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The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) has released an updated analysis of a 2001 report on transportation tax elections in U.S. cities.

The report, “Revisiting Factors Associated with the Success of Ballot Initiatives with a Substantial Rail Transit Component,” also analyzes the impact of 17 previously identified community-level factors on the success of ballot measures that call for sales-tax increases to fund transportation systems with substantial rail components.

The updated study “validated the difficulty of passing an initiative without well-funded, effective use of multimedia,” MTI officials said in a prepared statement.

The report examined eight cases that represented a variety of circumstances, ranging from the approval of a starter rail line, to supplementing an existing tax, to affirming the public’s desire for a general excise tax to fund a light-rail system. The eight communities studied included Maricopa, Ariz.; Seattle; Charlotte, N.C.; Honolulu; Los Angeles; Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis; and Santa Clara County, Calif.