayed and that planning for the interchange rebuild should go back to square one, as a lawsuit filed last week seeks to do. The interchange, the busiest in Wisconsin, is vital to commerce and the state's economy. It needs the...

If America falls off the so-called "fiscal cliff" on Jan. 2, one of the first victims could be St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, speculated in a recent report that the airport could be one of six in Florida and 106 around the country that would have to shut down because the Federal Aviation Administration wouldn't be able to pay air traffic controllers. If St. Petersburg-Clearwater International were to close, officials there said the bay area would take a big economic hit. According to a 2010 state report, the airport generated $924 million...

California’s proposed bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco—which Gov. Jerry Brown is likely to sign off on soon—has been characterized by the Obama administration and its other supporters as an effective way to reduce highway congestion. These costs amount to more than $100 billion annually in wasted time and higher fuel expenses. In fact, a much better technological solution is on the horizon, if we pave the way by getting rid of obsolete highway design. It is already possible to imagine a world in which you could predict exactly how long it would take to drive in your...

Connecticut policymakers have been squarely focused on the education achievement gap this year, but a new report from the Brookings Institution cites another disparity that needs attention. Call it a "transportation gap." The report looked at the extent that residents in the top 100 U.S. metropolitan areas use public transportation to get to their jobs. Not surprisingly, Connecticut was only in the middle of the pack when it comes to workers' access to public transit. But another important finding described commuting disparties in and out of some of the state's larger cities -- like New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford --...

It's bad enough to have a columnist at one of America's most prominent newspapers regularly singing the praises of Chinese authoritarianism. It's worse when high-ranking members of the American government do it. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood griped at the Aspen Ideas Festival about having to deal with political opposition, and yearned for the ease in which Beijing could impose solutions without having to deal with dissent: Echoing the laments of pundits like Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued Saturday that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail...

» Left with a chance to set in stone the rule that transportation funding should remain based on user fees alone, the House punts. On Friday, members of the U.S. House took one of the most significant votes on transportation in years. A non-binding motion brought forward by Representative Paul Broun (R-GA) to limit federal transportation expenditures to receipts from the fuel tax assembled in the Highway Trust Fund was defeated, massively defeated, by a 82 to 323 vote. Translation: A large majority of the lower chamber endorsed the idea that the government should be using funds sourced outside of...

California’s $68 billion bullet train is supposed to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than two hours and 40 minutes. That speed – an average of more than 140 mph, including stops – is a legal requirement, written into the state voter initiative that gave the project the go-ahead in 2008

Government officials in the Washington region, as well as nationwide, are looking increasingly to bus rapid transit for new transit options as they face tightening public purses. BRT plans are under way in Alexandria and Arlington County, where buses are planned to travel from Braddock Road to Pentagon City. Alexandria expects to begin construction in July and start running buses in dedicated lanes in December 2013, said Abi Lerner, Alexandria's deputy director of transportation. Arlington expects to complete its half of the system in spring 2014. Across the Potomac, Montgomery County officials have proposed a 160-mile system with 23 routes....

Freight normally hauled by trucks could one day soon be shipped on an electric-powered, overhead guideway across Texas. It may seem like an idea more suitable for Tomorrowland – and artist renderings of the project do resemble Disney’s famed monorail system – but Texas officials are encouraging a privately-funded business to get the project up and running, perhaps within six years. [The developers] have formed Freight Shuttle International, a company that is cobbling together the estimated $2.5 billion needed to build the first leg of this futuristic transportation system. The guideways would be built within the existing right-of-way of...

After voting this week to raise income tax rates on the state’s highest earners, Maryland lawmakers aren’t ruling out more tax increases next year. The General Assembly passed legislation that will raise taxes on the top 14 percent of earners in an effort to balance the state’s $35.5 billion budget and cut half of Maryland’s $1 billion structural deficit, which measures expected revenue shortfalls in the future. Lawmakers could look to eliminate the remaining $500 million deficit over the next year by methods such as expanding gambling in the state, cutting spending or passing a long-debated tax increase to fund...

With electric vehicle technology becoming more desirable to the average consumer, Ford applied its innovative design sense to the two-wheel market and created the E-Bike concept vehicle. Unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, this sleek, cross-gender bike is powered not with gas, but by a lithium-ion battery. The drive system is subtly embedded in the 5.5-pound aluminium-and-carbon construction frame for a cool, minimalist look—perfect for the energy (and image) conscious city commuter. Why now? More than 30 million motorized bicycles were sold globally in 2010, with an increasing market share in Europe. Because the E-Bike can also be ridden...

Transportation of U.S. troops and cargo between Germany and Africa just became more lucrative for Cartersville, Ga.-based Phoenix Air Group, which yesterday—without needing to compete for the endeavor—received a six-month contract extension to provide such services. The U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) in 2009 initially selected Phoenix Air to provide “Fixed Wing Airlift Services” through March 31, 2012. The Firm Fixed Price Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract, then-valued at $26 million, has been modified to reflect the new delivery date through September 30. It did not disclose the cost of the contract modification. TRANSCOM explained in “A Justification For Other Than...

With the Maryland General Assembly looking toward two possible special sessions this year, some lawmakers are calling for an expanded agenda to address long-term transportation funding. Gov. Martin O'Malley and House leaders have made clear that they want to devote a May special session exclusively to passing new revenue and income-tax increases to supplement a $35.4-billion budget that currently includes more than $500 million in cuts because of the assembly’s failure to pass a revenue package during the regular session. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said Tuesday that is his only priority for a May special session. Other proposals would have...

Lawmakers in Missouri are considering a bill that would allow guns on public transportation. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that legislation is pending that would prohibit such cities as St. Louis and Kansas City from using local ordinances to ban guns on trains and buses. Supporters of the bill say it would make riders safer, arguing that no one would try to commit a crime if they know other riders might be armed. Critics feel the opposite; they say people will stop riding mass transit if guns are allowed because they won't feel safe with the weapons around. The bill's...

Gov. Martin O'Malley says he still hopes to convince the legislature to raise money for highway and transit projects — possibly by adding another penny to Maryland's six-percent sales tax and dedicating the extra revenue to transportation. In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, O'Malley conceded that his initial proposal to apply the sales tax to gasoline is dead in the General Assembly. But he said an alternative would be a delayed implementation of that proposal, with the sales tax not being applied until gas prices fell to a certain level. A second option, he said, would be to raise...

Maryland’s top transportation priority should be a $5.8 billion project to widen the entire Capital Beltway, from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to the American Legion Bridge, a leading national transportation group said Wednesday. The first step would be the investment of $800 million to relieve the weekday congestion between Interstate 270 and the American Legion Bridge by widening the roadway, adding High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes and designating lanes where the direction of traffic could be reversed to accommodate the flow of the morning and evening rush hours. The Beltway recommendations topped the list of 40 Maryland transportation projects prioritized...

Florida East Coast Industries, Inc. (FECI), the owner of Florida’s premier passenger rail corridor, is developing a privately owned, operated and maintained passenger rail service to connect South Florida and Orlando, which will be operational in 2014. By connecting the most visited city in the United States with South Florida’s business and vacation destinations, the passenger rail project, called All Aboard Florida, is designed to serve Florida’s growing number of business travelers, as well as families and tourists traveling for pleasure. The All Aboard Florida passenger rail project will connect South Florida to Orlando through a 240-mile route combining 200...