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Crosstown Traffic
Crosstown Traffic is all about getting around in the Triangle. Bad drivers and traffic hassles. Gas taxes and transportation politics. Public transit and other auto alternatives.
The blog is maintained by N&O transportation reporter Bruce Siceloff, whose Road Worrier column is published each Tuesday.
This traffic is two-way. What do you think? Leave a comment or email Bruce with questions, links, tips or gripes.
Transit bill re-introduces the local-option, half-cent sales tax
Sen. Richard Stevens, a Wake Republican, and Rep. Becky Carney, a Mecklenburg Democrat, are signing up a bipartisan mix of urban and rural co-sponsors for legislation to set up state and local funding options for rail and transit improvements.
House Bill 148, Congestion Relief / Intermodal Transport Fund, would create a state structure (without putting any money in it, yet) for investing in freight and passenger rail, port improvements, and urban and rural transit.
It would give Triangle and other urban counties a local option to levy a half-cent sales tax for transit, if approved by county commissioners and by voters in a referendum.
In a change from similar bills that were proposed last year, this measure would give voters in all other counties -- instead of just those near urban areas -- the option for a quarter-cent transit tax.
Charlotte's recent success with transit has shown other cities that rail and bus improvements can help guide growth and stimulate economic development, Carney said.
“This bill is a planning toolbox for county governments across the state to start planning a transit system," Carney said. "Transit is a growing part of the infrastructure debate nationally. And the counties and the states that have transit plans developed are going to be the winners of federal funding.”
Primary sponsors along with Carney are Democrats Deborah Ross of Wake and Lucy Allen of Franklin, and Republican Bill McGee of Forsyth.
Several Triangle legislators and county officials have balked at the local option proposal. Some of them question whether transit should get top priority for any new local tax revenues. Others criticize the sales tax as unfair to low-income residents, or suggest that this is a bad year even to talk about any kind of tax hike.
Ross said she was optimistic.
“Given the diversity of the people who are interested in it right now, and the generous support we have gotten from everybody from the Chamber of Commerce to the Sierra Club, I think it has a fighting chance,” Ross said.
Stevens has filed a similar Senate Bill 151.
Bruce Siceloff
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. An N&O reporter and editor since 1976, he took over the Road Worrier column in 2003. Lately he drives I-40 with the cruise control set at 62 mph. E-mail Bruce or call him at 919-829-4527.
Comments
Try try again!
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 14:28 — RonBRe-reading the similar blog post last year (and my comment), I am glad to see Carney leading the way again. I hope members of the Triangle's State Govenerment delegation all pull the same direction instead of playing tug-of-war, causing the last bill's demise in committee.
Yes, the poor are disproportionately burdened by a higher sales tax, but they disproportionately stand to *gain* by having better mass transit options. The *freedom* of not having to purchase, insure, maintain, refuel, and park a personal vehicle is more than made up from the half cent sales tax.
DATA, CAT, Triangle Transit, C-TRAN, etc. are *not* viable options in their current form, but options of last resort. From the infrequency of service to poor conditions at bus "stops", funding mass transit at current levels has created an inefficient system that has been unable to keep up with the growth of the area over the last 10-20 years.
This will go a long way toward fixing the sins of the past and plotting an efficient, sustainable path to the future.
Though none of this will work if planning and land use are not kept in check, creating an expanded sprawl of wasteland.
It's not just rail but is primarily buses
Thu, 02/12/2009 - 12:05 — johnshawtangoz, in his comment, referred to light rail. He and the readers must be reminded that most of the transit will be by bus. Buses can serve most of the county. All or almost all can be served by bus with park and ride. Rather than driving all the way into the city, commuters can drive to a nearby parking lot and then ride a bus into downtown.
While I already sometimes ride the train from downtown Raleigh to Cary, I more often ride the bus. Either way, I can park in the free parking lot at the Cary train and bus station.
It is true that this is not a good time to ask the voters to raise taxes. However, there are cycles in the economy. The bills just introduced will give counties the authority to hold a referendum and, if approved, increase taxes. By the time the bill is passed and the county schedules a referendum we may be in full recovery. If not, the county can wait until the proper time to hold a referendum. But they should be given the authority now.
10 years late but better late than never
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 22:13 — orulzIf you want to get right down to it, creating alternatives to driving everywhere is essential to our national security. As long as we are importing billions of dollars of oil from Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela every year, we are funding our enemies. They KNOW that we're so hooked on driving, more and more each year. They laugh about it.
Our parents spent their lives transforming our cities into this unsustainable "American Dream-world" where everything is miles and miles apart from everything else and it's only possible to get around if you lug 3,000 pounds of steel and plastic with you. That dream lasted about 60 years, and it only worked because we were so much stronger and richer than the rest of the world. But with the rise of globalization, the era where we alone can control the world's agenda is over.
We must spend our lives reversing the trend. We must find ways to maintain our quality of life without such massive consumption of land and resources. The metamorphasis will be slow, no doubt, but if we want our great-great-grandchildren to be proud of their country, and if we don't want to gradually slide into irrelevance, we have to get started. Transit is unmistakably a part of the solution. This first transit line will help, but anyone who expects it to be the silver bullet is mistaken. It will take a lifetime. Do we have the resolve and focus to see this through? I don't know, but I sure hope so.
BTW - If I could have my way, I'd get rid of the highway trust fund
established in the 80s to build NEW loop freeways (which just encourage
more and more driving) and divert that money to a combination of road maintenance and transit. An
increase in transit spending is less meaningful unless accompanied by a
corresponding decrease in highway spending. But for now, a sales tax will do.
Light rail doesn't work and will not work here
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 20:29 — tangozTransit across the country including Charlotte does not work. Riders in Charlotte are only paying for 9% of each ride with the taxpayers picking up the rest. And we are too spread out for it to work here. And in this economy the legislature needs to have the guts to pass a tax increase or shut up. Putting this on the voters is a cop out. I say NO to any tax increase in this economy. Especially when you are asking a majority of taxpayers to pay for something a very tiny percentage of people will use. Light rail is another government boondoggle.
Roads pay for themselves?
Fri, 02/13/2009 - 13:32 — libbynateWhy is it that the demand light rail or any mass transit project to pay for itsself by ridership while we do not demand that roads pay for themselves?
Well I dont know, what will
Sun, 04/19/2009 - 01:35 — tolo87Well I dont know, what will that all mean when they issued this tax? Joe Barry