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October 17, 2011

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In Memory of Bob Galvin

The longtime Motorola CEO had a vision for improving our lives and mobility

Adrian Moore

Reason Torchbearer Robert W. Galvin, the former chief executive and chairman of Motorola Inc., died late Tuesday in Chicago. 

Bob was an amazing guy.  He was driven, focused and ambitious, even in his 80s, which  is not surprising given his impressive life story and all that he achieved.  I first met Bob in 2004. He called me to say he wanted to talk about transportation.   He wanted to end traffic congestion, and wanted Reason to help.  As an experienced (and perhaps a bit cynical) transportation analyst I could not help but think “Well, don’t we all?" So I wondered what new insights this retired technology CEO thought he was might be bringing to the question.  

But after just one hour sitting in a room with Bob I was transformed.

 

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Rebuilding and Modernizing Wisconsin Interstates With Toll Financing

Using tolls to ensure the timely reconstruction of the Interstates and Wisconsin's freeway system

Robert Poole

This study has identified and quantified the major investment needed over the next 30 years to rebuild and modernize the Interstate highways in Wisconsin, including the southeastern freeway system. In build-year dollars, the rural Interstate program is estimated to cost $12.5 billion and the southeastern freeway system reconstruction another $13.7 billion, for a total of $26.2 billion between now and 2040. Funding of this magnitude almost certainly will not be available from existing state and federal transportation sources.

In recent years, the total state highway construction budget has been between $1 billion and $1.5 billion per year. A large fraction of this money is spent on the 11,000 miles of the state highway system other than the 743 miles of the Interstates. Federal and state fuel tax revenues have been declining in real terms in recent years and are projected to keep doing so. Vehicle registration fee revenue is, in part, committed to debt service on highway revenue bonds issued since 2003 to make up for shortfalls in transportation revenue, including transfers from the transportation fund to the state’s general fund.

What is needed to ensure the timely reconstruction of the Interstates and southeastern freeway system is a net new revenue source. This study finds that value-added tolling could be that new revenue source. Using up-to-date estimates of construction costs and moderate levels of toll rates for cars and trucks, the rural Interstate reconstruction program appears to be fundable based solely on toll revenue. The southeastern freeway system reconstruction, based on the implementation of the new lanes as express toll lanes, could be assisted meaningfully by the toll revenue derived from those new lanes. If the alternative approach of using congestion pricing on all lanes is judged politically acceptable, then nearly three-quarters of the cost of the southeastern freeway system reconstruction could be recovered from tolling.

An added benefit for southeastern Wisconsin commuters, in either case, would be reduced congestion and faster and more reliable express bus transit during peak periods, thanks to the pricing system.

Rebuilding aging facilities with toll financing is not unprecedented. Washington state has two such projects under way in the Seattle area: replacing the seismically damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct (State Route 99) with a toll tunnel and replacing the State Route 520 floating bridge with a new toll bridge. Maine and New Hampshire are likewise considering tolling to finance replacements of existing bridges.

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Extreme Weather Events Are Killing Fewer People Than Ever Before

The worldwide death rate from weather happenings has dropped over 98 percent since the 1920s

Despite concerns about global warming and a large increase in the number of reported storms and droughts, the world’s death rate from extreme weather events was lower from 2000 to 2010 than it has been in any decade since 1900, according to a new Reason Foundation study. 

The Reason Foundation report chronicles the number of worldwide deaths caused by extreme weather events between 1900 and 2010 and finds global deaths caused by extreme weather events peaked in the decade running from 1920 to 1929, when there were 241 deaths a year per million people in the world. From 1930 to 1939 there were 208 deaths a year per million people. But from 2000 to 2010 there were just 5.4 deaths a year per million people in the world. That’s a 98 percent decline in the weather-related death rate since the 1920s. Extreme weather events were responsible for just .07% of the world’s deaths between 2000 and 2010.

The extreme weather categories studied in the Reason Foundation report include droughts, floods, wildfires, storms (hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, typhoons, etc.) and extreme temperatures, both hot and cold. 

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Comparison of the Essential Air Service Program to Alternative Coach Bus Service

Keeping small communities connected cost-effectively

Shirley Ybarra

This study by Dana Lowell, Tom Curry, Lily Hoffman-Andrews, and Lea Reynolds compares the costs and environmental effects of supporting rural mobility using scheduled inter-city coach bus service to current costs to maintain air links under the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. The study, produced jointly by M.J. Bradley & Associates, Reason Foundation, the American Bus Association, Natural Resources Defense Council and Taxpayers for Common Sense, includes 38 EAS communities in the lower 48 states that are within 150 miles of a medium or large hub airport. For the current EAS program, total costs include government subsidies and passenger fares. For the coach bus alternative, total costs include bus operating costs, and the value of passenger time for alternative bus trips that take longer than current EAS-subsidized flights.

For the 38 communities included in the study, current EAS-subsidized flights carry 615,528 one-way passengers annually at a total cost of $131.5 million - an average cost of $427 per passenger round trip. For these routes annual EAS subsidies total $60.8 million - 46% of the cost - and passenger fares total $70.7 million. While some routes require a relatively low subsidy, for others the current subsidy amounts to as much as $1,600 per passenger round trip. This analysis indicates that the same number of scheduled weekly trips between these 38 rural airports and nearby regional hub airports could be provided by coach buses at a total annual operating cost of $33.9 million. Most of the bus trips would take longer than current air flights – if the “cost” to passengers of longer travel time is included it adds an additional $8.0 million to the total cost of the bus alternative.

For the 38 communities studied, total costs for coach bus service average $136 per passenger round trip – this is on average 68% less than the cost of current EAS-subsidized flights. The use of scheduled coach bus service to link these 38 communities to the national air transport system – instead of current EAS-subsidized air service - could save society over $89 million annually. Average savings could be as high as $291 per passenger round trip. Some level of subsidy would likely be required to incentivize coach operators to start new service on most routes, and continuing subsidies might be required on some routes, but projected per passenger bus operating costs on more than half of the routes are lower than current airfares. This indicates that these routes could probably support bus service with no long-term government subsidy; in the long run savings to taxpayers could amount to $50 million or more annually because the cost to operate coach bus service is so much lower than the cost to operate aircraft.

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Reason Weekend 2012

Outstanding speakers, stimulating conversations, and a world-class luxury hotel located on the shores of the Caribbean—Reason Weekend 2012 is already shaping up to be an exciting weekend, and you will want to be there!

Please join us February 2 – 5, 2012 at the breathtaking Ritz-Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico. You’ll enjoy some of the libertarian community’s most interesting speakers, including John Stossel, and hear from Reason’s analysts and journalists on important policy issues. 

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