These transportation bills were filed Tuesday in the General Assembly:
- HB 1963 (Brubaker) SPEAK, READ, & WRITE ENGLISH/DRIVER LICENSE (has DMV give driver license exam in English only, requires that applicant "be able to proficiently speak or read and write the English language." No definition of "proficiently.")
- HB 1970 (Holloway) ALLOW DOT TO USE RECYCLED ASPHALT
- HB 1975 (Holliman) EXEMPT DOT EQUITY FUNDS/GARVEE BONDS (federal bonds used for Yadkin River I-85 bridge project would not be subject to equity formula)
- HB 2002 (Gibson) DISAPPROVE HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLE IDLING RULE
- HB 2026 (Cole) ESTABLISH MOBILITY FUND (some details on how the money would be raised (lots of DMV fee hikes, a chunk of the money transferred now from Highway Trust Fund to General Fund, and a change that would effectively hike the Highway Use Tax paid on car sales) and spent (interstate maintenance, city streets, congestion mitigation, mobility enhancement and, first and foremost, widening I-85 near the Yadkin River bridge).
Co-sponsor Rep. Nelson Cole is among legislators who expressed doubts about Perdue's call for fee and tax hikes, after the Senate ignored her Mobility Fund proposal entirely. Here's an explanation of the proposal from Perdue's DOT.
- SB 1377 (Preston) SCHOOL BUS RAILROAD CROSSING EXCEPTION
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter, editor and blogger since 1976, he took over the
Comments
HB 2002 (Gibson) DISAPPROVE HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLE IDLING RULE Read
Thu, 05/27/2010 - 14:15 — wllmsgrgBruce,
What can you tell me about this? I can't find any useful information on the General Assembly site. Please tell me it's not disapproving of a rule that would have forbidden heavy-duty vehicles from sitting there idling uselessly, wasting fossil fuels and polluting the air with carbon dioxide, sulfur compounds, particulates... Also, what vehicles would it include--buses waiting extended periods of times at bus stops? Construction equipment left running while people are on lunch? Tractor trailers at a loading dock?
Thanks!
the rule
Fri, 05/28/2010 - 12:00 — BruceSiceloff (author)You can find text of the rule if you google the rule name listed in the legislation. The rule says not to let a truck idle for more than 5 minutes, but it has a few pages of exemptions so it's hard to tell how extensively it would be applied.
Charlotte, the Triad, and everything inbetween
Wed, 05/26/2010 - 18:07 — RonBTheir slogan is now "What's ours is ours and what's yours is ours."
Leaving the rest of the state with fewer dollars for the increasing number of problems to fix; forget about expansion.
Meanwhile, toll projects jump to the front of the line for funding (despite what some say, tolls do not cover all their projects' costs.)
How many more decades will the Triangle continue to fund the rest of the state's highway system?