A fierce debate is underway about the future of the bridge and ferries – at the heart of which lies the toll that provides more than three-quarters of the funding for the bridge and ferries’ operations and maintenance.  Politics and tax philosophies have largely driven the volatile debate while considerations for protecting critical transportation infrastructure and moving motorists, transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians across the Mississippi River have been sidelined.

The toll is set to expire at the end of the year.  If the State Legislature does not take action to reauthorize the toll during the current legislation, the consequences would be severe.  Transport for NOLA supports smart tolls to sustain the operations and maintenance of our critical Mississippi River crossings - here’s why.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

The fate of the tolls and ferries is in the hands of our State Senators and Representatives.   We need one of them to champion a bill during the current legislative session and to build support to get the tolls reauthorized.  There are two easy ways you can help:

1. Sign our online petition.  And ask your friends and family to sign too.
2. Email AND call your State Representative and Senator.  Look up who they are with this handy search tool.  Get their email and phone number from their website.  Transport for NOLA put together this form letter and these talking points that you can use.  Be sure to include / say your address so they know you live in their district!

FOR MORE INFO:

Want to learn more?  We recommend the following reading:

• Task Force on the Crescent City Connection Report
• NOLA Tolls Blog - written by the President of Friends of the Ferry
• Impacts of Loss of Toll Revenue prepared by Algiers Point Association President Skip Gallagher
• 4/9/12 Letter to the Editor in Times-Picayune re: reduction in policing

TIGER IV is a competitive grant and over 500 applications are expected making it important for us to continue to demonstrate support for the St. Claude streetcar.  You can help by writing letters and making calls to the US Secretary of Transportation and your U.S. Senators and Representatives – their contact information is below:

• Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation
, (202) 366-4000 or E-mail
• Mary Landrieu, Senator, (202) 224-5824 or Web Form
• David Vitter, Senator, (202) 224-4623 or Web Form
• Jeff Landry, Representative (Transportation and Infrastructure Committee) (202) 225-4031 or E-mail
• Steve Scalise, Representative, (202) 225-3015 or Web Form
• Cedric Richmond, Representative, (202) 225-6636 or Web Form

Help support the TIGER IV application by signing our petition.  And spread the word to your neighbors, friends and family!  The deadline is March 14th and we’re aiming for at least 1,000 signatures.

Want to do even more to help?  We’re collecting letters of support for the application as well – just submit your letter via email to rachel@transportfornola.org by March 14th.  Address your letter to:  Justin Augustine, Chief Executive Officer – New Orleans Regional Transit Authority.  Be sure to mention that you support the RTA’s TIGER IV application to the U.S. Department of Transportation for St. Claude streetcar service.

To learn more about the TIGER program, click here.

The Communications and Mobile Engagement Intern will work alongside our Executive Director on implementing a broad communications strategy and be the first member of our mobile engagement team.  For more details – check out the job description.

The Research and Education Intern will dig deeper into key transportation issues ranging from financing to education and will play a key role in shaping our campaigns.  For more details – check out the job description.

To apply, submit 1) your resume, 2) a letter of interest describing your skills, interests and goals for educational or career pursuits, and 3) a writing sample to rachel@transportfornola.org.

Transport for NOLA is accelerating its work in 2012. In fact, we are moving so fast we can’t wait for the new year—we need your support starting now.

Today we are launching our first official petition of the Regional Transit Authority. The RTA has installed GPS transmitters on all streetcars, buses, and new stop signs but don’t release the data to the public.

We want the publicly-funded public transportation agency to make its data open to the public.

People in cities across America have successfully lobbied transit agencies to open their data. With open data, citizens can develop creative ways to make public transportation more predictable, dependable and easier to use–San Francisco’s BART has over 30 different apps that track the system.

The RTA needs to release their data to the public so New Orleanians can have the same opportunity. Sign our petition at change.org and share it with your family, friends and colleagues. Open data facilitates better transit service, which in turn facilitates a more prosperous New Orleans.

Sign and share the petition now!

Learn more about how this petition got started at Neighborland, and learn more about open transit data in the video below:

A Case for Open Data in Transit from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

We hope to gather as many responses as possible in the coming weeks, and deliver a summary of the results to citizens, transit agencies, and policy makers. Your feedback can help highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the current system. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete. Please share it with everyone you can think of – transit rider or not. We look forward to hearing from you!

Transit Week 2011 survey:

http://www.transportfornola.org/transitweek2011/transit-week-survey

Can you pledge to ride transit one or more days during Transit Week? Fill out the form below.

To do that, we will hire a top-tier Executive Director that can lead our organizational growth, policy development, and communications efforts.

Click here to read the full job description.

Salary is approximately $50,000 annually. Health, dental insurance and vacation benefits provided.

To apply, send your cover letter, resume and a writing sample (Op-Ed for newspaper publication regarding a transit-related issue) to:

Transport for NOLA Executive Search Committee at info@transportfornola.org 

Today is Park(ing) Day, where ordinary street parking spots will be transformed for a day into wonderful public spaces.  Come on out to have some fun!

Here are the details:

Spot 1: Perdido Street in front of City Hall
10am – Yoga Class with Emilie & Vivek
2pm – Self Defense Class with Sensei Emily Snyder
2:30 – 4 – NOLA Cherry Bombs Dance performance and workshop
***Impromtu dance parties and workshops all day with Dancing Man 504!!**

Spot 2: Poydras Street at St. Charles Avenue
8-9am: Music Performances by Hannah + Tom
Afternoon: Talking Transit with Sarah.
4:30-5:30pm: Music Performances by Derek + Tom

Spot 3: The Green Light District: 2000-2100 Blocks of Magazine Street
11am – 6pm
Lots of fun stuff: games (bocce ball, croquet, horseshoes and more!), free giveaways, non-profit partners, etc….

Spot 4: 3000 block of Magazine Street
Bike Valet – it’s like a coat check for your bike!
3pm – 5pm Barbecue with the KidsWalk Coalition!

Learn more about Park(ing) Day here.

The Times-Picayune published the letter here.

Dear Sir:

In response to the letter concerning the LED lights on the St Charles Streetcars, I respectfully disagree with the author about maintaining the historic nature of the line. Landmarking the St. Charles line as an historic landmark was an innovative tool for preserving the transit system in an era when highways were king. It is not, however, an effective policy for guiding safety and operating decisions on the current line.

The new LED lights and the signs urging drivers to look both ways are steps the RTA took to reduce the number of vehicular, bike, and human accidents that occur on the line. The new features make the streetcars much more visible to the other traffic and they thus improve the safety and performance of the line. Since introducing these safety measures, the system has experienced a decline from 20 to 11 accidents/100,000 miles, a nearly 50% reduction.

To insist that the system remain static puts an undue operating burden on the transit system. Moreover, the insistence that we maintain the St. Charles Streetcar as is discriminates against disabled citizens, reduces the total capacity of the system by using smaller outdated cars, and affects on-time performance because the cars lack modern equipment like radios and defoggers.

I am proud that New Orleans is home to the longest running streetcar line in the world. To maintain that record, we must allow the system to embrace modern technology that improves safety and efficiency so the line can remain viable for another 100 years.

Jacquelyn Dadakis

Board Member

Transport for NOLA