SHOULD EVs BE TAXED?
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
6d ago
Awhile back I was in Greenwich doing one of my regular talks about transportation and conducted a quick poll, asking the crowd, “How many of you drive EVs (all-electric vehicles)?”   Being Greenwich, about five hands went up.  I congratulated the early adopters of cleaner driving and then said, “You know you’re not paying for our highways… and that’s not fair.” It’s true.  Drivers of EVs are literally getting a free ride on our highways because they don’t buy gasoline and therefore don’t pay gas taxes, which are used to pay for the maintenance and repair of our roads. Ful ..read more
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LICENSE PLATE READERS
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
1w ago
We all know how bad the traffic is despite the State Police’s recent ticketing blitz on reckless drivers.  On the Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways, in just one week, they made 170 traffic stops and issued 150 tickets (including 51 commercial vehicles) totaling $8,000 in fines.  That includes the arrest of a Norwalk cop accused of a road rage incident when he tried to run another car off the road.  When even the cops are acting out, you know things are bad. Aside from radar, red light and speed cameras, some of the best tech being employed by cops these days is license plate rea ..read more
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NYC SUBWAYS ARE NOT SAFE
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
2w ago
It’s not safe to ride the subways in New York City. Not that the subways aren’t operated safely, it’s just that the people riding them are victimizing each other as well as MTA personnel.  Hardly a day passes without another report of incidents like these: ·       A man is slashed with a box cutter by an assailant spewing anti-LGBTQ remarks, who then runs off. ·       In another incident a 64 year old postal worker is kicked down off the platform, falling onto the tracks.  He was rescued by bystanders before the subway train ..read more
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COPS CRACKDOWN, NEW STAMFORD RR GARAGE
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
3w ago
Forget what the calendar says, I say it’s Spring!  And with this hopeful season comes good news on the Connecticut’s transportation front. A reader recently told me my weekly screed comes off sounding like I’m a “cranky old man”.  Guilty, on both counts.  So let’s celebrate these rare glimmers of hope for our roads and rails. INCREASED TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT:        The CT State Police has announced a new crackdown on reckless drivers to, as one pol put it, “take back the highways”.  Special patrols will be working the interstates and parkway ..read more
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RED SEA SHIPPING
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
1M ago
What do 15,000 sheep, 7000 US sailors, that order for your new patio furniture and your recent “TEMU haul” have in common?   They’re all affected by the shipping bottleneck in the Red Sea caused by the Houthis. You may not know or care about the Yemen-based Sunni Islamist Houthis, but their attacks on shipping on its way to and from the Suez Canal are affecting your life and pocketbook.  As they attempt to control the 14-mile wide seaway known as the Bab el-Mandeb (also known, appropriately, as “The Gate of Grief”), the Houthis have recently fired ballistic missiles and drones a ..read more
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ADDING ONE MORE LANE SHOULD FIX IT
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
1M ago
I love doing radio interviews, literally “talking transportation”.  Of course, having worked in radio for 15 years and then spent 40 years teaching people how to survive media encounters, I’m at something of an advantage.  But I do love to turn naïve questions into learning opportunities. Case in point, this recent exchange: “So Jim… How do we solve the traffic problem on our interstates and parkways?”, asked the radio talk show host.  “Is there room for adding another lane?” “That’s not the answer,” I said. “Adding lanes to crowded highways just makes them more crowded.  M ..read more
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STUDENT TRANSPORTATION
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
1M ago
In our small town we call it “The SUV Parade”, the weekday ritual-like procession homing in on a handful of targets, carrying that most precious of cargos:  our kids, heading to school. But why the private car parade when the town already spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on school buses?  Why aren’t the kids on the yellow buses? Sure, sometimes they have early activities or don’t want to shlep their tuba on the bus.  But often its because the kids don’t think its cool to “bus” when mom (or increasingly, work-from-home dads) can drive them?  Safety is another big conc ..read more
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THE TRANSPORTATION SUMMIT
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
1M ago
It was billed as a “Transportation Summit”.  But the gathering last week in Stamford was more of a PR event than anything else as Governor Lamont, the leaders of CDOT, the FRA, Amtrak, Metro-North and the ever-smiling Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons sounded mostly like cheerleaders for the multi-billion dollar spending to come for our rail system. Sponsored by the Northeast Corridor Commission, the invitation-only confab attracted about 60 people, most from the business community.  Noticeably absent: anyone representing commuters.  Needless to say, I was not invited, but neither ..read more
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HIGHWAY SIGNS
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
2M ago
“Are we there yet Dad?” cried Junior from the back seat.  “Only two more exits to go, Son” said the Father, scanning the roadway ahead of him.  Many miles later, Junior was moaning again.  “You said two more exits, not dozens of miles!” Well, Junior, that’s about to change.  CDOT, pressured by the Feds, is about to renumber all of the exits on the Merritt & Wilbur Cross Parkways and our interstate highways.  No longer will the exits be numbered sequentially but, instead, will reflect their mileage from the NY state line. This scheme has long been in place on the Ga ..read more
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BRIGHTLINE'S DARK SIDE
Talking Transportation
by JIM CAMERON
2M ago
Much has been written in praise of Brightline, the modern, stylish privately owned railroad serving Miami to West Palm Beach to Orlando with fast, comfortable trains. But the railroad also has the highest death rate of any railroad in the US, having killed 108 people since it began operations in 2017… not its passengers but people crossing the railroad’s tracks. Last week alone at one grade crossing in Melbourne FL there were two accidents causing three deaths in as many days.  Those “accidents” are under investigation by the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board.  But all ..read more
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