Gems from Streetsblog

Streetsblog is a pro-transit, walking, bicycling blog produced in NYC by a group of transportation activists and organizations.

1. Statistics on Velib usage in "How Happy Are Parisians With Vélib?."

2. An economist suggests that having a gas tax holiday could fend off even worse governmental action in "The 18-Cent Solution," from the New York Times. From the article:

I’ve got two arguments in favor of it, though I doubt that either candidate will want to repeat them in public.

The first is that the tax holiday is a relatively cheap symbolic gesture that makes truly bad policies less likely. The main causes of high gas prices are probably factors beyond our control, like rapid growth in China and India and low real interest rates. But voters don’t want to hear this; they want politicians to “do something!”

During our last big energy crisis, in the 1970s, “something” turned out to be a salad of populist nonsense: price controls, rationing, windfall profits taxes, arcane loopholes and lots of lawsuits. That political response turned an inconvenience into a disaster.

We can do better this time. Since in an election year Congress will feel compelled to show the voters that it feels their pain, let’s do something that at least keeps energy markets in good working order. The tax holiday fits the bill. Markets will adjust to it, no problem. And it won’t cost much — the estimated $9 billion in lost revenue is about $30 per person. That’s not a bad price to pay for a little insurance against a rerun of misguided ’70s measures.

Second, even a “giveaway” to the oil industry sets a positive course for the future. During the last crisis, the industry was a scapegoat for scarcity. Politicians scrambled to stop oil companies from profiting from the crisis, even though temporarily high profits end shortages by giving businesses an incentive to figure out how to increase output.

... It helps cancel out the negative legacy of the last energy crisis: public hysteria will occasionally work in your favor.

3. The Los Angeles Times reports on bicycling in New York City, "New York bicycle commuters face an uphill climb." Quotes discuss how bicycling figures for commuting in New York City are low, but in some respects this fails to take into account that commuting trips by transit and walking total almost 64%. By contrast in DC, commuting trips by walking, bicycling and transit total 45%.

4. Streetsblog comments negatively on Northern Virginia and the Washington Post's focus on roads, in this entry, "Northern Virginia Locked In to Congested Roads." (It was so normal to me that I just didn't think about it when I read the article.)

I write about the Post's focus on roads from time to time. For me, the kicker was the Post's editorializing in favor of the Inter County Connector, basically saying "get on with it already," when the Baltimore Sun, looking at Maryland's transportation needs more broadly, editorialized against.

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The Post just editorialized in favor of the Klingle Road rebuild, with the same "get on with it already" viewpoint, in Open Klingle Road." But in fairness to the Post, like with the Inter County Connector, maybe they are just concerned with "east-west" drivers, not just "north-south" drivers.)

5. And a nice piece on Delaware Senator Carper's (former Governor of Delaware and past member of the Amtrak Board of Directors) support of railroads, "Delaware Senator Dares to Utter the Word “Transit”."

6. Streetsblog also acknowledges the New York City focused transit blog, Cap'n Transit.

Energy policy is really gasoline policy, editorial cartoon, Rex Babin, Sacramento Bee (click for full sized cartoon).