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Transportation Watch
British Look at ‘Road Pricing’
Utah legislators and UDOT officials are considering tolling and innovative financing using public-private partnerships to help generate revenue for needed transportation infrastructure. They might want to watch what Britain is doing to use market forces to reduce highway congestion.
Britain has the most congested highways in Europe, and a recent article in The Economist says British officials are looking at “road pricing” to create an efficient system to allocate cars to match highway capacity. “A system that charged individual drivers for the costs of increased traffic density, vehicle emissions and damage to the roads would encourage more efficient use of a scarce resource and be fairer to boot,” says the article.
The idea would be to use electronic sensors and GPS systems to charge cars for miles traveled and charge higher fees for use of high congestion roads during peak traffic hours. “Economics suggests that pricing the roads properly would make everybody better off through faster journeys, cleaner air or cheaper travel. Yet convincing the voters will be hard.”
To reduce congestion in London, the mayor has already implemented a program of charging high fees for cars entering the city. Commuters are using trains, buses, bikes and their feet to avoid the charge.
In Utah, leaders are considering charging tolls only on “new capacity” -- new freeway lanes and roads -- not on existing highways. The idea is that by using some form of tolls to generate additional revenue, some new lanes and highways may be built in the next 7 to10 years, instead of the next 20 or 30 years. The proposed Mountain View Corridor on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley is an example of a highway that probably won’t be built for 25 years unless a way is found to partially or fully finance it using tolls or fees.
Commuter Rail Groundbreaking
Federal, state and local officials will celebrate the start of construction on the Weber County to Salt Lake commuter rail project today at a 2 p.m. groundbreaking at the UTA Warm Springs Rail Facility, 900 N. 500 West, in SLC. The 44-mile line, to be completed in early 2008, will run from Pleasant View in Weber County to the SLC Intermodal Hub at 650 W. 200 South.
Expected to attend the ceremony are Sen. Bob Bennett, Rep. Jim Matheson, Gov. Jon Huntsman, Rep. Rob Bishop, Davis Commissioner Dannie McConkie, Federal Transit Administrator Lee Waddleton, UTA Board President Orrin Colby, and UTA General Manager John Inglish. Attendees will be able to check out a Bombardier BiLevel rail vehicle that will be similar to those used for the commuter rail project. The project was made possible by passage of a quarter cent sales tax increase in 2000 in Weber, Davis and Salt Lake counties.
Walker Joins Governors Board
Former Utah Gov. Olene Walker has joined the Oquirrh Institute Governors Board, made up of several former governors from across the country. The Oquirrh Institute is a public policy think tank founded by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, and is based in Salt Lake City.
Who is John Jacob?
John Jacob’s name has been floated as a possible GOP candidate in the 2nd Congressional District, but not many people know much about him. In response to some UPD readers who asked about his background, we requested a biography from him:
John D. Jacob, founder and CEO of the John D. Jacob Company, is a successful entrepreneur, problem solver, developer and "water master." He was raised in Lehi, the son of a sheep rancher and a seamstress, Norton and Vesta Jacob. He graduated from Lehi High School and later earned an associate education degree from BYU, where he successfully completed his major goal, finding his wife, Diane.
Jacob sold real estate for Bill Brown Realty and then worked for 13 years as an air traffic controller. Jacob likes to say that President Carter put him out of work and President Reagan put him back to work.
After leaving the FAA in 1995, Jacob returned to Utah to pursue land/water development opportunities and enjoyed success in brokering land/water issues with developers, including selling water rights to Intel for its development in Riverton. In 2001, he formed the John D. Jacob Company, which deals in water and land development. He is also a director of the Makau Corporation, which provides blended learning solutions for individual, institutional and corporate training around the world.
Jacob is a local philanthropist, involved in service organizations like the Cougar House Project, and has been active in local politics, serving as one of the first city council members in the new Eagle Mountain city. He also has been a Republican grassroots worker. His wife, Diane, also served on the Eagle Mountain city council and is now an active volunteer for Mother's without Borders. She hosts a weekly local/national radio show on the Grapevine Talk Radio Network and is a founding partner of the Healthy Wealthy Wow Grapevine Marketing company, which received the SBA's Women in Business Champions of the Year Award 2005.
John and Diane have three married daughters and one son in college. Jacob is an avid outdoorsman and sportsman and enjoys snowmobiling in his spare time. His motto is: If I can't come up with a better wheel, I'll push the one I've got! He can be reached by e-mail at: jjacob@makaucorp.com.
Blog Watch
Utah bloggers criticize Sen. Orrin Hatch for being too chummy with Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, his approach to blogging, and for forgetting the names of Utah’s Republican congressman. See State of the Beehive, SLCSPIN, UtahPolitics.org, and Dynamic Range.
Now You Know
Utah Military Veterans
Total number: 161,351 (10.6% of voting age population)
WWII: 21.0%
Korea: 13.9%
Vietnam: 31.7%
Gulf War: 11.5%
(Source: National Journal’s 2006 Almanac of American Politics)
Q&A
Q: Which state is the most highly urbanized, New York or Utah?
A: Utah. New York is 87.5% urbanized and 12.5% rural, according to the U.S. Census. Utah is 88.3% urban and 11.7% rural.
(Source: 2006 Almanac of American Politics)
Wise Words
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." —Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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