Getting on board: Is mass-transit's surge a blip, or are we in it for the long haul?

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Michael Dresser, Sun Reporter
Published on Sunday, June 08, 2008
It was June 2001, and the price of a gallon of regular gasoline had soared to $1.68 a gallon. It was so ridiculous that many folks said to heck with it, we'll take mass transit. And they did. There were 5 million more transit trips taken in the United States that month than the previous June.But by June 2002, with travel curtailed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, gas was down to a less burdensome $1.39. Public transit lost 23 million rides from the same month a year before as commuters returned to their cars. Not until 2004 would annual transit ridership return to 2001 levels.Now comes another June, with many Baltimore-area outlets selling gas for more than $4. Transit ridership is up nationally and locally, according to the American Public Transit Administration and Maryland Transit Administration.

Record gas prices strike by surprise

By By Tricia Bishop, Sun Reporter
Published on Wednesday, May 23, 2007
When the nation's average price of regular gasoline reached a record high in September 2005, the cause was pretty clear: Hurricane Katrina had just ravaged oil refineries.But explaining this week's record of $3.22 per gallon is more complicated because the rise resulted from a combination of factors. They include increased demand, lower inventory, refinery shutdowns in the United States and abroad, and the rising price of crude oil, which has gone from about $50 per barrel at the start of the year to $64.97 per barrel yesterday."Unlike Katrina, which was a massive event ... this has just sort of been a lot of chunks that just sort of added up," said Douglas MacIntyre, a senior analyst with the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Mass transit does not reduce congestion

Originally published in the Baltimore Examiner

By Wendell Cox
Published on Tuesday, January 09, 2007
WASHINGTON - Transit advocates must be elated. Voters in places as diverse as Seattle, Kansas City and Salt Lake City approved new taxes for transit improvements. No doubt the electoral victories depended on expectations that transit improvements would reduce traffic congestion, but nothing could be further from the truth. Traffic congestion and transit are completely different subjects. No level of transit investment, anywhere in the world, has materially reduced traffic congestion. In Washington, more than 100 miles of high-quality Metro has been built — more than in any world urban area over the past three decades except for Seoul, South Korea. Altogether, the miles of Metro built in Washington equal the total built in all of the other U.S. urban areas. Yet what about traffic congestion? Washington’s ranks fourth in the nation, and could challenge number two and three — transit rich Chicago and San Francisco — at any point. Over the past 20 years, traffic congestion has nearly tripled, despite the miles built for and billions spent on Metro.

Earmark for Metro: Call it excess express

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Christopher B. Summers, Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.
Published on Wednesday, August 09, 2006
A proposed federal subsidy for the Washington Metro would top Alaska's Bridge to Nowhere and Mississippi's Train to Nowhere for excess. And if enacted, it would require the two Maryland counties where Metro operates to come up with a "dedicated funding match" - in other words, a tax increase. Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, got the House of Representatives to pass an amendment to a bill that would divert $1.5 billion of federal revenues from offshore drilling to subsidize the deeply troubled Metro transit system that serves the nation's Capital, his Northern Virginia district and other Washington suburbs. If enacted, the amended bill would be one of the largest pork-barrel earmarks in history. And it would compel Montgomery and Prince George's counties - which account for 40 percent of Metro's riders - to contribute about $55 million a year to the system, most likely through dedicated taxes.

Quick jump of 5 cents a gallon seen

Originally published in the Baltimore Sun

By Tricia Bishop
Published on Friday, July 14, 2006
Amid fears that supplies would be upset by intensified fighting in the Middle East, the price of oil reached a new high yesterday in New York trading, which likely will have a swift effect on gasoline prices and could soon raise costs beyond the pump if the turmoil continues, analysts said.Gas already is at higher summer prices - an average of $3.08 per gallon in Baltimore - fueled by the vacation season and record demand calculated last month by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But those prices could rise by a nickel within a week or two if yesterday's oil price of $76.70 per barrel is sustained, some said. A bad hurricane could push prices even higher.It all could have a trickle-down effect that boosts the price of everything from food to airline tickets, energy experts said. And reaction from Wall Street suggests this isn't a one-day deal.

Why Gas Costs So Much in Maryland

Originally Published in The Washington Post

By Thomas A. Firey
Published on Sunday, May 01, 2005
Maryland motorists who suffer from sticker shock every time they fill their tanks routinely look for the cheapest fuel they can find. But they don't find much difference in prices from one station to the next -- or at least not as much difference as they found a few years ago. The reason lies in a fascinating tale of Annapolis favoritism.

Give Toll Lanes a Try

Originally Published in The Baltimore Sun

By Peter Samuel
Published on Wednesday, July 28, 2004
THE LAST time Maryland highway planners floated the idea of express toll lanes - on Interstate 270 and Route 50 - it was met with a storm of demagogic criticism highlighted by Gov. Parris N. Glendening's decrying them as sprawl makers and "Lexus lanes" and canceling a study of the idea.

The Price of Bad Policy

Originally published in The Baltimore Sun

By Thomas A. Firey
Published on Wednesday, April 21, 2004
WITH GASOLINE prices rapidly rising in Maryland and across the nation, motorists are gritting their teeth and grumbling each time they visit the pump. Some politicians have begun tossing around the usual proposals that are trotted out each time there is a spike in gas prices: implementing new mandates for better fuel efficiency and technological progress, granting more drilling rights in sensitive areas, and changing environmental laws and gas taxes.

A Better Way to Pay for ICC

Orginially Published in The Baltimore Sun

By Peter Samuel
Published on Tuesday, January 06, 2004
The 1,519 page Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the Inter County Connector (ICC) does a masterful job in making the case for this important road and advancing the process of design of the road so it minimizes impacts.

Reforming Maryland's Surface Transportation Program

By Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.
Published on Wednesday, November 12, 2003
As is the case with many other urbanized states, traffic congestion in Maryland is getting worse. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, congestion measures in Maryland metropolitan areas have increased steadily since 1982, when comparable quantitative measures of congestion were first calculated for American cities. Table 1 shows trends in Maryland’s two major metropolitan areas since 1982 as compared to the same measure for 75 of the top U.S. metropolitan areas. While the D.C. area’s congestion is worse, Baltimore’s has been worsening faster and now nearly matches the national average.