Does vote in Atlanta set a trend?

Earlier this week, Metro Atlanta voters in 10 counties shot down the “Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax,” or T-SPLOST, by an overwhelming a majority, 63% to 37%. If passed, T-SPLOST would have created a 1% sales tax to help pay for an already determined $7.2 billion package of regional transportation projects, including $3.2 billion for transit plus another $1.1 billion in local projects.

Public Transportation on solid footing, will lawmakers face the music?

Two weeks ago, President Barack Obama signed the new MAP-21 surface transportation bill, funding transportation programs and giving public transit a much needed sense of stability, even if it’s for only two years.

Is transit industry ready for Generation Y?

Recently, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor conducted a study on the driving habits of 16 to 39 year olds. The study found that number of 17-year-olds that had a driver’s license dropped significantly over a period of 25 years, from 69% in 1983 to 50% in 2008. Meanwhile, American aged 20 to 24 saw a drop as well, from 92% in 1983 to 82% in 2008.

For motorcoach industry, the media is the message

Last year was one of the worst on record as far as accidents and casualties for the motorcoach industry, which in the past has typically been one of the safest modes of transportation. If you take the amount of trips taken and compare that with the number of accidents, we’re talking pretty small potatoes; however, anybody in the industry will tell you one fatality is enough.

Don't let the transportation bill get hijacked

What more could be said about the necessity for a transportation authorization bill? Nothing? We all understand it is vital, right? OK, good. Maybe it's more important to discuss what is actually going on and what some industry insiders talk about off the record.

Cutting dedicated funding not the answer

Last week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released its proposed $260 billion, five-year transportation authorization bill, which was approved by a 29 to 24 vote.

Shakeup in Calif. bad news for high-speed rail?

In surprising news yesterday, California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Roelof van Ark announced his departure, effective in February. The authority's chairman of the board, Thomas J. Umberg announced that he would also vacate his position and recommend that Dan Richard, who was recently appointed to the board by Gov. Jerry Brown, assume his leadership role.

How do you change the public's perception?

Most of the time when the mainstream media focuses on the motorcoach industry it is negative — it usually has to deal with an accident that injured a host of people, many critically. In an attempt to shift the spotlight this week for being kicked off of an American Airlines flight, Alec Baldwin wrote a blog about the incident, where as a joke he must have thought was funny, he took a shot at Greyhound.

Good news/bad news; just like the basketball strike

Being an avid basketball fan, I've had high hopes that an agreement will be reached between the owners and players, only to have them dashed by news that fundamental issues yet to be addressed by the two sides is holding up the start of the season.

Is public transit doomed for good?

To mark this week's "Don't X Out Public Transit Day," the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released a new survey that focused on what the consequences would be on public transportation riders and systems around the country if a House of Representatives-proposed cut of more than one-third of federal funding for public transportation actually took place.