One of the things that I’ve always wondered about since moving to Connecticut is why the state highways never took advantage of adding rails or trails along side. Now, according to a nice report in the Advocate the reasons behind the inaction have been identified.

“For two decades, we couldn’t apply for grants toward planning the trail because DOT wouldn’t agree to consider that use for the right of way,” Hoza said.

Now, advocates for bicyclists and multimodal transportation said they hope they are on track as theConnecticut Department of Transportation is awaiting word on a $1 million grant application from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Scenic Byways Program to conduct a feasibility study on the proposed path from Greenwich to Stratford.

That process could take two years if the grant is approved, Connecticut DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said.

DOT engineers gave the Merritt trail low priority over the years because of the challenges routing the path around the parkway’s ornate bridges and appeasing adjacent residents and preservation groups concerned about changing the roadway’s parklike atmosphere, Nursick said.

“Admittedly, in the past, the department has been hesitant and viewed this as a very difficult endeavor to move forward with,” Nursick said.”In the past few years, we’ve been moving forward to a more multimodal approach, and now we’re coming into this with any preconceived notions.”

One preservationist’s park like atmosphere is my weed filled dead zone. Somehow New York State has managed to preserve more historic stuff while modernizing roads and adding trails. Apparently the CT DOT is just getting around to this kind of thinking.

November is such a long way off. Yet the far reaching effects of anti-proactivity, one could say toxic reactivity continues in the capitol. Today Governor Rell announced that ConnDOT  Commission Joeseph Marie resigned. The presser:

Governor Rell Appoints Jeffrey Parker As New DOT Commissioner

Commissioner Joseph Marie Resigns

Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that state Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph F. Marie has submitted his letter of resignation in order to pursue long-term employment opportunities and spend more time with his family. The Governor has appointed Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Parker to be commissioner.

“I thank Joe Marie for his service to the state of Connecticut and wish him well as he pursues other opportunities. Joe made a significant contribution to DOT over the last two years and his leadership will be missed,” Governor Rell said. “I have full confidence that Jeff Parker will continue moving the DOT in the dynamic new direction that I have set.”

Under Governor Rell’s leadership, Connecticut is adding 300 new, state-of-the art rail cars to the New Haven Line, expanding Shoreline East service and upgrading dozens of commuter stations. Bradley Airport has added airlines and is undergoing major improvements.  The state has used more than $150 million to replace 77 transit buses and 28 commuter coaches, many of which feature clean-burning hybrid fuel. The safety of the state’s roads and bridges are a top priority for the Governor and the state’s “Fix-it-First” maintenance campaign is improving hundreds of miles of roadway and bridges.

“Deputy Commissioner Parker brings a wealth of experience in mass transit and commuter rail to which we are committed. I fully expect a seamless transition at DOT as we move forward with our goals,” Governor Rell said.

Parker, a Newington native, joined DOT in 2008 after a successful tenure as Senior Director of Transportation Operations at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). A graduate of Northeastern University of Boston, Parker also worked for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) where he oversaw project management, safety and operations control.

from a press release:

ROUTEFRIEND’S NEW IPHONE APP HELPS TRAVELERS PLAN TRIPS ON BUSES AND TRAINS

NORWALK, CT, May 18, 2010 – Routefriend, the online technology platform that helps travelers plan, schedule and book train and bus trips across America, announced today that it is available as an iPhone app.

iPhone users can download the application from the App Store at http://j.mp/rf-app or try it out on the Routefriend website at http://routefriend.com.

Each year, Americans make half a billion train journeys and city-to-city bus trips. Routefriend automatically figures out the different ways to make a trip then checks operator websites for schedules and fares. Routefriend can find connections between different providers and use the iPhone’s GPS to guide a traveler from their current location.

“It should be as easy to book a bus or a train trip as it is to book a flight”, said Routefriend founder and CEO, David Marcus. “The problem is, there are too many different services out there and they don’t work together. Routefriend fixes that.”

The Connecticut-based travel technology company provides a one-stop-shop for planning trips on buses and trains, bringing together major systems like Amtrak and Greyhound, smaller operators like BoltBus, Megabus and Fung Wah, and commuter rail services.

“We have 20 providers in our network so far and we’re adding more all the time,” said Marcus. “Right now, we can get people from almost anywhere in the country to anywhere else. We’re excited that as we keep adding more providers, we’re going to give people even more travel options. Hopefully more travelers will see the convenience, comfort and savings of traveling on eco-friendly buses and trains.”

A long time ago in a galaxy far away there was a short story I read in the dark ages (1970s) of computers taking over the world. The plot, roughly, followed the increasingly bad computer generated responses to an attempt to correct an accounting error. It’s too bad that I can’t remember the title, nor the author, because clearly they were ahead of their time.

Today I wasted a couple of hours of my life attempting to update a credit card on my ez-pass NJ account. I had been periodically attempting to do this for several months now, since my credit card number got switched because of some unnamed breach of security. The brianiacs over in ez-pass land have a web site that gets stuck in an endless loop if your balance goes negative, which results in them rejecting payments and prohibiting new credit cards from being added to the account. Which can happen if you happen to drive through a toll on the day that your account balance is just below the amount of the toll.

After a few attempts at trying to make a one-time payment to the account with a new credit card, I gave up. My nest step was to email ez-pass NJ with the problem I was having on the web site. They emailed back a reply that they would call me. They called, left a message that I should go to the website and make a payment. I opted to call them since the web site was not processing the payment. We played phone tag for a week or so, and because I was traveling out of the country, I finally left a message with the customer service agent and my credit card number.

Needless to say that they did nothing. And so today, when it occurred to me to update my license plate info today, I logged in to find that my account got placed into collections, several new fees added, and it was closed. EZ pass NJ sent no email, no letter, nothing to indicate any of this of course. The peeps at the state collection agency informed me of this, since “Elvis” the supervisor at EZ pass NJ couldn’t do anything. It didn’t matter that I had emails and dates of how long I have attempted to resolve the issue, that their responses to update on the web site wasn’t working, and that I was more interested in alerting them to the bug in their system rather than just fix my dilemma. “Elvis” was really not in the building.

After a quick Google search to see how many frustrated people were out there, I discovered that many had experienced the fine zero service of ez-pass NJ. Some with exactly the same scenario, others with more convoluted issues involving perpetual low balances, adding coins to get through tolls and getting fined for not paying. My situation is now resolved. I paid a $25 fine for the privilege of being in collections, $7.06 in tolls and $40 for still having my ez-pass transponders when they closed my account. Supposedly I will get a check back when I send in my transponders. I somehow suspect that this won’t be the end of the story.

Senator Boucher Joins Effort To Move Mass Transit Improvements Forward

Senator Toni Boucher (R-26) met with Governor M. Jodi Rell, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, state Transportation Commissioner Joseph Marie, and members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation to discuss high speed rail in the northeast and promote proposed improvements to commuter rail service New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts, along with other state rail and bus projects.

“A regional approach to our mass transit needs will help keep Connecticut at the top of the federal priorities list as our state’s rail infrastructure is widely utilized but outmoded,” said Senator Boucher.

Senator Boucher commended Governor Rell and DOT Commissioner Marie for their support and leadership regarding mass transit improvement.

“Connecticut is fortunate to have the right person for the right job at the right time. DOT Commissioner Joseph Marie, along with Governor Rell, has a clear mass transit vision for Connecticut. No question, our transportation infrastructure helps drive economic growth. Finally, our state has all parties on board to advance these important regional mass transit intermodal projects. If successful in gaining federal support, Connecticut residents can look forward to a day when residents will be able to take a train from Fairfield County to New Haven, Bradley Airport and Springfield, Massachusetts,” said Senator Boucher.

State Senator Bob Duff wants you to know that East Rocks Rd. has bridgework being done.

from a press release:

Plan for Detours: Portion of East Rocks Road to be�Closed

The Connecticut Department of Transportation�recently announced that East Rocks Road between Granite Drive and Ox Yoke Lane in Norwalk will be closed to thru traffic beginning on March�22,�2010.

Thru traffic will be rerouted via Allen Road, Toilsome Avenue, Grumman Avenue and Bayne Street. Detour signs will be in place to assist motorists, and local traffic will have access on either side of the bridge closure. The detour will be in effect until the end of May�2011.

The detour is part of ongoing work on a $4.7�million project to replace certain portions and rehabilitate other portions of the bridge. The contractor, New England Road, Inc. of Clinton, is preparing for the demolition phase of the�project.

Norwalk loses out on this major FAIL by Connecticut’s DOT and the entire Connecticut legislative delegation. Norwalk had submitted the Downtown multi modal Transportation Facility plan at a cost of $7 million.

from a press release:

State Rep. David McCluskey (D-West Hartford) expressed his extreme disappointment with the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced today that Connecticut would receive no funding from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Act.

“ConnDOT submitted 23 requests totaling more than $630 million for various projects and did not receive one dime,” McCluskey said. “I’m dumbfounded. I can’t believe we didn’t receive even one of the awards.”

The announcement followed a recent disappointing showing for the state when federal officials said Connecticut would receive only $40 million for the New Haven to Springfield commuter-rail service project.

“We should have been uniquely poised to receive much more funding for our portion of the high-speed rail route because we did all of the preliminary work,” said McCluskey, a member of the legislature’s Transportation Committee.

“Massachusetts received $70 million and Vermont got $50 million for their portions of the New Haven to St. Albans, VT., rail line and Connecticut only received $40 million despite being required to study the New Haven-Springfield commuter rail service by the General Assembly in the early 2000s � before the Obama Administration announced high-speed rail as one of its priorities,” McCluskey said.

“ConnDOT must do a better job of working with Governor Rell, our Congressional Delegation and the General Assembly so Connecticut can get its fair share of needed transportation funding,” he said.

McCluskey said there were numerous worthy proposals to increase freight rail service in Connecticut and none received funding while money went to other states in New England.

Rhode Island asked for $166 million for four projects and received $22.3 million. Vermont requested $112.2 million for four projects and received $3.1 million. Massachusetts sought $817 million and received $95.5 million.

Connecticut and New Hampshire were the only New England states not to receive money.

Representative McCluskey has served on the Transportation Committee since 1999 and previously was House Chair of the Transportation Bonding SubCommittee.

Other states have them. Cameras atop traffic lights that automatically snap a photo of cars that run red lights. They are, to put it simply, controversial. The chief arguments for them go along these lines. Police Departments don’t have the manpower to enforce every traffic law, motorists know it, so they drive recklessly. The chief argument against them is that they violate some vague civil liberties and are money makers for governments.

Neither position really covers the issue in a fair manner. Like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

In Connecticut, no municipality is allowed to use them. The question before the legislature is decide on whether to allow them. Today, Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. and NHPD Assistant Chief KenGillespie will join the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM),�members of the Connecticut General Assembly, Yale-New Haven Hospital and�the CT Livable Streets Campaign�to announce support for the legislation, at a press conference in New Haven.

In March of last year, S.B. 149 made it out of the Transportation Committee, only to get stalled out in the much and mire of the endless budget debates. That bill featured the magnanimous gesture of a 50/50 revenue split with municipalities. I’d almost bet that somehow the burden of installation and maintenance fell 100% to the municipality.

The New Haven Independent reports the ACLU position:

The ACLU said it has not changed its position on the cameras, spokesman Patrick Doyle said. It still violates people’s privacy and due process rights, Doyle argued.

He criticized the impersonal nature of the camera-ticket strategy.

“When you get pulled over [by a police officer], there is interaction with a person,” he said. “The policeman will ask you what’s going on. That’s part of due process.”

The CT Livable Streets project proposes legislation here and gathers facts and presentations about the issue here.

Meanwhile the issue of just where does revenue go from traffic violations in Connecticut is itself mired in controversy. Good governance pacticies suggest that No local government should retain traffic fines. The money collected in local courts should be transferred to the state and returned via a local aid formula based on population. Yet what happens once money goes to the state? The municipalities in Fairfield County know the answer, it doesn’t come back here.

Governor Rell last year proposed adding cameras to record speeders on I-95. You can tell she doesn’t often travel I-95 in Fairfield County, but I digress. Her idea then was to split the revenues between the state and the camera operators. The legislature wisely shot it down.

Moving violation ticket fines go to the state. The municipality collects only $10 out of each ticket. If the State managed to actually reinvest ticket fines into road safety improvements, like funding new traffic signals and improving safety for pedestrians maybe the revenue split would make sense. But instead the money seems to go into the endless bottom of the general fund.

Automating ticket enforcement of moving violations is not a bad idea. Bu the money it generates should not go to private companies and should not go for anything but capital expenditures towards improving road safety. Without that focus, it would just be another unfunded piece of legislation not based in reality.

Wednesday night the Norwalk Parking Authority set course for the next year by renewing the operator agreement and tweaking its operating budget. With comments from Common Council members fresh in the news, the Parking Authroity adopted a tweaked FY 2011-12 budget that included 22 parking spaces in Webster Lot to be designated as free for 15 minutes.

LAZ parking, who has been operating the Norwalk municipal parking lots since the beginning of the Parking Authority’s creation in 2004, was awarded a new contract term. The decision to stick with LAZ came after an extensive 8 month evaluation of the parking operations and an RFP process that included responses from over 7 parking companies.

The RFP process included written proposal submissions and oral presentations to the Parking Authority and a focus was placed on the integration of introducing better technology to facilitate operations. LAZ won the 5 year contract based on a plan that included creative customer service approaches and community involvement. Out of the nearly $5.3 million operating budget, the LAZ management fee was identified as $100,000, however, while the operator agreement operator was chosen, actual terms of the contract have to still be negotiated.

In approving the budget for FY 2010-2011, the Parking Authority included the change of operations at Webster Lot, moving away from the gated parking format to a pay by space format. After feedback from some Common Council members, the Parking Authority made a change to accommodate 22 parking spaces within the Webster Lot as limited to 15 minutes, but not requiring payment.

In concept, 15 minute free parking spaces are used for pick up and drop off types of uses. Such spaces already exist on North Main street and have generally worked well for the businesses that tend to generate short visit durations. The big issue will be how strictly enforced the spaces will be.

The Norwalk Parking Authority already has a bad rap for the hyper vigilant enforcement in addition to the steep fines and fees. In reviewing the November 23rd minutes of the Parking Authority, the revenue loss of currently providing 15 minutes free at Webster Lot appears to be $50k. A look at the the yearly hourly breakdown of 15 minute parkers tell the story, before 6 pm, 96,000 cars use the Webster lot, with peak times between 11 am and 4 pm. After 6 pm the peak times are between 6 and 8 pm, and the yearly total is 39k. Add in some operational costs and the impact to the budget holds.

This shouldn’t derail the Common Council’s efforts to pass a resolution addressing parking fees since charging for parking is only half of the fee equation.

The technology of the pay stations include some nifty features like the ability to call in to the system and add time via credit card. The pay stations are solar powered and should not then be subjected to the up and down electrical grid that SNEW provides. The permiting process for monthly parkers will be moving to an online system that uses license plate recognition technology to keep track of permit holders instead of a paper based system. The Parking Authority also approved a host of infrastructure improvements, detailed in a thick packet outlining repairs, lighting efficiency changes and way-finding.

Obama had the right idea, the United States should be concerned that Europe and Asia have all figured out that moving people, goods and services, around cheaply and more conveniently is a good thing. He even said so in the state of the union address. But how is it that the Northeast corridor, the economic engine to all those federal programs gets 2% our of the huge massive $8 billion high speed rail plan? That would be a total of $200 million, of which Connecticut got $40 million. It is almost like Obama took a look at all those New England Democrats and said, I really wish you voted some more Republicans into office.

Overall, I’m pleased that California got �$2.35 billion. Building a high speed line between Los Angeles and San Francisco is a great start. California is vital to the success of the US economy. Likewise the $1.1 billion to Chicago in order to create the high speed St. Louis Chicago corridor.

But why is linking Tampa and Orlando worth 1.25 billion? Not enough people get to Disneyworld? Is there any economic output other than tourism and grapefruits coming from Florida these days?

The Northeast corridor between Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and Boston is the greatest economic corridor in the world. Yet every action and inaction of our government leaders has led to a transportation system that is as painful as possible. Look at the cars that commute to work in the corridor — single drivers in most of them. We have a sea of empty asphalt parking lots surrounding the slow speed train stations we do have and office parks located off highways that are perpetually congested.

Connecticut’s $40 million, is for new track between New Haven and Springfield. Congresscritter Rosa DeLauro hailed �it as “…this initiative will be building the infrastructure of the future. These funds have been a long time coming, and I look forward to their arrival and execution. These kinds of projects demonstrate the best realization of ARRA funds: we improve our infrastructure, create jobs, increase our connectivity and productivity, and literally strengthen our nation’s foundations.”

What about expressing some disappointment that the nothing was done for the productivity of the part of the state of Connecticut that actually generates all that productive tax revenue the rest of the state leaches off on? Why isn’t Jim Himes saying that he is disappointed that his district got nothing?

It’s easy to pick on the congresscritters, but let’s focus on where the real problem in the state of transportation within Connecticut is. Governor Rell has dropped the ball in restoring faith in the Coneecticut Department of Transportation. The legislature in Hartford has failed to address transportation infrastructure issue for years. Connecticut can’t compete with the Tampa-orlando corridor because there is absolutely no political leadership in this state that understands anything about how transportation impacts economic development.

Just take a look at Susan Bysiewicz’s latest report on the state of business–”Numbers released recently by my office show that slightly fewer Connecticut businesses shut their doors in 2009 than in 2008, while at the same time, the number of new businesses to start-up in Connecticut was 6.2% lower in 2009 compared to the year before.�The numbers were released as part of monthly totals of new business starts and stops compiled by the Secretary of the State’s office.�Though the numbers are far from ideal, they do show an economy that has rebounded slightly from the precarious position it was in one year ago.”

Actually no, the numbers show that Connecticut is still sucking wind and sucking at generating job growth. And the answer from Washington DC is clear — they don’t think we’d notice if they shovel cash for high speed rail everywhere else.