"The Lessons of Hurricane Katrina"

We’ve all been awe-struck in recent days watching the coverage of the rescue efforts in the South following hurricane Katrina. But I think there are some important lessons to learn -- and questions we must answer -- all be them at the expense of those tragic victims.

1) Transportation Means Survival: The difference between those who lived and died in New Orleans was based on access to transportation. When told to evacuate, those with cars did. Those without were stranded. The lack of public transportation along the Gulf Coast left the “disadvantaged” as just that… dis-advantaged, and maybe dead.

I wonder why every available rail car, bus, plane and helicopter wasn’t called into service to remove people from Katrina’s path. Worse yet, I wonder how those living along the Connecticut coast would evacuate if a category four storm were threatening us. Join the crawl on I-95? Take Metro-North? Or hunker down at a local mall.

2) Our Classless Society Isn’t: The victims of Katrina aren’t characterized as much by race as by economic class. Access to housing away from the flood plain and access to private transportation both cost money. You don’t have to be Black to be poor. But a week after rescue efforts began, with hundreds of mostly black bodies still floating, uncollected let alone unburied, one wonders if it’s not also a matter of race.

During an NBC fund-raising telethon for hurricane victims, black rap artist Kanye West said “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” (only to have those comments censored by the network for its West-Coast feed). The President’s mother, Barbara, on touring the refugee camps in Houston commented that, given the squalor of their former New Orleans homes, these victims of Katrina were actually better off than before. She added “it’s kind of scary that they might all want to stay in Texas”.

Where would Connecticut’s refugees flee after an evacuation? Gold coasters perhaps would drive their SUV’s up to familiar ski country in New England. But where would the Hispanic, Haitian and Black populations of Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport flee… and would they also be made to feel like so many dust bowl Oakies?

3) Our Government Is Incompetent: Four years after 9/11 we’ve seen once again that our government can’t do a damn thing to protect its citizens. One might excuse a surprise terrorist attack, but a long anticipated, well-scenarioed hurricane? Not a chance.

As Katrina hit, George Bush was enjoying week five (!!!) of his summer vacation at his ranch, while his political appointee cronies at FEMA fiddled as New Orleans burned and flooded.

Seventy-five percent of FEMA’s budget is spent on terrorism, even though acts of nature present the real danger to most Americans. Gobbled up into the Homeland Security Agency, FEMA has lost all clout, competence and most of its budget.

We have already spent almost $200 billion fighting in Iraq. For what? And what will the final cost be for reconstruction of the South? And will those billions be spent on no-bid contracts for Halliburton?

I’m not ashamed to “play the blame game”. But my comments are not about partisan politics. There’s plenty of blame, and responsibility, to go around for all the pol’s at all levels of government. Because, if we don’t address these horrendous mistakes and answer these tough questions, aren’t we likely to also fall victim to a Katrina-style disaster?

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JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can read a full archive of his columns at http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/ .

Truck Safety, Gas Prices and Terrorism

“Follow-Ups: Trucks, Gas & Security”

Many thanks to those of you who’ve written or replied to my recent columns. It’s time to catch up on some outstanding issues:

TRUCKS: Many of you took exception to my tongue-in-cheek “Let’s Blame The Trucks” (http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2005/02/lets-blame-trucks.html) column of a few weeks back, where I noted that our traffic woes aren’t due to trucks, but to “SOV’s”… single occupancy vehicles. That said, the recent fiery dump-truck crash in Avon CT, which killed four and left 20 vehicles ruined, speaks to the fact that truck safety needs more attention.

Why then are the truck inspection stations in Greenwich and Danbury closed more often than they’re opened? Why aren’t they open 24 / 7 and using the readily available EZ-Pass style technology that would let already-inspected trucks to sail past, leaving more time and staff to scrutinize the others?

The answer is legislative opposition, much of it led by Greenwich pol’s who don’t want trucks befouling their pristine air, idling at the inspection site so near their homes. This is absurd. Their NIMBYism denies the rest of us on I-95 and I-84 the knowledge that our drives will be safer because dangerous rigs will be off the road.

GAS PRICES: My column “Gasoline Is Too Cheap” (http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2005/04/gasoline-is-too-cheap.html) was also met with jeers… and a few cheers. Since its writing, prices have soared even higher.

But have you ever wondered why gas prices in Darien and New Canaan are always so much higher than in Norwalk and Bridgeport? Why, when you drive up the Merritt Parkway do prices at service areas vary 5 to 10 cents per gallon from station to station, just miles apart? Blame it on “zone pricing”, a practice condoned by the FTC that lets oil companies charge higher prices to dealers in rich neighborhoods.

Connecticut has 52 different price zones, with the rich “paying through the hose” for the same fuel less-affluent drivers can get for much less. This leaves price conscious motorists roaming the roads in tough neighborhoods looking for affordable fuel for their SUV’s, and wasting a lot of time and money in the process with unnecessary driving.

Consumer watchdogs and Attorney General Blumenthal have been seeking reforms of zone pricing for years, so far to no avail. What can you do? Complain to your elected officials. Look at their voting records and hold them accountable for their inaction on this issue.

WHAT SECURITY? It’s been weeks since the terror attacks on London and we’ve all gone back to our complacent commuting patterns. The national terror alert has been lowered, and we assume all’s well. (See http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/2005/07/terror-on-tracks.html)

After the subway bombings, while New York City officials instituted random bag checks on subways and commuter trains, Governor Rell did not. Instead, she kept State Police riding the trains to give commuters the “feeling” of safety where none exists. As I wrote in July in “Terror On The Tracks”, uniformed cops on Metro-North trains offer no deterrence to would-be terrorists… but random bag checks would.

There will be more terrorist acts, again possibly targeted to mass transit. But when will we learn that they might be prevented with some real security, not just lip-service and window-dressing by PR-sensitive politicians?
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JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can read a full archive of his columns at http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com/ .

Here's the latest on traffic tech

When you’re hitting the highway, a little information can save you a lot of headaches. Knowing where the traffic jams are before you’re caught in them can help you find a detour and avoid lost time.

While some roads are always a mess… I-95 and the Merritt between Greenwich and Norwalk… it’s the unexpected jackknifed tractor trailer and 10 mile back-up that can ruin your day. But how do you get “good intel” on such disasters? Let me share a few tried and true tips from fellow road warriors.

RADIO: I’m a big fan of WCBS 88O AM for its “traffic and weather on the 8’s” reports, which almost always include mention of Connecticut. In AM and PM drive-time, their reports on tri-state traffic can run to five minutes and are almost always accurate. They also encourage “cell-mates” to call in their eyewitness reports, which I do frequently (call 1-212-975-8888). Now, if they’d only live up their “all news” moniker and drop the Yankees games so I could truly get reliable traffic “all the time”.

HIGHWAY RADIO: You might not realize it, but there’s a network of local, low-power radio stations doing nothing but traffic reports. Known as “Highway Advisory Radio”, they’re found at 530 and 1620 on the AM dial, depending on location. Their looping reports last a minute or two and are generally accurate, originating as they do from State Police offices in Bridgeport where they have access to a network of cameras watching our highways. Traffic info on the large illuminated highway signs (and those helpful reminders to buckle-up and put down the cell-phones) originate from the same place. But like WCBS, they can use your help in finding accidents, so hit 911 on your cell if you see trouble unfolding that affects personal safety and share that info with CT State Police.

TRAFFIC CAMERAS: The same traffic cameras the troopers use are also available online in real time (but as still pictures, not full-motion video) at http://www.ct.gov/dot/cwp/view.asp?a=1993&Q=290242&PM=1&dotNav=&dotNav= Scroll down the list, pick the cameras along your intended route and see for yourself how things look.

CABLE TV: Our friends at Cablevision have their own answer to “traffic and weather together”… Metro-Traffic, found on channel 61. It’s not exactly must-see TV, though they also use the video feed from the traffic cam’s together with an area map showing color coded traffic flow. Even the Weather Channel is getting in on the act, adding a traffic report to their “Local on the 8’s” forecast showing the average speed on major arteries, again with color coding. (Yes, the speed on the Cross-Bronx was 14 mph the other day. That’s ‘free flowing’ by NYC standards.)

E-MAIL: Thanks to the efforts of State Senator Andrew McDonald of Stamford, the CT DOT was recently persuaded to share its traffic updates in a user-friendly format. Just register your e-mail at http://www.ct.gov/dot/cwp/view.asp?a=2003&Q=290292&dotNav= and CDOT will send you free e-mail alerts of major traffic snafus along with guesstimates of how long it will take to clean them up (usually an average of 2 – 3 hours). They’ll also send you a follow-up when things get back to what passes for normal. In its first five months of operation, five thousand e-mails have been registered. By the way… Metro-North offers a similar e-mail alert for train problems. There’s a link from the CDOT website.

TELEPHONE: In many parts of the country you can dial 511 and ask for the latest traffic. Using voice recognition technology and a speech synthesizer, the system will give you an update. There’s no such system in the NYC metro area, though I have heard of pay-per-call systems which probably rely on the same traffic resources listed above. Save your money and just turn on your radio.

None of these technologies will prevent traffic jams, but they may lessen their severity if the cognoscenti know where they are and can avoiding adding to the delays.
For a complete list of web links to the sites mentioned above, visit my blog at http://talkingtransportation.blogspot.com



JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

Terror On The Tracks

The news of the recent terror attacks in London should not really come as a surprise. After the Madrid bombings in March of 2004, it was really only a matter of time before terrorism struck again at such a vulnerable target as mass transit.

Our government has proven itself unable to protect the homeland, so seeing State Troopers and police riding Metro-North trains seems like an act of PR, propping up public opinion, rather than acting as any deterrence.

According to the House Transportation Committee, since 9/11 we’ve spent $11 billion improving aviation security, or $9.16 per passenger. In the same time we’ve only spent $115 million on mass transit, or $0.006 per passenger.

Homeland Security has tried some experiments in improving rail safety… scanning checked baggage in Washington DC and creating a security perimeter around the Hagerstown MD rail station. But their craziest experiment of all happened right here in Connecticut.

In July of 2004, a Shore Line East train was outfitted with an extra car carrying bombing sniffing and metal detecting equipment (on loan from manufacturer GE which is obviously eyeing lucrative contracts). Passengers boarding the train at all stations first had to enter the “security car” and as the train moved along, were screened for explosives. That’s right… they got on the train and then were screened. But isn’t the idea to keep the bombs off of the trains, not find them in transit?

What can realistically be done to improve safety on our trains and subways? In my view… not much. There are hundreds of miles of track, scores of stations and thousands of passengers to control. Consider some of the possibilities:

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  ID checks before boarding? For what purpose… and of what deterrence value?
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  Airport style secure zones and screenings? Can you imagine thousands of riders arriving 60 – 90 minutes before departure to cue for screenings twice each day? They’d abandon the trains and be back in their cars in a flash.
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  A cop on every train? Be honest: do you really think a determined suicide bomber would stop at his grizzly task if he saw a cop on the train? And with a ten-car Metro-North train carrying more passengers than a 747, what good is a cop at the front of the train if something happens a quarter-mile behind him in the rear car?
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  Bomb-sniffing dogs on every train? Maybe. But we don’t have anywhere near enough trained canines to handle the hundreds of trains each day on Metro-North.

So what’s a commuter to do? In my view… rely on your own instincts. Be watchful of your surroundings, unattended bags and suspicious behavior. If you see something that doesn’t look right… report it.

Last year, after the Madrid bombings, I was on a Metro-North train headed into the city when a passenger came into my car, spoke softly with the conductor, and sat down. Two other passengers followed him, now speaking in more excited tones. They said there was a dark skinned man in the other car sweating profusely, looking at his watch, reading an Arabic newspaper and playing with something in his briefcase. The conductor radioed ahead and our train was stopped in the Bronx. MTA Police in body armor boarded and took the man off the train.

To my eye he looked like any other commuter. Sweating, perhaps because he’d run for the train. Looking at his watch, because he was late for an appointment. Fumbling with something in his briefcase, maybe to find his Blackberry. Reading a foreign newspaper, to catch up on the news in his native tongue. The gentleman looked Indian, not Arabic, but he offered no resistance when he climbed off the train.

Paranoia? Xenophobia? Or have our enemies really won and left us terrorized?
I’m still riding the train and taking the subways. But I’m not expecting the authorities to prevent the inevitable… further terrorist attacks right here in the US.

JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

New Trains On Track

There’s finally good news for Metro-North commuters. New trains are on the way!
In special session, the Connecticut Legislature has approved Governor Rell’s bold initiative to spend over $1 billion on almost 350 new rail cars. But don‘t expect to ride these new cars until 2008 or, more likely, 2009.

Consultants are already drawing up the engineering specs for the proposed M8 twin-car sets, one car powered under the wire (in Connecticut) with its sister-car relying on third rail power (in Westchester and into GCT). Each car will power the other in its respective territory. Mind you, this is just the concept and has yet to be proven on paper or on the tracks.

After the engineering RFP goes out in September, a car-builder will hopefully be approved by fall of 2006, and construction will begin. Mind you, this is a small car order by railroad standards, and a rather sophisticated engineering task, so bids may not be plentiful, or cheap.

While closely following the design of the Bombardier-built M7 cars now running on the Hudson and Harlem branches of Metro-North, the new M8s could be built by French, Japanese or even Korean manufacturers. (There hasn’t been an American rail-car builder since the Budd Company closed decades ago.) By avoiding use of Federal money, and bonding this purchase ourselves, we avoid onerous “buy American” requirements.

According to Metro-North President Peter Cannito, car delivery, in lots of 100, would begin in late 2008. Then there will be necessary testing and break-in before the new cars can enter service.

While this long overdue replenishment of the aging Connecticut fleet is good news, there may still be a bumpy ride ahead until the new cars arrive, especially in the next four winters when the fleet is most challenged by the elements.

New shops are being built in New Haven and the refurbishment of the oldest M2 cars continues (at about four cars a month). That will mean better servicing for our 30+ year old fleet and better reliability from the rehabbed cars.

But the problems of overcrowding will continue. On an average day, 15% of our fleet of 343 cars is shopped for repairs or inspections. And only 75% of all trains have enough cars for a full consist. Despite fare increases, ridership is up 4%. That means standees.

After the disastrous winter of 2003-2004, the legislature came up with a token investment in more equipment. CDOT was able to negotiate a great deal on some used railcars from Virginia Railway Express.., a commuter railroad smart enough to upgrade its fleet before it was ridden into the ground. But the 26 VRE cars we acquired were of little help because we didn’t have enough locomotives to pull them.

Finally, a year later, CDOT has now signed a lease with Amtrak for eight used diesels which it hopes will be put into service by the end of this year.

The Amtrak diesels and VRE passenger cars (still in their original livery, or colors) will run on Shore Line East and the Danbury and Waterbury branch lines. The locomotive-pulled Bombardier cars now running on those lines will be brought down to the mainline to round out the fleet. Don’t expect more trains… just more cars on existing, chronically-short trains.

So, kudos to our elected officials for finally getting our mass transit system back on track. Now, let’s hope for commuters’ patience… and mild winters, until the new cars show up in three or four years.

JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 13 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

“Value Pricing Our Highways”

Tired of sitting in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic on I-95 and the Merritt? Well, esteemed economist Milton Friedman has the answer.

Almost a decade ago, Freidman realized that traffic congestion was just a matter of supply and demand: too much demand and not enough supply. While some have suggested expanding the supply of roadways by double-decking I-95 or widening the Merritt Parkway, a simpler (and less costly) solution seems to be in managing the demand using “value pricing”.

Today, when we drive on highways at rush hour it costs us no more than if we drive off-peak. That is wrong. The value derived from being able to cruise (or crawl) on I-95 in morning rush hour is much higher, and should be priced accordingly.

Consider the other services we consume that offer off-peak pricing. Go to a movie on a Saturday night and you’ll pay more than on a weekday afternoon. Take a flight on a busy holiday weekend, when everyone else wants to fly, and you’ll pay more. Even Metro-North offers peak and off-peak (reduced) fares. So too should our highways.

Using electronic tolls (think EZPass), motorists who want or must drive at rush hour would pay a small price for the privilege. Those who don’t need to be on the roads at the busiest hours would wait, and pay less (or maybe nothing). That would mean fewer cars at rush hour and less congestion. Those paying the tolls at rush hour would get faster trip times… real value for the price. And the money raised could pay for long overdue highway construction or, better yet, subsidies for mass transit to keep fares low and attract even more cars off the highways.

San Diego introduced value pricing on one of its interstates in 1996. And in Minnesota an even bigger experiment is underway with what will be known as HOT (“high occupancy toll”) lanes once reserved just for car poolers. Even single-occupancy drivers could enter those lanes if they were willing to pay. And depending on traffic, those tolls would be recalculated and displayed every three minutes, fluctuating with demand.

Is it worth, say, $4 to drive eleven miles at rush hour? You bet, if it means you pick up your kid at daycare on time and avoid a $1 per minute penalty for late pick-up… or if you can actually make that important 8:30 am meeting that wins you an important piece of business.
Value pricing is already underway on the George Washington Bridge. In rush hour, big-rigs pay $36 to cross. But off-peak it’s only $30 and overnight the toll drops to $21. Since its introduction, value pricing has evened out the traffic load, saving everybody time and money.

Why haven’t we put such technology to use in Connecticut? Two reasons: 1) people think tolls actually slow down traffic and 2) there is a myth that if we reinstate tolls on our highways we’ll have to repay the Federal government billions of dollars. Both are false.

Drive the Garden State or Jersey Turnpike using EZPass and you can sail thru the barrier at top speed. And even the Federal DOT acknowledges that it will make exceptions for highway tolls used as a traffic mitigation tool.

So, as you motor across the countryside this summer, take a look around. Make note of the many state and private toll roads using new technology to collect tolls that pay for the roads you’re enjoying and ask yourself this: why aren’t we as progressive here in Connecticut?

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JIM CAMERON has been a Darien resident for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct

Do You Believe In Ferries?

If you believe in ferries, then clap your hands. Sage advice from Peter Pan, but as your applause subsides, let me debunk the popular myth that the solutions to our transportation woes can be found on Long Island Sound. Ferry boats face several challenges:

SPEED: In open water, fast ferries on the Sound could make 30 knots ( 35 mph). But if they must sail up inlets to the downtown areas of Bridgeport, Norwalk or Stamford that speed is cut to 5 knots, losing precious travel time.

PORTS: To keep to competitive speeds, docks would have to be located close to the Sound. That’s expensive real estate. And what about parking at those docks… and travel time on local roads to reach them? Again, more lost travel time.

FREQUENCY: Metro-North offers trains to midtown New York every 20 minutes in rush hour. No ferry service anywhere in the country can compete with that frequency of service. Will travelers really be willing to wait an hour or two for the next boat?

COMFORT: In nice weather, a boat ride to work sounds idyllic. But what about in a blizzard? The bumpiest ride on the train pales by comparison.

FARES: The most optimistic of would-be ferry operators estimate their fares will be at least double those charged on the train. And people say Metro-North is too expensive?

OPERATING COSTS: One of the reasons fares would be so high is that fast ferries are gas guzzlers, the aquatic answer to the Concorde. When the Pequot Indians built high speed catamarans to ferry gamblers to their casino in Connecticut, the service lost so much money that the Pequot’s dry-docked the ship in Bridgeport.

COMPETITION: When a private operator tried to run ferry service from Glen Cove Long Island to midtown, paralleling a route well served by the LIRR, they shut down after just a few months because they couldn’t compete with the trains. Coastal Connecticut is already well-served by fast, efficient rail service, so why duplicate what already works?

What might work would be a ferry to LaGuardia Airport. But when Pan Am’s Water Shuttle couldn’t make a go of it ferrying fat cats to Wall Street, I’m not even sure an airport service would make sense. There are too many faster, cheaper ways of getting there already.

The final reason I don’t think ferries make economic sense is that nobody else does. Ferry operators (like the near-bankrupt NY Waterways) aren’t stupid. They’ve looked at possible service from coastal Connecticut, crunched the numbers and backed off. In a free market economy, if there was a buck to be made running ferries, they’d be operating by now. They aren’t, and there are lots of reasons, many of which I’ve listed.

The only place ferries are running successfully is where they’re heavily subsidized (everywhere), have a monopoly (for example, getting to downtown Seattle from an island suburb), don’t duplicate existing transportation routes (like from Bridgeport to Port Jefferson), or offer advantages of speed because they operate on extremely short runs (from Hoboken to midtown). Our situation here in Connecticut matches none of those tests.

You already know I’m a train nut. (The bumper sticker on my car reads “I’d Rather Be On The Train.”). And I do love an occasional recreational sail on the Sound. But I just think it’s unrealistic to think that commutation by ferries is really in our future.

Sorry Tinkerbelle. I’m not clapping.


JIM CAMERON has been a commuter out of Darien for 14 years. He is Vice Chairman of the CT Metro-North / Shore Line East Rail Commuter Council, and a member of the Coastal Corridor TIA and the Darien RTM. You can reach him at jim@camcomm.com or www.trainweb.org/ct