Coming Attraction: Teasers From Oberstar’s Transpo Bill Outline

Rep. Jim Oberstar at the 2007 National Bike Summit. Photo by Bike Portland via Flickr.

The details of Rep. Jim Oberstar’s plans for the next federal transportation bill are starting to come into focus. Last Friday, The Infrastructurist ran an item about a document on the subject that has made its way into the public eye:

Oberstar has recently been circulating a “two-page handwritten outline” around the Hill, according to the BNA’s Daily Report for Executives, which obtained a copy of the document. They report the following tidbits:

> The outline calls for “transit equity.” Right now the feds pay 80 percent of highway projects and 50 percent of transit projects. That would change.

> It would create DOT agencies focused on a “national strategic plan” and on “mega-projects.”

> “DOT’s 108 programs [will be consolidated] into four “major formula programs”: critical asset preservation, highway safety improvement, surface transportation program, and congestion mitigation
and air quality improvement.”

> The document seems to call for more transparency with transportation data.

Leaves you wanting more, doesn’t it?