Recently in Transportation Category

Source: By Phineas Baxandall and Michael Likosky, Philadelphia Inquirer, Tue, Dec. 15, 2009

 

..... Tens of thousands of similar authorities operate around the nation, governed by appointed boards that are not beholden to legislatures. They are called "quasi-public agencies" or "public corporations" because they are financed mainly by their own collection of tolls and fees from the public, as well as by investment income and other nontax revenues. We entrust them with a long leash and light oversight.

Most of the time, these agencies remain out of the news, quietly managing public functions such as toll roads, sewer systems, school construction, and public transit. Their inner workings come to light almost exclusively amid accusations of corruption or mismanagement.

Source: Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal, DECEMBER 9, 2009

 

..... Consider one of the actual news stories to emerge from Chicago of late: The city's decision to privatize its parking meters. Thanks to a deal finalized in 2008, Chicago's parking meters will be operated for the next 75 years by a group of investors put together by Morgan Stanley, including the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi.

..... The details of the parking meter deal, for example, were negotiated by the Daley administration with almost no public scrutiny. When it came time to approve the billion-dollar arrangement, the city council got exactly two days. It was a farce. According to a report issued by Chicago's inspector general, "No financial analysis was provided of the value of the parking-meter system to the City if it retained the system, since no such analysis had been done. . . . There was no public comment; no testimony from critics or experts; no presentation of recent studies" on privatization elsewhere.

Source: By DAN MIHALOPOULOS, New York Times, November 20, 2009

After a rocky start hurt their bottom line, Chicago's new parking meter operators are raking in more than $1.1 million a week and expect even more revenue next year, according to internal company documents obtained by the Chicago News Cooperative.

 ....... Financial experts who reviewed the data say Chicago could have made out much better in the long run had it just kept the meters. The private company, Chicago Parking Meters LLC, paid the city $1.15 billion in February for the right to reap all parking fee revenues for 75 years. Under the deal, rates immediately quadrupled at most of the city's 36,000 meters.

Source:  Sean Holstege, Arizona Republic, Oct. 16, 2009 12:00 AM

The  Arizona has opened the gates to building the state's first private toll road, and would-be developers are poised to rush in.

When Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law in July allowing public-private partnerships to build toll roads, she granted Arizona more freedom than most states to cut such deals, experts say. Arizona Department of Transportation officials expect to set the rules early next year to put the law into action.

Source: Eddie Baeb, Chicago Business (IL), September 28, 2009

Developers and businesses in Chicago fear they could be on the hook for millions of dollars when they want to replace a parking space with a driveway or a loading zone.

The reason: Mayor Richard M. Daley's controversial $1.16-billion deal to privatize the city's parking meters requires that whenever a metered parking space is eliminated, somebody has to pay for it -- and if it's not business, it likely will be Chicago drivers.

Source: By Alan Greenblatt, Governing, August 2009


Parking has gotten worse in Chicago, and many see Mayor Richard Daley's decision to privatize parking meters as the culprit. Daley has been a privatization pioneer, starting with his leasing of the Chicago Skyway for 99 years. So, when a consortium led by Morgan Stanley offered $1.2 billion for the right to collect street-parking fees over the next 75 years, it seemed like a no-brainer. The plan sailed through the city council but ran into trouble almost as soon as it was implemented in February.

Parking fees quadrupled in some areas, running to $3.50 an hour in the Loop; downtown rates will rise to $6.50 by 2013. The need to stuff meters with 14 quarters a shot jammed many of them. Meanwhile, 250 pay-and-display devices that take credit cards broke down right after installation.

Source: BY CÉCILE LEPAGE, San Francisco Bay Guardian (CA), Wednesday July 8, 2009


City officials are considering shutting down the municipal asphalt plant -- the source of material for repaving roads and fixing potholes -- in order to facilitate construction of a private plant on the waterfront that the city would agree to help finance and support over the long term.

While the privatization plan is being billed by project proponents as a way to save money during tough financial times, it raises questions about whether relying on the private sector for this essential material could hurt the city's ability to make emergency repairs and ultimately end up costing taxpayers even more.

Source: By Dan Mihalopoulos, Chicago Tribune (IL), June 3, 2009

 

City Hall's inspector general blasted Mayor Richard Daley's parking meter lease Tuesday, alleging the administration gave up the potential for hundreds of millions in additional cash when aldermen rapidly rubber-stamped the deal. 

While Inspector General David Hoffman put an official seal on what critics have been saying for months, the scathing report comes amid public outrage. Anger over the parking meter meltdown has yet to subside in a rare case where a blunder is sticking to a mayor who has outrun many controversies during his two decades in office.

 

Source:  By Irwin Block, The Gazette, May 28, 2009
 

 ...... In an analysis made public yesterday, researcher Marc Hasbani of UQÀM's accounting sciences departments concludes that "in spite of substantial revenue," there is no evidence the privatized arrangement is more efficient than it would have been under city management.

...... His main recommendation: The city should take control of parking meters and recover the estimated $1 million a year it is losing under the current system.

 Source: By Rob Lovitt, MSNBC,  9:36 a.m. ET, Wed., May 6, 2009

 

 ........ According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the nation's infrastructure is in such dire shape that it would take $2.2 trillion over the next five years to reverse decades of underfunding and neglect. The shortfall for transportation infrastructure alone is pegged at more than $800 billion.  

State and local governments are simply unable (or unwilling) to fill the gap. The proposed solution: sell or lease public assets to private companies that would provide money upfront in return for the right to run the operation and keep most of the revenue.