Free Republic

It’s an issue for cities across America: cars parked in bus lanes when they shouldn’t be. Now, new AI camera technology is letting the buses themselves write tickets instantly. Santa Monica recently tested the technology with their Big Blue Bus Line. Last year, they provided 7.7 million trips, but not all were on schedule due to cars improperly parked or stopped in dedicated bus lanes. Snip During Santa Monica’s 45-day pilot, the system identified more than 500 potential violations. Each fine is nearly $300 dollars. “We don’t make any more or any less depending on the number of violations that...

(Translation) The number of taxicab drivers on the island is decreasing, which is felt by the tourist who needs a transportation service and passengers who arrive in Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport early in the morning. It is estimated that, in the last years, there has been a 40% decrease in the number of these workers, according to Juan de León, President of the Taxi Drivers Federation, who understands is due to factors that affect the economy in general. According to data collected among cab drivers, it is estimated that there were over 5,000 taxis in Puerto Rico one decade...

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting his state's seaports as a solution to help ease America's ongoing supply chain crisis, offering them as an alternative to the overwhelmed ports in other parts of the country. In a Tuesday press conference at the Port of Jacksonville, known as JAXPORT, DeSantis pointed to backlogs such as those currently happening in California, where the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach both had a record number of ships waiting to unload the day before. Last week, the White House said LA's port had vowed to start opening 24 hours a day, but...

Light rail is controversial because of its price tag -- the recently finished Green Line linking downtown St. Paul with Minneapolis cost $957 million. Supporters, though, say it's justified along dense routes where it can move many people more efficiently than buses can. <<>> Taxpayers shoulder the majority of the cost. In the metro area, fares account for about $100 million in revenue last year -- about 30 percent of the operating cost of transit. Federal grants play a big role in paying for new transitways and vehicles -- 55 percent of capital costs last year. But federal taxpayers covered...

Systemic risk. I guarantee that most ordinary folks have no idea that if trucks stopped rolling all across America, within a short period of time nearly all Americans would all be in a life-threatening situation from major delivery shortages. 70% of all freight that is moved in the U.S. is done so by truck. You (we) depend on that ‘stuff’ for our survival. A major disruption in truck travel would immediately impact seven major industries, and would bring America to its knees within days due in part to “just in time manufacturing”, zero-inventory, and the fact that our modern way...

The fate of scores of new coal-burning power plants is now in limbo over whether to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The uncertainty resulted when an Environmental Protection Agency appeals panel on Thursday rejected a federal permit for a Utah plant, leaving the issue for the Obama administration to resolve. The panel said the EPA's Denver office failed to adequately support its decision to issue a permit for the Bonanza plant without requiring controls on carbon dioxide, the leading pollutant linked to global warming. The matter was sent back to that office, which must better explain why it failed to order...

JOHN W. SCHUTT, Jr. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Candidate for School Trustee, District E MEDIA RELEASE September 19, 2008 CAT Bus to Replace School Bus Clark County School District Works out Busing Agreement with CAT Bus On August 28, 2008 Clark County School Board members voted to authorize a contract with the Regional Transportation Commission to purchase Citizens Area Transit bus passes for students for an approximate total cost of $114,000.00, effective September 1, 2008, through August 31, 2009. Several concerned citizens stood up to speak about the safety concerns and the liabilities associated with busing students on CAT buses. Trustee Edwards spoke about...

he North American Auto Industry is facing the biggest downturn in its history, with $Billions in losses every quarter. Plant closures and job cuts by the thousands are now a monthly occurrence. Automotive analysts have questioned GM and Ford's viability going forward. Gas prices are widely believed to the primary cause however now there is another threat lurking around the corner. This one could be bigger and more ominous than any other that American automakers have faced previously. China has begun pumping out more cars and trucks than ever before at ridiculously low prices. While most of their current vehicles...

I’VE just driven the electric dream green machine the world’s been waiting for. Forget about milk floats and little city cars, the Tesla is a sexy two-seat roadster that makes no emissions and has the performance of a supercar. The Tesla is so sexy Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney will be one of the first to take delivery of one. That is likely to be the only thing George and I ever have in common as I recently had one delivered — unfortunately, only for a day. Sadly, the Tesla will set you back more than £78,000 for the privilege...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady lead a group of nine Texas lawmakers on Friday, from both political parties, in urging the Texas Department of Transportation to remove the Interstate 69 project from the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor and return it to its original route which brings existing highways U.S. 59, U.S. 281 and U.S 77 up to interstate standards. In a letter to Deirdre Delisi, the new chair of the Texas Transportation Commission, the lawmakers maintain that "public support for the original I-69 project - which focused on bringing existing highways up to interstate standards and existed long before...

BARRINGTON, Ill. -- Mayor Karen Darch's phone started ringing minutes after one of North America's largest railroads announced plans to more than quadruple the number of freight trains rumbling daily through this upscale Chicago suburb. The protest has since grown to a roar. The number of trains would jump from just a few to about 20 a day, with some stretching more than a mile and blocking every through road in this 140-year-old village of 10,000 people. The mayor said she fears the trains will further snarl roads already prone to backing up, and that visitors to Barrington's boutiques and...

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

Economic retaliation from Mexico is a real threat if U.S. lawmakers repeal a provision that allows Mexican truckers access to the U.S. interior, according to former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe. "If Congress succeeds in blocking (the program) I believe Mexico could retaliate, as they are entitled to do," the Arizona Republican told members of the Southern Arizona Logistics Education Organization in Tucson on Thursday. Kolbe, who retired at the beginning of the year after 11 terms in Congress, is the new chairman of the Canamex Corridor Task Force and part of a three-member committee appointed to monitor the cross-border truck...

Talk about grist for my mill or even fodder for my cannon: Ready, aim, guess what? Everyone’s favorite “underfunded” state agency, the Texas Department of Transportation, intends to spend $9 million in multimedia advertising promoting toll roads and the unpopular Trans-Texas Corridor. The department is seeking to sway public opinion on a political issue using your tax dollars. Let me re-emphasize: That’s $9 million of taxpayers’ money to tell you that you need to not only pay a gasoline tax but also pay tolls on taxpayer-funded construction. In effect, you are now paying taxes to be propagandized by a state...

Foreign engineers have been vital to the construction of California's complex and mammoth highway system, but they are being pushed out of jobs with the state Department of Transportation because of a conflict between state hiring rules and federal immigration laws. Dozens of foreign engineers in the past decade have left Caltrans because their temporary work visas were going to expire . . . Ninety-eight Caltrans employees -- 75 of them engineers -- are currently on H-1B work visas that last a maximum of six years. These engineers also will be forced to leave Caltrans unless the agency can sponsor...

Not since the Texas High Speed Rail Authority proposed the controversial "bullet train" in the early 1990s has a transportation initiative riled so many landowners. But is the Trans Texas Corridor for real? Or is it merely a concept? Is it a visionary plan for Texas' exploding population and highway congestion, or a train wreck for agriculture? The answer seems to depend on whom you ask. With that in mind, the Texas Farm Bureau, at its recent Leadership Conference in Austin, held a special session on the Trans Texas Corridor. TFB voting delegates, during the 2004 state convention in San...

A subway fire that gutted an underground communications room has crippled two of New York City's busiest subway lines, the A and the C, and full service may not be restored for three to five years, officials announced today. The Sunday afternoon fire at the Chambers Street station was apparently set by a homeless person and is being investigated as an act of arson, according to Lawrence G. Reuter, president of New York City Transit. Advertisement The A train has been running at two-thirds of its normal frequency, meaning that riders face a wait of 8 to 12 minutes. Service...

New York Senator Charles Schumer visited the Rensselaer train station, pushing for the $1.8 billion Amtrak said it needs to stay in operation. Schumer said if you cut Amtrak, you're not just shutting down trains, but jobs as well. He said, "The company needs more money just to stay afloat this year. If Amtrak doesn't get the money, they could very well be forced to shut down service." In the federal budget proposal, only $900 million was allotted to Amtrak. Officials said that without the full funding, Amtrak will have to shut down, including the three lines that service the...