http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/arizona-pirg-education-fund-releases-new-report-on-the-need-for-more-and-better-public-transportation Read the Report. Today the Arizona PIRG Education Fund released its new http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/arizona-pirg-education-fund-releases-new-report-on-the-need-for-more-and-better-public-transportation Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:21:31 -0500 http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/u_s_-house-addresses-high-gas-prices-by-investing-1_7-billion-in-public-transportation http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/u_s_-house-addresses-high-gas-prices-by-investing-1_7-billion-in-public-transportation Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:35:59 -0500 http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/u.s.-house-votes-resoundingly-to-boost-passenger-rail Increases Funding in the Face of Booming Demand, Soaring Gas Prices The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved close to $15 billion yesterday to promote rail travel, relieve bottlenecks and to begin investment in a new generation of high speed rail. The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (HR 6003), which passed by a veto-proof vote of 311 – 104, would invest $14.9 billion in Amtrak and developmental grants for intercity rail over the next five years. “Americans are searching for alternatives to paying high prices at the pump and the headaches of air travel. This legislation is a good start and it saves billions that would otherwise be spent on expanding existing airports and highways” said Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG). Amtrak reported the fifth straight record year for ridership in 2007. Meanwhile, total vehicle miles for cars and trucks fell for the first time since the oil crisis of the 1970s. As with the U.S. Senate bill which passed 70-22 last fall, the U.S. House bill establishes a competitive state grant process for high-speed corridors with matching grants of up to 80 percent. Both bills also include necessary funding for infrastructure repairs and investment in improved efficiency, unlike past passenger rail allocations which barely provided for operations along the system while long-term sustainability suffered. The U.S. House and U.S. Senate will assign a conference committee to reconcile differences in the bills and get a final product to the President, who has threatened a veto. “Congress has recognized that we need to be investing in the trends of the future, and that means more and faster rail travel. The President should approve this much needed and widely-supported legislation as soon as it reaches his desk,” said Brown. http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/u.s.-house-votes-resoundingly-to-boost-passenger-rail Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:27:51 -0600 http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/traffic-congestion-hurts-phoenix Phoenicians wasted 81.7 million hours of additional time on the roads, and 58.9 million gallons of additional gas as a result of traffic congestion in 2005. The additional wasted time and fuel cost the public an equivalent of $1.7 billion, according to the federally sponsored Urban Mobility Report released today by the Texas Transportation Institute. The findings underscore the need for additional transit in the region. The report shows that traffic congestion would be significantly worse if not for public transportation within the metro area, which prevented $55.6 million in additional delays compared to what they would have been if existing transit had not taken large numbers of drivers off the region’s roads. According to Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG), “Population has increased, households own more cars, and drivers travel further each year. Traffic congestion will not slow down until those trends change. Arizona decision makers need to focus policy on getting more cars off the road, particularly through enhanced rail and bus transportation.” Brown added that, “each full bus can get fifty cars off the road. Drivers across Arizona should be calling for more and better public transportation, even if they will never use it.” The report calculates mobility and traffic congestion on freeways and major streets in 85 cities and is the most authoritative source on the southwest's traffic conditions. Traffic congestion worsened steadily since the report first began tracking travel time in 1982. Travel times for commutes have increased in each year of the study. In addition to the growing average length of commuting trips, drivers must allocate additional time to avoid being late because traffic problems are increasingly unpredictable. Congestion afflicts more roads for increasing numbers of hours with longer delays. Whereas in 1982, congestion problems across the nation affected one third of travel during 4 ½ daily “rush hours” and lengthened trips during these hours by an average of 13 percent; the new data shows that in 2005 a full 67 percent in 2003 of trips were affected by the 7 ½ daily rush hours in 2003, in which traffic delayed their trip by an average of 37 percent in 2003. “For decades, we have tried to fight traffic congestion by building new roads,” continued Brown. “This report is further evidence of the failure of that strategy. Instead we need to expand bus and rail systems to reduce the number of drivers on the road. Doing so will reduce our state and nation’s dependence on dirty fossil fuels and address congestion problems before they cripple our metro areas.” http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/traffic-congestion-hurts-phoenix Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:15:00 -0600 http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/urban-mobility-report Phoenicians wasted 81.7 million hours of additional time on the roads, and 58.9 million gallons of additional gas as a result of traffic congestion in 2005. The additional wasted time and fuel cost the public an equivalent of $1.7 billion, according to the federally sponsored Urban Mobility Report released today by the Texas Transportation Institute. The findings underscore the need for additional transit in the region. The report shows that traffic congestion would be significantly worse if not for public transportation within the metro area, which prevented $55.6 million in additional delays compared to what they would have been if existing transit had not taken large numbers of drivers off the region’s roads. According to Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG), “Population has increased, households own more cars, and drivers travel further each year. Traffic congestion will not slow down until those trends change. Arizona decision makers need to focus policy on getting more cars off the road, particularly through enhanced rail and bus transportation.” Brown added that, “each full bus can get fifty cars off the road. Drivers across Arizona should be calling for more and better public transportation, even if they will never use it.” The report calculates mobility and traffic congestion on freeways and major streets in 85 cities and is the most authoritative source on the southwest's traffic conditions. Traffic congestion worsened steadily since the report first began tracking travel time in 1982. Travel times for commutes have increased in each year of the study. In addition to the growing average length of commuting trips, drivers must allocate additional time to avoid being late because traffic problems are increasingly unpredictable. Congestion afflicts more roads for increasing numbers of hours with longer delays. Whereas in 1982, congestion problems across the nation affected one third of travel during 4 ½ daily “rush hours” and lengthened trips during these hours by an average of 13 percent; the new data shows that in 2005 a full 67 percent in 2003 of trips were affected by the 7 ½ daily rush hours in 2003, in which traffic delayed their trip by an average of 37 percent in 2003. “For decades, we have tried to fight traffic congestion by building new roads,” continued Brown. “This report is further evidence of the failure of that strategy. Instead we need to expand bus and rail systems to reduce the number of drivers on the road. Doing so will reduce our state and nation’s dependence on dirty fossil fuels and address congestion problems before they cripple our metro areas.” -30- Letters delivered this week to U.S. House leadership and members of the Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement from a half dozen states urge Congress to "adopt the time-tested best practices" of independent ethics commissions, office and boards currently operating in twenty-three states. The directors or chairs of ethics commissions in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, and West Virginia signed letters in the last month outlining key features of the commissions' structures. The letters all noted that commission members may not hold public office, must abide by clear conflict of interest rules, cannot be removed for any reason other than cause, and have the power to handle complaints without partisan interference. As detailed in the recent Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG) report, Honest Enforcement, these models are similar to those in the other twenty three states. The letters offer testimony that independent ethics commissions in the states work well and are supported by the public and the elected officials they oversee. Lewis G. Brewer, Director of the West Virginia Ethics Commission, noted in his letter that the state legislature strengthened the commission as recently as 2005 which "demonstrates strong public and bipartisan political support for an entity that acts fairly, evenly and without partisan influence." The letters come as the Speaker-appointed Task Force is in the process of deciding on recommendations to make to the full U.S. House. The task force missed the original May 1st deadline for recommendations but is expected to issue a report by mid-May. The ethics enforcement process in Congress has been widely criticized for inaction in the past year during the scandal involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff that landed two congressmen, several top aides and lobbyists in jail. The U.S. House leadership promised early on to make the 110th Congress honest and open. Arizona PIRG, along with a coalition of government reform groups, has repeatedly stated that enforcement is the key to reform. "The rules are only as strong as the ability to enforce them," noted Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of Arizona PIRG. "The current system is broken. The public has asked for meaningful change and the state experiences detailed in these letters demonstrate there is a workable answer." http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/urban-mobility-report Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:18:16 -0600 http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/local-elected-officials-and-public-interest-leaders-join-transportation-coalition-to-announce-five-point-plan-for-economic-prosperity-through-transportation Today, on the heels of the Wall Street bailout and hours before the final presidential debate, local mayors and public interest leaders joined together to call on the next President and Congress to strengthen our local and national economies by building a 21st Century transportation system. At the Arizona State Capitol, the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, Sonoran Institute, ASU’s Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory and Goodyear Vice-Mayor Rob Antoniak along with allies in the Transportation for America Campaign (T4) across the country, released “Build for America: A Five-Point Plan to get our Economy Moving.” This bold economic agenda has the potential to create millions of good, green jobs across the country, save Americans thousands of dollars per year, and reduce America’s dependence on oil. According to Alex Nelson, representative for the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, “With high gas prices, decreasing household budgets and a lagging economy, we can strengthen our state and communities by building a 21st Century transportation system. By improving our transportation system, we can create jobs, save Arizonans money, reduce our dependence on oil, bring down Arizona’s global warming emissions, and decrease air pollution and its adverse public health impacts such as asthma attacks.” Vice-Mayor Rob Antoniak of Goodyear added, “With challenges like unpredictable gas prices and a lagging economy, it’s clear to me that pursuing multi-modal transportation solutions will ultimately create high-quality jobs and reduce the financial burdens Arizona's families are facing.” The U.S. already spends $70 billion a year on transportation infrastructure, and many are calling on Congress to do what has been done in every recent recession and invest more to stimulate economic recovery. However, simply using that money to build highway projects conceived in the last century is unlikely to help, the T4 coalition warned. In Arizona, researchers believe that there is a great need to move towards a new transportation system. “At Arizona State University, we are working on two initiatives - one on multimodal transportation opportunities, and the other on post-petroleum urban design,” said Nancy Levinson, Director of ASU’s Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory at the College of Design. “Both projects are motivated by the critical need to develop transportation solutions that move beyond the highway-driven system of the 20th century.” Build for America calls for investment in public transit, high-speed and intercity rail, neighborhoods that are less car-dependent, more walkable and more affordable, and restoring the thousands of roads and bridges in failing condition across the United States. Specifically, the coalition is asking the next President and Congress to work together to: 1. BUILD TO COMPETE with China and Europe, by modernizing and expanding our rail and transit networks to reduce oil dependence, connect the metro regions that are the engines of the modern economy. 2. INVEST FOR A CLEAN, GREEN RECOVERY through cleaner vehicles and new fuels as well as the cleanest forms of transportation – modern public transit, walking and biking – and for energy-efficient, sustainable development. 3. FIX WHAT’S BROKEN before building new roads and restore our crumbling highways, bridges and transit systems. 4. STOP WASTEFUL SPENDING and re-evaluate projects currently in the pipeline to eliminate those with little economic return that could deepen our oil dependence. 5. SAVE AMERICANS MONEY. Provide more travel and housing options that are affordable and efficient, while helping people to avoid high gas costs and traffic congestion. Save taxpayer dollars by asking the private developers who reap real estate rewards from new rail stations and transit lines to contribute toward that service. “Giving more local control of how our transportation dollars are spent is a high priority. Arizona developed around the highway, and with high gas prices, we need transportation alternatives and choice. Before we develop and widen new roads, let’s fix what we have, add new alternatives, and get our economy going again by investing in America and Arizona,” stated Dave Richins, Councilmember for the City of Mesa and representative of the Sonoran Institute. http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/local-elected-officials-and-public-interest-leaders-join-transportation-coalition-to-announce-five-point-plan-for-economic-prosperity-through-transportation Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:57:36 -0500 http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/squandering-the-stimulus-average-american-households-spent-economic-stimulus-on-gas Read the Report. Bill in Congress would http://www.arizonapirg.org/news-releases/smart-transportation/smart-transportation/squandering-the-stimulus-average-american-households-spent-economic-stimulus-on-gas Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:41:43 -0500