DALLAS TRANSPORTATION

State lawmakers have been scrambling for ways to protect the buying power of the fuel tax even as cars get more efficient and require less gas. The concept under discussion in Austin has been to index the tax so it would automatically rise with inflation or the cost of construction.

But that's looking to be old school even before Austin gets seriously close to acting.

In Virginia, lawmakers are already looking at a newer idea of indexing the gas to the average fuel efficiency of the cars on the road. That's yet another way to make sure that car owners produce a steady amount of revenue and keep up their per-mile tax support for roadways.

Two transportation guys around here have tossed out this idea too -- my colleague Michael Lindenberger wrote about it recently, and Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, has made public presentations.

Both Michaels seem to be claiming authorship of the idea -- our Michael says he thought about it before he heard about it -- and it's hard to know which one to believe. I do know that both have the attention of transportation officials.

-- Our Michael says he was buttonholed the other day by Texas Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows, who had read the blog item and said the idea is worth pursing.

-- Morris laid out details of the concept this month to a joint meeting of the Legislature's Senate and House transportation committees. Senate Transportation Chairman John Carona asked for details. You could hear the wheels turning.

I have to say Morris has a better pitch. Lindenberger has a treatise. Morris has charts, numbers, a powerpoint and everything. He's also got a great intro line for elected officials who are sensitive to the "tax friendly" label.

"If I said there is a strategy to raise taxes that does not cost the consumer any more money, you would say I'm crazy."

He had their attention. You can see his presentation by clicking up the Feb. hearing on the Legislature's archives. Dial into 3 hours, 29 minutes and listen. You can also follow his chart while listening.

I'm not sure how you can cut people's taxes and make more money, but lots is possible in Austin.

Even so, this campaign year is a tricky time to talk about any kind of new tax. Kay Bailey Hutchison has jumped on Rick Perry because TxDOT is studying the concept of so-called VMT (vehicle miles traveled) tax. That method also could make sure you pay a steady per-mile cost of using roadways, regardless of fuel efficiency. It could be a lot more complicated, potentially with transponders that could have to produce information at car-registration time or perhaps at the gas pump.

But any of the new ways of raising more highway revenue is politically dangerous in an election year. Just look at the answers legislative candidates gave on this newspaper's voters guide when asked about highway funding.

One of our most frequent commenters, Ken Duble, posed a question earlier today about the impact of the stimulus funding announced yesterday on Dallas' streetcar plans. (See our blog post yesterday and story from this morning's newspaper.)

I sent his questions to Dallas City Council member Linda Koop, chairwoman of the council's transportation committee, and asked for her take. Here answer follows Ken's question below.

Ken asked:

I understood there to have been two competing starter lines, both of them loops. One was to have circled in and out of Oak Cliff from Houston Street/Union Station. The other was shaped like an Allen wrench, linking the Union Station/Convention Center area with the Arts District. This downtown proposal was to have run along Elm and Commerce Streets, not Main. I understood we were to have gotten one or the other. I'm not saying I dislike this proposal. I'm saying we've never seen it. How did we get here from where we were?

Second question: How is this going to impact Main Street? Will it still be viable to have private cars using this street once the streetcar takes the last of the on-street parking? Couldn't this be the time to consider restricting Main to buses, cabs and limos? Having a Main Street logjam serves no one's interest.

Koop wrote back to say the following.

Ken, I read your questions to Michael on his blog. I think I can shed some light on your two questions. In the first question you asked... how do we get "to" the original "downtown alignment" from the proposed alignment that was in the Tiger Grant. We will be working on the TIGER Grant proposal since it is the one that has funding. The Tiger Grants allow flexibility, so we will need to evaluate the Houston Street Bridge and perhaps the Commerce Street Bridge to see which one is more technically viable. We only have 1/2 the money to work with... therefore, the line will be more limited in its scope but will still connect Oak Cliff and Downtown.

We reported this morning on a major new highway project out in Grapevine, and the excitement at the groundbreaking was palpable. It is basically a free road -- maybe the last major example of that for years to come -- but it will include four managed toll lanes along about 4 miles of its 8.4-mile length.

I also noted that before the construction is complete on that road, Dallas-area drivers will find themselves in a maze of torn-up highways all across North Texas. It's truly amazing how much work is going to be done here in the next few years.

All of the other major highway projects will include tolled lanes as well, with two traditional toll roads -- SH 161 and Southwest Parkway -- and two massive hybrid projects, that will include both free lanes and tolled lanes: The LBJ Freeway rebuild and the North Tarrant Express.

Of course if the Trinity Parkway ever gets back on track, we'll have that going for us, too.

Yesterday, I asked Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson whether Dallas leaders are simply too in love with toll roads for their own good?

Johnson told me that she hears complaints about tolls frequently, but thinks they are necessary nevertheless.

"We hear more complaints against tolls in Texas than anywhere in America," Johnson said. "And I think that's fine."

But she said they are give drivers options to get from place to place more quickly, and she said they are often necessary to simply pay for the highways. "I don't think tolls are overused in Dallas. I think in every instance, there is always an alternative route to travel."

What do you think? Are there too many toll roads in Dallas? Tell us in the comments, and if you think there are too many toll roads, let me know what you think we ought to do instead? Because, you know, that's the hard part.

Dallas scored big this morning as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the city will received $43 million in grants that will build a starter downtown streetcar loop that will cross into Oak Cliff, and will greatly reduce NTTA's cost to build the State Highway 161 toll road.

Its two projects were among 51 -- and the only ones in Texas -- to win out in the competition TIGER grant competition announced this morning. The federal government had reserved some $1.5 billion in stimulus funds for a grant competition aimed at providing funds for creative projects, especially those that achieve the Administration's sustainability goals.

Dallas' application for the street car funds was part of a joint application with Fort Worth, and it always was seen as a long-shot, even though that outlook brightened somewhat last month when the Obama Administration announced that it would reverse a Bush Administration policy of requiring all transit applications to be judged first on cost-effectiveness.

That departure made projects like trolley lines that remove relatively few cars from the highways more likely to pass review. (Fort Worth's portion of the application was not successful.)

The U.S. Department of Transportation described the $23 million street car grant like this:

The proposed streetcar line originates in Downtown Dallas at Harwood and Main Street, continuing down Main Street to Houston Street through the largest job center in the North Texas area. The line has a stop at Union Station in Downtown Dallas, which provides access to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority's Red/Blue Light rail lines and to Fort Worth via the Trinity Railway Express. It also includes stops at the Dallas Convention Center and Hotel, Trinity River Park (which will be among the largest urban parks in the United States), Methodist Medical Center, the Oak Cliff Gateway area and multiple residential areas.

The announcement was made by Lahood in Washington, but also to some Dallas officials by U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas.

North Texas Tollway Authority received $20 million as well, but the bigger news is that the money was selected to help pay for costs associated with a $400 million federal TIFIA loan on which the toll authority had all but given up. That loan will greatly reduce the NTTA's borrowing cost for a project that has bedeviled the financial pros at both TxDOT and NTTA for nearly two years.

Spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt said the news was a surprise, and its whizzes are sharpening their pencils as I write this.

Today is the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's signing of the nearly $800 million American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, better known as the stimulus package. Indeed, the Federal Highway Administration's chief will be in Grapevine today at 11 a.m. to tout the largest use of stimulus funds in America, and we'll hear later today whether Dallas' request for TIGER grants will be granted.

But a year on, do you think the massive public spending has been a good thing, or a bad thing for America and for Texas?

In an interview on CBS, Vice President Joe Biden said the program "has been worth it." Reports the Associated Press:

In an interview broadcast on CBS's "The Early Show," Biden defended the program against accusations by Republicans critics that it hasn't been the job-manufacturing machine the administration promised to the American people.

He argued that money invested in both private and public-sector initiatives has saved as many as 2 million jobs, and said, "I don't think they realize it." Biden said the program, now a year old, was designed to be implemented in two stages, saying "we've only been halfway through the act."

Propublica, the non-profit investigative journalism outfit that has bird dogged the stimulus as well as anyone, says of the total, $179 billion has been spent, another $154 billion is in progress, and $249 billion remains to be spent. (Of the $210 billion or so in tax cuts, a little less than half have been issued.)

Plenty of economists (like this one) agree with Biden, but that's heavily contested by Republicans, of course,

So what do you think? It's undeniable that the money spent saved huge numbers of jobs and cut taxes by several hundred million dollars, but on the other hand it was an even larger pile of money at a time when our debt has become a significant worry.

Today is the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's signing of the nearly $800 million American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, better known as the stimulus package. Indeed, the Federal Highway Administration's chief will be in Grapevine today at 11 a.m. to tout the largest use of stimulus funds in America, and we'll hear later today whether Dallas' request for TIGER grants will be granted.

But a year on, do you think the massive public spending has been a good thing, or a bad thing for America and for Texas?

In an interview on CBS, Vice President Joe Biden said the program "has been worth it." Reports the Associated Press:

In an interview broadcast on CBS's "The Early Show," Biden defended the program against accusations by Republicans critics that it hasn't been the job-manufacturing machine the administration promised to the American people.

He argued that money invested in both private and public-sector initiatives has saved as many as 2 million jobs, and said, "I don't think they realize it." Biden said the program, now a year old, was designed to be implemented in two stages, saying "we've only been halfway through the act."

Propublica, the non-profit investigative journalism outfit that has bird dogged the stimulus as well as anyone, says of the total, $179 billion has been spent, another $ is in progress, and $249 billion remains to be spent. (Of the $210 billion or so in tax cuts, a little less than half have been issued.)

Plenty of economists (like this one) agree with Biden, but that's heavily contested by Republicans, of course,

So what do you think? It's undeniable that the money spent saved huge numbers of jobs and cut taxes by several hundred million dollars, but on the other hand it was an even larger pile of money at a time when our debt has become a significant worry.

Today is the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's signing of the nearly $800 million American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, better known as the stimulus package. Indeed, the Federal Highway Administration's chief will be in Grapevine today at 11 a.m. to tout the largest use of stimulus funds in America, and we'll hear later today whether Dallas' request for TIGER grants will be granted.

But a year on, do you think the massive public spending has been a good thing, or a bad thing for America and for Texas?

In an interview on CBS, Vice President Joe Biden said the program "has been worth it." Reports the Associated Press:

In an interview broadcast on CBS's "The Early Show," Biden defended the program against accusations by Republicans critics that it hasn't been the job-manufacturing machine the administration promised to the American people.

He argued that money invested in both private and public-sector initiatives has saved as many as 2 million jobs, and said, "I don't think they realize it." Biden said the program, now a year old, was designed to be implemented in two stages, saying "we've only been halfway through the act."

Propublica, the non-profit investigative journalism outfit that has bird dogged the stimulus as well as anyone, says of the total, $179 billion has been spent, another $ is in progress, and $249 billion remains to be spent. (Of the $210 billion or so in tax cuts, a little less than half have been issued.)

Plenty of economists (like this one) agree with Biden, but that's heavily contested by Republicans, of course,

So what do you think? It's undeniable that the money spent saved huge numbers of jobs and cut taxes by several hundred million dollars, but on the other hand it was an even larger pile of money at a time when our debt has become a significant worry.

Mockingbird Station, the new urbanist live-work-and-play complex at the corner of Central Expressway and Mockingbird Lane, has always touted its connection to the nearby DART rail station. In fact, its developer has said the entire property was designed to make the entrance from the Red Line rail station its front door.

In turn, DART and the city of Dallas have always hailed the property as the best-yet example of what transit-oriented development can do for an area.

But if you think that connection means that DART riders can safely take advantage of the property's 1,500 garage parking spots, you'd be wrong.

The complex -- home to loft apartment, offices, retail and the Angelika Theatre -- wants transit riders to park in the free DART spots on the other side of the tracks, and not in its two garages. If you leave your car there all day, it's likely going to be towed, the general manager of the property told me this morning.

"Obviously," she said, "there are special situations that we look at on a case-by-case basis, but with the available DART parking, we encourage DART patrons to use those spaces. We hear complaints from our retail tenants, who really depend on the parking for their customers."

Fresh off poll results that suggest Texans are anything but alarmed over inadequate state spending on transportation, it might seem untimely to ask you whether you think there is, as so many voices on the national stage have insisted, a crisis in American infrastructure. But that's exactly what I'd like to hear from you about.

This morning's New York Times carries a piece by columnist Bob Herbert profiling Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's passion for talking about what he sees is America's failing infrastructure, from crowded and potholed roads, to weakening bridges to rusty water pipes.

Infrastructure, that least sexy of issues, is not just a significant interest of Ed Rendell's; it's more like a consuming passion. He can talk about it energetically and enthusiastically for hours and days at a time. He has tried to stop the hemorrhaging of Pennsylvania's infrastructure, and he travels the country explaining how crucially important it is for the United States to rebuild a national infrastructure landscape that has deteriorated so badly that it is threatening the nation's economic viability.

Rendell, a Democrat who has embraced privatization as one way to leverage scarce federal tax dollars to build new infrastructure, is hardly alone. (He's also busy balancing his troubled state's budget, so his call for big new investment appear to have been put on the back burner for now.) Both the Republican and Democratic leadership on the U.S. House transportation and infrastructure committee have called for new spending on our "deteriorating" infrastructure.

And the calls from North Texas leaders for new spending are so common that I won't regale you with them here. But what I am interested in is how you experience this reality in your day-to-day lives.

• Do you drive on streets that are full of potholes -- and if so, is the problem getting worse?
• Let's face it, traffic in a big city is always bad, but has it gotten noticeably worse for you in the past few years?
• Do you worry about safety of bridges you encounter on your way about town?

Let me know what you think. I believe it's important to take occasional soundings, to see if the things that occupy our minds -- such as all the policy talk about an infrastructure crisis -- are also present in our daily, physical experiences. I look forward to hearing from you.

On Wednesday, the Federal Highway Administrator will be in Dallas to cut the ribbon on the DFW Connector, a $1.02 billion project that TxDOT says will "transform the area around Interstate 635 and state highways 114, 121 and 360."

More stimulus funds -- some $250 million -- are flowing into the Connector than any single other project in the country. That's why Administrator Victor Mendez will be here, said U.S. Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nancy Singer.

Like the LBJ Freeway reconstruction and the Northeast Tarrant Express, two other massive highway projects about to get underway in North Texas, the Connector will be a mix of free lanes and toll lanes. Unlike those other two projects, however, there is no private money in this project. Texas is paying some $667 million in gas taxes, plus another $107 million in money borrowed through bonding. The $250 million in federal stimulus dollars make up the rest.

So with all this tax money committed, why toll the lanes at all? TxDOT and the local elected leaders who strongly supported the project say that's because only tolling will allow officials to manage the traffic flow on the lanes. The new lanes would quickly become congested unless some are so expensive that only people who really, really want to use them will pay to do so.

Update: New details throughout, including some information on regional differences. Bottom line: This poll gives little support for higher transportation spending.

I've been away for a week tending to family business, and so this morning's headline popped my eyes wide open: 'Poll: Texas voters favor cutting highway funds first.'

The story, written by our veteran Austin bureau chief Christy Hoppe, puts into context the answers Texans gave to transportation-related questions in a poll conducted earlier this month (and paid for by The News and band of other major Texas newspapers. Details of the poll itself are here.)

Now truth be told, this hurt my feelings a bit: Only 1.6 percent of registered voters said they would base their choice in the primary on transportation. Far more were concerned about immigration and, especially, the state budget.

We also asked whether the anticipated state budget shortfall should be addressed by making cuts in highway spending, cuts in education, or cuts in heath services for the poor -- or by raising fees or taxes.

A whopping 41 percent said they'd choose the first option -- cuts in highway spending -- over any of the others. The next favored option? Twenty percent said to raise taxes or fees.

Surprisingly, to me anyway, that number stayed fairly consistent across income levels, and was nearly identical for rural residents as it was for urban residents. Registered voters in Dallas and Fort Worth were slightly less likely to find savings by cutting highway spending, but not by that much: Instead of the 41 percent, those numbers here were 36 and 35, percent. Houston respondents? Forty-five percent of them said highway dollars should be cut first.)

Frankly, it's hard to know what to make of those results. It does seem clear that transportation improvements don't seem to be as high a priority for Texans in general as they are for the highway insiders we hear from most often on this blog.

Still, my own thinking starts with a note of caution: It's not clear that cutting highway spending is an effective step to trimming a budget deficit anyway, since the majority of state spending on roads comes from the motor fuels tax, the uses of which are prescribed by the Constitution. (Education gets a 25 percent cut off the top, and the rest goes to highways or -- controversially -- is diverted to services only loosely related to highways, such as the Department of Public Safety. But loosely or not, the Constitution would prove an obstacle to taking gas tax funds to meaningfully address a deficit.)

We asked a second question, too, and it muddles the picture. Where, we asked, should the state get more money for transportation? This presumes, of course, that Texans want to spend more at all, but their answers were instructive nonetheless.

A few weeks ago I posted Green Line figures from DART that reflected the number of passengers delivered downtown during the morning rush hour. Those numbers tended to make ridership on the new Green Line look bad, by virtue of the relatively few downtown-bound riders.

For example, average weekday ridership for the morning rush:
-- Red Line coming south brought 3,316 downtown
-- Green Line coming from Deep Ellum brought 177 downtown

Now I have DART's overall station-by-station numbers for last year, and they tell a different story. If you look at total boardings, instead of the rush hour ridership that's typical for office workers, Green Line numbers are respectable. Fair Park ridership stacks up against many other, long-established stations.

Average Daily Passengers Boarding Trains by Station
Month of November

Westmoreland (R) 2,047
Hampton (R) 997
Tyler Vernon (R) 410
Dallas Zoo (R) 703
-
Ledbetter (B) 2,311
V A Medical Center (B) 899
Kiest (B) 1,204
Illinois (B) 992
Morrell (B) 451
-
Corinth & Eighth (R/B) 1,746
Cedars (R/B) 975
Convention Center (R/B) 704
Union Station (R/B) 2,723
-
Victory (G) 572
-
West End (DM) 10,642
Akard (DM) 4,552
St Paul (DM) 3,519
Pearl (DM) 3,956
-
Deep Ellum (G) 176
Baylor (G) 474
Fair Park (G) 1,467
MLK (G) 623
-
Cityplace (R/B) 1,833
Mockingbird (R/B) 3,028
-
White Rock (B) 832
LBJ/Skillman (B) 1,385
Forest/Jupiter (B) 988
Downtown Garland (B) 2,032
-
Lovers Lane (R) 1,106
Park Lane (R) 1,848
Walnut Hill (R) 1,117
Forest Lane (R) 1,442
LBJ/Central (R) 829
Spring Valley (R) 1,061
Arapaho Center (R) 1,104
Galatyn Park (R) 386
Bush Turnpike (R) 1,044
Downtown Plano (R) 627
Parker Road (R) 2,795

Total 65,601

Key
R=Red Line
B=Blue Line
R/B=Red and Blue stops
G=Green Line
DM=Downtown transit mall

Note: I picked only November statistics, since the Green Line started up in September, the state fair skewed October ridership, and the holidays skewed December ridership. January ridership is typically down, for some reason.

Another note: The average daily figure is trips, not riders. Figuring most people are good for a round trip every day, that would translate into the 30,000+ range for daily riders.

That number has been basically on that plateau for a few years, except for those months when a gallon of gas approached $4 in 2008.

.

Talk about your gas tax diversion.

This is becoming something of an minor obsession with me, so let me go ahead and apologize right from the start. But it seems like you can't turn around in transportation circles these days without running into earnest hand-wringing over the future of the gasoline tax. (Rodger and I have written about this before, as it has become something of a political issue in the governor's campaign and elsewhere, see here and here.)

The problem, as I'll explain below, is that the whole debate misses something so obvious that it's hard to take seriously all the reams of research that has been conducted to support the call for scrapping the gasoline tax, and instead taxing drivers for how far they drive.

First the background: Both the U.S. Government and state governments assess a per-gallon tax on motor fuels. In Texas, that's 18 cents a gallon of gasoline and the feds attach another 20 cents per gallon. It's been nearly 20 years since either rate has gone up, and pretty much everyone agrees that the revenues to the highway trust fund -- which is busted -- and to the state highway funds have failed to keep up with the increasing cost of maintaining all those highways and building new ones. (You know, you pay the same 38 cents a gallon in gas today when gas is pushing $2.60 as you did in 1993, when it was about a buck.

To address the funding inadequacy, plenty of folks here and elsewhere suggest we do something simple: Raise the rate, or index it to inflation so it doesn't keep losing purchasing power.

But increasingly, skeptics make two arguments: One, if it was so easy to raise the rates, then why has Congress refused to do so since 1993, and why have Texas legislators refused to since 1991? It's ain't going to happen, they argue, and we might as well accept it.

Secondly, they argue that as vehicles get more efficient, they will travel further on each gallon of gas. So each year, each driver will pay less in gas taxes, even as they drive as much or more on the roads that must be kept up. TxDOT chief Amadeo Saenz likes to say his old Suburban got 12 miles to the gallon and his newer one gets 24.

The big idea:So what to do it about? Increasingly, what we're told is that the future should include a tax on miles driven. There are lots of ways to do this, but none are simple. The big-idea boys at RAND, smart folks all, have studied the alternatives and suggest three are simple enough to begin testing in the next few years. The report, out today, is available here (rand study on VMT.pdf), and a summary is here.

The idea has been tested in Oregon, and recently in Austin I heard an interesting speech (here is a video) by Dr. Paul Hanley, of the University of Iowa. He's leading a 12-city study of how to go about taxing miles driven.

The problem: So why am I all wound up about this? Because it misses the obvious point. The problem with the gas tax isn't structural, it's political. It takes political will to raise those taxes -- and that is how it ought to be. Raising taxes ought to be difficult, and it ought to be done only when politicians can make a heck of a good case for it.

UPDATE (6:57 p.m.): After the post below was published, Morgan Lyons, director of media relations at DART, wrote to say he explained to a Dallas Morning News reporter last week that security was being stepped up in preparation for the NBA All-Star Game and surrounding events.

"It's my understanding that the focus today was familiarization with the system. Customers will see our officers and officers from other agencies working together through the weekend. "

=============

Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials aren't saying so, but security is apparently being stepped up on trains in anticipation of this week's festivities surrounding the NBA All-Star Game.

On his way in to work this morning, one newsroom editor spotted several federal Homeland Security officers aboard a Trinity Railway Express train headed to Union Station in downtown Dallas.

Then, at the station, there were eight to 10 officers from the Transportation Security Administration -- including two dog teams.

DART spokesman Mark Ball told us the security was "business as usual" -- no news here.

But a second editor who rides TRE said a dog team was on her morning train, and she asked one of the officers what was up. He told her his unit had been sent up from Houston specifically to assist with events related to the All-Star Game. Those events kick off Thursday and culminate with Sunday's game, expected to be played before a crowd of 100,000 or so at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

Update 11:02: DART says there will be a dozen community meetings later this month and early next to hear complaints, suggestions and other responses to the proposed route changes. DART will publish a special phone number and email address once it announces the schedules for the meetings, but in the meantime, riders with complaints or suggestions can call 214-979-1111 or send e-mail by clicking here. (To speak to a community affairs rep about those concerns, you can also call 214-749-2543.)

See the jump for a more from DART about the reasons behind the proposed changes.

DART bus routes are going to change again, as the transit agency tweaks its schedules to better complement the opening of the full, 28-mile Green Line rail service in December.

As is always the case, there will be winners and losers: Some passengers will lose service on routes they love, and others will see improvements. DART says the changes will make for a more efficient system, mainly by reducing bus service that follows the same path as new rail service.

Many new routes will be added, according to DART briefing materials, but others will be eliminated altogether. Bus routes 8, 37, 165, 185, 204, 247, 510, 519, and 539 would be eliminated, if the proposal becomes final.

DART's board members will discuss the proposed changes -- and there are a lot of them, see the jump for details -- today at 5 p.m. They are expected to vote today to call a public hearing for March 23, and will make final decisions at a May 11 meeting. DART will hold Informational meetings later this month and in early March. (We'll post that schedule when we get it.)

If the past is any guide, some of the proposals put forward today by the staff will be changed or eliminated based on input from riders and, ultimately, board members.

But most changes are likely to be endorsed. That means, it pays to study the list and make your views heard.

Bill White came in and visited our editorial board this morning for a joint candidate interview with two others, Clement Glenn and Bill Dear (who was on speakerphone). White's strongest challenger in the Democratic primary for governor, Farouk Shami, did not come.

I focused on White and on transportation, specifically on whether he thinks a) Texas has enough revenue for highways, and b) if not, what he would do about it.

He revealed only a little more than he did on his DMN candidate questionnaire, but not much. I'm still not clear on his bottom line.

On the question of whether Texas has enough revenue for highways, he said, "We don't have enough investment."

Does that mean Texas needs to raise more money? Not necessarily, he said. Lawmakers first have to stop diverting today's gas tax to non-road spending, and TxDOT has to be more efficient.

And after that, if the highway fund still doesn't have what it needs? We have to have "regional mechanisms" for setting priorities, he said, and do multi-modal things. But we can't borrow our way out of the pickle, like Perry's current commissioners choose to do.

And after that? You have to be sure TxDOT is more transparent, he said, and doesn't obscure the truth through arcane budgeting methods. You also have to get TxDOT to separate its operating budget from its capital budget so you can focus the debate on construction.

And after that, if there's still not enough? A higher gas tax? "The gas tax is not where you start," he said.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison spent 40 minutes with our editorial board this afternoon for a candidate interview (something Rick Perry chose not to do, and Debra Medina will do later).

On transportation, I went to a question that her campaign had been avoiding, about Gov. Perry's toll-road positions. Since she has been critical of ...
1) the spread of toll roads
2) putting tolls on currently free roads
3) long-term deals with private toll operators
4) giving up control to foreign companies
... I asked her about the LBJ project, which involves all of the above, and about the future I-35E project, which may as well.

Hutchison said that since the LBJ project was bid out and local leaders backed it, and since the future roadway will not reduce the number of free lanes, the LBJ project "meets the test."

She said if the I-35E project meets her criteria, she would be OK with that, too.

This was a well-nuanced answer, and one that softens her stance some. Fact is, there are only two Texas road projects going forward with tolls, long-term leases and foreign companies. One is LBJ and the other the North Tarrant Express, and both apparently meet the test.

The North Texas Tollway Authority, under fire for months over its toll collection policy that charges drivers who do not pay their tolls fines of hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars, announced today two steps it says are aimed at improving customer satisfaction.

Beginning Monday, the toll authority will permit all drivers to use its electronic toll collection lanes, even those who do not have a toll tag, without incurring a $25 fine.

Currently, drivers without toll tags who use the electronic lanes on the Dallas North Tollway, which also offers cash toll booths, are treated as violators and fined $25 each time they pass through an electronic toll gantry.

But beginning Feb. 8, all drivers without a toll tag who use the electronic lanes will be given a chance to pay the tolls before being assessed the additional $25 fine. Those toll charges, however, will be continue to be calculated at the "cash rate," which is 50 percent higher than the rates paid by toll tag customers.

The change won't otherwise effect NTTA's collections policy, and won't prevent customers without toll tags who fail to pay toll bills sent to their homes from being charged $25 for every unpaid toll, a policy that can turn a week's worth of tolls into a $1,000 bill.

NTTA announced in December that it would lower those fines to $8.33 per transaction for late payers who pay their bills prior to them being sent to collections, usually about 75 days after the toll was assessed.

NTTA has debated, but not changed, its policy of sending those accounts to collection agencies, which can involve additional fees, and eventually turning the unpaid accounts over to the Department of Public Safety, which can issue citations and move the cases into the courts.

"These enhancements are to improve customer satisfaction - that's the only motivation,' Howe said Friday in a release.

The second move announced Friday was the appointment of an internal auditor as a sort of ombudsman, whom Coffelt said will be available to frustrated customers who have first worked their way through NTTA customer service hierarchy without a satisfactory result.

That auditor, whose name NTTA is not releasing at this time, will review the account and determine if customer service and billing representatives have followed NTTA own rules. "Their goal will be to make sure the customer is treated fairly," Coffelt said.

Or how about commuter rail, HOV lanes or sidewalks? Maybe you think less money should be spent across all categories of transportation.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments wants to know. An online survey has been posted on the COG's website, and you're invited to participate.

It's part of the regional effort to map out a new long-term transportation blueprint, called Mobility 2035.

The planning effort started last year with a series of meetings and surveys distributed to those attending. A report has been issued on based on the 116 people who responded.

For meetings-oriented people, there are three more COG-sponsored sessions coming up next week. They will be:

Monday, February 8
6:30 pm
Fort Worth Intermodal
Transportation Center
1001 Jones St.
Fort Worth, TX 76102
-
Tuesday, February 9
6:30 pm
Lewisville City Hall
151 W. Church St.
Lewisville, TX 75057
-
Wednesday, February 10
10:30 am
Dallas Hampton-Illinois
Branch Library
2951 S. Hampton Road
Dallas, TX 75224

The Jets might have missed the Super Bowl in Miami, but the jets sure haven't. A story in today's Wall Street Journal says that a (slowly) improving economy -- plus the partyland atmosphere of Miami -- has contributed to a surge in private jets expected to ferry rich folks in and out of south Florida this week.

One wonders how many of the sleek planes will glide into DFW next year -- though the WSJ suggests that will depend a good deal on which teams make it. (Apparently there are more private-jet setters from New York City than Green Bay, who would've guessed?)

Michael Morris, the North Texas transportation planner-in-chief, is in town for the big game this week, eying all the set-up. He's said previously that one of his plans to make sure Dallas area's guests next year (when the game is played in Arlington) have a super-good time, is to ferry folks from one spot to another by helicopter.

Let's face it, not even the uber-wealthy can drive through DFW traffic without a headache. And providing a hassle free week for the big-money fans (and owners), it would seem, is one goal that every Super Bowl host city has embraced.