Blog
Super PAC Attacks Kochs on Civil Rights, Endorses “Urban Renewal” Policies that Harmed Minorities
Last week, Alternet posted yet another bogus smear on the libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. It has since been reposted by Salon.com. The…
Blog
Results of “Cash for Appliances”
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (commonly called "the stimulus"), a $300 million program to subsidize consumer purchases of energy-efficient appliances called…
Blog
Is Driving to Work in Decline?
Over at The Washington Post's Wonkblog, urban affairs reporter Emily Badger has a post up on the recently released U.S. Census Bureau American Community…
Products
Response questioned
David Heckman’s response (“A bad idea,” Your Views, Sept. 6) to my recent op-ed (“Tolls less regressive than gas taxes,” Views, Aug. 31) conflated mine…
Blog
Are Consumers Smart Enough to Understand Airline Ancillary Fees?
In May, I criticized the Department of Transportation’s opening of a rulemaking on airline ancillary fees (baggage, seat assignments, etc.), noting that the primary…
Comment
CEI Comments in DOT-OST-2014-0056
View the Full Comments Here The Department of Transportation is using consumer complaints over baggage and other fees as a pretext to…
Watchdog.org
Officials quiet as police cite Uber-driving, retired Navy dad
Marc Scribner is a transportation expert at the Washington, D.C-based Competitive Enterprise Institute. He says the problem lies with Virginia’s laws — laws that didn’t…
Blog
STB Reauthorization Bill Threatens Rail Investment
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has scheduled a markup for tomorrow afternoon of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) Reauthorization Act (S.2777). If…
Blog
Regulator: True Ridesharing Illegal in California
In the past, I’ve noted that carve-outs for ridesharing providers leaves more innovative and disruptive business models—particularly future automated services—illegal. While self-driving on-demand transportation…
Blog
User Fees Are Not Taxes: The Case for PFCs
I've noted in the past the natural appeal passenger facility charges (PFCs) should have with fiscal conservatives. These are the user fees airports…
The Modesto Bee
Tolls Less Regressive than Gas Taxes; Force Truckers to Finally Pay Fair Share
The United States faces a transportation infrastructure dilemma. According to recent estimates from the Reason Foundation, reconstruction and needed capacity enhancements to the Interstate Highway…
Blog
Michael Grunwald’s High-Speed Rail Fantasies
Perhaps the one thing Time magazine's Michael Grunwald loves more than drone assassinations of American citizens and dissident journalists is heavily subsidized passenger rail. This is not the…
Blog
Uber and Regulation: Pro-Business Is Not Pro-Market
“Republicans love Uber. Young urban voters love Uber. And Republicans hope that means young voters can learn to love the GOP.” That was the opening…
Blog
Public Still Favors Transportation User Fees over Tax Increases
Voters in Missouri yesterday rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have imposed a 0.75 percent sales tax to fund transportation, with nearly 60 percent opposing a…
Blog
Uber, Regulation, and Free Markets
Libertarians are justifiably excited about the prospects of ridesharing companies such as Uber and equally justified in their disgust of regulators intent on preventing the…
The Skeptical Libertarian
Reasons Libertarians Should Be Skeptical of Uber Politics
Libertarians, we may have an Uber problem. Don’t get me wrong, friends of freedom. I love Uber. I use Uber at least once a week.
1776
Commercial Drones Face Sky-High Regulatory Barriers
The widespread adoption of commercial unmanned aircraft systems—commonly called “drones”—should be right around the corner. But overcautious, burdensome regulation threatens to hold it back. To…
Watchdog.org
Taxicab industry has history of lobbying, donations
The Virginia DMV’s order for Uber and Lyft to cease all operations in the commonwealth is the latest showing of the taxicab industry’s influence in…
Watchdog.org
When it Comes to Uber, Consumers May Speak Loudest
Uber was founded in 2009 as a venture-funded transportation company, allowing riders and drivers to connect on their mobile devices and see other people’s reviews…
The Hill's Congress Blog
Republicans sell out free-market principles for union favors
Co-authored with CEI Research Associate Matthew La Corte. The Norwegians are coming!” That’s hardly a call to send Americans scurrying to the barricades. But if…
Blog
One Year Later: TSA Still Flouting the Law on Body Scanners
CEI Research Associate Matthew La Corte contributed to this article. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses more than 700 full-body imaging scanners in 160 airports nationwide.
Blog
Distracted by Paranoia, Obama Administration to Regulate Map Apps?
A story in The New York Times is making the rounds about an Obama administration proposal to clarify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) authority to…
Blog
Ridesharing Wars: Uber, Regulators, and the “California Compromise”
Yesterday, as many in the D.C. metro area are aware, Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles sent cease-and-desist letters to Uber (PDF) and Lyft…
Blog
33 House Republicans Join ALPA to Restrict Competition and Soak Consumers
I previously wrote about the campaign from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) against Norwegian Air International's (NAI) attempt to offer low-cost flights from the U.S.
Blog
How Policy Makers Should Approach Google’s Driverless Shuttles
Yesterday, Chris Urmson, director of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, wrote a post for the company blog describing Google’s newest prototype: fully automated vehicles that…
Mass Live
Boston taxi drivers’ union to protest ride sharing service Uber
Services like Uber and Lyft upset cab drivers because they challenge the longtime status quo that has devolved into a cartel that limits innovation and…
Blog
Congress Must End Department of Transportation’s Abuse of “Unfair and Deceptive Practices” Authority
The Department of Transportation is opening a rulemaking proceeding to, among other things, require airlines and ticket agents to include ancillary fees (for, e.g.,…
Blog
EPW Drops Highway Bill Nothing Burger, Attempts to Bail Out Sinking Ship with Leaking Bucket
Yesterday evening, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee’s “big four” (Democrats Barbara Boxer and Tom Carper, and Republicans David Vitter…
Blog
Air Line Pilots Association Launches Super-Xenophobic Ad against Low-Cost Foreign Airline
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently considering whether or not it will honor its EU-U.S. open skies treaty in the case of Norwegian Air…
Blog
Voxplaining Pew Charts on Highway Funding and Ignoring Transit’s Decline
Over at Vox.com, former WaPo blogger Brad Plumer wrote a post about highway funding, largely relying on the good folks over at the Pew…
Progressive Railroading
Obama administration sends four-year transportation bill to Congress
Meanwhile, Competitive Enterprise Institute transportation policy expert Marc Scribner was more critical. Bailing out the Highway Trust Fund would violate "the long-standing user-pays/user-benefits principle in…
One News Now
Transportation Analyst: Hands Off Driverless Cars, Uncle Sam
A transportation policy analyst warns that lawmakers and regulators should steer clear of driverless vehicles when they arrive. Marc Scribner is a fellow for the…
Blog
Google’s Self-Driving Cars Approach 700,000 Miles of Crash-Free Driving
In a report released last week for CEI, I noted that developers need to be able to demonstrate automated vehicle safety benefits in order…
Georgia Policy
Steer Clear of Overregulating Autonomous Autos
If anything drives transportation policy as a solution to congestion and mobility challenges in Georgia, it should be the recommendations in a new report from…
CQ Researcher
Self-Driving Cars Promise Safer Highways if Regulators Keep Hands Off, Study Says
Wider adoption of technology to allow vehicles to drive themselves promises to usher in a new era of safer motoring — as long as lawmakers…
Blog
Driverless Cars, Innovation, and Regulation: Let’s Not Mess it Up
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in Google’s self-driving car. (Photo by Marc Scribner) For the past several years, I’ve been…
Study
Self-Driving Regulation
Leonardo da Vinci first sketched the design for a self-propelled cart in the late 15th century. In 2010, Google announced its fleet of self-driving cars…
Blog
Ryan FY 2015 Budget Calls for Transportation Funding Rationalization
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., released his FY 2015 budget today. In just three pages, he calls for surprisingly sensible reforms to…
Politico
Shut Up With All The Plane Silence Talk, CEI Says
Comment
Comments to USDOT in the matter of Use of Mobile Wireless Devices for Voice Calls on Aircraft
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments in response…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Autonomous Vehicles, from Imagination to Reality
[caption id="attachment_55209" align="alignright" width="300"] CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in a Google self-driving car in May 2012. (Photo by Marc…
Study
Bait and Reciprocal Switch
Full Document Available in PDF America’s freight railroad industry is one of the greatest success stories of economic liberalization. After decades of…
Blog
Obama FY 2015 Budget: Aviation Funding Recommendation Not Great, But a Step in the Right Direction
President Obama released his Fy 2015 budget today. Like his past budgets, as I noted in a previous post discussing the highway and…
Blog
Bad Highway Policy Is a Bipartisan Affair
Two major pieces of surface transportation policy news dropped this week. President Obama is readying the release of his budget, which will contain over $300…
Blog
Growing Support for Road User Charges Will Be Highlighted at March Conference
I’ve written about the importance of charging road users for their road use for some time. Moving toward a truly user-pays system will require significant…
Comment
Comments to the Federal Communications Commission in the matter of Expanding Access to Mobile Wireless Services Onboard Aircraft
Full…
AV Web
Aircraft Cell Phone Call Ban Sent To House
Blog
House Committee to Markup Bill Banning In-Flight Cell Phone Calls
Tomorrow morning (Tuesday, February 11), the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will markup the Prohibiting In-Flight Voice Communications on Mobile Wireless Devices Act (H.R.
One News Now
Talking Vehicles’ Hit Brick Wall: ‘A Variety Of Deployment Challenges
Blog
USDOT Calls for Connected Vehicle Mandate; Security and Privacy Concerns Remain
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced today it would chart a regulatory path that would require all new automobiles to be equipped with…