Free Bus Ride For UNO Students

Free Bus Ride For UNO Students: "University of Nebraska at Omaha students will be offered a free bus ride. the idea is to help fight overcrowding in the schools' parking lots."

Egypt: 30 years of brutality to insure cheap oil to be wasted in traffic jams

As many as 2,000 in Chicago protest for democracy in Egypt - Chicago Sun-Times
As many as 2,000 in Chicago protest for democracy in Egypt - Chicago Sun-Times: "They came from as far as Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin — as well as from all over the Chicago area — to call for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down after 30 years in power and to open his country to Democratic reforms including free elections and a new Constitution."

Politicians obey oil-industry gag order on #transit advocacy

As this article in the Tribune shows, since the hysterical political attack on Blagojevich by the oil and sprawl industry, and the advent of raging oil-tea-party loonies, a gag-order is in place against transit advocacy by high-profile personalities.

Transit is a sleeper issue in race for Chicago mayor - chicagotribune.com: "The candidates in the Chicago mayoral race talk a lot about jobs, crime, education and city finances, sometimes doing so while shaking hands with potential voters at CTA rail stations.

Yet with the Feb. 22 election coming up, none of the candidates has had much to say about transportation,"

RTA Spends $200,000 on Study to Find Out If Seniors Use Public Transit

Citizens Taking Action: "'Cost of Free Senior Fare' per the RTA
Remember, no new drivers or vehicles are added."

The RTA revealed on Monday, at a meeting of Citizens Taking Action, an organization comprised of transit dependent riders, that it had hired the University of Illinois to conduct a $200,000 study to learn if senior citizens use public transit. The results indicated that only about 5 out of every 100 riders is a senior, and that 75% of seniors use public transit during the off-peak or mid-day period of operations.
Charles Paidock, Secretary of the group, said that: “We had voiced concerns before with the RTA Chief regarding the seemingly countless number of studies, but this is by far the silliest. I said we need buses and trains, not more studies. Now we know that little old ladies go out on occasion to buy a quart of milk. We could have told them that for free. They’re just digging for reasons to eliminate the free senior fare provision, using money which would be better spent elsewhere.”

Congressional oil-trolls plan attack on public transit

A New Political Reality Settling in for National Transportation Financing « The Transport Politic: "Tanya Snyder of Streetsblog Capitol Hill broke the news last Friday that House Republicans are planning to push to “stabilize” the Highway Trust Fund by cutting back expenditures to meet revenues without raising any taxes in the process. The result would be a large decrease in overall federal transportation funding — a potential reduction in spending by $7 to 8 billion a year from around $50 billion today. According to Snyder’s sources, transit financing would be hit especially hard, seeing its annual appropriation cut from $8 billion to $5 billion."

Of course, banksters will still get their quantitative-easing and bailouts, and energy wars will get a blank check. And they will put the highway money back at the last minute by "popular" demand. There will be calls for more toll roads. The auto-system is just not working and the public purse is empty. The best thing to do would be to put more money into transit which would make the energy wars unnecessary and reduce pollution, medical costs, congestion, parking problems, drainage problems, etc, etc.

What happens when you threaten oil profits

(article accompanied by a huge shell ad)
Federal prosecutors should not retry Rod Blagojevich: "Mr. Fitzgerald brought unlimited resources and the power of the federal government to the case against Mr. Blagojevich. The charges included racketeering, bribery, conspiracy, extortion and making false statements. He was accused of exchanging state contracts for campaign donations. The most explosive accusation was that Mr. Blagojevich was trying to sell his ability to appoint someone to fill President Obama's former Senate seat. The charges against him were enough to get him impeached and removed from office in January 2009."

We don’t need better cars, we need less cars.

Streetsblog.net � Our Car-Based Environments Are Making Us Sick: "I’ve been saying this for a long time, and it’s funny how few people take it seriously. They think, “Nah, you just have to go to the gym more.” The problem is: there are more gyms than ever, and we are more obese than ever! And that’s because humans (generally-speaking, not that there aren’t exceptions here and there) will never get enough exercise if they have to seek it out explicitly. It’s simply not fun enough for the average person to rely on solely that to burn enough energy. Instead, we are meant to get exercise *while* doing other things, eg, riding our bike or walking to get somewhere, taking the stairs instead of the elevator (by the way, it drives me nut that public buildings like hotels make the elevators center stage and the stairs are in some dank, poorly designed and non-welcoming back area … why aren’t the stairs done nicely right in the middle of everything and the elevator in the back?), carrying something instead of throwing it in the car, etc. Sure, our crappy diets of processed, carb- and fat-loaded foods is part of the problem as well, but only when we build exercise into our day-to-day lives of getting around and doing things will we find balance.

People need to realize that the problem with cars isn’t just the fuel they burn and the pollution they create. It’s also the laziness they cause and how they dehumanize us be allowing us to hide anonymously behind a hulking piece of steel rather than deal with (and hence empathizing with) each other. That’s also why electric cars, though progress in some sense (they are more efficient), really do nothing to solve the real problem with cars. We don’t need better cars, we need less cars. We need to take back out cities from cars and design them around people. Both our health and that of the environment will improve massively as soon as we do that."

jd commenting on Streetsblog

Senate hopefuls see need for transit but, after Blago, will not offend oil industry

Daily Herald | Senate hopefuls agree on transit needs, disagree on funding: "The two men who want to be Illinois' next U.S. senator both say improving public transportation for suburban residents is a top priority, though they have different ideas about how to implement and pay for some major projects.

'Talking with residents of the collar counties, one of their main complaints is sitting in traffic, wasting their time,' Chicago Democrat Alexi Giannoulias said."

Disabled Veterans Ride Free in Superior Wisconsin

DULUTH, MINN. -- Minnesota provides Disabled Vets with free public transportation on DTA buses and now Superior Wisconsin will follow suit. NorthlandNewsCenter

Cars are literally killing us

A new report , released by the American Public Transportation Association, which surveys current research has found that people who live in communities with high-quality public transportation drive less, exercise more, live longer, and are generally healthier than residents of communities that lack quality public transit.

Evaluating Public Transportation Health Benefits, a study conducted for APTA by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute aggregates the findings of several recent studies and concludes that people living in transit-oriented "smart growth" communities enjoy several health benefits, not seen in other communities, including residents drive less, exposing them to a lower risk of fatal vehicle accidents.

Such communities also have less pollution, because public transportation produces far less emissions per passenger mile than private automobiles. In addition, people who live near quality public transit are more likely to undertake regular physical activity than residents of automobile-dependent communities. APTA