The Metropolitan Council recently took public comment on an
amendment to add 58 transportation projects totaling $159 million in federal funding to its
project list known as the “TIP.” These projects were selected by the Met
Council’s Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) in 2012. The applications were
first submitted back in 2011.
Here is a sample of four of 58 projects being funded—one
from each of the four categories and the amount of federal funding to be
awarded:
$6 $7 million widening of TH116 in Anoka County
from two lanes to four lanes in the cities of Andover and Ham Lake (Surface
Transportation Program category)
$1 million for an extension of the Point Douglas
Regional Trail in Washington County (Transportation Enhancement category)
$6.4 million for improved bus service on
Snelling Avenue in Saint Paul (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Category)
$1.6 million for replacement of a Hennepin
County bridge on TH46 over Godfrey Parkway in Minneapolis (Bridge Improvement
and Replacement Category)
Click
here for the full list of projects by category.
As a fairly new member of the Transportation Advisory Board,
let me attempt to decode how this process works.
Every couple of years, the Twin Cities region decides how to
spend a good chunk of federal transportation funds—approximately $160 million
to $180 million. The Twin Cities Transportation
Advisory Board (TAB) is tasked with running a process to make these funding
decisions. TAB, an extension of the Metropolitan Council, is comprised
of 33 members including elected officials.
The federal funding allocated by TAB is a relatively small amount
compared to larger sums of state and federal transportation funding that MnDOT,
and to a lesser extent, the Met Council and regional transit agencies,
allocate. However, the variety of transportation projects that can be funded
with this money is less constrained (i.e. no state constitutional limits
restricting funds for “highway purposes only”), and could have a greater amount
of public input.
The Transportation Advisory Board (with assistance from a
Technical Advisory Committee) creates funding categories and develops detailed
scoring criteria to select what it believes is the best slate of projects proposed
by local units of government and other public agencies. The Regional Solicitation process gives all
cities and counties in the region an opportunity to submit projects for TAB’s consideration.
When approved, the Metropolitan Council will add this new roster
of 58 projects to its running list—the Transportation
Improvement Program (TIP) document. These projects are planned for
implementation over the next few years. The
TIP includes a listing of all road, bridge, transit, and non-motorized
projects in the region funded with federal money.
Advocates should take note that local decision-making about
how to spend much of this federal money has great flexibility, particularly in the
category called the Surface Transportation Program (STP).
Unfortunately, the TIP amendment is the end of a lengthy
project selection process and, as such, is not the best
opportunity to shape outcomes. So where does the greatest opportunity for
public impact lie?
The key shapers of outcomes are: 1) how the regional solicitation
is designed, 2) the TAB policies that put certain projects in certain
categories, and 3) the scoring criteria and selection of projects by the TAB/Met
Council.
Given recent changes in federal law, the Met Council has
recognized the need to re-assess, from the ground up, the categories, selection
process, and scoring criteria for this flexible federal funding. The Council is
also developing a new long-range regional plan (Thrive MSP), which will inform
the Council’s Transportation Policy Plan, which then informs how money, including
this federal funding, gets spent.
Bottom line: As we’ve reported previously, how Twin Cities
residents get around is changing greatly, with less car travel and far more
transit, bicycling, and walking (partly made possible by more compact,
mixed-use development and improving transportation options). The biggest
opportunity for change will come in the future when there is an opportunity to
influence the criteria and policies that drive the type of projects that can be
submitted and how they are scored. Stay tuned for future communications about opportunities
to help shape how our region grows and how it invests federal, state, and local
resources.
New
data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show the average
American drove 9,360 miles in 2012—44 fewer miles than they drove in 2011. More
surprising is that the peak in miles driven per
person (aka vehicle miles traveled, VMT) occurred back in 2004, when
Americans, on average, drove 10,118 miles. Driving per person is down 7.5
percent over the last 8 years. This persistent decrease in driving is occurring
as transit ridership, bicycling, and walking are all increasing (e.g. The American
Public Transit Public Association just announced
a record 10.5 billion rides on US public transit in 2012; the 2012
Bike Walk Twin Cities Count Report shows that in the Twin Cities over the
last 6 years bicycling is up by 51 percent and walking by 24 percent).
Looking at this trend in a different way, the FHWA also reports
total miles driven in the US rose
slightly in 2012, but the percentage of the increase was less than the increase
in population for the year. Total miles driven in the US peaked at 3 trillion
in 2006 and 2007, and hasn’t hit the 3-trillion-per-year mark again since.
A variety of factors have been cited
for the decline, including retiring Baby Boomers; less enthusiasm for cars
among Millennials; a move in many places toward more compact and mixed-use
development; and demand-side policy efforts, including TDM [travel demand
management], tolling, and market-pricing of parking. In addition, some trends
that fueled VMT growth in the last century have eased: The transition toward women
working outside the home is essentially complete, car-ownership has gone from
rare to common, and people’s time budgets for car travel may have reached their
maximum.
As we await the release of Minnesota’s own 2012 numbers
this May or June, what might the national decline in driving tell us about the future?
It’s good for the air, public health, and
community livability.
This decline in driving should give us pause
about adding to the size of our state highway system. Minnesota already has a
large road network (the 5th largest road system in the US, and 8th
largest regional highway system in the US), and in the future we could have trouble
maintaining a highway system that doesn’t align with driving trends.
Our state should also consider and respond to the
preferences of residents as we make investments. A recent statewide poll found widespread
agreement among Minnesotans that transit is a good investment for the state,
and also that building more roads will not solve traffic congestion alone.
We hope these changing travel patterns will mean
a greater focus on investment in transit service and repair of the roadway
system we have. The trends also reinforce the goal of retrofitting more of our roadway
networks as complete streets—safer for people who are choosing different ways
to get around.
For more on driving trends in Minnesota see information
from MnDOT here (PDF).
Recent TLC blogs have reported on a number of local
highlights for transit in 2012. (Not to miss: Dave Van Hattum’s “Twin
Cities Transitways Update.”) In this new guest post, Aaron Isaacs recaps a
very full year nationally for bus rapid transit (BRT) and notes advances in
streetcars, light rail, and commuter rail.
Bus Rapid Transit services were launched or expanded in Chicago and several other cities across the US in 2012. Photo credit: Chicago Transit Authority.
Bus Rapid Transit
(BRT)
After a long gestation, bus rapid transit is finally taking
off. Many transit systems are
adding bus rapid transit as a higher speed, limited stop service in traditional
local bus corridors, incorporating typical light rail improvements such as
full-fledged stations with real-time departure displays, off-board fare
collection, and distinctive, high-amenity buses. Traffic signal priority is
common and a key feature of this service.
Bus rapid transit typically operates in dedicated on-street bus lanes,
although there is usually some mileage in mixed traffic.
BRT advocates have pushed for BRT on exclusive
rights-of-way, such as along abandoned railroads. But when that type of
corridor has been available, light rail usually has been the mode of choice.
For the Twin Cities, the launch of a new Cedar
Avenue BRT line will begin service in 2013, but 2012 saw several new BRT
openings across the country:
In Chicago, the
Jeffery Jump, a limited stop service, uses a new on-street bus lane on the
southeast side of the city, supplementing local service.
The Las VegasSahara Avenue
Corridor, a 12-mile BRT line, is part of a “Complete Streets”
reconstruction, with wide sidewalks, landscaping in
the median, dedicated bus lanes in certain areas of the corridor, and street
trees. It operates with double-deck buses and
raised station platforms that minimize the first step into the low-floor buses.
Monterey,
California, has implemented the 6.75-mile JAZZBRT. In addition to the usual
amenities, each bus shelter has a pair of video cameras to deter crime. At each
stop a bar code can be scanned with a smart phone and it will link the person
to a live recording of a performance from that year’s Monterey Jazz Festival.
Stockton, California, of all places,
has opened its third BRT route, the 6.3-mile Joaquin
Hammer Lane Corridor, with off-board fare collection and signal
priority. They report a tripling of ridership compared to the local buses that
preceded the BRT.
San Antonio’s
new Primo BRT has CNG-powered buses, free Wi-Fi, and LRT-style bike racks
inside the bus. An innovation to consider adopting here is the rear facing,
self-restraint wheelchair spot. The passenger in the wheelchair backs up
against a bulkhead and doesn’t need to be belted in by the driver--quite a time
saver.
New BRT vehicles in San Antonio are designed to make boarding easier and faster for passengers, including those using wheelchairs and boarding with bikes. Photo Credit: Via Primo
Streetcars
Modern streetcar pioneer Portland, Oregon, doubled its mileage with the opening of the
3.3-mile Eastside Loop. Following Portland’s lead, there has been a wave of
streetcar studies and construction starts across the nation, and some of those
will open in 2013.
Celebrating Portland's streetcar expansion, November 2012. Portland's streetcar vehicles are made in the U.S. Photo credit: Portland Streetcar, Inc.
Light Rail
Established light rail systems keep expanding. In Dallas, the Blue Line Extension
(4.5 miles) and the Orange Line
Phase 1 (5.4 miles) bring their system to 58 miles.
With the Blue Line Extension in 2012, Dallas added 4.5 miles of LRT service to the city's growing transit system. Photo credit: Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)
Los Angeles
opened the 6.5-mile Phase I of its Expo Line LRT, bringing the system mileage
to 60. Ironically, it uses the right of way of one of the former Pacific
Electric “Red Car” interurban lines, which was run out of business by auto
competition in the 1950s.
Sacramento
and Pittsburgh each added one-mile
extensions to their existing LRT systems.
Heavy and
Commuter Rail
Miami’s
heavy rail metro finally reached the International Airport, increasing the
system to 22 miles.
Both the West Coast and the East Coast saw an
expansion of commuter rail lines in 2012. Seattle’s
Sounder rehabbed a run-down branch line to extend service to Lakewood, Washington. On the opposite
coast, Boston’s MBTA made a further
extension beyond Providence, Rhode Island, down the high-speed Northeast
Corridor to Wickford. Although known
for Amtrak service, six local transit authorities run commuter trains over most
of the Northeast Corridor.
In the transportation and land use realm, Los Angeles has earned
an infamous reputation as a car-dependent metropolitan region with major air
quality problems. Today, however, a historic shift is underway and politicians,
planners, and citizens are rallying around a long-term vision of greatly
expanded transportation options and reinvigorated communities.
In mid-October I attended Rail~Volution 2012 in Hollywood
and saw firsthand the Los Angeles area’s extensive subway, surface rail, and
bus system that, thanks to Los Angeles County voters, will grow tremendously in
the decades ahead, transcending L.A.’s
image as a land of ubiquitous freeways. As Christopher Leinberger, a developer
turned researcher/advocate, noted during the conference, “the drivable suburban
fringe collapsed over the past half-decade” and it would be wise to plan for
new forms of land use and development going forward. It seems we can
increasingly look to the Los Angeles metropolitan area for this type of
thinking put to action.
Growing options for
getting around the Los Angeles area. (Photos courtesy of Barb Thoman)
Throughout my visit, I was struck both by the exciting transformation
taking place in the region and by the long arc of transit advocacy. Rail~Volution
began in 1995 in Portland and has since become a national, annual event where
public transit advocates and implementers share their homegrown experience and
evolving visions and philosophies. At a reception this year, I serendipitously
chatted with a Sacramento transit planner and former Minneapolis resident who
lobbied in the 1970s for creation of the Hiawatha LRT line that eventually
opened in 2004. It reinforced my sense
that while
good ideas often take time, they prevail through the committed efforts of
visionary leaders and engaged citizens. Transportation is both access to
opportunity and a major shaper of the places we call home. Consequently, we all
have a stake and we should all be advocates for “building livable communities
with transit,” the theme of Rail~Volution 2012.
The latest news on long-term trends in the national transportation
landscape informed many Rail-Volution sessions. As presenters emphasized, transit,
biking, and walking rates continue to rise steadily and greater investment in
transit is increasingly on the ballot and supported by local voters across the
country. The market continues to grow for housing and offices near good transit
and walkable streets. And new technology regularly opens up exciting new
possibilities from tracking bike and pedestrian trips (and comfort level) to
the potential for the 3D
Express Coach, a radical new hybrid of transit and highways.
Ample pedestrian lanes encourage foot traffic through a shopping area in Pasadena. (Photo courtesy of Kathie Doty)
Appropriately, most of the Rail~Volution sessions also
included a multi-dimensional approach—i.e. transit and housing, and community
development, and school access—that simply wasn’t taught to or practiced by
transportation planners and engineers who designed most of the roads, parking
structures, and transit systems in place today. This new, integrated approach
is leading to significant institutional changes. L.A. Metro, for example, has a
new definition for the "highest and best use” of land it owns near transit
stations. The new definition considers the long-term importance of affordable
housing (which translates into more future transit customers), not just the
highest short-term monetary return. And across the country, realtors, housing
developers, and home buyers can easily
assess the combined cost of housing and transportation at any precise
location.
While an arc of successful transportation advocacy can already
be seen in the inspiring Rail~Volution workshops, the L.A. tours of abundant LRT,
BRT, heavy rail, and lots of new bike lanes, and the large contingent of
attendees from the Twin Cities (over 80), the impetus for Rail~Volution is far
from over. Success has brought new challenges including an anti-tax movement
that is anti-transit, efforts to block local planning initiatives, and a lack
of federal leadership evident in MAP 21 (the recent federal transportation law)
that could negatively affect funding for transportation options in Minnesota. .
Since 1996, Transit for Livable Communities has strived to
bring long-range and holistic perspectives (and action) to the design of the
Twin Cities transportation system. Designing
a fair and effective transportation system has always been, and will continue
to be, a challenging endeavor. Getting it right depends on clear values, innovative
policy, and thoughtful definition of obstacles, as well as smart technology and
educated community members. Most importantly, it depends on involving all
stakeholders in a meaningful manner. We will continue to build a strong
coalition of partners advocating for the world-class transit/bike/walk systems
our region deserves. We will learn from other forward-thinking metro areas like
Los Angeles along the way, and expand this dynamic conversation about livable
communities when Rail~Volution comes to the Twin Cities in 2014.
In July, President Obama signed a new transportation law: MAP-21. The new law ran 600-pages and is effective for 27-months (significantly less time than previous transportation laws). Transit for Livable Communities and advocates for transportation reform across the US were disappointed that many of the forward-thinking provisions in the Senate bill were traded away in conference committee.
We greatly appreciate the phone calls and letters from our members over the past two years which were key to defeating some terrible proposals advanced by the US House—proposals to make funding for transit less secure and to eliminate bicycle and pedestrian projects from funding eligibility.
The bill that emerged from the House and Senate conference committee did not include House demands for approval of the Canadian-backed oil pipeline (Keystone XL) or a prohibition of the regulation of toxic coal ash. But traded away were provisions to ensure a “state of good repair” on US roads and bridges, provisions to improve freight rail, a portion of the dedicated funding for bicycling and walking, and other elements key to improved safety, accountability, and expanded transportation options.
Click here for TLC’s statement on the new law and here for Transportation for America’s recap of the top 10 things to know about the new law. On behalf of Transit for Livable Communities and our members, I sit on the executive committee of Transportation for America (T4A), a national coalition working for a healthy transportation system that is ready for the rapidly changing economy of the 21st century.
As you read my statement and the T4A blog, here is some background to keep in mind about the role federal funding plays for transportation in Minnesota.
Minnesota, as with all states, receives federal transportation revenue in proportion to its estimated share of gas taxes paid, plus a subsidy from general revenues. Minnesota’s annual federal support is approximately $700 million.
The majority of federal transportation funding falls under the jurisdiction of state departments of transportation (DOT) but a portion is allocated directly to metro regions. In Minnesota, that includes the Metropolitan Council and seven planning areas in Greater Minnesota.
Federal funding is particularly important in Minnesota because the majority of state revenue for transportation—approximately $1.7 billion annually—is dedicated in Minnesota’s constitution to “highway purposes.” Federal transportation funding supports a wider range of transportation projects for Minnesotans, from road and bridge construction and maintenance to new rail projects, bus operations and maintenance, bicycle and pedestrian projects and safety efforts.
Federal funding facilitates a wide range of transportation projects in Minnesota.
In 2012, federal transportation revenue is contributing to the construction of nearly 100 separate projects in the metro area (plus at least 100 projects in Greater Minnesota), including Central Corridor LRT, the Mississippi River Regional Trail in Spring Lake Park and Rosemount, the widening of Highway 10 in Anoka County, and replacement of the Lafayette Bridge over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul.
At TLC, with your help, we will continue to build the movement to support multimodal transportation investments, in our state and at the federal level. Given that MAP-21 is only a 27-month law, the work begins now for a better transportation law next time. Join us!
By Dave Van Hattum, Senior Policy Advocate, & Bill Neuendorf, Director of Policy and Advocacy
The Met Council has recently begun a two-year process to update its long-range development plan for the Twin Cities region. Known as Thrive MSP 2040, the over-arching regional plan creates the foundation for four system plans – Transportation, Aviation, Water Resources, and Parks. If done well, this plan will provide a persuasive, strategic vision for the region, including greatly expanded, more affordable and sustainable transportation choices.
Thrive MSP on Metropolitan Council web site
Other regions similar to the Twin Cities have recently completed long-range regional plans or regional transportation plans. While each is unique to the region and its people, the plans emerging from our peers in Atlanta, Denver, Portland, Salt Lake City, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Seattle share a number of key themes. Here are ten themes consistently advanced by our peer cities.
1) An inspiring, non-bureaucratic, name for the plan. Regional planning documents are now being written for the general public not just government agencies. Their names are meant to inspire action rather than be cataloged on a shelf. Salt Lake City’s plan is called “Wasatch Choice” while San Francisco’s transportation/land use plan is entitled “Change in Motion”.
2) Well defined metrics of success. Measures of progress are identified in advance and in plain English. The use of quantifiable goals increases understanding, transparency and accountability
3) Explicit attention to equity considerations. It is not good enough to assume that equitable opportunities will magically happen for people of all incomes and ethnic backgrounds. Specific steps are identified so that public investments benefit all people. One of the leading regions is San Francisco, whose plans call for equitable mobility and access “for all Bay Area residents and visitors, regardless of race, age, income or disability”.
Regional Plans for San Francisco, Salt Lake, Denver, and Atlanta
4) Future development targeted in well-defined centers. Places like Denver and Seattle identify strategic centers and corridors as higher priorities for investment and redevelopment.
5) New road pricing strategies. Innovative road pricing strategies, such as rush-hour tolls on congested highways, can promote consistent travel times, encourage transit and carpooling, and achieve the highest people-moving results from all transportation investments.
6) Reprioritization of new public investment. After decades focused on highways, regions such as San Francisco and Denver now place greater emphasis on transit and bicycling infrastructure.
7) Cross-silo innovation. Results-oriented plans realize that comprehensive outcomes can best be achieved by breaking the mold of traditional governmental departments and agencies. In San Francisco, multi-jurisdictional programs are grounded in the Three E’s of Sustainability: economy, environment, and equity. The identification of broad contextual goals supports policy makers in taking actions that deviate from outdated programs that may no longer deliver the most effective results.
8) Making the business case. To promote implementation of the plan, peer regions have embraced input from the community and business-sector from the earliest stages. Sincere collaboration between public and private sectors has resulted in more holistic buy-in. Salt Lake City is a particularly strong example.
9) Technical assistance to local government. Educational materials, best-practice guides, and other types of technical assistance are frequently provided to local municipalities. These materials and programs simplify and promote the implementation of regional policies at the local level.
10) New public involvement strategies. In San Francisco, for example, they are not merely holding formal public hearings. They are also seeking direct input via on-the-street interviews and collecting ideas in non-traditional places.
Much can be learned from the bold strategies incorporated elsewhere in the U.S. Meaningful public involvement will be necessary so that policy makers include the best options to make the Twin Cities an even better place to live and do business in the years ahead.
The Metropolitan Council has launched the process for creating a new long range regional plan, called Thrive MSP. Transit for Livable Communities recently testified (pdf) before the Council with recommendations for the long-range vision. We’re also keeping an eye on transit, bicycling, and walking in other cities. Los Angeles and Charlotte are two regions charting a new course.
Los Angeles. A recent blog post from Barb Thoman described the exciting additions to the transit system in Los Angeles. LA is rapidly moving from the land of freeways to the land of transit options, including rapid bus, light rail and commuter rail. While Barb looked primarily at Metro, the main transit provider in Los Angeles, equivalent to our Metro Transit, this piece shifts the focus to the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), the equivalent of our region’s Metropolitan Council.
Major transit projects coming in Southern California. Credit: http://scagrtp.net/
Nearly HALF of the $525 billion transportation plan is directed to public transit.
Funding for bicycling and walking increases by over 350% from $1.8 to $6.7 billion.
Nearly 90% of all jobs will be ½ mile or less from public transit.
60% more housing near transit than is currently available.
Achieves a 24% reduction in pollution-caused respiratory problems, resulting in $1.5 billion per year in health care savings.
Southern California bicycle network. Credit: http://scagrtp.net/
The Sustainable Communities Strategy was motivated by California’s groundbreaking SB 375 legislation, which requires local governments to plan for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions via transportation and land use strategies. The transportation plan shows the way forward to sustainable economic development, improved public health, more equitable access to opportunity, reduced traffic congestion, and open space preservation. In adopting this plan, LA political leaders are following the call of more than 18 million residents who, according to poll results described in Amada Eaken’s Switchboard blog, “want more public transportation, more money to go toward making walking and biking safer, and more opportunities to live near their jobs and daily needs” and who see “building new roads as the least effective way to solve traffic congestion.”
Charlotte. Charlotte, N.C., has gained a new reputation as a city that embraces light rail, commuter rail, and enhanced walkability and bicycle friendliness. Charlotte, over the past decade, was the fastest growing city in the country with over 1 million residents. During that time, Charlotte decidedly moved away from low density single use development and made consistent strides to create a more vibrant downtown, rejuvenate urban neighborhoods, and expand housing along transit lines. This recent post from The Atlantic Cities describes Charlotte’s transformation.
Transit-oriented development in Charlotte. Credit: Charlotte Area Transit System
City leaders credit much of the transformation to the changing preferences of the thousands of young workers flocking to the city. These workers, for the most part, don’t want suburban office locations with limited transportation and housing options. Tom Flynn, Charlotte’s former Economic Development Director, notes that “the city’s business community led the effort to transform the city in order to retrain talent.”
Back to the Minneapolis Saint Paul region. Clearly, our metropolitan region’s ability to grow the economy will depend largely upon attracting and retaining employers and workers. The various components of a high-level of quality of life are increasingly important, including transit and walkable, bikable neighborhoods. A look at the intriguing new video of the Southwest LRT alignment captures the possibilities for transforming streets, cities, and region to increase transportation choices and livability.
This week, transit bonding bills began to be heard in Committee – in the Senate Capital Investment Committee on Monday and in the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday. Governor Dayton’s bonding proposal includes $25 million to the Metropolitan Council to cover a portion of the preliminary engineering costs for the Southwest LRT.
A strong lineup of testifiers (from local and county governments and the Met Council to Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce) stressed the economic returns from investing in the Southwest LRT, the financial commitment to the project by county government, and the rigorous process by which light rail transit was chosen for this corridor. A recent blog by Governor Dayton relays similar benefits and highlights the positive impact on jobs and the environment (see link).
As we build out a regional system of transitways, state general obligation bonding is expected to cover 10% of the total capital costs. The other 90% will come from the federal government (50%) the Counties Transit Improvement Board (30%) and the counties (10%) through which the line travels. Few, if any, other projects being considered for general obligation bonding will leverage nine additional dollars for every state dollar invested.
Bonding bills for several other transit projects, while not in the Governor’s bonding bill, are also being heard. These include:
Gateway (I-94 E) Corridor
The Minneapolis Interchange (a transit station at Twins Stadium, where multiple lines beyond the Hiawatha and Northstar will eventually converge).
Red Rock Transitway (freight rail improvements that will help move this project forward).
Lake Street and I-35W Transit Station (creation of a center median transit facility similar to that at 46th St. and I-35W).
Maple Grove Transit Station
Greater Minnesota transit facilities, in Mankato, Duluth and St. Cloud
Additional transit bonding bills have been submitted for Bottineau Corridor, Cedar Avenue BRT, and Robert St. Corridor. Hearings on these bills have not yet been scheduled by the House Transportation Committee
While TLC strongly supports bonding that helps advance the build out of a regional transit system, we recognize the particular urgency of the Southwest bonding request this legislative session. Quite simply, if bonding for Southwest LRT is not passed this session, it could seriously delay and/or jeopardize the prospect of receiving $625 million in federal matching funds. The Twin Cities competes with metro regions across the country for these competitive FTA funds, and our peer regions would be more than happy to take our place in line for the limited federal funding.
Streetcars could be returning to Minneapolis or Saint Paul in the not too distant future. Both cities have studies underway to determine the feasibility of streetcars in several different corridors. In Minneapolis, focus is on Nicollet Ave and Central Ave, with discussion as well about lines along the Midtown Greenway and in North Minneapolis, along Broadway. Specific corridors have not been identified in Saint Paul, but it is likely they would intersect with the Central Corridor LRT and/or be on corridors with very high bus ridership.
Streetcars are similar to light rail transit vehicles – both are powered by overhead electric – but streetcars are considerably lighter and cheaper to build than light rail vehicles. Today’s new streetcar lines typically are 1 to 4 miles long, travel in the road with other vehicles, make more frequent stops (every few blocks) than LRT trains, but carry fewer people than light rail.
Streetcars are particularly attractive due to their ability to spur economic development. The 3 mile Portland Streetcar, located in the downtown Pearl District, cost of $57 million to build and led to more than $3.5 billion in new development within two blocks in less than a decade after opening in 2001. Development within a block of the streetcar accounted for 55% of all central business district development since 1997. Combined with a major brownfield redevelopment, excellent pedestrian facilities, and decreased parking, Portland’s first line led to an average density of 131 housing units per acre.
A car of the Portland Streetcar system at the eastbound Portland State University stop.
Interestingly, the FTA New Starts and Small Starts program (which provides matching funds for light rail and streetcars) has funded nine streetcars in the last five years. New Streetcar lines are under construction in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Portland, Saint Louis, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Tucson. Charlotte, Dallas and Tampa have recently received funding from the Federal Transit Administration to pursue streetcar lines.
Recent proposed changes to the FTA New Starts/Small Starts program will increase the likelihood of federal funding for a local streetcar project. The challenge for streetcar enthusiasts in the Twin Cities, however, is the lack of a local funding source. Often new streetcar lines are funded with municipal funding sources like property taxes, parking taxes, or development fees. Neither the ¼ cent regional sales tax for transitways (administered by CTIB) nor Metro Transit’s revenue sources (e.g. motor vehicle sales tax, general fund) are envisioned as likely funding source for streetcars.
The potential of streetcars to create neighborhoods where reduced (and no) car ownership is practical, and to complement a regional system of bus and rail, should engage the attention of local policymakers. Streetcars, like the impressive potential of rapid bus, call out the need for expanded investment in public transit. TLC will continue to advocate for increased transit funding for regional and local transit, including streetcars.
From Dave Van Hattum, Policy and Advocacy Program Manager
President Obama, in his State of the Union address (1/31/12), put forward two initiatives that would have huge impacts on transit projects. Firstly, the President proposed using future savings in the defense budget to rebuild our nation’s physical infrastructure; and secondly, he directed all federal agencies to reduce bureaucracy and waste, including the New Starts program that funds major transitways, including light rail transit, bus rapid transit, and commuter rail. TLC's first look at the new rules yields the following summary.
The proposed changes to the New Starts program are designed to speed up the start-to-finish process. This is to be accomplished by granting pre-qualification warrants (based on ridership and cost estimates based on census data and post-data from comparable corridors), reducing the complexity of cost-effectiveness calculations, and eliminating repetitive analyses. This is smart policy that could help speed up the build out of our metro transitway system (pdf).
New Starts projects are competitively funded based on cost-effectiveness, environmental benefits and economic development benefits. The proposed rules place greater emphasis on social equity and economic development impacts. Social equity receives higher priority in three ways.
The benefit side of the cost-effectiveness calculation will be based on total rides rather than total travel time savings. This change reduces the emphasis on attracting new riders, shifting the focus to those locations where there are the largest number of riders. This will tend to advantage core city and first ring suburbs, where housing and employment density is greater. There also are more low income residents and people of color in these areas (though the demographic makeup of the core and first ring suburbs is changing). The environmental rating will continue to include a calculation of car travel (VMT) reduction, which will still confer benefits to longer transit trips.
Transit dependent riders are counted double. Low-income individuals and people of color are far more likely to be transit dependent.
Higher scores will go to transitways where “policies maintaining or increasing affordable housing are in place.”
The proposed rules also tweak the assessment of economic development resulting from a proposed new rail line. The local economic development impacts of a new LRT line are typically significant. The Central Corridor Investment Framework, for example, projects $6 billion in mostly private investment along the corridor over the next 20 to 30 years. Accurately predicting these outcomes, however, is quite challenging, as many factors (global and local economy, road investment, etc.) besides the increased transit access are in play.
The proposed rules ultimately make a relatively small change in the assessment of economic development impacts. Applicants, per the new rules, would have the option to make the case “beyond current land use plans” for broader economic impacts that would improve the overall rating for their project. FTA suggests that applicants develop scenario-based estimates of how greater density decreases car travel. The agency also commits to a broader inclusion of the economic development impacts of higher housing and employment density, “once better measures for agglomeration effects are developed.”
It seems fair to conclude that regions able to show how a proposed transitway will result in more dense or compact land use will be better positioned to receive federal funding via the New Starts program. Of course, there is a chicken or egg quality to the timing of building new rail lines and changing local land use plans and zoning. That’s why TLC will continue to advocate both for the investment necessary to speed up the build out of regional transitways and for a new regional plan (see Met Council update of Regional Development Framework) that provides incentives for locating more housing and employment near transitways (LRT, BRT, and commuter rail) and high frequency bus service.
Recent Comments