Transportation Catch All thread

dbInSouthCity · PostSep 12, 2014#1262014-09-12T23:26+00:00

At the CTM annual awards lunch today Peter Rogoff spoke (he is former FTA head and current under secretary of the Federal DOT) he was really pushing the Presidents GROW America Act, which is a complete transportation bill that would be $302billion over 4 years and it would include 100% increase in TIGER funds, It would grow to $1.2billion a year from $600m. Tho I don't think this act has a chance in the House.

MoDOT director spoke about the importance of the last 6 months and all modes working together during the A7 project development and wants to see that in the future and that MoDOT would be a partner in transit.

Mayor Slay spoke--- regionalism this regionalism that...ect

goat314 · PostSep 13, 2014#1272014-09-13T00:16+00:00

^ Why the hell would a MoDOT director be at a Metrolink press conference? The state of Missouri contribute almost nothing to transit.

dbInSouthCity · PostSep 13, 2014#1282014-09-13T03:55+00:00

I think these TIGER grants require a letter of support from the State DOT

quincunx · PostSep 16, 2014#1292014-09-16T00:44+00:00

We're getting there!

Metro Adds Real-Time Data to Trip Planner

http://www.nextstopstl.org/12903/

PostSep 23, 2014#1302014-09-23T00:40+00:00

According to the project list adding shoulders to Rte. 47 was a $1.3M project. Maybe they should look into a TDD.

KSDK - Triple fatal crash renews call for change

Even the Missouri Department of Transportation calls the roadway a problem. Improving the highway was on a list of projects MoDot wanted to fund, had voters approved a new sales tax in August. Following this latest tragedy, some are calling on the state to find another way.

At one time, farmland and a few scattered houses are just about all you'd find along the stretch of Highway 47 where the crash happened.

Now, the landscape looks much different, and so does the traffic.

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/20 ... /16034069/

dredger · PostSep 23, 2014#1312014-09-23T04:41+00:00

^ or maybe, just maybe the political courage to raise the state gas tax that hasn't been raised in how many years? that is one of the lowest in the country. But then again that would take courage.

rbb · PostSep 23, 2014#1322014-09-23T15:08+00:00

Or maybe regional leaders can rethink an environment that encourages building large volumes of new homes on farmland in the extremities of a region with little-to-no population growth, fostering the abandonment of the built environment closer in and necessitating money for construction and maintenance of even more infrastructure as the existing infrastructure crumbles.

Or not.

-RBB

dweebe · PostSep 23, 2014#1332014-09-23T15:27+00:00

dredger wrote:^ or maybe, just maybe the political courage to raise the state gas tax that hasn't been raised in how many years? that is one of the lowest in the country. But then again that would take courage.

You've got to stop it with these wild and crazy ideas.

quincunx · PostSep 23, 2014#1342014-09-23T17:16+00:00

rbb wrote:Or maybe regional leaders can rethink an environment that encourages building large volumes of new homes on farmland in the extremities of a region with little-to-no population growth, fostering the abandonment of the built environment closer in and necessitating money for construction and maintenance of even more infrastructure as the existing infrastructure crumbles.

Or not.

-RBB

Bingo, hope you can make it to one of the Strong Towns events. It'll be right up your alley.

Building on to Troy's street grid should have been the way to go. Then people wouldn't have to drive down this dangerous road so far, so fast and so often.

PostSep 23, 2014#1352014-09-23T17:49+00:00

St. Louis Metro @STLMetro

@stlunite @ward24stl We're testing out the mobile version of the Trip Planner, which should be released shortly.

PostSep 23, 2014#1362014-09-23T18:32+00:00

Walkable DFW - Between a Rockwall and a Hard Place

Here is the deal, we sprawled out on free highways. Turns out, jokes on us, they aren't so free after all. Because we sprawled, we are now slave to cars in order to get us around, held captive by the illusion that cheap land and cheap highways and cheap gas will subsidize our utopia.

http://www.carfreeinbigd.com/2014/09/be ... place.html

urban_dilettante · PostSep 26, 2014#1372014-09-26T06:06+00:00

Americans drive no more in total now than we did in 2005, and no more on average than we did at the end of Bill Clinton’s first term as president. The recent stagnation in driving comes on the heels of a six decade-long Driving Boom that saw steady, rapid increases in driving and congestion across the United States, along with the investment of more than $1 trillion of public money in highways.

But even though the Driving Boom is now over, state and federal governments continue to pour vast sums of money into the construction of new highways and expansion of old ones – at the expense of urgent needs such as road and bridge repairs, improvements in public transportation and other transportation priorities.

Eleven proposed highway projects across the country – slated to cost at least $13 billion – exemplify the need for a fresh approach to transportation spending. These projects, some of them originally proposed decades ago, either address problems that do not exist, or have serious negative impacts on surrounding communities that undercut their value. They are but a sampling of many questionable highway projects across the country that could cost taxpayers tens of billions more dollars to build, and many more billions over the course of upcoming decades to maintain.

http://uspirg.org/reports/usp/highway-boondoggles

dbInSouthCity · PostSep 30, 2014#1382014-09-30T18:37+00:00

The I-70 study from St.Charles to downtown has been suspended according to my sources. Main reason being because when its done, the 5 year clock that says you have to commit funds to build starts and right now there is no $ to build whatever the study says to build. this was a multimodal study that MoDOT, Metro, EWG were the main sponsors that also included GRG, UMSL, SLDC, ect.

goat314 · PostSep 30, 2014#1392014-09-30T21:40+00:00

^ I hope the study would consider putting Metrolink or Commuter to St. Charles down the express lanes, that ROW is large enough to put trains down the middle and could potentially be our Northside part of any future Metro expansion. I know many are opposed to this idea, but the only way I see Metrolink expanding is if the ROW is already there, like the express lanes of 70 or the old rail ROW through South City, because anything else would likely be cost prohibitive with lack of state support. I'm guessing they are blaming the cancelled study on the voters not passing the tax increase?

Ebsy · PostSep 30, 2014#1402014-09-30T21:56+00:00

St. Charles is not going to spend a penny on MetroLink, so I do not blame them for suspending the study.

dweebe · PostOct 03, 2014#1412014-10-03T18:31+00:00

Come celebrate our further sprawl enabling new highway!

Walkers, runners, bicyclists invited Saturday to try out new stretch of Page extension
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stch ... 6e837.html

urban_dilettante · PostOct 03, 2014#1422014-10-03T19:34+00:00

^ frankly i find this sh*t insulting.

"Come walk/run/ride for one day only on yet another stretch of highway that you'll never again be able to set foot on! Allow us to throw it in your face! Meanwhile we'll continue to ignore you if you choose not to drive or don't live at least 30 miles outside of the city!"

quincunx · PostOct 04, 2014#1432014-10-04T15:26+00:00

It's going to divert 15k-20k cars per day from other roads. $118M. Hardly seems worth it.

KSDK - Page Extension opens this weekend

And that should relieve some of the congestion on I-64 and I-70 after we open up,

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/traffic/ ... /16635263/

dbInSouthCity · PostOct 05, 2014#1442014-10-05T17:44+00:00

^ solid facts or data on that statement...anyway.. If it shaves off 7 min for 17500 drives each way = 14min x 17,500x 365 days x 10 years ( life of new road) = 894,250,000 minutes saved /60 min = 14,904,166 hours.

$118,000,000 / 14,904,106 = $7.92 cost for each hour saved....I say it's worth it. Most people value an hour at $30-40 or we can go by average hourly wage of $24.50

That doesn't included the less wear and tear on 64/70 thus less maintence spending on those 2.

Ebsy · PostOct 05, 2014#1452014-10-05T20:01+00:00

You are of course not including that the volume of traffic is likely to rise with the capacity, because it always does, so there will be no savings on maintenance and it is unlikely there will be any major reductions in travel time in the long run.

dbInSouthCity · PostOct 06, 2014#1462014-10-06T12:28+00:00

So the road was justified because of traffic growth then?

And i think most of the $118M was spent in the 90's buying land for the right of way....construction part was probably about $30-35M for 4.5 miles of road.

quincunx · PostOct 06, 2014#1472014-10-06T13:21+00:00

Isn't this extension 9 miles in total with the other half opening in a few months?

dbInSouthCity wrote:$118,000,000 / 14,904,106 = $7.92 cost for each hour saved....I say it's worth it. Most people value an hour at $30-40 or we can go by average hourly wage of $24.50

How does that turn into tax dollars that go to pay for the road?

If people value their time so much why do they keep throwing it away moving further away?

jcity · PostOct 09, 2014#1482014-10-09T17:17+00:00

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/10/07/t ... s-to-work/

STLEnginerd · PostOct 09, 2014#1492014-10-09T20:16+00:00

This Last 9 Miles definitely seems to be the most pointless. They could have easily upgrade 94 to grade seperated highway to Weldon Springs instead. I guess now all that open farmland in Cottleville can finally get a Walmart or something...

pat · PostOct 09, 2014#1502014-10-09T20:23+00:00

I hope the study would consider putting Metrolink or Commuter to St. Charles down the express lanes, that ROW is large enough to put trains down the middle and could potentially be our Northside part of any future Metro expansion. I know many are opposed to this idea, but the only way I see Metrolink expanding is if the ROW is already there, like the express lanes of 70 or the old rail ROW through South City, because anything else would likely be cost prohibitive with lack of state support.

I think the beginnings of a future bullet train from STL to KC would be better down that portion of 70. Light rail like Metrolink needs to be as close to people as possible. Transit involves walking. Its part of the neighborhood. It needs to be close by. HSR doesn't. There's not a lot of on-offs. HSR would be perfect down that stretch of highway with a stop at the airport.

Transportation Catch All thread

Choose Display Mode