Washington Policy Center on transportation
April 30th, 2008 by Republican By DefaultThe Washington Policy Center (WPC) has several posts over the last few days on transportation and Sound Transit.
WPC examined ‘Sound Transit II’ (ST2), the second phase of Sound Transit’s longterm overall operational plan and funding. ‘ST1′ said that if ST2 failed to pass a vote of the people that Sound Transit would roll back the taxes raised under ST1. They have yet to do so:
Sound Transit misleading voters, again
Sound Transit misleading voters, again (update)
Sound Transit misleading voters, again (update II)
With that is an environmental issue that is ignored in the media. (At this point in time it’s impossible to ignore environmental issues when talking about transportation, so I included it here.):
Seeing the World Through Pollution Colored Glasses
They included this graphic:
[Note that the first three ticks on the x axis are 10 or 5 years, and the rest are one year (which creates a change in slope).]
What the graphic shows makes sense. Gross domestic product and vehicle miles traveled grew at relatively the same pace. Population and energy consumption also grew at relatively the same pace. And most noteably aggregate emissions declined by half.
WPC on bad transportation planning in general:
Upside down transportation planning
Finally, a brief look at government’s role in fuel efficiency and economic trends:
Coming into clearer view is the connection between biofuel mandates and gas prices. More on that later.
