Transportation
Blog
Technology is spotlighting failure of arcane transit models
Alas, the walkout, taken in response to a “disgraceful contract offer,” didn’t accomplish much. Strikers’ “energy” and “resolve” may have been “very strong,” but on Day 17 of their protest, a judge ordered the dispatchers, bus drivers and light-rail operators of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 back to work. A ...
Blog
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away By D. Dowd Muska | April 17, 2025 Urbanists often have their heads in the clouds. But this is ridiculous. Today’s trendiest transportation topic in the world of “smart growth”? What the YouTube channel Climate and Transit calls “aerial lifts that ...
Blog
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed?
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed? By D. Dowd Muska | March 14, 2025 Sept. 30, 2026, may seem far off to you and me. But for many politicians, contractor and activists, the date is just around the corner. Their livelihoods depend on favorable provisions in the mammoth, multi-year ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Costly Scramble To Save Public Transit In San Francisco
Public transportation in San Francisco has been slipping for some time. To keep it from barreling into the bay, officials are going after wallets, and they plan to cast a net that is so wide that even those who don’t use the systems will be pinched. Both BART, the Bay ...
Blog
Latest report shows California bullet train is really a train to nowhere
Will There Ever Be Any Good News About The High-Speed Rail?
Last month’s spike-driving ceremony was a feel-good story about the California bullet train. It was, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, a “big damn deal” that indicated “progress” was being made on a project that is embarrassingly behind schedule and almost inconceivably over cost. It was an event for public consumption that ...
Blog
Congestion pricing: Bold experiment or a money grab?
Congestion pricing: Bold experiment or a money grab? By Sal Rodriguez | February 6, 2025 Is New York City’s congestion pricing plan a bold experiment or just a money grab? After many years of debate, many thousands of pages of reports and no shortage of lawsuits, New York City on ...
Blog
Read about the California "war on cars"
Where Drivers Continue To Starve
Kirkham Street in the Sunset neighborhood of the city is a two-lane, two-way street with bike paths and angle street parking. But now there’s one short stretch between 9th and 10th avenues that’s one way. A recently installed “neckdown” funnels cars into a single lane in the middle of the ...
Blog
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Transportation Budget Furthers the "Train to Nowhere"
The Newsom Transportation Budget: Newsom Continues to Embrace Costly, Unrealistic State Bullet Train
Progress. The California high-speed rail project has made progress. If progress can be defined as finally laying the first track for a bullet train that is at least a couple of decades behind schedule. Hard to put any faith, though, in the promises and bragging when the HSR is running ...
Blog
Will Trump finally put nail in coffin of CA's high speed rail boondoggle?
Can California Find Other Uses For Bullet Train Infrastructure If The Project Is Canceled?
If the incoming administration doesn’t end the great train robbery, then Congress might. Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of Rocklin plans to introduce legislation that eliminates federal funding “for the failed California High-Speed Rail project.” Vivek Ramaswamy, who with Elon Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, called the California bullet ...
Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
SF’s Muni punishes its own riders for funding shortfalls
Muni’s latest data shows ridership on the city’s system of buses, cable cars, streetcars and light rail has rebounded dramatically from pandemic levels. It reports that ridership is at 74% of pre-pandemic levels and 92% of those levels on the weekends. The agency also trumpeted reductions in the number of ...
Technology is spotlighting failure of arcane transit models
Alas, the walkout, taken in response to a “disgraceful contract offer,” didn’t accomplish much. Strikers’ “energy” and “resolve” may have been “very strong,” but on Day 17 of their protest, a judge ordered the dispatchers, bus drivers and light-rail operators of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 back to work. A ...
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away
The solution to traffic congestion isn’t up, up and away By D. Dowd Muska | April 17, 2025 Urbanists often have their heads in the clouds. But this is ridiculous. Today’s trendiest transportation topic in the world of “smart growth”? What the YouTube channel Climate and Transit calls “aerial lifts that ...
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed?
Will cities’ transportation gravy train be derailed? By D. Dowd Muska | March 14, 2025 Sept. 30, 2026, may seem far off to you and me. But for many politicians, contractor and activists, the date is just around the corner. Their livelihoods depend on favorable provisions in the mammoth, multi-year ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Costly Scramble To Save Public Transit In San Francisco
Public transportation in San Francisco has been slipping for some time. To keep it from barreling into the bay, officials are going after wallets, and they plan to cast a net that is so wide that even those who don’t use the systems will be pinched. Both BART, the Bay ...
Latest report shows California bullet train is really a train to nowhere
Will There Ever Be Any Good News About The High-Speed Rail?
Last month’s spike-driving ceremony was a feel-good story about the California bullet train. It was, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, a “big damn deal” that indicated “progress” was being made on a project that is embarrassingly behind schedule and almost inconceivably over cost. It was an event for public consumption that ...
Congestion pricing: Bold experiment or a money grab?
Congestion pricing: Bold experiment or a money grab? By Sal Rodriguez | February 6, 2025 Is New York City’s congestion pricing plan a bold experiment or just a money grab? After many years of debate, many thousands of pages of reports and no shortage of lawsuits, New York City on ...
Read about the California "war on cars"
Where Drivers Continue To Starve
Kirkham Street in the Sunset neighborhood of the city is a two-lane, two-way street with bike paths and angle street parking. But now there’s one short stretch between 9th and 10th avenues that’s one way. A recently installed “neckdown” funnels cars into a single lane in the middle of the ...
State Budget Week - Learn how the Newsom Transportation Budget Furthers the "Train to Nowhere"
The Newsom Transportation Budget: Newsom Continues to Embrace Costly, Unrealistic State Bullet Train
Progress. The California high-speed rail project has made progress. If progress can be defined as finally laying the first track for a bullet train that is at least a couple of decades behind schedule. Hard to put any faith, though, in the promises and bragging when the HSR is running ...
Will Trump finally put nail in coffin of CA's high speed rail boondoggle?
Can California Find Other Uses For Bullet Train Infrastructure If The Project Is Canceled?
If the incoming administration doesn’t end the great train robbery, then Congress might. Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of Rocklin plans to introduce legislation that eliminates federal funding “for the failed California High-Speed Rail project.” Vivek Ramaswamy, who with Elon Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, called the California bullet ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
SF’s Muni punishes its own riders for funding shortfalls
Muni’s latest data shows ridership on the city’s system of buses, cable cars, streetcars and light rail has rebounded dramatically from pandemic levels. It reports that ridership is at 74% of pre-pandemic levels and 92% of those levels on the weekends. The agency also trumpeted reductions in the number of ...
