Ford CEO says fuel efficiency standards will cost one million jobs

Ford CEO Mark Fields wants fuel efficiency standards rolled back, and President Trump is only too happy to oblige.

Fields says the EPA rules will cost 1 million jobs. He does not say how that 1 million figure was computed (given that it is such a nice round number, we can guess where he pulled it out from). But if it is accurate then that is actually a really good thing. It means that the nation’s transportation requirements can be met with 1 million fewer workers. That is a yuge productivity gain! It frees up 1 million workers to address other pressing needs, like fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure or developing new businesses.

Okay, but maybe assembly line workers can’t or don’t want to be retrained. What to do with 1 million unemployable autoworkers? Well, the 34-year savings of the fuel standards for the economy is on the order of $1 trillion dollars (give or take depending on future gasoline prices). And that is just the direct costs, not factoring in the medical benefits of cleaner air. $1 trillion is enough to give each of those workers a $1 million early retirement check.

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One simple solution to the BART budget deficit

BART needs to close a $25-$35 million shortfall in its operating budget. The media blames the deficit on overpaid janitors, while staff is proposing a menu of fare increases:

The board held onto the possibility of putting a surcharge on rides taken using paper fare cards and reducing BART’s discount rates for youths, seniors and disabled people. The directors did not vote on fare increases, which they say are needed to help fill a projected $25 million to $35 million budget gap, but they discussed which fare proposals should undergo a mandated federal civil rights study so that they can be considered when the board assembles a spending plan.

There is one very easy solution to this problem: raise the cost of parking. BART has 45,984 parking spaces. Increasing the daily parking charge by $2.25 ($45 monthly) is sufficient to cover $25 million. Increasing the daily parking charge by $3.15 ($63 monthly) would raise $35 million. Those adjustments would make BART parking charges comparable to current market rates.

BART parking lots fill up at the crack of dawn, and the monthly reserved slots have years-long waiting lists. The Warm Springs station already has a waiting list and it isn’t even open yet. Because BART  is giving away parking at below-market cost, there is no parking availability (except for a lucky few). So even if there weren’t a deficit, the parking fees need to be raised regardless.

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Stop blaming Uber for OAC low ridership

Uber and Lyft ridersharing services are being blamed for the low ridership of the Oakland Airport BART connector:

BART officials had hoped their $500 million connector to Oakland International Airport would be a money maker — but instead it has wound up costing the financially beleaguered transit agency $860,000 in the past two years, as ridership has dropped below the break-even point.

“We didn’t anticipate Uber and Lyft and the others, and that’s hurting us,” said BART spokesman Jim Allison.

Oakland International reports that the number of airline passengers taking ride-hailing services to and from the airport totaled more than 11 percent in January — up from 7 percent in July.

With the competition, ridership on BART’s connector has been dropping below the 2,800 rides a day needed to cover the line’s $6.1 million annual operating costs. That wasn’t always the case. In the months following its November 2014 opening, the line was averaging 3,200 daily riders — or about 400 over the break-even point. No more. For the past three months, ridership has been down an average of 11 percent over the same time a year earlier.

Ridership for the month of January was 2,530. In February it was 2,798. That ridership is very close to the amount predicted by staff for the $6 fare (2,685 daily trips) back when the Board first approved the project. So the ridership isn’t unexpectedly lower — it is exactly where they knew it would be.

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Slippin and Slidin on Mt Hamilton

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