Transportation | ModeShift

Inc. Magazine Hot Cities: Not One in Upper Midwest

by Keith SchneiderMay 18, 2007June 24, 20073

The annual tally ofÂ AmericanÂ “Boom Towns” in the May issue ofÂ Inc. MagazineÂ includes not one –Â repeat, not a single large, midsize, or small cityÂ in the Great Lakes regionÂ that qualifies amongÂ the nation’s top generators of new jobs. If the entire Midwest is considered, the only two cities that sneak onto the list are Springfield, Missouri (ranked # 20 among midsize cities) and Dubuque, Iowa (#15 among small cities).Â The list does include some of our favorite Mode Shift …

Barack Steps Gingerly Into the Realm of A Weakened Beast

by Keith SchneiderMay 8, 2007June 18, 20140

Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack ObamaÂ skipped across the big pond on Tuesday and landed in Detroit, where he stirred a modest amount of interest by scolding American auto makers for letting the Japanese take command of the industry, and then offering a federal hand in contributing to the industry’sÂ health care costs in exchange forÂ convincing auto makers to increase fuel efficiency by about 1 mile a gallon per year.Â [youtube]GpYkCNohmf8[/youtube] Big deal. Both ideas …

California Governor Tracks Back, Says He Supports High Speed Rail

by Keith SchneiderMay 6, 2007May 6, 20071

Â The push back by the old and new media to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut state funds to the agency overseeing the development of a 700-mile high speed rail network in California appears to have influenced the Republican governor’s view. On Friday, Schwarzenegger (see pix) published an op-ed in the Fresno Bee extolling a high speed system. Thanks to Marcel Marchon’s Trainblog for keeping us current. “The promise of high-speed rail is incredible,” wrote …

High Speed Rail Cut Stirs Response in California

by Keith SchneiderMay 3, 2007May 5, 200711

Â Â Â PROPOSED CALIFORNIA HIGH SPEED RAIL ROUTE Â California Democrats have elevated building their state’s proposed high speed rail network to the top of their legislative priorities, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The Daily Kos, one of the most read blogs in the country, noted the swirl of attention that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stirred with his proposal to cut $2.5 million in state funding to the California High Speed Rail Authority, the agency overseeing …

Fast Trains There; Dreams of Fast Trains Here

by Keith SchneiderMay 2, 2007May 10, 20075

Almost three years after Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that put $2.5 million in the kitty of the California High Speed Rail Authority, which is charged with overseeing the planning of a 700-mile network of fast trains in the nation’s largest state, Schwarzenegger has had a change of heart. The governor’s 2007 budget proposal calls for cutting state appropriations for the Authority, according to an article in the April 29, 2007 edition of …

Build High Speed Rail in the Midwest

by Keith SchneiderApril 23, 2007April 25, 200722

Â Since 1996, nine states in the American Midwest have been gradually inching forward on a proposal to establish a 3,000-mileÂ high speed train network linking 100 of theÂ region’s big and small cities.Â Chicago would serve as the hub of the The Midwest Regional Rail System. Spokes would include Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Columbus, Des Moines, and many other large cities served by trains capable of traveling 110 mph, which would make the travel time and …

Gas Prices, Peak Oil, and the New American Backwater

by Keith SchneiderApril 12, 2007April 18, 20075

It’s the nuttyÂ season here in the first weeks of spring.Â The purebred chicken scratchÂ hill billy hound dog puppy that I picked up off the highway in southern Virginia almost 18 years agoÂ decided she’d had enough and wandered off two days ago and vanished.Â It’s been snowing hereÂ in Michigan’s great white north for more than a week.Â Over the weekend I shoveled nine inches of snow off the deck and driveway and it’sÂ colder than it was in January when …

Reason? at Reason Foundation

by Keith SchneiderMarch 30, 2007April 1, 20072

It’s essential to stay abreast of what opponents to a reasoned development strategy have to say about Smart Growth. And there’s no more unreasonable voice on these issues than the social theorists at the libertarian Reason Magazine.Â This week Sam Staley and Ted Balaker published their newest assessment of the value of public transit,Â why Americans won’t ride new trains and buses, and how to relieve congestion. TheyÂ come to this conclusion: “The planning gurus who are supposed …

About Those Car Keys

by Keith SchneiderMarch 19, 2007March 19, 20070

Not long ago, in Denver, a Douglas County Commissioner told me that one of the impediments voters faced in approvingÂ a nearly $5 billion sales tax increase in 2004 to build the West’s most extensive regional rapid transit systemÂ was old attitudes about trains. “The critics, including our governor, kept saying nobody would ride a train,” she said.Â “This isÂ the West. You have to pry the keys out ofÂ people’s hands before they’d get out of their cars.” Well, …

Great Western Train Race, C’mon Michigan

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 28, 2007April 4, 20072

More on that train race out west that I wrote about earlier this month.Â Metro, the transit agency in Phoenix, is asking the state for $1.7 billion to accelerate construction on the 57-mile light rail system that is being built,Â and to add more than 20 new miles to the system by 2027. This according to the Arizona Republic. That’s the very same strategy that Salt Lake City voters approved in November when they raised the sales …