Tampa Bay: One of rail's biggest critics gets millions to study and promote alternatives

[marmar]

from the St. Petersburg Times:



One of rail's biggest critics gets millions to study and promote alternatives
By Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Saturday, November 28, 2009


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TAMPA — For two decades, the Center for Urban Transportation Research has advised Florida policymakers on how to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to improve the state's overwhelmed transportation system.

The University of South Florida think tank says every transportation option it examines undergoes a rigorous and objective analysis. It says it plays no favorites.

But a St. Petersburg Times analysis shows CUTR has often criticized one type of travel — passenger rail — while promoting alternatives it is paid millions to study.

An examination of the center's research and funding shows:

• CUTR (pronounced "cutter") has consistently championed highway expansion even as it gets most of its grant money from Florida's largest road building entity — the Department of Transportation. Since 2003, the DOT has paid CUTR $26 million to study and advise on everything from toll roads to road rangers to drug abuse — but not passenger rail.

• CUTR has received more than $6 million since 2006 to research bus rapid transit, which competes for much of the same money that rail does. It has consistently favored this transportation option over rail.

• Since CUTR opened in 1988, its experts have been quoted or cited on rail in at least 119 published accounts. Their statements were three times more likely to be negative than positive, according to a survey of the Nexis data base. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tampabay.com/news/one-of-rails-biggest-critics-gets-millions-to-study-and-promote/1054927