The LA Times Editorial Board published a post this morning imploring city officials to come up with a more just system, so I’m throwing out a few ideas. My motivation here is two-fold. First, to find a solution that maintains high enough fees to discourage scofflaws because parking turnover is important to both consumers and businesses — $23 simply doesn’t meet that requirement. Second, to minimize the frustration of excessive fines resulting from the rare, honest mistake, and to reduce the confusion that leads to those mistakes. If you get three parking tickets a month, it’s you that needs to re-evaluate, not the city. Parking tickets have a place in a congested, highly urbanized city, but they must be perceived as fair if they’re to survive. Here are my recommendations:
View this complete post...Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category
Los Angeles Parking Meter Reform, Reasonable Edition
Tuesday, July 8th, 2014The Highway Trust Fund and Surface Transportation Programs in the Federal Budget
Tuesday, July 1st, 2014CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
The federal government spends more than $50 billion per year on surface transportation programs, mostly in the form of grants to state and local governments. Much of this spending is for highways and mass transit programs financed through the Highway Trust Fund. Those programs have an unusual treatment in the federal budget, and the way they are classified in the budget facilitates the spending of more money from the trust fund than there are dedicated revenues to support such spending. Those revenues come from excise taxes on the sale of motor fuels, trucks and trailers, and truck tires, and from taxes on the use of certain kinds of vehicles.
The Untapped Potential of California’s Water Supply
Monday, June 30th, 2014The Water-Energy Nexus: Challenges and Opportunities
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Present day water and energy systems are tightly intertwined. Water is used in all phases of energy production and electricity generation. Energy is required to extract, convey, and deliver water of appropriate quality for diverse human uses, and then again to treat wastewaters prior to their return to the environment. Historically, interactions between energy and water have been considered on a regional or technology-by-technology basis. At the national and international levels, energy and water systems have been developed, managed, and regulated independently.
Aromas, CA: How to Successfully Fight Fracking
Wednesday, June 18th, 2014In San Benito County, CA, a citizens’ group, Aromas Cares for the Environment, waged a successful campaign for new environmental protections to protect against oil and gas fracking operations. The fracking safety ordinance was passed by the County Board of Supervisors on June 18, 2013.
California communities like Aromas should not have to protect themselves alone. We need an immediate statewide moratorium on fracking.
View this complete post...Outcomes of the Nonmotorized Transportation Program
Monday, June 16th, 2014FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION
The program was intended to “demonstrate the extent to which bicycling and walking can carry a significant part of the transportation load, and represent a major portion of the transportation solution, within selected communities.” Throughout the program to date, the four communities, each with unique physical and demographic characteristics, identified and implemented a locally devised strategy to significantly increase the use of nonmotorized transportation, along with the accompanying safety, environmental, and health benefits. This report represents the culmination of that initial implementation and analytical effort.
Driving California Forward
Friday, June 13th, 2014Integrating Conservation and Highway Planning
Thursday, June 12th, 2014TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD
This project addresses the questions of how to (1) achieve interagency agreement on ecological solutions, (2) identify and leverage existing ways to increase predictability and assurance that credit will be allowed for addressing agency conservation and restoration priorities early in planning, (3) identify and leverage existing tools to increase resource agency confidence that mitigation commitments will be kept, and (4) make decisions last over time and across jurisdictions.
States’ Fiscal Initiatives Offer a Solution to the Impending Trust Fund Shortfall
Friday, June 6th, 2014Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 25, No. 8
While transportation stakeholders and the Washington press corps are agonizing about the impending Highway Trust Fund shortfall and its impact on the federal transportation program, they are ignoring developments outside the Beltway that go a long way toward mitigating the prospective funding shortage. For in fact, individual states, far from standing idly by, are responding to the fiscal uncertainties in Washington by stepping up and augmenting their transportation budgets.
View this complete post...Why Creating & Preserving Affordable Homes Near Transit is a Highly Effective Climate Protection Strategy
Thursday, June 5th, 2014TRANSFORM
CALIFORNIA HOUSING PARTNERSHIP CORPORATION
A new analysis of data from Caltrans’ California Household Travel Survey (CHTS) completed in February 2013 shows that a well-designed program to put more affordable homes near transit would not just meet the requirements set by the California Air Resources Board (ARB), but would be a powerful and durable GHG reduction strategy – directly reducing driving while creating a host of economic and social benefits.
Follow InfrastructureUSA
CATEGORIES
- Accountability (219)
- Aging Infrastructure (757)
- Aviation (130)
- Biking (323)
- Bipartisan (271)
- Bridges (493)
- Broadband (57)
- Buses (160)
- Carbon Tax (22)
- Clean Air (182)
- Climate Change (200)
- Competitiveness (230)
- Congestion (327)
- Dams (77)
- Democrat (123)
- Drinking Water (192)
- Economic Stimulus (276)
- Employment (207)
- Energy (585)
- Environment (615)
- Equity (239)
- Funding (888)
- Global (205)
- Great American Infrastructure (33)
- Green (294)
- Guests on The Infra Blog (286)
- Hazardous Waste (27)
- High Speed Rail (224)
- Highway (785)
- Inland Waterways (204)
- Jobs (251)
- Land Use (98)
- LEED (28)
- Levees (42)
- Local (1,910)
- National (1,526)
- Policy (1,121)
- Pollution (215)
- Private Investment (213)
- Public Opinion (189)
- Public Parks & Recreation (197)
- Public Transportation (1,028)
- Racism (6)
- Rail (504)
- Recession (65)
- Recovery (218)
- Republican (109)
- Roads (1,120)
- Schools (81)
- Seaports (69)
- Smart Grid (98)
- Smart Growth (442)
- Solid Waste (26)
- Sustainability (765)
- Tax (112)
- Technology (397)
- Telecommunications (46)
- Transit (1,333)
- Urban Planning (981)
- Wastewater (182)
- Water Treatment (167)
Video, stills and tales. Share images of the Infra in your community that demands attention. Post your ideas about national Infra issues. Go ahead. Show Us Your Infra! Upload and instantly share your message.
Is the administration moving fast enough on Infra issues? Are Americans prepared to pay more taxes for repairs? Should job creation be the guiding determination? Vote now!
What do the experts think? This is where the nation's public policy organizations, trade associations and think tanks weigh in with analysis on Infra issues. Tell them what you think. Ask questions. Share a different view.
The Infra Blog offers cutting edge perspective on a broad spectrum of Infra topics. Frequent updates and provocative posts highlight hot button topics -- essential ingredients of a national Infra dialogue.
Dear Friends,
It is encouraging to finally see clear signs of federal action to support a comprehensive US infrastructure investment plan.
Now more than ever, our advocacy is needed to keep stakeholders informed and connected, and to hold politicians to their promises to finally fix our nation’s ailing infrastructure.
We have already engaged nearly 280,000 users, and hoping to add many more as interest continues to grow.
We require your support in order to rise to this occasion, to make the most of this opportunity. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to InfrastructureUSA.org.
Steve Anderson
Managing Director
SteveAnderson@InfrastructureUSA.org
917-940-7125