Alex Goldmark

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) It will be more expensive to park in New York City next month. The Department of Transportation announced parking meter prices will increase around the city.

The rates for Manhattan below 86th street—the most congested part of the city—are set to go from $2.50 per hour to $3 per hour. Throughout the rest of the city, where it costs 25 cents for 20 minutes, or 75 cents an hour, a quarter will now buy you just 15 minutes.

The fee raise is part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's deficit reduction plan. It is scheduled to begin on January 3.

Needless to say, this isn't pleasing city motorists, along with some of their elected representatives.  The Queens Courier reports on outer borough ire at the move, while Council members James Vacca, chair of the Transportation Committee, and Diana Reyna are planning to introduce legislation to restrict the city's ability to increase meter rates.

Vacca's office says the Council has the authority to regulate how the city manages parking meters. They want to cap any increase at a 25 percent per five years.

Two years ago, the City raised meter rates from 50 cents to 75 cents per hour in the outer boroughs. Under the Vacca-Reyna plan, that would prevent this new increase. They have yet to back their proposal with legislation so, for now, if you park in New York, be ready to keep a few more coins in your car.

Nissan Leaf

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The fledgling electric vehicle market got a little boost yesterday, when Hertz Connect began renting all-electric cars.

The rental car giant is starting small, with just five Smart Electric Drives in New York City. "That's all we could get our hands on right now," says Rich Broome, a Hertz Senior Vice President. But he says, the company is committed to ramping up to 1,000 electric vehicles nationally—including plug-in hybrids—by the end of 2011. Other cities slated to get the rental EVs are Washington, D.C., San Fransisco and select college campuses.

The move is  good news for EVs, even if it isn't totally new. The first generation of electric cars, like the original electric Toyota Rav4, were available for rent at major rental car companies in the late 1990s before carmakers backtracked on production of the vehicles.  Zipcar currently offers plug-in Toyota Priuses as part of a pilot program in partnership with the city of San Fransisco. Zipcar tells Transportation Nation they've been renting alternative-fuel vehicles and hybrids since 2003, and they "welcome Hertz to the space." Zipcar does not offer an all-electric vehicle currently for rent to its members.

Image: © GM Corp

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Chevrolet began shipping Volt electric vehicles to customers and dealerships Monday. The first of 160 cars expected to be shipped this week from the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant are heading to California, Texas, Washington, D.C. and New York, the initial launch markets for the Volt.

Tony DiSalle, Volt marketing director at Chevrolet called it a "historic milestone." Chevy announced plans for the Volt about four years ago, signaling a move from heavier SUVs toward more fuel efficient cars.

The Volt does have a small gas tank and gas powered engine to supplement the electric drive and allow longer trips of up to 379 miles on a single charge and fill up. That's in contrast to the Nissan Leaf, which does not have a gas engine. The first person to order a Nissan Leaf received their car in San Fransisco on Saturday.

Today's batch of Volts are not the first to ship but they are the first batch to go out to dealers for retail consumers. Earlier this year, Chevrolet shipped 15 pre-production Volts to "technology advocates" and "electric vehicle enthusiasts" for a 90-day vehicle and charging evaluation program.

Chevy has offered an incentive to spark early purchases of the car before roadside charging stations exist.  The company is providing free in-home 240 volt chargers to the first customers who pre-ordered Volts.

Recently private companies have announced plans to build charging stations in Tennessee and Texas. Still, early buyers of the Volt, or Leaf, will have to rely, at least in large part, on in-home chargers.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) The Department of Transportation kicked off the annual Holiday Drunk Driving Crackdown Monday. Specifically, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood wants law enforcement to get tougher on drunk drivers who refuse to take roadside breathalyzer tests with the use of on-call judges and blood tests.

Law enforcement officials say too many drivers know that refusing to take a roadside breathalyzer improves their odds of beating a conviction. Secretary LaHood thinks a strategy being used in nine states dubbed "no refusal" might be a solution.

Under a "no refusal" plan, a judge stays on-call, even in off hours, to issue search warrants by phone if necessary that allow police to take blood samples from drivers who refuse a breathalyzer. Much like searching a car for drugs, this is asking a judge for permission to search for evidence of drunk driving, except the evidence is blood alcohol level, and the search is a blood test.

About one in four drunk drivers refuse a breathalyzer nationwide, while in some states the rate is much higher—in New Hampshire 81 percent of drivers refused. See chart on refusal rates by state here.

LaHood writes on his blog, "states like Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, and Utah that have adopted "No Refusal" programs demonstrate more guilty pleas and fewer costly trials." And, as you might expect, so called "refusal rates" have also dropped. In Texas, they fell from nearly 50 percent down to 10 percent.

Not every state is able to join up with this federal push backed with $7 million in funding for a national advertising campaign. In 20 states, current law would not allow warrants to be issued for blood tests by "on-call" judges. But that leaves 21 states that LaHood hopes will adopt the plan. Some states that do use "no refusal" plans do so only on certain highly publicized "no refusal" weekends.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Here's a handy gift for subway riders, tourists planning a trip to New York, or transit cartography nuts. The Mighty Wallet is a nearly indestructible subway map printed on Tyvek, the material used for express mail envelopes.

Get one for New York City, London or Chicago, each celebrating love of public transit by turning the subway map into design object. Certainly not the first time, nor the last.

Note the different sales pitch the company uses for each of the different wallets. In New York, the wallet "... adds a level of stealth that safeguards your valuables from theft. Mighty Wallets have actually evaded theft in real life situations through their uncommon stealthy design." No mention of theft prevention for the Chicago sales pitch, just a nod to affection for the El.

And the London page touts design insight: "The "Tube" map is based not on the geographic but the relative positions of stations along the lines. A style that has been adapted worldwide."

From the New York City DOT, here's the 2011 alternate side of the street parking calendar. Alternate side parking is suspended on these holidays.

Holiday / Date

New Years Day* / Jan 1, Saturday
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday / Jan 17, Mon

Asian Lunar New Year / Feb 3, Thurs
Lincoln's Birthday / Feb 12, Sat
Washington's Birthday (Pres. Day) / Feb 21, Mon

Ash Wednesday / Mar 9, Wed
Purim / Mar 20, Sun

Passover (1st/2nd Days) / Apr 19-20, Tues-Wed
Holy Thursday / Apr 21, Thurs
Holy Thursday (Orthodox) / Apr 21, Thurs
Good Friday / Apr 22, Fri

Senator Max Baucus (Dem. Montana) spoke with Jackie Yamanaka of Yellowstone Public Radio on Thursday. The Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee discussed his role as a member of President Obama's deficit commission and the need for a long term transportation authorization bill. He wants more debate on balancing rural and urban infrastructure spending before he'll support several of the proposals recommended the commission.

Listen to the interview or read the full transcript below.

Jackie Yamanaka: Thank you Max for joining me to talk about transportation. There is a tax component and I will get to that, but first I wanted to ask you about the extension of the transportation bill, that the House passed last night…What are the prospects the Senate will do the same before the end of the year?

A better solution is to, next year, get on with passing a long term, solid highway bill. I’m going to be working as well as I can to accomplish that.

Senator Max Baucus: Well, I think excellent. There’s no question in my mind it will get passed in the Senate.

But the real question is: how do we get a more sound transportation policy in this country. In the last several years, transportation bills have been short term extensions rather than solid, five or six year authorizations and that’s caused a real problem for states who are less able to budget, for highway contractors, less able to budget and know what to bid on, problems for a lot of people with jobs and ancillary businesses related to highway construction whether asphalt or aggregate or what not.

I’m going to be pushing strongly for a longer term transportation/highway bill, five years roughly, so people can plan, so people can predict the future, so states and those related to highway constructions are able to predict the future. And that’s one reason, I think the economy has stalled a little bit, that is unpredictability. It’s uncertainty. People are just uncertain what’s in store for them.

But the real question is: how do we get a more sound transportation policy in this country. In the last several years, transportation bills have been short term extensions rather than solid, five or six year authorizations and that’s caused a real problem for states…

We will pass some legislation to allow construction to continue at roughly the current rate for next year but that’s not a very good solution. A better solution is to, next year, get on with passing a long term, solid highway bill. I’m going to be working as well as I can to accomplish that.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) NJ Governor Chris Christie keeps getting more support from voters for his decision to kill the trans-Hudson transit tunnel, according to a study released today by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Christie took a stand against what he called wasteful spending in October when he killed the ARC transit tunnel that would have doubled NJ Transit capacity across between New York and New Jersey. At the time it was the biggest infrastructure project in the nation. The federal government wants $271 million back for what they spent on it. Christie's decision made him the darling of fiscal conservatives craving firm budget belt tightening. In New Jersey, just barely half of voters, 51 percent, supported his decision at the time. That number has grown to 56 percent according to the Rutgers poll.

“It is clear that across New Jersey, residents continue to support the governor’s decision to cancel the project,” said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers poll and professor of political science at Rutgers said in an emailed statement.

The poll also asked about a proposal to extend the New York City #7 subway line across the Hudson river, finding 74 percent of respondents—all New Jersey residents—support that concept. That project is only an idea at this point, without an official price tag, and would likely involve New York City paying a portion of the cost, something that was not the case with the ARC tunnel. Full study and statistical fun after the jump.

Image: PPW Bike Lane. (NYC DOT)

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) In Brooklyn, New York one bike lane in particular is serving as a flash point for debate between motorists and cyclists over how to use the streets. The attention, and conflict, has also increased incentive to quantify and measure the impact of the Prospect Park West bike lane—that's good for any of us craving data on transportation policies.

So, the New York City Department of Transportation has just issued informative findings from their research on the PPW bike lane. Not surprisingly, it supports the DOT's decision to build the lane. “The traffic volume, travel speed and bike lane usage data support this traffic calming project, and it’s clear that the public supports it too. We look forward to working with residents and local officials to make it even better,” says DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan in an emailed statement.

The NYC DOT finds that weekday cycling has just about tripled and the number of people riding on the sidewalk, a hazard to pedestrians, has fallen dramatically from 46 percent to just 3 percent of cyclists. Additionally, the total number of weekday cyclists has almost tripled along the PPW route. Weekend bike ridership also more than doubled.

The addition of the bike lane included a new traffic pattern, designed in part to reduce car speeds by cutting the number of lanes from three to two along this edge of Brooklyn's iconic Prospect Park. The slowing effect seems to have worked according to DOT statistics. Before the bike lane, three out of four cars broke the speed limit. Now, the DOT reports, just one sixth of cars top 30 m.p.h.

What's especially interesting—and a little unexpected—is the impact on total usage. Commuter volume on the street has increased in both morning and afternoon rush hours. In the morning, there are both more cyclist commuters and more car commuters, though in the afternoon car commuting has dropped while bike commuting has spiked enough to compensate on the one way boulevard. Travel times along the route and nearby avenues are mixed; some nearby streets are now faster than before and some slower depending on time of day. Overall though, the DOT data show motor vehicle traffic has not been negatively affected while biking has increased dramatically.

See a power point slideshow of the full findings here.

Image: Westminster Tube Sign, (c) Transport for London 2005

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Video artists in London are making videos to cheer up commuters. The public art project Smile For London is collecting short films to play on Underground train platforms next month:

"From 17th January 2011, just at a time when Londoners are feeling the January blues and in need of a lift, we’ll be taking over the platform screens for two weeks on weekday mornings with a creative intermission; a programme of film, art and animation, exhibiting the best of London’s emerging and established artistic talent."

They specifically want videos that will make commuters smile, and the collection of entrants posted so far are a delightful diversion.

Video underground is novel, but not entirely new. New York City experimented with video inside subway cars earlier this year, but they did it for special sports advertising, not art. Several cities use projectors to play commercials, usually without sound. That's the technology in London, which inadvertently enabled this art project.

This open call for art comes in a medium mostly new to transit spaces. In fact Smile For London's call for submissions explicitly encourages innovation in video, asking artists "to create a twenty second silent piece of moving image with a view to pushing the boundaries of the medium," according to the website. This video seems meet that request based on the unusual lighting methods, though without the written technical explanation on the website, I wonder if commuters will appreciate the feat.

If you're feeling inspired, local London artists can submit films until December 15th. The rest of us can watch them here. My favorite, of about six randomly sampled, is this:

How snow is made from Amael Isnard on Vimeo.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) Here's an app for those of you who know you drive too fast when your favorite song comes on.

OVK Slowdown is an iPhone app that plays your tunes, but also tracks your speed and location via GPS. If you go above the speed limit, the app starts to slow down your music more and more as you speed up. If you top out over 6.2 m.p.h. (that's 10 km.p.h.) above the legal limit, the app shuts off your audio all together.

Watch the video above for a demonstration of distorted music as traffic safety incentive.

Obviously you can still speed (in silence or with the radio), but if you're willing to admit you have a lead foot and want to break the habit, a free app can't hurt?

(via Copenhagenize)

[UPDATED 12/7/2010 explaining Rhode Island service addition more accurately]

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation).   Two new transit lines launched today. Dallas Area Rapid Transit opened its electric light rail Green Line. And in Warwick, Rhode Island,  new rail service kicked off connecting the local airport with the regional commuter rail line to Providence and Boston allowing for more transit commuting options.

The Dallas Morning News calls Dallas' 28-mile Green Line a "new era" as the DART rail system adds 15 new stations and grows from 48 to 72 rail miles (the Green Line shares track for four miles with another line).  The cities of Farmer's Branch and Carrollton are now connected with downtown, the Baylor University Medical Center, Victory Park and the Pleasant Grove area of south Dallas.

Along with those extra rail miles, DART adds: 18 new high capacity light rail vehicles, 38 redesigned rail cars, 2,700 parking spaces, and 10 park-and-ride lots. DART estimates that its light rail lines are responsible for about $7 billion in current and projected transit-oriented development.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood enthusiastically touts on his blog that the $1.8 billion project, including $700 million in Federal money, was completed on budget and ahead of schedule, six months ahead of schedule by some counts.

See the new route on this special Green Line centric DART map, or watch the video above to actually see the view from the front of a test train run. It almost looks fake as the train passes pristine empty stations again and again.

The new rail line in Rhode Island, is far more modest, but also Green. The new service connects the T.F. Green International airport and its surrounding area to Warwick, RI, in the process making possible rail commuting to Providence and Boston. The six trains each weekday will connect to Amtrak regional rail in those cities. This, in theory, offers an alternative to a ride up Interstate 95 for some commuters south of Providence. They can now park at the new station and commute by rail from to Providence, or if they want, connect on to Boston.

As Jef, in comments section correctly points out, this opens the door to reverse commuting to the Warwick area and thus potential transit oriented development in the airport area.

Rep. James Oberstar (Dem-Minn.) is about to leave the House after serving 17 terms representing the 8th Congressional District of Minnesota. He's spent 15 years as the senior Democrat  on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, with two terms as chairman. Oberstar has presided over or participated in some of the biggest highway and transportation bills in recent memory. But his vision for a transformative, nearly $500 billion surface transportation authorization bill was dashed when Congress couldn't agree on how to fund the ambitious bill earlier this year. Transportation Nation Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich sat down with Oberstar in his Capitol Hill office to talk about the Congress and the future of transportation funding in an age of budget austerity.

"In the stimulus, the $34 billion we were allocated for highway and transit resulted in resurfacing and rebuilding 35,411 lane-miles of highway nationwide. That’s equal to ¾ of the entire state highway program. Yet that represents 4 percent of the state of good repair needs of our national highway system. Four percent!"

Listen here:

[MP3]http://audio.wnyc.org/tn/tn120201oberstar.mp3[/MP3]

TRANSCRIPT:

Todd Zwillich: Congressman James Oberstar of Minnesota. Thanks for being with us.

Rep. James Oberstar: My privilege and pleasure to be on the program with you.

TZ: I wanted to start with some transportation issues, of course since you have had your tenure as Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. You tried to achieve an ambitious surface transportation bill. It did not come to pass. … left undone, what do you think is the most critical transportation issue facing this country?

JO: A long term authorization for the surface transportation programs of the nation: highway, bridge, transit, highway safety. And the livability issues that have become such a centerpiece for transportation over the past dozen plus years, since the end of the interstate era and the beginning of a new era for transportation. Livability is foremost in people’s minds. Passing a long-term, six year authorization would give stability to the states, to the contractor community, to building trades, labor, to the transit sector, it will result in—if we pass the $450 billion bill—six million construction jobs over the next six years. It will give states the ability to bring our existing portfolio of highway projects up to a state of good repair and go beyond with major rebuild projects such as the Brent-Spence bridge between Ohio and Kentucky, which carries 3 percent of the GDP of the nation. It would allow Oregon to complete its work on a whole stretch of bridges that were sub-standard on Interstate 5 on the West Coast.

"This is the transportation bill of the future that we need. A funding mechanism for it is essential, that’s where it foundered. President Obama said that he could not support an increase in the user fee, the gas tax, which three Republican presidents have supported: Eisenhower, President Reagan, and President George Bush the first."

There are many other instances I can provide of major rebuild projects that are long term, create stability in the construction sector, but add to our GNP and ability to move goods and people more efficiently. This is the transportation bill of the future that we need. A funding mechanism for it is essential, that’s where it foundered. President Obama said that he could not support an increase in the user fee, the gas tax, which three Republican presidents have supported: Eisenhower, President Reagan, and President George Bush the first.

But the reluctance to

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) 24 Cracker Barrel restaurants in Tennessee will get electric vehicle charging stations, the company said in a press release.

Gas2.org reports that 12 locations will get Blink DC Charging Stations—capable of getting a plug in hybrid to 80 percent charge in 20 minutes. That's faster than it will take to finish your fried chicken liver. The other restaurants will receive a slower Level 2 charging system.

"These locations are centered on the Tennessee Triangle, a 425 mile stretch of highway connecting Knoxville, Nashville, and Chattanooga. Installations start next spring, and while costs haven’t been discussed, I doubt they are just giving this service away. "

GOOD points out that Tennessee is part of the EV Project, a public private partnership sponsored by the Department of Energy to promote and build EV infrastructure in six states.

Why start this chain store roll out in Tennessee you might ask? Well, just 11 minutes away from the Smyrna, Tenn. Cracker Barrel you find the Nissan manufacturing plant building electric Leaf cars for one.  The Cracker Barrels are pretty well distributed around major highway arteries. And if you have to stop to charge up your locally built leaf, why not do it where you can pick up some country cooking?

Texas, also in the EV Project partnership, recently got some good news on this front as well with the announcement of a privately funded initiative by NRG Energy in Houston. Why not a fast food home cooking restaurant?

(St. Paul, Minn. — Bob Kelleher, MPR) Rep. Jim Oberstar on Thursday chaired his last meeting of the House Transportation Committee that he's served in some capacity for 46 years.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Daniel Lipinski said he's drawing up legislation to name a new Department of Transportation headquarters building after the outgoing Minnesota Congressman.

Lipinski joined members of the committee with words of praise for Oberstar. Comments were bi-partisan, led by incoming chair and ranking member Rep. John Mica, R-Florida.

"We are truly blessed to be able to serve the people," Lipinski said. "And the people have been blessed to have your service for these years."

Oberstar told committee members his service has been a long, fulfilling and productive journey.

Oberstar commended the significance of the committee's work funding enduring infrastructure like highways and bridges.

"That our body of work, when we leave this place, will be there for our children, that it will be an enduring monument for this country, then we will have achieved our goal of serving the public," Oberstar said.

Committee members from both sides of the aisle gave Oberstar two standing ovations and ongoing praise. Oberstar leaves office after losing his re-election bid to incoming Republican Chip Cravaack.

For audio of Oberstar's final hearing head to our partner, MPR.

Watch this site for a Transportatio Nation interview with Oberstar to be posted soon.

The nation's top environmental officer cites cleaner cars as one of the top achievements of the past 40 years. Transportation Nation partner WNYC interviewed Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, about her tenure and her agency's achievements.

WNYC's Ilya Maritz: "What would you say is the single biggest achievement of the EPA in the last 40 years, if you could tout just one, which I know is probably difficult."

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: "It's actually impossible. You know, the Aspen Institute just released what they call "10 Significant Achievements by EPA." And there are some on the list that are surprising and some that aren't. It starts with the banning of DDT, which the first administrator did not long after EPA was formed, and you might recall DDT was the subject of the book "Silent Spring," a lot of the early environmental movement.

"There's taking the acid out of acid rain -- making rain rain again.

"There's cleaner cars, when you think about the fact that there are a hundred million more Americans and a lot more drivers than when EPA was formed and a lot more cars on the road, and yet air quality has gotten better."

Read and listen to the full interview at WNYC.

Ambassador Bridge. Image: (CC) by Flickr user mcclouds

(Detroit -- Jerome Vaughn, WDET)  Detroiters and their counterparts in Windsor, Ontario, Canada are waiting for Michigan legislators to determine the fate of a proposed border crossing.

Legislation supporting the Detroit River International Crossing will die in a state Senate committee unless it’s brought to the Senate floor today. The lame duck legislature is expected to adjourn later today.

A group of Senators is pushing to get the bridge plan out of committee--but they’re still not sure if they have the votes needed.

If the measure isn’t voted on today, new legislation will have to be written next year and a new group of legislators will have to determine whether the project is worthwhile.

Canadian officials have already approved the project and have even offered to help pay for Michigan’s construction costs. The Michigan House passed the bill in May.

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) On his first day in office, in one of his first official actions, Toronto's new mayor declared "The war on the car is over."

Toronto has had an ambitious public transportation plan called Transit City to build eight new electrically powered light rail lines projected to cost about US$8 billion.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that on his first day in office, Mayor Rob Ford says he'll halt light rail development.

Mr. Ford arrived at work around 6:15 a.m. to prepare for a 7 a.m. meeting [about Transit City].

“We just had a meeting about subways,” Mr. Ford told reporters after speaking to Gary Webster, chief general manager of the Transit City. “I just wanted to make it quite clear that he understood that Transit City’s over. The war on the car is over. All new subway expansion is going underground. That’s pretty well it.”

Mr. Ford made it clear during his campaign that he prefers subways to surface transit lines such as streetcars and light-rail.

(Washington, D.C. -- Todd Zwillich, Transportation Nation) The president's deficit commission is taking aim at the Highway Trust Fund in its quest to take a hatchet to federal spending and debt.

The report from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform--out just this morning on Capitol Hill--calls for $3.8 trillion in deficit reduction by 2020. It's a downright austere prescription including tax increases, spending cuts and other reforms designed to, as one member put it "right the fiscal ship" of the nation. The politically-charged document has politicians running to their ideological corners in anticipation of a brutal fight over fiscal policy.

But buried on page 21 of the report is a little gem that's sure to make the divisions just a tiny bit wider. Commission co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson call on Congress to raise the federal gas tax by 15 cents between 2013 and 2015, and in the meantime limiting national highway spending to the amount of revenue the fund takes in annually.

This would be a marked change from how the fund works now. Currently, contracts created in authorization bills are mandatory, while the money to cover them is discretionary. The result? According to Simpson and Bowles, are "budget gimmicks" that allow Congress to steer around spending rules and write more checks on the deficit for highway projects.

"Before asking taxpayers to pay more for roads, rail, bridges and infrastructure, we must ensure existing funds are not wasted," the report states.

The report calls for "significant reform" to control highway spending, including limiting that spending to high priority projects and doing away with transportation earmarks like the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska.

Whether or not these cries are heeded by Congress remains to be seen. The commission is scheduled to vote Friday on the recommendations, and few observers, including Simpson and Bowles expect it to get anywhere near the 14 votes that constitute a consensus among the 18 members.

A TSA Agent using a full body X-Ray scanner. Image: Getty Images

(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) It's official, the lawsuits are coming! A Colorado attorney has filed suit against the TSA, asking a Federal judge to order  an end to existing airport screening procedures.

AP reports Gary Fielder brought the case more than a month after his family, including two young children, underwent a TSA patdown.

Fielder's lawsuit claimed the patdowns were "disgusting, unconscionable, sexual in nature" and in violation of the Constitution's protections against unreasonable searches. He said subjecting U.S. citizens to the new procedures is wrong because no American has been accused of threatening commercial airliners with explosives.

Nationally, the AP also notes, at least two other lawsuits have been filed protesting the current screening procedures.