Talking Transportation 2024
Ship attacked by Houthi forces in the Red Sea 2024

How a Vulnerable Shipping Lane on the Other Side of The World Affects the World Economy

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Did you know that the U.S. Navy is now engaged in its biggest sea battle since World War II? That’s the news from the Red Sea where U.S. Navy and other allies’ warships are patrolling the waters, trying to keep shipping safe on its way to and from the Suez Canal despite constant bombardments by the Houthis. That renegade faction in Yemen, with weapons supplied by Iran, has been attacking ships since November using drones, missiles and unmanned surface vessels (boat bombs). They claim to be doing these attacks because of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, but their targets have included many ships with no ties to that country. Those attacks (60 so far) have sunk two ships and killed four mariners, most recently this week in an attack captured on video by a boat bomb on a Greek-owned bulk carrier.

Talking Transportation 2024

Where NY Gov’s Abrupt Turnaround on Congestion Pricing Really Has an Impact: Financing Upgrades

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What was she thinking? Just 25 days before implementation, why did New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pull the plug on New York City’s congestion pricing scheme in a move one pundit called “the perfect clash of governmental incompetence meets political malpractice.”

Five years in the planning and studied over and over again, congestion pricing would have charged drivers of the 700,000 vehicles that enter Manhattan each day below 60th Street for the privilege: $15 for a car, $24 to $36 for a truck. In addition to easing gridlock, the plan would also raise $1 billion a year for the cash-strapped MTA to repair and improve mass transit. That’s a win-win. Just weeks ago Hochul was in Europe touting congestion pricing as the “better way” to save New York City.

Cameron on Transportation
CTfastrak BRT bus

CTfastrak Recently Named Best U.S. Bus Service of Its Type — and the State Plans to Copy it in More Cities

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Did you know that Connecticut is home to the “best BRT” system in the U.S.? Do you even know what BRT is? Well, BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit, and Connecticut’s almost 10 year-old CTfastrak has just been named the best such system in the U.S. by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. CTfastrak is the express bus system between New Britain and downtown Hartford, operating on a dedicated “guideway” of 9.4 miles which runs along an abandoned railroad right-of-way adjacent to the New Haven to Springfield Hartford rail Line. It’s a special buses-only highway with 10 stations.

Talking Transportation 2024
Exhausted Driver Tired Driver

Drowsy Driving Adds up — to 100,000 Accidents a Year and 1,500 Fatalities

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In my college days I did some strange stuff — like driving all night from Chicago to NYC, hitting 75 mph on Interstate 80, just me and the trucks. I was so tired and did everything I knew to stay awake — open the windows, crank up the radio and keep on rolling. Pretty dangerous, but what did I know? Now, being older and wiser, I realize that as many as 100,000 auto accidents each year are tied to drowsy driving, Those crashes are tied to 1,500+ deaths and 71,000 injuries. Nodding off behind the wheel is a serious issue.

Talking Transportation 2024

Maybe by 2026, Amtrak Riders Will Be Getting a Whiff of That New Train Car Smell

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Don’t you just love that “new car smell”? Well, that’s coming — slowly — to Amtrak, as the nation’s passenger railroad replaces its old fleet of cars. Goodbye, Amfleet
Amtrak’s remaining fleet of almost 600 Amfleet cars date back to the 1970s and was modeled after the Budd Company’s successful Metroliner cars, which ran from 1969 to 2006. Some of those Amtfleet cars have traveled over four million miles by now so, despite maintenance and the $17 million “refresh” of their interiors in 2017, they are ripe for replacement. The round-sided stainless steel cars, mimicking an airplane, have smaller windows than what’s planned to replace them.

Talking Transportation 2024
Ferry Long Island

Transportation Briefs: Highway Crash and Highway Hero, Pump Priming for a Ferry and a Rail Line

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Kudos to the Connecticut Department of Transportation for their amazing work last week cleaning up after the fiery truck crash in Norwalk closed Interstate 95. It’s amazing what CDOT crews can do operating on a deadline and with $20 million in federal money. Hero Trucker
Kudos also to Hazeth Aracena, the truck driver turned hero who was involved in that crash. When the Camaro that seems to have caused the crash (as was reportedly confirmed by the tanker truck’s dash-cam) swerved toward Aracena’s tractor trailer, he tried to move out of the way, only to strike the tanker truck. But Aracena jumped from his cab and rescued the Camaro driver, pulling him from his car.

Talking Transportation 2024
Norwalk I-95 crash May 2, 2024

While the I-95 Crash Is Still Being Investigated, a Wider Question: Is CT Doing Enough to Keep Trucking Safe?

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Another week, another fiery truck crash on a Connecticut highway, this time in Norwalk on Interstate 95. You’ll remember it was just last June when a similar inferno closed I-95 in Philadelphia as a tanker truck blaze practically melted the steel, collapsing the highway. And last April there was another tanker fire on the Gold Star bridge in New London. If your memory is really good you might recall a similar truck crash on I-95 in Bridgeport on the elevated section of highway back in 2004. The resulting fire melted holes in the highway.

Talking Transportation 2024

Darien Commons in Noroton Heights: Transit Oriented Development Done Right

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It’s the buzzword du jour in Hartford these days: TOD, or Transit Oriented Development. What it implies and how it’s implemented aren’t always the same. The idea is to put new, denser housing near train and bus stations, encouraging folks to drive less by being able to walk from their homes to mass transit, taking them to and from their jobs. An admirable enough goal in a state that’s failing to get its war on global warming underway. But just plopping housing, affordable or luxury, near a train station doesn’t mean people will want to live there if the only amenity is a short walk to transportation.

Talking Transportation 2024
DWI Driving while intoxicated

Strategies for Traffic Safety: Congestion Pricing, Speed Cameras and More

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Stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic the other day on I-95 I grumbled to myself “Where is all this traffic coming from?” And then I remembered: If you’re stuck in traffic, you are the traffic! Guilty. But what’s being done to reduce all that traffic? Congestion Pricing Coming to NYC
In New York City they’re about to embark on a daring test: Congestion Pricing. Barring any last minute legal moves by opponents, it will soon cost $15 to drive your car into Manhattan below 60th street.

Talking Transportation 2024
Possible future look of New Haven's Union Station

Transportation Roundup: A More Inviting New Haven Station, Ships Versus Bridges, Alternatives to Driving to the Station

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Lots of transportation related stories to catch up with, so here goes:

NEW HAVEN STATION: Over 1.7 million Metro-North and Amtrak passengers use New Haven’s Union station each year. And while the 100-year-old station has been restored, it still sits in a comparative wasteland of parking lots and empty land. Now the city is launching a major redevelopment plan to gentrify the station with shops, cafes and high-rise, mixed-use buildings nearby — true transit oriented development. But be patient: they have neither the funding, the zoning revisions or specific plans at hand.  

COLLAPSING BRIDGES: How disappointing to see Connecticut media regurgitating the same old stories about the sorry state of our bridges following the ship collision in Baltimore that destroyed the Key Bridge.

Talking Transportation 2024

‘Everybody Plans for Retirement, But They Should Also Plan for Driving Retirement’

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How old is “too old to drive”? None of us are getting any younger, but when is it time to hang up our keys for our sake and that of others? “Age is a number, not your capabilities,” says Nora Duncan of the AARP. There are lots of young people out there who are worse drivers than their elders, she says, so age alone isn’t an indication of how well you can drive. “It’s the wild west out there right now, but I doubt those driving 100+ mph on our interstates are our older drivers,” she added.

Cameron on Transportation
GWB George Washington Bridge

George Washington Bridge, Called One of the Most Beautiful in the World, Was Built With Later Expansion in Mind

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With the sad news out of Baltimore this week about the collapse of the Key Bridge, I thought we’d reprise a story I wrote awhile back about New York City’s iconic George Washington bridge. It’s the bridge we love to hate. Congested, expensive ($17 toll) and nowhere near as modern as the new Tappan Zee Bridge, the George Washington Bridge is best to be avoided, but often you can’t. The “GW” was not the first New York City bridge designed to cross the Hudson River. Back in 1885 there were discussions about building a suspension bridge to bring the Pennsylvania Railroad into Manhattan at 23rd Street.

Cameron on Transportation

Most States Have a Special Tax for Electric Vehicle Owners (Who Don’t Need Gas), But Not CT

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A while 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 don’t pay gas taxes, which are used to pay for the maintenance and repair of our roads. Full disclosure: I drive a Prius hybrid that gives me double the mileage of my old Honda, so I’m half a freeloader, buying only half the gasoline I used to. The point is: EV drivers should be paying for our roads just like everybody else.

Cameron on Transportation
License Plate Reader

License Plate Readers and the Games People Play With Them

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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 readers (LPRs) — special cameras mounted on vehicles scanning license plates on passing cars.  The system recognizes the plate number and sends the data to a national crime database, immediately alerting the officer to violations. Have an outstanding arrest warrant?  Registration expired?  No insurance?  The LPR will know and you’ll probably get pulled over. A few years ago when my town was testing the technology, I did a ride-along with a local officer and watched it in action.  The system flashed red so often, notifying the officer, that she couldn’t decide which violator to pull over.