There’s a staggering amount of money spent on transport projects in the Bay Area, and I’ve been reading Bay Area Transportation News on Yahoo! Groups to keep up.
It’s where I learned about the fight over the Transbay Terminal and a developer (and supporter of SF Mayor Gavin Newsom) who’s managing to hold up the project for a hundred-million dollar buyout.
BATN’s anonymous editor unabashedly supports public transit, but regards all the players with a well-founded cynicism.
Last night he ran a reprint of an article on the culture of cost-overruns in large projects, and a pointer to an analysis of 50 years of blown estimates.
Hir also interlines snarky, but appropriate comments on the items. After a letter to the editor in which a Morgan Hill resident complains about his taxes going to pay for the replacement span for the Bay Bridge BATN writes:
[BATN wholeheartedly concurs in general, and volunteers in particular to help install the toll system to recoup the sales tax funds inappropriately and regressively used to widen Highway 101 in Morgan Hill.]
And, since it’s a Yahoo! Group, there’s an RSS feed.
