Metro PR has once again taken to Facebook and Twiter to advertise how the "free" parking allows suburban/exurban commuters the opportunity to go to Cardinals/Blues games without having to pay for parking (downtown or otherwise).
So the question they can't/won't answer is: Why do non-drivers have to subsidize free parking for drivers?
Well the drivers do pay the fare to ride metrolink. Also I wouldn't be picking a bone about this since it does get people to experience transit more and also to get to metrolink you have to drive. I drive from Soha to the station on Lansdowne to go to games
And then there is this; metro gets millions a year from FTA which is funded by 15.5% of federal gas taxes being deposited into the Trasnit account. 2.8cents of every gas a driver pays goes to the transit account.
Missouri drives alone put in between $100,000,000 and 112,000,000 into the FTA account last year.
Not to mention that metro replaces 22 buses a year ($8m a year) from a driver funded cmaq program at east west gateway.
I really hate the work being done on I44. I know it needs to be done, but I've also never seen crews out there working at any time of the day or night.
dweebe wrote:I really hate the work being done on I44. I know it needs to be done, but I've also never seen crews out there working at any time of the day or night.
44 will be a mess for a while, a lot of bridge work coming up...will know more Wednesday when the 2017-2021 construction plan is out.
^^back to Randy's question, I forgot the main point and that's fare box recovery, metro is expecting that it's user will only pay 17.5% of cost of operating the system, the rest is subsided by sales tax which of course is almost 90% paid by non users aka drivers. So let's not get mad at the hand that feeds metro
And now I'll answer the next question someone may have "we how much are roads subsided". It varies by state, by city
In Mo state roads/interstates are 100% user fees. City of stl is hard to figure out. City does get $12m a year from gas tax, probably uses that to match federal funds (paid by fed gas tax) for bigger jobs like Kingshighway bridge.
Correct, MoDOT is doing 180 from 270 to city limits
Almost 60% of the money is for sidewalks to bring to ADA
MoDOT stl plans on spending $20-23m a year on sidewalks and signals to bring all to ADA by 2027. Also build new sidewalks at missing sections especially if it connects to a bus stop
St.Charles will still want those but as seen with Fairgounds and 70..go ahead do it but you pay for 90%.
MoDOT TIGER application is focusing on 270/Lindbergh interchange to do better connections to transit. Right now it's a death trap to get around it walking or cycling.
Or people could choose to live closer. That would be cheaper for everyone.
County Would Like to See Expansion of Public Transit — Bi-State Membership May Be First Step
“I would love to see more mass transit activities in the county,” Griesheimer said. “A large section of our population drives to St. Louis every day for work and buses or light rail to this area would be a great asset for residents.”
Impressive new BRT infrastructure in the Loop in Chicago looks great at night too. Looks way better than the platforms for KC streetcar or Delmar Loop trolley.
I rode the KC streetcar over the weekend and thought it was nice. It was packed, but that could also be due to the size. It's about the same size as a Grand bus. I think the way they've done it works really well for getting people to use it. It takes you from River Market to Union Station. Its also free.
I agree the stations are lacking. They're just small with not much overhead shelter.
Riding it was great though. It has to stop at traffic lights, but it didn't seem slow. The streetcar itself was very nice. Something like it would work well in STL. Maybe some dedicated ROW, more robust stations, and a larger trainset.
^ ridership is well above projections (although it's still early) and Council is now looking at authorizing the purchase of several more cars. Looks like there may soon be a proposal released to expand it down to Country Club Plaza. Would love to see it here.
Question: With increasing use of electronics to make trains a lot safer and easier to schedule and control, what barriers other than cost prevent a commuter rail from Eureka to Kirkwood to Downtown?
They're pushing a property tax in the Detroit region to fund tranist expansion.
The Detroit News - Tax push for $4.6B Detroit area transit plan begins
Regional Transit Authority officials on Tuesday are beginning the journey to sell a tax increase to Metro Detroit voters to fund bus rapid transit, a commuter rail line, an airport shuttle service and a universal fare card, among other upgrades to regional transportation options.
Open Archive STL - St. Louis Metropolitan Transit & Traffic Survey (1957)
The report goes onto recommend a bus-centric method of transit including BRT, and states that the lack of density and high costs of rail transit are prohibitive.
Transit Center - “Decisions Touching The Lives Of All Of Us”: The Plan That Changed Boston Forever
We have been caught in a vicious cycle. More cars meant more highways, which meant more traffic jams; more traffic jams meant the need for more highways, which meant more traffic jams and the need for superhighways…The side effect: billions of dollars spent and more and more cities torn apart, more and more families uprooted and displaced. Worst of all: failure to solve the problem that started it all.
Could the addition of lane miles to the state existing network be winding down to a trickle for the next five years as MoDOT literally has only money to maintain what it has? Pretty much my take on the 5 yr spending plan approved as reported by PD.
A spending plan approved Thursday for the Missouri Department of Transportation includes tens of millions of dollars for work on Interstate 270, but the overwhelming majority of projects set over the next five years — 88 percent — only will maintain MoDOT’s existing system.
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, which governs MoDOT, approved $3.97 billion in construction work over the next five years for 855 projects statewide through mid-2021.
^ This seems inevitable - though it can't come soon enough. With no real population growth, and (maybe) suburban expansion reaching its limits, at some point there just aren't more roads to build. Though I wouldn't underestimate the creativity of road builders. And we'll see continued expansion on existing roads.
Hello friends, as the person that assembled that document for the stl area (st.charles, Franklin, Jefferson, stl county and city) the direction is maintain what we have in the current condition before doing anything else. That means keeping interstates at 92% good pavement, major roads at 85%, and minors at 70% and replace bad bridges at same rate that current become bad. Then we also want to bring all sidewalks on state system to ADA and add new sidewalks where it makes sense (i.e. Connection to transit) by 2027. Also update signals to Ada standards with push buttons ect, looking at spending about $20m a year on those. Will be spending about $15-20m a year on systematic safety improvements. Than if there is any $ left it will be pushed to phased projects like rebuild 270 in north county where the EIS should wrap up by end of year.
This is being driven by federally mandated asset management plans, we are in the process of developing those for each MoDOT district and figuring out amount of $ it will take to execute those plans and expected revenue over next 10 years
This is being done in coordination with East West Gateway-transportation planning section
All told there will be about $1.25b of work in stl area from July 1 2016 to June 30 2021. About $760m is already in the plan, the rest will be added next year and year after. Usually the $ in year 4 & 5 of the plan is left Unprogrammed for design, since it's hard to predict things and costs that far out
