Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

What’s Happening With Buses in This Transit Agency Is Simply Electrifying: Cameron on Transportation

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The new year will bring some big changes at Greater Bridgeport Transit: The introduction of two new, all-electric buses to the fleet. GBT runs 57 buses, 35 of them diesel-powered and 22 hybrids. The diesels get 3.2 mpg and the hybrids just 4.5 mpg, which means the busy transit agency must buy over a half-million gallons of diesel fuel a year. It’s a very busy transit agency, carrying over 5 million passengers a year (about 17,000 a day). Fares have been steady since 2010: $1.75 for 90 minutes on any route, $4 a day or $70 for a monthly pass.

Joseph Giulietti in 2015

Transportation Commissioner Giulietti on Why CT Needs Tolls: Cameron on Transportation

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State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti is about to finish his first year on the job and his plate is more than full. It’s overflowing with controversy. Last week, in part one of an exclusive, no-holds-barred interview, he spoke of his challenges in speeding up Metro-North, coping with the overbudget, behind-schedule Walk Bridge replacement and ordering new rail cars. This week, in part two of our conversation, he speaks of the biggest issue of all: Getting the Legislature to pass truck tolls to raise money to replenish the Special Transportation Fund, which pays for transportation in our state. I asked the commissioner if Gov. Ned Lamont had “bungled” this initiative by his constant flip-flopping on what to toll and where.

Joseph Giuletti, Connecticut Transportation Commissioner ConnDOT square thumbhnail

CT Transportation Commissioner Says Faster Train Times Coming, Delivery Late for New M8 Rail Cars: Cameron on Transportation

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Joseph Giulietti is finishing his first year as commissioner of the state Department of Transportation. He’s been busy and less visible in recent months, so imagine my surprise when he offered me a one-on-one, no-holds-barred interview. “You’ve always been fair, Jim. You’ve hit me hard, but you’ve always been fair,” the commissioner said. That’s music to my ears, and I hope he feels the same way after reading this column.

Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Speeding Kills About 100 a Day in the U.S. — and We Can Avoid That: Cameron on Transportation

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Speed kills — and I don’t just mean methamphetamines. Speeding on our roads is linked to more than 36,000 deaths each year in the United States. That’s almost 700 deaths a week — 100 a day. If 100 people die in a plane crash, we go nuts, but if they die on our roads, we see it as the cost of doing business. As one blogger put it: “It’s high time to stop sacrificing safety on the altar of speed.”

Most of those 36,000 deaths are pedestrians or bicyclists, but tens of thousands of those deaths involve the motorists in the cars tied to the accidents caused by distracted driving, drinking, drugs or fatigue.