Commuting Gas taxes Oil and gas prices Passenger rail Roads Transit: congress
by Patrick
Comments Off on What’s ahead for gas prices, taxes and roads
What’s ahead for gas prices, taxes and roads
You’ll likely pay more than $3 a gallon for gas next spring.
But you’ll probably keep paying the same 18 cents per gallon federal gas tax — which has lost more than a third of its purchasing power since it was last raised in 1993.
The roads you drive on will get worse. Transit will face ongoing challenges.
That’s what appears in the fog ahead as Republicans take back the U.S. House amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Feeding voter sentiments are widespread fears about rampant spending and taxing.
Incoming Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica of Florida told reporters last week that the gas tax will go nowhere — which mirror’s President Obama’s position — and that he wants to reconsider recent high-speed rail grants.
But Mica also said he’ll grab hold of a stalled $500 billion six-year transportation reauthorization bill, now a year overdue, and work to push it through. The bill is twice as much as the 2005 law and twice as much as what the gas tax will bring in.
Even so, the massive bill still falls some $150 billion short of just being able to maintain what we have, indicates a report headed by two former U.S. transportation secretaries. And that’s just the federal gap — states and local entities have holes too.
We are facing an “elegant degradation” of our transportation system, the report warns. It will be slow, sure and very costly.
SOURCES:
- Federal gas-price predictions
- St. Augustine Record report
- Reuters report
- New York Times report
- Well Within Reach report
OTHER STUDIES:
Construction and closures Roads: Babcock Road intersection Medical Drive South Texas Medical Center widening
by Brian
6 comments
Medical/Babcock plans
Click the image above for a full-sized, annotated diagram
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, work is scheduled to start soon on the Medical/Babcock intersection in the Medical Center. I got a copy of the plans and most of the changes mirror those at the other Med Center intersection upgrades: new signals and signage, dedicated right turn bays on all four corners, and improved pavement. A couple of other improvements are also planned:
- Long, dual left turn lanes from southbound Babcock onto Medical. This will facilitate the morning commute and help reduce the backups on Babcock that sometimes extend nearly to Hamilton Wolfe.
- Dual left turn lanes from westbound Medical to southbound Babcock.
To facilitate the new long left turn lanes on southbound Babcock, left turns to and from Lamb Road will now be prohibited. I know a lot of people use that to get to/from Oakdell Way– those folks will now either have to use Medical and come back around from the west or use Roanoke Run or Hamilton Wolfe to the north. I was actually a little surprised that the plan did not completely close the Lamb Road intersection with Babcock and instead realign Oakdell Way through the empty lots there to meet Babcock at a new intersection about 150 yards or so to the north.
Another small surprise was that the wide median on Medical on the west side of Babcock wasn’t narrowed, maybe for a dedicated left turn lane. I often see people coming from that direction turning left onto Babcock interfere with oncoming traffic going straight or turning right and I’m convinced that the wide median there is part of the problem. Reconfiguring that median or changing the signals to a split-phase would resolve that.
Thanks to the folks at the South Texas Medical Center Alliance, Project Control, and Pape-Dawson Engineering for making the plans available to me.
SAT Terminal B opens for business Tuesday!
If you’re headed out on an American or Continental airlines flight from San Antonio on Tuesday, make sure you head to the new Terminal B at the airport! SAT officials announced last week that the new terminal would open for business on November 9th. An overnight move of airplanes, computers, and other equipment and supplies will take place the night before. Additionally, the airport’s signage will be changed that night reflecting the new Terminal B as well as the “rebranding” of Terminal 1 to Terminal A. In fact, all new signage has already been installed on the airport’s roads with temporary plates covering the new terminal designations.
Construction and closures Roads: Babcock Road Blanco Road Bulverde Road intersection Medical Drive South Texas Medical Center superstreet US 281 widening
by Brian
1 comment
Blanco Road done! (well, almost); Babcock/Medical on deck
Somewhere on the new section of Blanco
Earlier this week, crews opened all the new lanes on the final stretch of Blanco Road outside Loop 1604, specifically from Wilderness Oaks to south of Huebner. Last month, the new lanes north of Wilderness Oaks were opened. All that’s left to do now is some striping, signage, and other “punch-list” items and this long-awaited improvement will be completed. Along with the recent completion of the US 281 superstreet (well, it too is still getting finishing touches), traffic in and around Stone Oak should start to see appreciable improvements. Additionally, off to the east, work on widening Bulverde Road from 1604 to Evans is ongoing (expected completion is late 2012) and the city is in the initial planning stages to widen Stone Oak Boulevard to six lanes.
Meanwhile, work is scheduled to start in the next week or so on the latest Medical Center intersection improvement project. Crews will begin rebuilding the Babcock/Medical intersection in a manner similar to the other recent intersection upgrades. I haven’t see the plans yet (I’ll update this post if/when I do), but I suspect there will be dual left turn lanes from southbound Babcock onto Medical and probably dual right-turn lanes from westbound Medical onto Babcock in addition to right-turn bays in all four quadrants and other improvements. And nearby, work on the Hamilton-Wolfe/Floyd Curl intersection is wrapping-up; I expect it to be essentially complete by the end of this month.
- UPDATE (11/15/10): Medical/Babcock plans
- UPDATE (11/18/10): Express-News story about Blanco
Jaywalkers beware!
(Image from Boston.com/The Boston Globe)
First it was Windcrest. Now it seems that SAPD is also cracking down on jaywalkers.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Windcrest police were ticketing Rackspace employees who were on their way to or from lunch at one of the restaurants across Walzem Road from Rackspace’s headquarters at the old Windsor Park Mall, known affectionately as “The Castle”.
Now, there are several anecdotal reports of this happening in San Antonio itself, first at a school, now at some other location (it might even be the airport based on the person’s description of the sign, which I have only seen at the airport.)
So this begs the question, what are the state and local laws regarding jaywalking? more »
Construction and closures Roads: stimulus funds Texas Department of Transportation US 281 Wurzbach Parkway
by Brian
4 comments
Construction starting next week on Wurzbach Pkwy
TxDOT announced today that work will start next week on the first of three phases to finally complete the Wurzbach Parkway. Crews will begin November 1st on the section from Wetmore to Jones-Maltsberger, with completion expected in early 2014. A month later, on December 1st, work is scheduled to begin on the segment from Blanco Rd. to West Ave. That section should be done about a year sooner, in early 2013.
That leaves the final section from West Ave. to Jones-Maltsberger. That stretch is scheduled to go to bid in May of next year.
All three sections will feature a four-lane divided parkway similar to that already in-place east of Wetmore. Despite earlier uncertainty over costs, it appears now that the projects will include overpasses at Blanco, West Ave., US 281, Jones-Maltsberger, and Starcrest. However, there still are no plans at this time for a full interchange at US 281.
The total cost of all three segments is expected to be around $130 million and is being funded with Proposition 12 funds approved by the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) about a year ago. Officials had originally hoped to get federal stimulus funds for the project, but when that didn’t materialize, the TTC took advantage of new Prop 12 funds authorized by the Legislature. The Wurzbach project was the largest single Prop 12 project approved last year.
Construction and closures Roads: De Zavala Jones-Maltsberger railroad crossing stimulus funds US 281 widening
by Brian
1 comment
Work wrapping up at the Quarry, starting on De Zavala
Crews opened all the new lanes on Jones-Maltsberger at the railroad tracks by the Quarry this past weekend. Finish-up work should be completed by Thanksgiving, just in time for the Christmas shopping frenzy. As you may recall, work began there earlier this year to finally remove the long-standing bottleneck between the Quarry and US 281. Work was expected to be finished last month, but this year’s unusual rain delayed things just a bit.
Meanwhile, work began last month on a long-awaited (or maybe long-feared) project to widen De Zavala between Babcock and Cogburn. The project will widen the road to five lanes (two each way plus a center left-turn lane) and add sidewalks, curbs, and updated traffic signals. The $17 million project is expected to be completed in mid 2012.
Oil and gas prices: peak oil
by Patrick
Comments Off on More on “peak oil” and economic decline
More on “peak oil” and economic decline
Robert Hirsch
Think back to the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979.
The economic crashes back then are just a taste of what’s coming in two to five years, energy analyst Robert Hirsch told a conference Friday in San Antonio, according to the Express-News.
That’s when Hirsch estimates the world will reach peak oil production. After that, supplies will decline.
It’s going to be chaos, the story described. And this time the recession will be much longer and tougher to turn around.
“There will be no quick fixes,” Hirsch said.
Hirsch first rang the warning in a 2005 report he did for the U.S. Department of Energy. He and two other authors have followed up with the “The Impending World Energy Mess,” a book released this month. Read more in this post.
Oil and gas prices: peak oil
by Patrick
Comments Off on What “peak oil” could mean to you
What “peak oil” could mean to you
From the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas
Peak oil.
There it is. A rather nondescript phrase that, when plugged into Google, calls up a mountain of angst and controversy.
Peak oil is the apex of production, when new field discoveries and technologies just can’t recover as much oil as we once did. The U.S. passed peak production in the 1970s. Some say we’re passing the global peak now, or about to.
The implications are huge.
Millions of years worth of energy have been stored in a compact and portable form to give us oil. Unleashed a century ago, the black gooeyness had a lot to do with transforming and buoying our modern economy and way of life.
Are there enough energy alternatives to replace black gold? Can we mitigate in time to avoid economic disaster?