America 2050

Big Plans: Bold Innovations: Bright Future

2012-04-24T14:13:55Z

America 2050 is pleased to participate in Regional Plan Association's 22nd Annual Regional Assembly on Friday, April 27 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. The Assembly will showcase new ways of thinking about planning and infrastructure, governance, economic development and social equity. The daylong conference will bring together the metropolitan area's civic and business leaders to discuss how the region should grow while meeting our needs in housing, transportation, employment and environmental sustainability.
Visit the schedule for more information or download a printable agenda.

Big Plans • Bold Innovations • Bright Future will include an unprecedented gathering of leaders of some of the world's biggest transit systems. The America 2050 panel at the Regional Assembly will explore whether we are building the right housing to meet America's growing and changing population demographics. Other sessions will look at new options in urban energy efficiency and innovations in funding transportation.

Register for the Assembly here.

15th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Summit

2012-04-10T20:48:45Z

America 2050 is pleased to announce that we are participating as a National Co-Host Organization for the 15th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Summit, August 14-17 in Irving, TX. The Summit is a four day event that last year brought together over 1,100 attendees from 20 states and 11 countries. The Summit follows an exceptional Transportation & Infrastructure Convention that was held March 7-9, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

The purpose of the Summit is to educate policy makers concerning the current transportation issues that are found at both the local and national levels. The Summit is very unique, in that, it brings together the leading transportation and infrastructure officials from the current Administration, Congress, and State legislatures, providing us the opportunity to dialogue personally with those who have a direct influence on future policy decisions of the nation.

As we have seen our nation's economy decline, our transportation system has suffered from a lack of funding to support the maintenance of aging infrastructure, development of new technology, and necessary projects to accommodate growth and increased usage. It is critical that business and government leaders come together to collaborate on how to best move forward in order to provide our nation with state-of-the-art, safe, and reliable transportation modes. This unique collaboration will include leaders from federal, state, and local governments, engineers, business leaders, representative associations and top transportation research institutions. Together, we can begin to come up with the solutions to our transportation challenges.

The Summit has developed the reputation of bringing in some of the most well-known experts in the Transportation and Infrastructure field. The 2011 Summit featured: U.S. Congressman Ralph Hall, Chairman, Science and Technology Committee; U.S. Congressman John Mica, Chairman, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Victor Mendez, Administrator, FHWA; David Strickland, Administrator, NHTSA; Mary Peters, Former Secretary, U.S. DOT; Mort Downey, Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. DOT; Terry Johnson, Administrator, St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation; Sean Connaughton, Secretary, VADOT; Jim Simpson, Commissioner, NJDOT; and Rod Diridon, Exec. Director, Mineta Transportation Institute.

Participating as a National Co-Host Organization allows our members to register for the Summit at the discounted government rate! To register please visit the website: www.transportationsummit.com.

We are excited to be a part of this spectacular event and we strongly encourage you to join us in Irving, TX this August. For further information about the Transportation & Infrastructure Summit please contact Karen Brown at 214-750-0123 or kbrown@dean.net, please make sure to say you are with our organization!

A Revised Business Plan for California High-Speed Rail

2012-04-02T20:32:12Z

America 2050 released the following statement today on the release of the California High-Speed Rail Authority's revised business plan.

"America 2050 released the following statement today on the California High-Speed Rail Authority's revised business plan:

Governor Jerry Brown and the California High-Speed Rail Authority are to be commended on the revised 2012 draft business plan for high-speed rail, which cuts the project's cost by $30 billion while making numerous improvements to previous proposals.

The revised plan is more cost-effective and is phased in a way that will bring benefits sooner to the urbanized regions of the state, including the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin. It directs funding toward electrifying the high-volume CalTrain corridor on the San Francisco peninsula, reducing pollution, noise and travel times of commuter rail, and makes safety and reliability upgrades to the Amtrak-Metrolink corridor between Los Angeles and Anaheim. These improvements will benefit existing commuters and will clear a path for integration with high-speed trains in the future. In addition, the plan proposes an Initial Operating Segment, which can be completed in the first 10 years, stretching 300 miles from California's fast-growing Central Valley to the San Fernando Valley at the gateway to the Los Angeles basin.

]]> "Not only does this plan reduce the project cost substantially, it provides a new phasing strategy that will bring the benefits of high-speed rail to Californians more quickly," said Robert Yaro, co-chairman of America 2050.

By running high-speed trains on existing rail infrastructure in more densely populated areas, the revised business plan cuts construction costs significantly and will allow the high-speed rail authority to connect the service sooner than anticipated to California's largest markets in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin. The plan also prioritizes planning and environmental approvals to extend the Initial Operating Segment south from Bakersfield to Palmdale to close the gap in rail service between Northern and Southern California.

"These revisions makes sense. They provide improvements now for the highly congested northern and southern regions of California and then link them together in the future," said Mark Pisano, co-chairman of America 2050. "Connecting the state's big population centers will foster economic growth while alleviating road and airport congestion."

Petra Todorovich, director of America 2050, said, "It is clear that the success of high-speed rail in the U.S. is dependent on delivering real benefits to users at every stage in the process of project development and construction. The revisions to the California high-speed rail business plan address the urgency of translating taxpayer investment into transportation improvements in our commuting lifetimes."

Strengthening the Solar Economy

2012-03-20T20:02:52Z

The tri-state region is on the cusp of being a national leader on solar energy. New Jersey is second only to California in installed solar capacity, Connecticut has just passed new solar legislation and New York is looking at new solar program options.

At the same time, there are barriers to implementing solar power on a wider scale in the region. Policy makers at the local and state level have yet to reach a consensus over how to finance and manage solar programs. To address these issues, RPA is convening leading solar thinkers on Wednesday, April 11, to discuss the economics behind various solar paths and which solar policies make the most sense for the region.

]]> The event will feature panelists representing the full spectrum of the solar industry:

Fred Zalcman, managing director, regulatory affairs, SunEdison
Jim Torpey, director of market development, SunPower Corp.
Chris Raup, manager, state regulatory affairs, ConEdison
Christin Cifaldi, manager, clean energy deployment, Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment

Moderator: Jessie Feller, director, Energy Policy Program, RPA

A new report from RPA's energy policy program, in partnership with Natural Resources Defense Council and the Vote Solar Initiative, examining the state of solar in the tri-state region will be presented at the event.

Report: Large Landscape Conservation Key to Nature Preservation

2012-02-15T18:57:38Z

Conservation needs to be approached at the regional level in order to ensure that wildlife habitat, water supplies and working farms and forests throughout the U.S. Northeast are protected for future generations, a new report by Regional Plan Association and America 2050 concludes.

The research examines how landscape conservation initiatives are working across the Northeast to protect vital natural and cultural resources. The report, "Landscapes: Improving Conservation Practice in the Northeast Megaregion," makes recommendations for improving conservation efforts that stretch across city and state boundaries, from addressing governance questions and ensuring adequate financial resources to creating tools for measuring the impact of these regional efforts.

Read the Release | Read the Report (Web) (Print) | Read the Project Summary

]]> The findings are the result of a two-year research effort to study how multi-jurisdictional and multi-objective programs are protecting land and water, and addressing the critical challenges to conservation, including urban growth, creation of transportation and energy infrastructure, limited funding and climate change.

As the population grows and development expands, environmental conservation needs to help shape - and not simply react to - decisions about land use and urban infrastructure. Landscape conservation is about taking a holistic approach to managing watersheds and habitats and addressing long-term issues such as climate change. It means looking beyond property and political boundaries.

Protecting natural resources is particularly important in complex geographies like the Northeast, the densely developed area from Maine to West Virginia that is now home to 72 million people. According to the analysis included in the study, the region is expected to add 15 million people by 2040, resulting in the development of an additional three million acres of land. The study examined conservation projects in the 13 states from West Virginia to Maine. The analysis found more than 165 conservation initiatives that have already taken a whole-systems, large landscape approach. The report found that the growing understanding of ecosystem processes, the potential impacts from large scale energy projects, and widespread suburban development have led the conservation community to take a comprehensive approach that stretches across property boundaries and political jurisdictions. These initiatives can serve as models for communities around the U.S. that want to take charge of their future.

To help further the practice of landscape conservation, RPA will be providing funding for qualified non-profit organizations to participate in a peer exchange program in the fall of 2012. The program will pair emerging landscape initiatives with more established projects in a series of workshops across the Northeast.

The full report and the Request for Expressions of Interest to participate in the peer exchange program are available at www.rpa.org/northeastlandscapes/.

The report was produced with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

House Wages War on Transit

2012-02-06T22:11:55Z

GOP Bills Would Cut Funding for Rail, Walking, Biking

Last week, more than two years after the nation's last five-year surface transportation law expired, the House of Representatives introduced its proposed legislation for rewriting the nation's transportation laws. And boy, it is a doozy.

Facing severely reduced gasoline tax receipts, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has proposed to cut many of the non-highway programs in the transportation bill that help give people alternatives to driving. These include things such as Transportation Enhancements, which provide set-asides for local projects that improve the transportation experience in communities (the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal was restored with a Transportation Enhancement grant); and other programs that reduce the environmental impact of transportation and promote pedestrian and biking facilities. The bill also reduces operating funding to Amtrak and cuts a capital grant program to relieve congestion on rail corridors.

The cuts to these programs were largely expected, but what provoked anger and surprise among many transportation experts was a separate measure by Ways and Means, the committee that authorizes the revenues for the transportation bill, that severed the 30-year-old link between highways and transit in the transportation trust fund. Since 1982, when President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that dedicated a penny of the federal gas tax to transit, transit agencies have had a steady source of reliable federal funding that allows them to keep their systems in good repair, replace outdated infrastructure and equipment and plan for the future. Dedicated funding for transit, which today amounts to 2.86 pennies of the 18.3 cents per gallon gas tax, has allowed systems like the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to pull back from the brink of disinvestment and make five-year capital plans that include projects like the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access that are now under way.

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Certainly, the larger problem here is the gap that has opened up between our national transportation needs and the revenue from federal fuel taxes that have traditionally paid for these needs. But this gap has been growing for half a decade, and there is no reason to punish transit users for it. In fact, it is in part the growing shift to transit use, and walking and biking, that has contributed to lower gasoline tax revenue. These trends should be encouraged, not thwarted.

There are several ways to deal with the transportation funding crisis without reducing the viability of our public transit systems. Ideally, policy makers would face up to the difficult political task of raising new revenue for transportation by raising the gas tax and indexing it to inflation. In the longer term, it might be necessary to diversify funding sources by charging for vehicle miles driven, or by implementing a stabilized transportation fuel tax that shifts the burden between wholesale oil producers and retail gasoline sales as the price of oil fluctuates, as proposed by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

But with little political will to raise gasoline taxes, another option is to accept that the Highway Trust Fund, backed by dwindling gasoline tax revenue, can no longer be relied on and that general fund revenues should be used to pay for transportation. It already has been happening: since 2008, $34.5 billion in general fund revenue has gone to plug the gaps in the trust fund. Instead of fighting it, Congress should recognize that transportation investment is as worthy as health care and other national priorities and pass a bill that recognizes the value of all transportation modes to grease the wheels of the national economy.

Bill Threatens U.S. Transit Funding

2012-02-02T23:37:14Z

A new proposal by the House Ways and Means Committee would eliminate a crucial source of mass transit funding, posing a major threat to the nation's transit systems.

The bill would prohibit the use of gasoline-tax revenue to support public transportation, a funding stream that has been in place for more than three decades. If the bill were to pass, it would introduce a level of uncertainty that will make planning for capital projects far more difficult and expensive.

]]> In the tri-state region, capital projects such as the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access to bring Long Island Rail Road in Grand Central Terminal would be endangered if the bill were made law. Long overdue repair and replacement on PATH, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and New Jersey Transit and maintenance of the bus fleet throughout the region also would be affected.

Nowhere in the nation is the success and growth of the regional economy more dependent on the provision of safe, reliable public transit to get people to their jobs. Throughout the tri-state area, the repair and expansion of our mass-transit systems provides thousands of jobs in the construction industry and in the manufacturing of equipment.

"This bill threatens to fracture a longstanding surface-transportation coalition of highway and public-transit advocates that together have been instrumental in enacting the nation's transportation policies since 1982," said Petra Todorovich, director of RPA's America 2050 national planning program.

"Without transit, the transportation bill will not get through Congress this year. Already delayed for two years, this pushes the passage of the transportation bill further into the future, and with it, the job creating effects of our nation's transportation program."

The U.K. Moves Ahead With High-Speed Rail. Can the U.S. Follow?

2012-02-01T19:02:17Z

While high-speed rail has struggled to secure adequate financing in the U.S., in Britain, the government has given the green light to begin construction on the country's second bullet train. The U.K. government's decision to move forward with the controversial project offers important lessons as the U.S. pursues its own high-speed rail corridors in California and the Northeast.

]]> In proposing the new high-speed line, which will link London to Birmingham in under an hour, the U.K. government sought to emphasize the project's lasting economic and environmental benefits. A government evaluation analyzing the economic costs and benefits of the project showed that every $1 invested in the $29 billion first phase of the London-Birmingham line will generate $1.70 in overall economic benefit. That figure includes a category dubbed "wider economic impacts," a measure used commonly in Europe, but far less often in the U.S., to calculate indirect benefits to society. For example, it might factor in the economic gains that emerge when high-speed rail increases a region's competitiveness and productivity and draws businesses to concentrate along the rail corridor.

With that assessment in hand, economists and transportation planners were able to make a case to the general public and business communities that the decades-long project would pay huge dividends over the long term. Including a measure of wider economic benefits in studies in the U.S. would make it easier to make a more complete case for high-speed rail projects.

One advantage the U.K. has is that it has already successfully built high-speed rail. The first line, known has High Speed 1, opened in 2007, connecting the Channel Tunnel to London. The line's operations and maintenance responsibilities were sold as a concession in 2010 to a consortium of Canadian pension funds, allowing the U.K. to recoup about one-third of its initial investment. The train operators pay fees to use the tracks, creating a revenue stream that is then used to maintain the infrastructure and provide a return to the investors. This deal demonstrates the feasibility of attracting private financing to high-speed rail projects.

In contrast, the U.S. is still awaiting its first high-speed line. The Northeast Corridor stretching from Washington, D.C. to Boston has characteristics similar to the U.K.'s busiest rail route, the West Coast Main Line. The two corridors have comparable lengths: the Northeast Corridor is 455 miles long and the West Coast Main Line stretches nearly 400 miles from London to Glasgow. They also serve similar-size populations and economies: the Northeast megaregion is home to about 52 million people and has an economy valued at $2.9 trillion; England has 52 million residents and a $2.2 trillion economy.

In the late 1990's, the U.K. decided to upgrade the West Coast Main Line at a cost of $20 billion, disrupting traffic on the corridor for more than 10 years. When the overhaul was completed in 2008, the line was already near capacity again. To address future demand on the line, the U.K. has now chosen to embark on its High Speed 2 project, building two dedicated tracks connecting London, the West Midlands and northern England, securing much-needed capacity and transforming intercity travel in the U.K.

The Northeast Corridor also is operating at or near capacity along several segments and has an enormous backlog of critical infrastructure projects. In 2010, Amtrak and states in the Northeast completed a report that concluded $52 billion of investment is needed to bring the corridor back to a state of good repair (much of the normal maintenance on the corridor has been neglected for years, due to battles over Amtrak funding in Congress) and meet capacity needs over the next 20 years. These improvements would probably take until 2030 to complete on the corridor, which serves nearly three-quarters of a million passengers each day. What the U.K. experience upgrading the West Coast Main Line shows is that incremental improvements alone might not suffice, and that pursuing high-speed rail is the most effective way to deal with capacity constraints on the corridor.

In 2011, Amtrak released a high-speed rail plan for the Northeast, proposing two dedicated tracks to run the length of the corridor. The new line would dramatically increase passenger capacity and reduce travel times to 90 minutes from New York to Washington, D.C. and to 100 minutes from New York to Boston. The project is estimated to cost $117 billion over 20 years and is still in the conceptual phase.

Whether the U.S. and the Northeast opt for an ambitious vision of high-speed rail in the Northeast Corridor will be determined by a variety of factors, including the outcome of the presidential and congressional races, progress on the California project, and an environmental impact study on the Northeast Corridor to begin this year.

As the U.S. endeavors to introduce high-speed rail, the U.K. government's push for the London-Birmingham line suggests that a concerted effort to explain the economic benefits could jump-start the effort here. But as in the U.K., proponents of high-speed rail in the U.S. will need to overcome major concerns about the country's financial constraints and deep skepticism about infrastructure projects that take decades to complete.

This article, written by Dan Schned, Associate Planner, and Petra Todorovich, Director, RPA's America 2050 initiative, was originally published in Spotlight on the Region.

Images: www.go-hs2.com

Remaking the San Francisco Penninsula Corridor with a Bicycle Expressway

2012-01-12T15:25:55Z

Commentary by Osman Dadi

Accommodating high-speed rail trains in the San Francisco peninsula has been a contentious topic because of potential noise and visual impacts on the surrounding communities. Recently, the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced its support for a "blended approach" that would utilize the existing Caltrain corridor. But what if a solution could be found that ensures grade separation between trains and automobiles while also opening up dramatically enhanced commuting options for bicyclists?

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The San Francisco peninsula is known for many things, among them a workforce driven by innovative ideas (especially in Silicon Valley), great weather nearly all year round, a culture that largely embraces healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyles, and strong support for biking. The bicycle network of the Bay Area, while quite extensive, is simultaneously also quite disconnected. Particularly in the central Peninsula, there are few dedicated off street bicycle corridors, and routes on streets are frequently disconnected to each other. Thus, there is presently no direct means for a bicyclist to traverse many portions of the Peninsula without mixing into automobile traffic, itself a dangerous proposition given the high speed nature of main routes like El Camino Real or the Expressways around San Jose.

Simultaneously, the existing peninsula Caltrain corridor is slated for a much needed change. The present line has not been significantly upgraded for several decades, but has been planned for large scale electrification for many years. When the California High Speed Rail plan was announced between San Francisco and Los Angeles, an opportunity arose to couple that electrification project with a broader reconstruction that also accommodates high speed rail service by expanding, electrifying, and grade separating the corridor. The configuration of the new route, though still undecided, will likely be elevated on an embankment, elevated on a structure, or (if communities along the route are willing to help fund it) trenched.

The benefits of grade separation and electrification alone are enormous: eliminating grade crossings allow faster train speeds, eliminate noise pollution from train horns, and electrification removes diesel fumes and noise. Additionally, automobile conflicts with trains are eliminated, also making it safer and faster for drivers to cross the railway.
Ideally, a new bicycle route would be directly integrated into the new Caltrain system, making it extremely easy and efficient to bring your bicycle onto a train, thus extending the reach of that transit system. As a hypothetical example, two cars on the north side of each train (the direction of travel is irrelevant) could be designated bicycle cars, and feature extra room for bicycle storage. Where on current trains bringing bicycles on board requires you to carry them up train stairs and through the carriage doors, this process would be dramatically simplified with level boarding. The northern part of each platform would be designated bicycle loading zones, similar to how we have zones for boarding people with wheelchairs; these would in turn connect directly into the expressway. Thus, a train rider could complete a journey to destinations that are beyond convenient walking and bus distances by connecting to the cycle expressway at the station and biking the remaining distance safely.

A critic might ask: how much more would such an addition cost? Do we really need to add a bicycle expressway? Adding a new easement would cost more, yes, but the benefits would be equally numerous. Considering that a rebuilt corridor is already slated to cost several billion dollars (regardless of whether HSR is adopted), adding a bicycle route would add only a small fraction to the grand total, yet would provide a dramatically new and fast means to traverse the Peninsula. A new route would dramatically extend the reach of the Caltrain network, providing another means for transit riders to access locations out of walking distance from stations. Since the region is going to rebuild the Peninsula rail corridor anyway, it should be built completely and properly, with the greatest needs of the metropolis factored in. If a bike sharing network is ever introduced in the Bay Area, it would likely make extensive use of the new cycle expressway.

The peninsula has unfortunately become the most contentious area for accommodating the planned California High Speed Rail line. The debate has largely failed to recognize the incredible potential of reconstruction to change mobility options in that entire region. Failure to integrate biking into this critical piece of infrastructure would mean that the entire Peninsula will miss an opportunity to add new travel means - or anything similar--to the region for decades, possibly even for the next century. Adding a route would benefit the Peninsula tremendously, helping add to the vibrant discourse of ideas that frequently stem from this portion of the country.

Press Release: High-Speed Rail Will Deliver Growth, Improve Access to Jobs in California

2011-12-15T21:17:08Z

Download the press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2011

We commend Chairman John Mica and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for holding a hearing today to focus on the viability of high-speed rail in California.

Our research indicates that there are two markets in the nation that have the concentrations of population, employment, and existing travel markets to support high-speed passenger rail today: California and the Northeast. California, having started planning this project in the mid-1990s, is now poised to be the first state in the nation to build world-class high-speed rail. In doing so, it will transform the state's geography, shrinking time distances among the state's major job centers and connecting California residents to economic opportunity for decades to come.]]>
California high-speed rail will shrink time distances in the state, opening up the job markets of the Bay Area and the Los Angeles basin to residents in the Central Valley.

"California is faced with unavoidable costs to meet the transportation needs of its future population," said Petra Todorovich, director of America 2050, a Regional Plan Association initiative. "These needs can be met with high-speed rail, or they can be addressed by spending far more to build added highway lane miles, airport gates, and runways. Without high-speed rail, California's already-jammed highways and airports will grow more clogged, and air quality and residents' health will suffer."

About America 2050: America 2050 is Regional Plan Association's program to develop an infrastructure plan and growth strategy for the U.S. For more information, please visit www.america2050.org

Congressional High-Speed Rail Hearing Misses the Point

2011-12-07T18:00:00Z

The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee of the House of Representatives held a hearing on Dec. 6 to evaluate the U.S. Department of Transportation's High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program. This hearing follows two successive federal budgets (2011-2012) in which Congress has provided no new funding for the high-speed rail program. Some members of the committee strongly criticized the program's focus, while the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, gave impassioned testimony in defense of the Administration's strategy.

The concerns that were voiced at the hearing missed the point of this critical program -- which is not only to build new high-speed rail corridors, but to expand and improve service on existing passenger rail corridors -- by focusing excessively on whether funded projects are truly "high-speed." What could have been an opportunity to hear firsthand from state leaders about the progress of passenger rail projects in Washington, Illinois, North Carolina, Maine, Connecticut, Michigan, and others was largely wasted. (A hearing focused on California is scheduled for Dec. 15.) Only Joan McDonald, New York Transportation Commissioner, was there representing a state with a passenger rail project funded by the program.

Image: Federal Railroad Administration

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"From here," Secretary LaHood wrote on his blog, "the future is bright. During the next six months, more than $1.1 billion of new job-creating construction projects will begin." Investments in the Northeast Corridor infrastructure and rolling stock will increase the top speed of Amtrak's Acela trains from 150 to 186 mph. California's statewide high-speed rail project is set to break ground this summer. Funds awarded to Illinois will cut rail travel times between Chicago and St. Louis to four hours and introduce six new modern trains, purchased through a joint Midwest equipment order. In Connecticut, improvements to the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Corridor will quadruple the frequency of service, going from 6 to 25 daily round trips when the project is complete.

The network of train service that the program envisions does not, and should not, include only high-speed (220 mph) trains. It includes a variety of passenger rail services operating at different speeds, which meet the needs of local communities, connected at intermodal stations integrated with other transit services. Higher-speed regional trains supporting smaller regions and emerging markets, supported by local transit service act as feeder routes for core, dedicated, high-speed rail. One day, these services may develop the ridership to support an upgrade to dedicated, express service. In the meantime, more Americans will have alternatives to higher gas prices, dangerous roads, and traffic jams, by riding passenger rail.

Survey: Using Online Tools to Improve Landscape Conservation

2011-12-06T14:53:31Z

America 2050 is calling on landscape conservation practitioners and interested citizens to take the Landscape Conservation Tools Survey. The survey is intended to inform our efforts to create web tools for people working to protect and conserve large natural areas of open space, scenic beauty, historic significance, or wildlife habitat. The survey includes a list of questions to gauge how people might use a large landscape web portal and should take less than five minutes to complete.

The partners in this effort include: America 2050, Regional Plan Association, The Trust for Public Land, the University of Montana's Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and other members of the Practitioners' Network for Large Landscape Conservation, who are looking at ways to facilitate landscape conservation through on-line tools and websites.

]]> America 2050 and Regional Plan Association's Northeast Landscape Initiatives Atlas has successfully used online mapping and database tools to identify how and where landscape conservation practice is occurring in the Northeast Megaregion. The survey will be used by our project partners to assess whether and how these and other web-based tools can help landscape practitioners share best practices and advance their conservation work and how best to create a nationwide website.

In the Northeast Megaregion, complex urban development patterns and high demand for land and resources pose particular challenges for conservation. America 2050 and RPA are working across political jurisdictions to produce a comprehensive inventory of landscape conservation initiatives that protect watersheds, wildlife habitat, and other natural processes at the appropriate geographic scale. The project was launched in November, 2010 with the support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area.

Visit the website to learn more: Northeast Landscape Conservation Atlas

5th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Convention

2011-11-08T14:52:00Z

America 2050 is pleased to participate as a National Co-Host for the 5th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Convention on March 7-9, 2012 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Please save the date for this three-day event that has attracted many prestigious registrants and speakers from 25 states, nine countries and over 30 national and international trade associations and interest groups.

The purpose of the Convention is to educate policy makers concerning the current transportation issues at both the local and national levels. The Convention is unique, in that, it brings together the leading transportation and infrastructure officials from the current Administration, Congress, and State legislatures, providing us the opportunity to dialogue personally with those who have a direct influence on future policy decisions of the nation.

Participating as a National Co-Host Organization allows members of America 2050 to register for the Convention at the discounted government rate! Online registration is available now! To register please go to www.transportationsummit.com.

America 2050 is excited to be a part of this event and strongly encourage members of the America 2050 network to attend this event in Washington, DC this March. For further information about the 5th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Convention, please contact Karen Brown at 214-750-0123 or kbrown@dean.net.

]]> The Convention will feature a number of prominent speakers. Among those already confirmed for the March Convention are John Horsley, Executive Director of AASHTO, as the Master of Ceremonies; Mort Downey, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation; Karen Phillips, Vice President of Public and Government Relations, CN; and Paul Priestman, Director of Priestmangoode. Last year's Convention welcomed U.S. Senator Mark Begich, Member, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation; U.S. Congresswoman Corrine Brown, Ranking Member, House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, & Hazardous Material; U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings, Ranking Member, House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation; U.S. Congressman Thomas Petri, Member, House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee; U.S. Congressman Nick Rahall, Ranking Member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee;Rodney Slater, Former Secretary, U.S. DOT; Rod Diridon, Executive Director, Mineta Transportation Institute and Former Board Member, California High-Speed Rail Authority; Daniel Elliott, Chairman, Surface Transportation Board; Deborah Hersman, Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board; Bill Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association; and Richard Lawless, CEO, U.S.-Japan High Speed Rail.

Following the Convention, the 15th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Summit, featuring the 5th Annual Global High-Speed Rail Forum, will be held on August 14-17 in Irving, TX. America 2050 is participating as a National Co-Host for this event as well and we will pass along more information about it over the next few months.

America 2050 Update: November 2, 2011

2011-11-03T18:12:46Z

In this Update:

California HSR Business Plan; 'Knowledge Corridor' Rail Report
US HSR Conference Nov. 6-8
Senate Preserves Rail Funding
Carnegie Report Backs Oil, Gas Taxes

]]> California Unveils High-Speed Rail Business Plan Includes realistic cost estimates and timeline On November 1, the California High-Speed Rail Authority released a business plan for its statewide high-speed rail plan with revised cost and ridership estimates and a longer and more detailed time frame for construction. Certain to attract the most attention is the price tag for the project, which has grown from $43 billion to $65.4 billion in 2010 dollars, or $98 billion accounting for inflation over the life of the project.

The business plan also includes details on what it would cost California to accommodate the same amount of growth in travel without high-speed rail: $171 billion to pay for 2,300 lane miles of new highway capacity, 115 airport gates, and 4 runways. With high-speed rail, the business plan estimates the high-speed rail plan will generate 100,000 jobs in the first 5 years, while reducing carbon emissions by 3 million tons annually.

As described in the business plan, the first phase of the project (the "initial construction segment"), currently funded at $5.2 billion, will connect Fresno to Bakersfield, the spine of the statewide system, with construction completed by 2017. Once these tracks are built, the Authority will choose an initial operating segment in the Central Valley, which will either be between Bakersfield, Merced, and San Jose or Merced and the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. Subsequent construction will be implemented in phases, including the "Bay to Basin" - constructing high-speed rail tracks from Fresno and Bakersfield to San Jose and the San Fernando Valley, respectively; and the final track approaches to San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim. The full high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim is expected to be operational by 2033. Each segment is intended to provide independent utility, and to generate an operating profit.

The release of the business plan kicks off a formal public comment period, from November 1 to December 31, which can be submitted via the Authority's online comment form.

America 2050 applauds the California High-Speed Rail Authority for developing a business plan that lays out a realistic framework for bringing high-speed rail to California.

How Rail Investment Could Deliver Growth to the 'Knowledge Corridor'

A new report by Regional Plan Association and America 2050 recommends strategies for leveraging the $400 million public investment in the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Rail Corridor to boost economic growth. The report, "Dependable Rail in 2016: What Will It Mean for the Knowledge Corridor Region?", includes lessons from successful passenger rail corridors in Maine and Northern California, and suggests steps that will bring the most benefit to cities and businesses, such as providing connecting transportation services, offering free-transfer vouchers and planning for increased commercial and residential activity around train stations.

On October 25, about 100 business leaders and local officials met in Rocky Hill, Conn., to explore the next steps for achieving the maximum economic boost from the project. Read coverage of event in the Hartford Courant . The rail project adds a second track along the majority of the corridor, upgrades and improves stations, platforms, bridges, grade crossings, and signal systems, and upon completion adds capacity for up to 25 daily round trip trains, up from 6 today.

Northeast HSR Conference Nov. 6-8

The U.S. High-Speed Rail Association will hold its Northeast Corridor conference in New York City on Nov 6-8 at the New Yorker Hotel. Registration is still open. Speakers this year include Secretary Ray LaHood; Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, director general of the International Union of Railways; John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and many more. America 2050 Director Petra Todorovich will participate in a panel on developing high-speed rail around the nation.

The conference comes shortly before the start of a planning study and Environmental Impact Statement led by the Federal Railroad Administration for Northeast Corridor high-speed rail. The environmental study will evaluate options such as those proposed by Amtrak and the University of Pennsylvania.

Senate Acts To Preserve Rail Funding

The U.S. Senate voted on November 1 to approve a "minibus" bill that combined transportation, housing, and other spending bills. The minibus bill included $1.48 billion for Amtrak and $100 million for the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program in fiscal year 2012.

While the $1.48 billion for Amtrak falls short of its $2.2 billion budget request, the Senate bill avoids the drastic cuts proposed by the House that would cut operating funding by 60 percent and shut down the state-supported lines that serve approximately 9 million passengers in 15 states - almost one-third of Amtrak's passengers - with severe consequences for the communities served by these corridors. Amtrak just had its most successful year ever, serving a record 30.2 million passengers in the 2011 fiscal year. Read more.

Carnegie Report Backs Oil, Gasoline Taxes

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace joined Regional Plan Association in New York on November 1 to present their new report, Road to Recovery: Transforming America's Transportation. Panelists including former Senator Bill Bradley, New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson, and Amtrak director Anthony Coscia discussed the report's key findings: Transportation is contributing to the national deficit; system upkeep is insufficient; and investments are not geared toward economic growth. The report recommends implementing an "upstream" oil tax on producers, refiners, and distributors that would increase with the price of oil, balanced by a "downstream" tax on gasoline that would rise when world oil prices fall, to stabilize gasoline prices at about $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon. Read more.

California Unveils High-Speed Rail Business Plan

2011-11-02T18:03:17Z

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has released a business plan for California's statewide high-speed rail program. The business plan makes significant refinements to the previous ridership and revenue projections and cost estimates. The Authority also updated the phasing plan and overall timeline, and established a new funding plan that shows the feasibility of substantial private financing to pay for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of various segments of the project. The aspect of the business plan that is certain to attract the most headlines is the project's new price tag, which has grown from $43 billion to 65.4 billion in 2010 dollars, or $98.5 billion when accounting for inflation over the life of the project.

The business plan also includes a detailed analysis of what it would cost California to accommodate the same amount of growth in travel without high-speed rail - $171 billion over the next 40 years to pay for 2,300 lane miles of new highway capacity, 115 new airport gates, and 4 new runways. With high-speed rail in California, the business plan estimates that the system's construction will generate 100,000 jobs within the first 5 years, and 1 million jobs over time.

]]> As described in the business plan, the initial construction segment, currently funded at $5.2 billion will connect Fresno to Bakersfield, the spine of the statewide high-speed rail system, with construction complete by 2017. While these tracks are being built, the Authority will choose an initial operating segment in the Central Valley, which will either be between Bakersfield, Merced, and San Jose or Merced and San Fernando Valley. Subsequent construction will be implemented in phases, including the "Bay to Basin" construction segment - tracks from Fresno to Bakersfield to San Jose and the San Fernando Valley, respectively, and the final track approaches to San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim. The full high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim is expected to be operational by 2033. Each phase and segment of the project is intended to function independently if needed, and to generate a net operating profit, giving planners and politicians the flexibility to adapt the scope or phasing to financial realities if necessary.

The release of the business plan kicked off a formal public comment period, from November 1^st to December 31^st, which can be submitted via the Authority's online comment form.

America 2050 applauds the California High-Speed Rail Authority for taking this critical step toward a better and more realistic understanding of project costs and benefits.

Image: California High-Speed Rail Authority