Unless you have a long extension cord... Electric Cars could be nothing but paperweights in So. Fla. as govt. bureaucracy stalls re-charging stations

CBS4/WFOR-TV video: CBS4's Al Sunshine investigates how "Electric Cars" could be largely useless without high-voltage re-charging stations that even its supporters acknowledge are years away in South Florida.

Article at:

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/11/23/cbs4-investigates-electric-cars-could-be-stalled-by-paperwork/

Unless you have a long extension cord... how Electric Cars could be nothing but large paperweights in South Florida as govt. bureaucracy stalls high-voltage re-charging stations. And should the U.S. government even be in the business of giving grants or loans to some syndicates given how poorly the selection process is in this sort of crony capitalism, given the recent experience with Solyndra?

I'm still waiting for the hard-hitting multi-part investigation by local Miami-area TV stations into how it came to be that in the year 2011, South Florida doesn't have a single successful solar power, wind power or thermal power company down here that employs a reasonable amount of people paying good upper-middle class salaries and that AREN'T dependent on government handouts for its very existence.

Certainly more than even I would have guessed while living up in Washington all those years, the Miami Herald has gone out of its way since I returned to the area in late 2003 -esp. its business reporters!- to avoid publicly asking such basic yet troubling questions of the local business community and its so-called leadership, since if the newspaper was, the answers to those simple questions would be known by the majority of the well-informed populace here.

For those of you reading this who live far from Area Code 305 & 954, the fact that many American states much farther north in latitude are MUCH farther along in developing solar power capabilities than its natural capital, South Florida, should tell you plenty about the inadequate government/venture capital vision, planning and leadership in this part of the Sunshine State.

No, in this area, people with more money than sense still prefer to sink money into real estate and take advantage of out-of-state and foreign buyers.

You know, since they can't sell you swamp land any more.

-----

EPA worksheet: Clean Alternative Fuels: Electric Vehicles

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/fuels/altfuels/420f00034.htm

South Florida Regional Planning Council: http://www.sfrpc.com/

Map of Broward County electric vehicle charging facilities; 14 as of 2011.

http://www.sfrpc.com/fgcccc/ev_stns.jpg

EV Ready Broward: http://www.sfrpc.com/evready.htm

GSA's plan for a new Federal building in Broward -know anything about this absurd plan?

Meant to post this on Tuesday morning after
sending it out as an email to some concerned
citizens throughout the state watching what's
going on in South Florida with planning and
mass transit.

Published in Miami Herald on 2/21/2010


View Larger Map

Seriously, Davie as the home of a giant Federal building
with hundreds if not thousands of workers?

Wouldn't common sense environmental policy be better
served by a location near an actual or proposed home of
Mass Transit?
All new Federal agency offices in the Greater D.C. area
are required to be near a WMATA train station.

But naturally, this being South Florida, logic goes out the
window and we have to repeat mistakes that other cities
and areas have been avoiding for years.

Seriously, does the South Florida Regional Planning Council
know about thsi dopey plan?

As I've mentioned more than a few times here, I used
to live near the Ballston Metro station in Arlington County, VA,
which was located a block from the NSF (National Science
Foundation), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife HQ and many
federal offices.

That includes the people who guarantee your bank, the FDIC,
just a few blocks away, which happened to be right next door
to the GIANT grocery store I frequented.

Why would you not want to be even consider being integrated,
somehow into Tri-Rail and a future FEC commuter train?

This short-sighted move reminds me of when the headquarters
for USA Today/Gannett foolishly moved from their iconic
tower in downtown Arlington, two blocks from the Rosslyn
Metro station, across the river from Georgetown, and moved
to past Tyson's Corner.

Lots of their employees who lived near the HQ in Arlington
-as was the case with my then-girlfriend- got very
frustrated at suddenly having to drive thru grid-lock traffic
twice a day, instead of simply walking the 10-15 minutes
to work, or slightly longer if they were across Key Bridge
in Georgetown.

Instead of being relaxed when they rolled into work in the
morning, they were already highly-stressed.
Just saying..

2009 South Florida Regional Tranportation Summit Set for Sat. Feb. 21st

Please go to http://www.sfrta.fl.gov/summit/ to submit your RSVP.

*Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact them by phone or in writing.

Other regional transportation news you may not have heard about:

Broward County Transit (BCT) is partnering with cities throughout the County to host transit forums. These forums will provide an opportunity to receive information from the public on how they can improve the county's transit system.

This move is precisely the sort of thing I inquired about at the Broward County Transit Forum that I attended in October of 2007, also at the Broward Convention Center, because of a number of concerns I had with things I had observed since moving to Broward County from Arlington County, Virgina.

Since I wasn't sure of the format in advance, despite having a copy of the agenda and the speakers, I shared some of my concerns with the Broward County Commissioner who represents me, Suzanne Gunzburger, in advance of the gathering, so she'd know what constituents of hers were really saying and thinking, rather than or in spite of what may be said at that forum.

Frankly, I was afraid that the event would suffer from having TOO MANY government employees there and not nearly enough citizen taxpayers, for it to be either candid or interesting.

One of the most glaring problems in advance of that forum was that the actual news that the forum would take place was not mentioned publicly in the Miami Herald until the Saturday before the event, on the third page of the State/Broward section, and in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel the morning of the event, albeit on the front page.

Holy short notice, Batman!

I zeroed-in on this awareness/marketing problem when I spoke for my table later that afternoon, in presenting our views and vote tallys on a couple of issues that had been raised earlier.

Though I was one of the last persons to speak, when I got the portable microphone, I was the first person to raise this self-evident awareness problem to Commissioners Eggelletion and Wexler up at the dais, the latter of whom referred to me as "the young man in the back" after I spoke.

That was a source of great amusement to some people I knew attending the meeting.

Naturally, as I've mentioned MANY TIMES before in this space, I also spoke about the truly embarrassing conundrum for Broward County, the City of Fort Lauderdale, the Baltimore Orioles and the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB, especially their director, Nicki Grossman, of there already being a taxpayer-funded Tri-Rail station within a mile-and-a-half of taxpayer-funded Fort Lauderdale Stadium, the Cypress Creek station, but there being NO Mass Transit available to actually take patrons to the stadium for an Orioles spring training game or any other event there, like the Broward County County Fair, via bus, shuttle or trolley. 

That's really indicative of 'Minor League' thinking!

I will raise that age-old Broward question again next month, as the Summit will be taking place just four days before the Orioles first home game on Wednesday afternoon against the New York Mets; spring training schedule at http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/spring_training/schedule.jsp?c_id=bal

and http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/orioles-woes-boston-red-sox-to-get-new.html

Doubt me? 

Go to this pdf of bus routes around the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station and try to find the words "Fort Lauderdale Stadium" anywhere.

http://www.tri-rail.com/schedules_fares/bus_shuttle/maps/CC_MAP.pdf

I truly hope the county and the germane govt. agencies involved in the upcoming Summit learned a valuable lesson from the 2007 debacle and do a MUCH better job of creating awareness in the community for this event so that the largest number of citizens can make this Saturday event.

Once it's available, I'll post a list of speakers for the Summit here at Hallandale Beach Blog, but I wouldn't hold my breath for an invisible ghost whose name rhymes with Kopelousos actually showing up.

http://www.broward.org/bct/news.htm

Transit Forums scheduled to date:

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2009
Tamarac Community Center
8601 W. Commercial Boulevard
Tamarac
2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
(Route 55)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2008
Northwest Regional Library
3151 University Drive
Coral Springs, FL
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
(Route 2, University Breeze)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2009
Cultural Community Center
410 SE 3rd Avenue
Hallandale Beach
7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
(Route 1)

For more information on transit forums, contact Phyllis Berry at pberry@broward.org or call
(954) 357-8366. We want to hear from you.

Persons unable to attend the transit forum can submit their comments at www.broward.org/bct, and click on “Voice Your Solutions to Public Transportation.” 

---------------------------------------

Cypress Creek Tri-Rail Station, 6151 North Andrews Way, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309

Fort Lauderdale Stadium, 1301 NW 55th Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309  (954) 776-1921

Walking directions to stadium from Tri-Rail station, 1.4 miles or 27 minutes

1.	Head north on N Andrews Way/Andrews Ave Ramp toward N Andrews Ave		220 ft
2.	Turn left at N Andrews Ave		387 ft
3.	Turn left at NW 62nd St/W Cypress Creek Rd		0.6 mi
4.	Turn left at NW 10th Terrace		0.3 mi
5.	Continue on NW 12th Ave/Yankee Blvd		0.3 mi
6.	Turn right at NW 55th St		344 ft

Upcoming Broward and Miami-Dade Tri-Rail transportation workshops

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/larry-lebowitz/story/696025.html

Miami Herald
Tri-Rail moves along, but still on a rocky road
By Larry Lebowitz
September 22, 2008

The good: Tri-Rail smashed another ridership record last week. The South Florida Transportation Authority reported that 17,241 passengers boarded a Tri-Rail train on Thursday.

It was the second largest day in Tri-Rail's 20-year history, and all the more remarkable because it was just another Thursday in paradise and the record -- 18,452 -- was a once-in-a-lifetime event: the Miami Heat NBA Championship victory parade in June 2006.

Tri-Rail is consistently surpassing the 16,000 boardings-per-day mark -- more than double the 7,500 boardings a day the agency was recording just three years ago at the nadir of the double-tracking construction project from hell.

Public transportation numbers are up across the United States since gasoline prices spiked at $4 a gallon earlier this year. And in Tri-Rail's case, the numbers are continuing to rise even though gas prices have receded, ever-so-slightly back into the $3.70-to-$3.80 neighborhood.

With the 28 percent growth in year-to-year ridership, Tri-Rail ranks third, on a percentage basis, for ridership growth among commuter rail providers nationwide.

Now, the bad: It's still only 17,000 boardings a day in a car-crazed region of more than six million people and a gazillion tourists and snowbirds, and the local governments -- especially Broward and Palm Beach counties -- are making more noise about cutting Tri-Rail revenues next year.

They're already making it harder or more expensive for Tri-Rail passengers to get from the train to the bus to the office or home. Several of the critical connector routes that run from station to workplace and back are in danger.

Broward County Transit and PalmTran are starting to charge transfers that used to be free. Those connector routes are in danger.

Passengers will be digging deeper into their pockets just to get to and from work everyday.

It's still a bargain compared to gas and insurance and maintenance of a personal vehicle. But it's less of a bargain than it was a year ago.

If any of the three counties reduces its share of funding to the train, then it will set off a cascading series of events that will dramatically reduce the subsidies from the other two counties and 50 percent match from the state.

And now, the ugly: The commuter train's long-term future is as hazy as ever.

Tri-Rail has to start prepping for another year of dancing in the corridors of Tallahassee, hat in hand, begging the Legislature and the governor to finally adopt a dedicated local funding source. Rental car fees, license plate renewal fees, fees on fees. Everything is on the table, as it has been since 2003.

A series of Tri-Rail specific transportation summits are being set for each of the three counties between now and mid-November followed by a regional summit that will be set before the Legislature returns next year.

It might be a tougher sell in Miami-Dade, where the locals will already be suffering from DTSF -- Dueling Transpo-Summit Fatigue.

Miami-Dade will be inviting the community to gather and hear, once and for all, why the half-cent sales tax for transportation hasn't delivered many of the major promises of the 2002 campaign, why the money was diverted to other pressing needs, and then start to prioritize what's left.

THE `BLOGOSPHERE'
South Beach photographer and agitator extraordinaire Bill Cooke took a potshot at Miami-Dade Transit in a recent not-so-private memo to Director Harpal Kapoor on his blog, "Random Pixels.''

Brandishing the 50-cent fare increase that goes into effect Oct. 1 like a barnacle-encrusted scabbard, Cooke riffed on an all-too-common complaint about Metrobus driver habits on his route, The South Beach Local:

"May I suggest that you use a fraction of that money to retrain your drivers. Specifically, you might want to refresh them with the rules that are posted on every bus and train in the county. You know, the ones that prohibit smoking, drinking or eating on buses.

"And you might want to start with the South Beach Local drivers since just this last week I saw no fewer than three drivers at different times eating while driving.

Transit's unionized drivers are supposed to have time in between runs for contractually mandated bathroom and food breaks. But when the routes run late, break time disappears.

''A side benefit of having drivers abide by the no-eating rule,'' Cooke notes, ``would be to cut down on the scores of cockroaches that now ride those buses for free!''

Streetwise thinks Cooke -- and Transit -- are missing an opportunity here. If the agency is so strapped for cash, why can't we charge the cockroaches fares?

Slightly less sarcastic side notes to the Transport Workers Union Local 291 and to Miami-Dade Transit: First, nobody should be riding any public transportation vehicle with vermin.

Second, this isn't an isolated rant from Metrobus passengers on Miami Beach. And it's not just about eating habits.

Do you have a commuting question or an idea for a future column? Contact Larry Lebowitz at streetwise@

MiamiHerald.com or call him at 305-376-3410 or 954-764-7026, ext. 3410.
------------------------------------------------------
SFRTA SPONSORS TRANSPORTATION WORKSHOP SEPTEMBER 26 IN BOCA RATON

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority will host the first in a series of three county-specific transportation workshops Friday, September 26 on the Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton. The workshop, which is open to the public and free of charge, will be held at the Live Oak Pavilion from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Registration will be held from 12:45 to 1 p.m. Reservations may be made in advance by calling 954-788-7958.

The workshop will focus on discussions about future regional transportation needs, priorities and funding in Palm Beach County. Elected officials, transportation industry professionals, local government administrators, community activists and members of the general public who are concerned about sustainability and mobility within Palm Beach County are encouraged to attend.

Director James F. Murley, FAU’s Center for Urban & Environmental Solutions, will be the moderator. The agenda includes presentations by the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization, South Florida Regional Planning Council, Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, Florida Department of Transportation, Palm Tran and the SFRTA. Additional topics to be discussed are the Florida East Coast Railroad Study, transit-oriented development and the proposed development for Tri-Rail’s Boca Raton Station.

South Florida Regional Transportation Authority
Palm Beach County Transportation Workshop
September 26, 2008

AGENDA
12:45 - 1:00 p.m. Registration

1:00 - 1:15 p.m. Welcome Remarks
- The Honorable Josephus Eggelletion, Jr., SFRTA Chair
Comments
- The Honorable Bill T. Smith, Jr., Esq., SFRTA Governor Appointee, Palm Beach County
Recognition of Elected Officials
- The Honorable Marie Horenburger, SFRTA Governing Board Member, Palm Beach County
Introduction of Moderator James F. Murley

1:15 - 2:10 p.m Regional Session
- Regional Overview - FAU CUES - presented by James F. Murley
- Southeast FL 2060 Vision Plan - presented by Carolyn Dekle
- TCRPC Strategic Regional Policy Plan - presented by Michael Busha
- SFRTA Strategic Regional Plan - presented by Joseph Quinty
- Q&A

2:10 - 3:20 p.m Palm Beach County - Session 1
- FDOT - represented by James Wolfe
- Palm Beach MPO - represented by Randy Whitfield
- Palm Tran - represented by Charles Cohen
- SFRTA - represented by Joseph Giulietti
- Q&A

3:20 - 4:15 p.m. Palm Beach County - Session 2
- Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC) Study/Tri-Rail Jupiter Extension
presented by Scott Seeburger
- Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)/Station Area Planning - presented by
Kim Delaney
- Tri-Rail Boca Raton Station Proposed TOD - presented by
Tom Gustafson
- Q&A

4:15 - 4:30 p.m. Concluding Remarks - James F. Murley

Don't say you didn't know it was coming!

Details are finally coming together for the Miami-Dade and Broward transit workshops sponsored by Tri-Rail, SFRTA, which, I'm reliably told, will include a lot more real public input than usual, not just the agency and engineering/planning consultant types throwing jargon around.

The transportation workshop in Miami-Dade County will be on Friday November 14th at the Miami-Dade Expressway office located at 3790 N.W. 21st Street (across the street from Tri-Rail's Miami Airport Tri-Rail Station) and in Broward County on Wednesday November 19th at the International Game Fishing Association, located at 300 Gulf Stream Way (adjacent to Tri-Rail's Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Int'l. Airport Station at Dania Beach.)

You know, the non-airport "Airport" station!

Both workshops should begin at 8:30 a.m. and are slated to end around noon.

Special shout-out to Joseph J. Quinty, Transportation Planning Manager of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority for the very helpful information and feedback on some upcoming events that should foster some honest and healthy debate, something not always seen herebouts.

Now mark it on your calendar, toute-de-suite.

See also: http://www.tri-rail.com/announcements.htm

South Florida transit issues and govt. agencies relative usefulness

It's been mentioned more than a few times to Hallandale Beach Blog (South Beach Hoosier) by recipients of his emails, that he ought to strongly consider using parts of those past emails as building blocks to buttress certain public policy points he's tried to make in the past on the blog.

Up 'till now, I've largely resisted the urge, but today, I thought this one might actually be of enough interest to you all to make posting it worthwhile, so that you might learn what I've learned about some Florida government agencies that are part of the planning process governing transit, but which rather than taking a pro-active approach and being an example of good management -aren't.

It's an excerpt of an email to Gabriel over at Transit Miami, one of the most influential blogs in South Florida for a reason, even if I don't necessarily share their political viewpoint on an everyday basis.

But even when I disagree with what they say, there's usually something to be learned.
__________________________________________________
Dear Gabriel:

Started this email last weekend but decided to wait 'till after Memorial Day to send it along.

Earlier this week, I watched the WGN-TV noon newscast and saw their up-close camera shots of the CTA derailment the same day it happened, and also saw how damn impressive the neighborhood Chicago Fire/EMT response was -one minute.

People living in the immediate neighborhood said that in riding the El the day before the accident, the track seemed "loose" in the same exact spot as where the derailment took place. Can't vouch for whether that's a fact or someone saying something provocative to get attention.
(Temps were in the mid-50's, so unlikely a joint/heat expansion problem.)

The top CTA administrators are really angry because this is the third one since April 21st, and it occurred while the CTA is waiting to hear how much money the state legislature in Springfield is going to give the CTA.

Dave
_______________________________________________
Saturday May 30th, 2008

Dear Gabriel:

From my perspective, long story short of this latest Minneapolis Star-Tribune account of policy and process under a legal microscope after a disaster: there but for the grace of God goes the Sunshine State.

I strongly suggest you run a link to this story at your Transit Miami blog so that folks around the state, with an interest in transit and public policy, might be able to read this for themselves and imagine how this'd be handled here.

Frankly, though I've written about transit issues, esp. as they apply to Broward County and the SFECC, as well as the Broward County Charter Review Comm., it just seems a much more natural fit for your blog than mine at South Beach Hoosier or Hallandale Beach Blog.

The insightful Star-Tribune reader comment below about the DFL-friendly law firm being brought in by the MN state legislature to try to undermine NTSB results, sounds 100% plausible to some savvy, politically-connected Dem friends of mine up there, who are rarely wrong about this sort of thing. (As opposed to their sports analysis and predictions!)

Maybe it's just me, playing the role of cynic, but I can totally picture both Dan Gelber and Steve Geller trying pull something like that off here, too, perhaps with Ron L. Book involved for good measure, too.

You know him, he likes to be a 'party' to everything important -sometimes against even himself.
Just something to think about.

(Also, in case you've forgotten, the Republican Nat'l. Convention will be at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul the first week of September, exactly one week after the DNC is held in Denver. Expect a spate of stories on the 35 W bridge come August, right after the Olympics in Beijing.)

As I mentioned to you recently when you gave me a call, in the near future, I'm planning on querying the FDOT Secretary, Stephanie Kopelousos, and find out whether or not she's EVER planning on being somewhere in South Florida where citizens, esp. those with an interest in transit, like you and me, can actually ask her some non-softball questions, rather than the sort of convivial industry forums, govt. official-only chat fests or ASCE events that her agency seems to prefer.

For instance, take a look at what I found when I checked the archives of the Gold Coast Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers at http://www.itegoldcoast.org/events.html

Curious what you'd find when you go to the link at the bottom, titled, The State of Transportation in Broward County?
I was.

(The URL is http://www.itegoldcoast.org/PDF/ASCE-FES.pdf in case the link is dead when you go to it.)

Answer: An invitation to their New Year's Eve Italian Dinner Party!
On January 12th.

To her credit, in a new and very fair-minded Florida Trend profile of her by Cynthia Barnett, Kopelousos claims that she's anxious to change the way things are done at FDOT, and bring them firmly into the 21st century.

(But the article also points out her weaknesses, the most obvious being her non-engineering background, which, apparently, has always been a predicate for the top FDOT job.)

Those positive qualities notwithstanding, where's the proof that this is resulting in any tangible positive changes for South Florida? http://floridatrend.com/article.asp?aID=49017

While I appreciate that more than most state agencies, FDOT is, necessarily, decentralized, in my opinion, despite her short tenure and clear aptitude for hard work and long hours, given the sheer amount of hard work that's required down here, I think she's got a lot to answer for.

Not least of all, being practically M.I.A. for South Floridians like you and me -and the folks who read our blog posts, here and around the state.

So where's the interaction with taxpayers who aren't engineers and public officials?

(As it happens, I think I actually ran into Kopelousos a few times while I was up in Washington and she was working for the late Rep. Tillie Fowler, whom I always found to be a real straight shooter, just like Rep. Charles Bennett had been earlier for the Jacksonville area when I moved to DC. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/cebennett.htm )

The other day, largely as a result of the foolish actions in Miami regarding the Miami River, and the common sense of the Charles Lewis commentary, If the Miami River is really dead, why do the bridges go up? http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/080522/story-viewpoint.shtml
I decided it was about time I made plans to attend the next meeting of the South Florida Regional Planning Council. http://www.sfrpc.com/

Well, turns out that it's Monday at their Hollywood HQ.
So naturally I was curious if they'd put up an agenda for Monday on their website, since the meeting was Monday, the next day they were open.
Maybe get familiar with any staff reports in pdf., so I can better follow the proceedings while I'm there.

Do I really even have to tell you that when I pulled up the web page that was supposed to have agendas, it was largely blank? (At least, as seen on my computer monitor.)
Or that their website itself, which needs to be red-done if not tweaked, seems like it was put together by not-too-bright ninth-graders?

Call me old-fashioned, Gabriel, but that's really NOT my idea of proper planning.

It's also NOT my idea of wisely spending taxpayer dollars, either.

Trust me, I'll try to make a point of mentioning all these things at the meeting, if I can.
___________________________________________
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/19133569.html
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
MnDOT missed opportunities to note bridge flaws, study finds
By Mike Kaszuba, Star Tribune
May 21, 2008

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