Transporation Daily News 2/22

The Port of Oakland must show it won't worsen diesel air pollution before getting nearly $445 million in state bond money for railroad and trucking improvements, East Bay residents and environmentalists told transportation officials Thursday. The port and railroad companies are asking the California Transportation Commission for a big slice of a 2006 state transportation ballot measure. Monterey Herald 2/22/08

 

Ridership on Amtrak'sCalifornia routes has grown 43 percent to 5 million annual trips in 2007, vehicle miles in the state have gone up 8 percent, and the population has risen 11 percent. State funding for this fast-growing sector has not kept pace, however. Since a voter-approved bond jump-started the Capitol Corridor in 1990, the line has received only sporadic capital funding from state coffers, averaging about $578,000 a year. CC Times 2/22/08

 

A California lawmaker is expected to introduce a bill today that would require better fuel efficiency and lower emissions from mid-sized and heavy-duty vehicles driven by state employees. The bill would expand the scope of a law that the Legislature passed last year requiring the state to rank passenger vehicles in its fleet based on a set of economic and environmental standards, and then purchase cars and trucks at the top of that list. CC Times 2/22/08

 

Tolls on the Golden Gate Bridge would rise and fall depending on the amount of traffic congestion, under a proposal likely to be considered next month by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. The move to adopt so-called congestion-based tolls is an effort to save $158 million in federal transportation funding. That money is needed in part to help rebuild Doyle Drive, the structurally unstable approach to the landmark bridge. SF Chronicle 2/22/08

 

Bay Area visitors soon may find it easier to wine, dine, sleep and spend in Palo Alto.  The city moved a step closer to establishing a visitors' bureau this week when its Finance Committee unanimously supported a proposal to seek professional help in forming a marketing and tourism program. Palo Alto Daily News 2/22/08

 

San Francisco hotels will be pushing an 80 percent occupancy rate this year and the thinking within the bullish tourism industry is that we will dodge a recession, but unless additional exhibition space is created at the Moscone Center, the city will begin losing lucrative convention business, the city's chief of tourism and conventions said Thursday. SF Chronicle 2/22/08