The Fort Worth Transportation Authority will get almost $1 million for bicycles and a related rental system. It's only a million. Lunch money in DC...
It was one of 255 projects that the U.S. Transportation Department announced funding for Monday as part of $787 million in grants that were distributed nationwide, all aimed at modernizing and repairing transit systems throughout the nation.
It was one of 255 projects that the U.S. Transportation Department announced funding for Monday as part of $787 million in grants that were distributed nationwide, all aimed at modernizing and repairing transit systems throughout the nation. Bike rental. That's what'll repair and modernize transit systems throughout this land of ours!
The politicians authority, which will get $941,728, will make bicycles available for anyone to rent by the day, week, month or year at public racks placed strategically around the city. Fine idea. What's more rewarding than renting a bike to cruise downtown Fort Worth?
The plan calls for about 300 bikes and 30 bike stations in locations like downtown, the hospital district and TCU on the south, to the Stockyards on the north, and the West Seventh Street corridor on the west to Texas Wesleyan University on the east. Good idea. Target the consumer: shoppers, students, cows...
The T set aside $100,000 as a local match when it applied for the grant earlier this year. It has raised $260,000 in sponsorship. Good deal. I got twenty bucks. Can I have a hundred to match?
The program will be in place by next April, Dick Ruddell, chief executive of The T, said this morning. The heavy-duty three-speed bikes will come with locks, lights and baskets. Users will be able to use credit cards or program membership cards. Rental rates haven't been determined. If they're anything like parking rates they'll be exorbitant...
Sponsors are Fort Worth South, the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau, Downtown Fort Worth Inc., TCU, and Harris Methodist Fort Worth. A political contributor An outside vendor will operate the program, and The T will be sending out for proposals soon, Ruddell said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2012 09:57 ||
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#1
I think Amsterdam tried this; nearly all the bikes disappeared shortly after implementation.
#5
I wouldn't ride a bike in D/FW unless it had 4 wheels, a protective cage, AC, and a way to accelerate to 60 in at least 8 seconds, good brakes, a mirror collection, and a way to signal the motorists.
#6
This was tried in Australia in Melbourne and Sydney and was a collossal flop.
The usage rates were miniscule and the costs were much higer than expected AND all the bicycle lanes they build are a constant source of anger and frustration for just about everyone.
#7
Bicyclists in my neighborhood have an unfortunate tendency to stray out of the bike lanes. Instead of going single file they go two by two or even three by three. Then they get all indignant when you honk at them because they're blocking car traffic.
Biking to work? Depends on how you feel about sweat. Makes me think about some of those Third World countries where they can't afford cars, trains or buses.
[] Now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation to allow the state to spend billions on high-speed rail, Bay Area residents had better brace for the real ride - a push for $650 million in toll hikes and new San Francisco taxes.
That's how much will be needed to help pay for a tunnel to connect the Transbay Terminal to the Caltrain station at Fourth and King streets.
As it turns out, none of the $2.5 billion in tunnel costs were included as part of the narrowly approved high-speed-rail deal.
It's up to the locals to make the tunnel happen. If they don't, the $68 billion high-speed-rail line from Los Angeles will dead-end several blocks from downtown proper.
Building the tunnel will put San Francisco in competition with those hoping to finish BART to San Jose - both projects will be tussling for $1.8 billion that the federal government will direct to the Bay Area in the coming years.
Just for work to start on the 1.2-mile dig through the heart of the city, however, the Bay Area has to come up with its own $650 million. The current plan is to raise $300 million from higher bridge tolls and $350 million in San Francisco sales-tax dollars.
"That's a reasonable estimation," said spokesman Randy Rentschler of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
The date for when the Legislature and voters would be asked to approve another $1 toll hike to raise the $300 million in tunnel money is a bit more elusive. Although acknowledging that toll money would be needed for a San Francisco tunnel, Rentschler says there are no plans on the boards to seek an increase.
Even if all the money does come through and the tunnel gets dug, High-Speed Rail Authority boss Dan Richard says, the bullet train won't arrive in San Francisco until 2028 or so. Until then, the tunnel would be used only by Caltrain.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2012 00:00 ||
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Even if all the money does come through and the tunnel gets dug, High-Speed Rail Authority boss Dan Richard says, the bullet train won't arrive in San Francisco until 2028
Another Social Security style Ponzi Scheme for the politicians to loot for other 'needs' before the delivery date.
#7
A map showing both the Caltrans Station and Transbay terminal is here.
The tunnel would be about 1.3 miles. The current cost of $650M is probably low by a factor of 2 or 3 given the usual bells and whistles that will be added to concept as it stands now.
In the meantime, this area of SF is thought to be a hot redevelopment area with high rises, hotels, retail, residential, etc. planned. These would, in theory, generate in the vicinity of $40M in tax revenues annually. However, with the California fiscal situation as bad as it is, I don't see the redevelopment happening any time soon.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/24/2012 10:23 Comments ||
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#8
And a dumb design. If they're going to all that trouble, why not go to Market and link up with BART and Muni? Or buy Google buses to run a free shuttle between the three locations. Probably the cheapest and best solution.
You have not yet begun to find unaccounted, unexpected expenses. In fact, I have a box of doughnuts which says this is a farce to raise a bunch of taxes only to have the project cancelled in five years and the various levies stay put.
#11
Is it just me, or is anyone else suddenly seeing the Roosevelt-era WPA = WORK PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION [revamped]???
Starting wid the Congresscritters proposed new National Urban Renewal programme ala 2020???
Given the anti-US Globalists/OWG'ers, + current + forecasted/anticipated state of the US-World Economy, I'm not sure iff this is good news or bad news - THE MIGHTY "MAYBE" STRIKES???
[Daily Caller] A Democratic Virginia state senator accused Republican Willard Mitt Romney ...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the presumptive Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field. On the plus side, he isn't President B.O... on Friday of catering to people who don't like the president because of his race.
"What I'm saying to you is Mitt Romney, he's speaking to a population of this -- a segment of the population who does not like to see people other than a white man in the White House or in any other elected position," Louise Lucas said on the John Fredericks Show, while discussing the presidential race.
"Let's be real clear about it, let's be real clear about it, Mitt Romney is speaking to a group of people out there who don't like folks like President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... in any elected or leadership position. We know what's going on here, and ... some people may be afraid to say it, but I'm not. I'm not afraid to say it. He's speaking to that fringe out there who do not want to see anybody another than a white person in a leadership position," she continued.
"Do you really believe now that this is still about race?" Fredericks asked her.
"I absolutely believe it is all about race," Lucas replied. "And for the first time in my life I've been able to convince my children finally that racism is alive and well."
"Even in Virginia?" he asked.
"In Virginia -- how about all across this nation?" she replied. "And especially in Virginia."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2012 10:59 ||
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I's not about race, it's about getting Obama OUT, if you see that as "race" you're deceived.{t's all about getting a BAD pres OUT, Whatever his color.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/24/2012 18:30 Comments ||
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#7
Oh, for the love of the Almighty - is there a member of the BCC (aside from Col. West) who is not a nasty-minded bigot, as dumb as a stump, or corrupt beyond all reason -- or all three in combination?
Can any of the Rantburgers think of any Black Congressional Causcussians who are an exception to this?
[Fort Worth Star-Telegram] When the Grapevine-Colleyville school district Grapevine is about 30 miles northwest of Dallas...
received an unexpected $9.7 million in federal flood control payments in May, administrators knew what to do with the cash -- give salary increases in a multiyear plan to bring up employee pay to competitive rates, Superintendent Robin Ryan said.
The plan, approved 7-0 by the school board Monday night, calls for spending $7.2 million of the money on employee pay and socking away $2.5 million for future projects associated with the district's LEAD 2021 strategic plan.
"Our salaries have not kept up with those in neighboring districts, and we have felt the impact," said Ryan. "We have had talented and experienced people at all levels of our district leave for higher pay." "Y'gotta pay top dollar if you want the best people, like us..."
It will work like this: $1.2 million of the $7.2 million will be distributed among employees this year for permanent salary adjustments, and the remaining $6 million will be used to sustain the raises over the next five years without affecting the operating budget. At the end of the five years they're expecting another boodle...
Depending on how their salaries compare with the pay for similar positions in other North Texas districts, employees will receive raises of at least 0.75 percent and in some cases as much as 10 to 12 percent.
The pay increases are in addition to the 1 percent cost-of-living raises and 1 percent one-time bonuses already approved in the district's 2012-13 operating budget.
Before this year, school employees had not received raises since 2009.
The district has received flood-control money from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Minerals and Management Services before, but the payments fluctuated between $400,000 and $1.2 million, so administrators weren't able to budget or plan on them. Shouldn't flood control money be spent on flood control? Doesn't that leave you with the risk of having your competitively paid teachers and (especially) administrators washed away when Denton Creek floods so badly Grapevine Lake won't hold it? What good are pay raises of from .75 percent to even 12 percent when you're laid out stiff but soggy?
Teachers will get the bulk of the money -- $733,000. District leaders hope to boost Grapevine-Colleyville teacher pay into the Top 10 among 20 neighboring districts. Are students performing in the top 10 among 20 in the state-wide tests? I know, I know, rhetorical question...
Another $256,000 will be distributed districtwide among campus leadership and support personnel. A nice little package for administrators with some left over to tip the secretaries and maybe even the lunch ladies.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2012 09:58 ||
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an unexpected $9.7 million in federal flood control payments in May, administrators knew what to do with the cash -- give salary increases in a multiyear plan to bring up employee pay to competitive rates
Now we know where the majority of former New Orleans residents ended up.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority will get almost $1 million for bicycles and a related rental system.
Now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation to allow the state to spend billions on high-speed rail, Bay Area residents had better brace for the real ride - a push for $650 million in toll hikes and new San Francisco taxes.
A Democratic Virginia state senator accused Republican 
[Fort Worth Star-Telegram] When the Grapevine-Colleyville school district 
