Interesting transportation things

[202_Cyclist]

Remember when the British attacked LaGuardia airport?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/u...onary-war.html

We should have let them have Newark…

[mrnyc]

london is looking at going next level in congestion pricing --



Fears Sadiq Khan will bring in pay-per-mile road taxes after spending £3m on project

Gareth Corfield
Tue, April 9, 2024

more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fears-sad...200000484.html

[Swede]

Fears?

A km-tax for cars (scaled by vehicle weight) is the way we're all going. Gas taxes will net the governments less and less money. To make up for it you've got to basically do this, or introduce some *serious* taxes on car tyres as the new proxy for road usage.

[TowerDude]

Infrastructure should be financed through general taxation not "usage fees" masquerading as social engineering.

[202_Cyclist]

Dude-- the people who use the infrastructure and create the costs paid by others (congestion, pollution, traffic fatalities, etc...) should pay most of the costs of it. Yes, there are societal benefits from infrastructure and general fund money should contribute based on these benefits but user-pay is a sound method of financing transportation.

[jmecklenborg]

I just ran across this image of the old Dixie Terminal streetcar ramps in Cincinnati. These ramps afforded Kentucky streetcars a grade separated entrance into downtown:


The original ramps:


The replacement ramps, that were built around 1960:


The ramps were removed when the interstate highway trench was rebuilt into its current form in 1999. Kentucky buses now use a different bridge and make a circuitous lap around downtown. It's a far slower setup from the bus company's perspective, but flimsily justified by the argument that the buses come closer to more people. In the past, the Kenton and Boone County streetcars and buses did not operate on the streets of Ohio at all - only to and from the terminal building. Meanwhile, streetcars and buses from Campbell County always used a different bridge and did operate on the DT Cincinnati streets.

There was no law preventing Kentucky streetcars and buses from operating in Ohio, but after Cincinnati Transit became SORTA, there was a law preventing Ohio buses from picking up or dropping off passengers in Kentucky. The buses, however, could travel through Kentucky and back into Ohio without stopping, which several actually do:





Here is a short documentary on the Dixie Terminal building:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYFUJR5P05Q

[Busy Bee]

Nice

[mrnyc]

post covid transit continues to recover — now to 79% pre covid levels —



Rail News: Rail Industry Trends

APTA: Transit-ridership levels continue post-pandemic recovery
4/11/2024


Public transit ridership has recovered to 79% of pre-pandemic levels after falling to 20% of pre-pandemic levels in April 2020, the American Public Transportation Association(APTA) announced this week.

Transit riders took 7.1 billion trips in 2023, a 16% increase over 2022's level, APTA officials said in a press release. Public transportation ridership levels increased throughout last year, even though office occupancy rates remained stagnant, according to an APTA policy brief.

"Success in ridership recovery has been dependent on transit-service delivery and reliability and external factors, such as the makeup of local economies," said APTA President and CEO Paul Skoutelas. "As clearly illustrated during the pandemic, public transportation provides mobility to essential workers, which has sustained transit ridership over the past four years. Public transit agencies continue to develop innovative solutions that are powering this ridership recover."


more:
https://www.progressiverailroading.c...ecovery--71668


Transit riders took 7.1 billion trips in 2023, a 16% increase over 2022's level, according to APTA. Photo – shutterstock.com