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Transit Helps Fight Climate Change
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Art Guzzetti of the American Public Transportation Association gave the shortest presentation at a recent Washington conference, but one with the most relevance to public transit advocates.
He asked, “How much oil does transit save?”
Answer: the equivalent of 300,000 gas station fill-ups daily, or 34 supertankers leaving the Middle East 11 days (34 in a year), or total U.S. imports from Kuwait in a year. But that’s just direct savings. Multiply by a factor of three to reflect indirect benefits, such as the more energy-efficient, denser real estate development that transit enables.
“By how much does transit reduce carbon emissions?” Transit directly saves 6.9 million metric tons annually. Taking into account indirect savings, this number jumps to 37 million metric tons.
He also noted that, in a typical household, just one person switching their commute from automobile to transit would reduce the carbon footprint of that household by 10%. And if that household is able to get by with one less car overall, the carbon footprint of that household will be reduced 30%. There are few household choices that have an impact of this magnitude.
The conference was the “First Transportation Convention,” held March 5-7 in Washington, DC. The conference was organized by the City of Irving, Texas, “as an extension of the annual Transportation Summit held in August” in Texas.
—Ross Capon
Posted by NARP
Tags: apta, climate change, transit, transit-oriented development,Student Action and Rail Advocacy: The Next Generation
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
This week, college students organized through California Student PIRG are traversing the state on a High Speed Rail Spring Break to heighten awareness and build support for California’s HSR plans. A $9 billion ballot initiative to fund initial construction is expected to be on the General Election ballot in November. These students are answering a higher sense of purpose through their efforts:
“I’m spending my spring break on a road trip, but not to Cabo,” said Jenn Engstrom, a second-year student at University of California at Berkeley.
Gambit Ramos, an organizer staff member from University of California, Irvine, came with his red bicycle, bearing a sticker reading, “I’d rather be riding high-speed rail.”
“This is a truly grassroots effort that will bring California into the 21st Century,” said city Supervisor Aaron Peskin.
But young people don’t have to wait until college to make a difference, as the students of Crawfordsville High School in Indiana demonstrated.
For any teenager who is interested in becoming a more informed and empowered advocate for trains and transit in general, here’s a wonderful opportunity that doesn’t come every day: The American Public Transportation Association is hosting Teening Up for a Greener World: A Youth Summit to Advance Public Transportation. The three-day summit will take place June 22-24 at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and will include seminars, tours, and a day on Capitol Hill. APTA will underwrite 100% of the travel, program, and living expenses for program participants. There are 50 spots available for high school juniors and seniors 18 years old and younger. We strongly encourage all interested teenagers to apply! Applications can be printed from the web site and are due by April 25.
Rail advocacy has been a personal journey for me. It started at the age of 9, when I wrote a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan asking him what he would do under public ownership of the abandoned Southern Pacific Burbank Branch (which is now the Metro Orange Line). To the mayor’s credit, he responded and personally signed the letter! My awareness of the importance of transportation issues grew, and at the age of 14 I joined NARP and a state organization.
If your interest in promoting trains started at a young age, how did you first get involved? Do you have any thoughts on how to build a rail advocacy movement that the next generation of the traveling public can sustain?
—Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: apta, california high-speed rail, crawfordsville, grassroots advocacy, student advocacy,DOT Head Sympathizes With Transit Cuts…But Says Meager Budgets Will Continue
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Transportation For America’s United States of Transportation Cutbacks
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This map—courtesy of our friends over at Transportation For America—show how widespread the negative effects of the recession has been. Click on a pin to see transit agency details, and what cuts are being considered (yellow pins designate a Stranded at the Station case study).
In a speech given earlier this week to the heads of transit agencies from across the country, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood expressed support for growing transit systems in American cities, but warned that a “lousy economy” would hinder efforts to increase levels of federal investment.
The speech, given as part of the annual conference held by the American Public Transportation Association in Washington, D.C., included a question and answer session, where transit heads expressed frustration at the lack of a permanent, transit-friendly successor to the federal surface transportation policy which expired last fall (Congress has been passing a series of short-term extensions in the meantime). Passengers across the country have been hurt as transit agencies faced with widening budgetary shortfalls—due to decreased commuter traffic resulting from high levels of unemployment, and decreased tax revenue in general—are forced to choose between cuts in service and fare hikes. (New Jersey Transit, New York City’s MTA, and Washington D.C.‘s WMATA have all recently been faced with these decisions)
More after the jump…
Posted by NARP
Tags: apta, budget cuts, commuting, economy, fare increases, public transportation, ray lahood, recession, service cuts, t4america, transit, travel,Attention: public transit STILL saves you money
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released their December Transit Savings Report yesterday, and they have quite the holiday gift for public transit riders. Using public transit on your daily trip to work can save you more than $800 every single month:
[I]ndividuals who ride public transportation instead of driving can save, on average, $807 dollars this month, and $9,690 annually. These savings are based on the cost of commuting by public transportation compared to the December 20, 2011 average national gas price ($3.21 per gallon- reported by AAA) and the national unreserved monthly parking rate.
Currently gas prices are $.15 a gallon less than last month, but still $.23 higher than this time last year. Proving riding public transit is a smart way to lower transportation costs.
That extra money will come in handy, because Congress failed to extend the mass-transit benefit on Tuesday. That means that while people who drive to work will see a slight increase in the pre-tax benefits they receive to offset parking costs—from $230 a month to $240, to account for inflation—public transit benefits will be slashed from $230 to $120 per month. While the Senate may take up the issue in February when it comes back into session, America’s workers will still be hurting in the meantime.
—Sean Jeans-Gail
[APTA] [Streetsblog Capitol Hill]
Posted by NARP
Tags: apta, public transit,A Field Guide to False Anti-Train Arguments
Thursday, January 12, 2012
If you’ve been reading this blog, getting NARP emails, or following the debate surrounding passenger train development, you’ve surely heard the worn-out, cliched barbs that defenders of the status quo repeatedly throw at proposals to ramp up investment in trains. If you’ve sometimes found yourself at a loss for short, effective, fact-based rejoinders, then you’re in luck.
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| Image: PennDesign |
Our partners at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) have developed a handy document called Inventory of the Criticisms of High-Speed Rail with Suggested Responses and Counterpoints. These can be applied not just to “true” high-speed rail projects like California’s, but also to as-important undertakings to make existing trains faster, more reliable and more frequent.
The common theme found throughout the document—one on which NARP and all our partners have been focusing our rhetoric—is that, while rail projects may look costly now, it will cost a lot more to accomplish (or leave unaccomplished) the same mobility and economic development goals later by other means later on. Remember: the purpose of transportation systems is not to be profit centers on their own, but to serve as the the bloodstream that keeps the rest of the economy going.
Criticism of passenger train development tends to focus on the fact that it won’t be profitable and will require ongoing subsidies. The returns on investment in modern passenger trains won’t be seen in the form of profits for their operators, but rather in the form of increased economic activity and profits for other businesses in the areas the trains serve—not to mention a cleaner environment, a better quality of life, and easier, safer, more affordable mobility for the people living in those areas.
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: apta, balanced transportation, cost of inaction, economic development, federal transportation investment, high-speed rail, passenger train development, sustainability, train opponents,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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