Transportation
Blog
Buses should be transportation, not homeless shelters
“At night time, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the homeless have nowhere to go,” a man who posted a video of a downtown-to-Santa Monica Metro bus filled with slumbering homeless told the Los Angeles Fox affiliate. “So they all get on the buses and they ride the buses all ...
Kerry Jackson
June 20, 2024
Crime
Watch the latest Free Cities Center video
WATCH: Are Crime and Homelessness Shifting San Francisco Right?
Do recent election results show a rightward shift in San Francisco? Join Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut as he visits the City by the Bay and talks with two experts about what’s really going on in the City. They discuss whether things are really as bad as some media outlets ...
Pacific Research Institute
June 17, 2024
Blog
SF’s ‘Grand Central Station’ is more like a mausoleum
Advocates for San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center have never lacked a sense of grandiosity about their goals. “The ability to envision the future and to transform aspirations into reality is what sets leaders apart,” boasted a glossy brochure published by the joint powers authority in charge of the project. “No ...
Steven Greenhut
May 30, 2024
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Sacramento Wants to ‘CLEAR’ Out Private Sector Convenience for Millions of Travelers
California lawmakers want to run a business out of the state. What did this company do to deserve such a penalty? Is it connected to organized crime? Did it steal clients and customers? Does it traffic in contraband? No, it simply doesn’t fit with the political class’ sense of equity. ...
Kerry Jackson
May 20, 2024
Blog
Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit
Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit Jeremy Lott | May 17, 2024 Washington state’s law on children in cars is quite something for parents to accommodate, as one illustrated state handout demonstrates. Your children must be in the back seat, in car seats facing backwards, for the ...
Jeremy Lott
May 17, 2024
Blog
Read latest on BART's push for higher taxes
BART pushes to raise taxes to subsidize falling ridership
The pandemic is well behind us, yet transit ridership levels nationwide – and in the San Francisco Bay Area in particular – have only recovered somewhat from pre-pandemic levels. In fact, those pre-pandemic levels weren’t particularly great as transit ridership has been falling for years. Despite California’s reluctance to invest ...
Steven Greenhut
May 7, 2024
Blog
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
William L. Anderson
April 26, 2024
Blog
Read about problems with government transportation planning
Book Review: ‘Transit’s growth, decline and pending demise’
Who said the following? “The basic objective of our nation’s transportation system must be to assure the availability of the fast, safe, and economical transportation services needed in a growing and changing economy. … This basic objective can and must be achieved primarily by continued reliance on unsubsidized privately owned ...
Randal O'Toole
April 4, 2024
Blog
Read latest on war on cars
Congestion pricing is mainly about punishing suburbanites
The privilege of working in or visiting Manhattan could soon be higher than the cost of lunch. As U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer put it in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, a proposed increase in the tunnel toll is “a greedy and unnecessary cash grab.” It ...
Kerry Jackson
March 27, 2024
Blog
Read latest about war on cars
Car wars and other progressive fantasies
Thanks to the wonders of social media, it’s easy to find large communities of car-loathing, bicycle-riding, transit-loving urbanists who view cars as “death machines” and insist they are the cause of every woe known to mankind. Many of these progressive scolds would love to ban them, or at least strictly ...
Steven Greenhut
March 26, 2024
Buses should be transportation, not homeless shelters
“At night time, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the homeless have nowhere to go,” a man who posted a video of a downtown-to-Santa Monica Metro bus filled with slumbering homeless told the Los Angeles Fox affiliate. “So they all get on the buses and they ride the buses all ...
Watch the latest Free Cities Center video
WATCH: Are Crime and Homelessness Shifting San Francisco Right?
Do recent election results show a rightward shift in San Francisco? Join Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut as he visits the City by the Bay and talks with two experts about what’s really going on in the City. They discuss whether things are really as bad as some media outlets ...
SF’s ‘Grand Central Station’ is more like a mausoleum
Advocates for San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center have never lacked a sense of grandiosity about their goals. “The ability to envision the future and to transform aspirations into reality is what sets leaders apart,” boasted a glossy brochure published by the joint powers authority in charge of the project. “No ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Sacramento Wants to ‘CLEAR’ Out Private Sector Convenience for Millions of Travelers
California lawmakers want to run a business out of the state. What did this company do to deserve such a penalty? Is it connected to organized crime? Did it steal clients and customers? Does it traffic in contraband? No, it simply doesn’t fit with the political class’ sense of equity. ...
Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit
Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit Jeremy Lott | May 17, 2024 Washington state’s law on children in cars is quite something for parents to accommodate, as one illustrated state handout demonstrates. Your children must be in the back seat, in car seats facing backwards, for the ...
Read latest on BART's push for higher taxes
BART pushes to raise taxes to subsidize falling ridership
The pandemic is well behind us, yet transit ridership levels nationwide – and in the San Francisco Bay Area in particular – have only recovered somewhat from pre-pandemic levels. In fact, those pre-pandemic levels weren’t particularly great as transit ridership has been falling for years. Despite California’s reluctance to invest ...
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
Read about problems with government transportation planning
Book Review: ‘Transit’s growth, decline and pending demise’
Who said the following? “The basic objective of our nation’s transportation system must be to assure the availability of the fast, safe, and economical transportation services needed in a growing and changing economy. … This basic objective can and must be achieved primarily by continued reliance on unsubsidized privately owned ...
Read latest on war on cars
Congestion pricing is mainly about punishing suburbanites
The privilege of working in or visiting Manhattan could soon be higher than the cost of lunch. As U.S. Reps. Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer put it in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, a proposed increase in the tunnel toll is “a greedy and unnecessary cash grab.” It ...
Read latest about war on cars
Car wars and other progressive fantasies
Thanks to the wonders of social media, it’s easy to find large communities of car-loathing, bicycle-riding, transit-loving urbanists who view cars as “death machines” and insist they are the cause of every woe known to mankind. Many of these progressive scolds would love to ban them, or at least strictly ...