Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Federal Highway Administration

When Will America’s Street Design Bible Enter the 21st Century?

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 14, 2017 | 1 Comment

Last year, the number of people killed on U.S. roads surged back above 40,000. But you don't see much urgency on the part of the transportation engineering establishment to change a failing street design paradigm. So we checked in with one of the engineers in charge of America's street design bible.

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FHWA’s New Goal: Eliminating Pedestrian and Cyclist Deaths in America

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 15, 2016

The Federal Highway Administration wants to eliminate pedestrian and cyclist fatalities “in the next 20 to 30 years.” In a new strategic plan [PDF], the agency calls for reducing serious injuries and deaths 80 percent in the next 15 years, which would be an intermediate goal on the way to zero. FHWA also calls for boosting the share of […]

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Engineers to U.S. DOT: Transportation Is About More Than Moving Cars

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 26, 2016

A trade group representing the transportation engineering profession thinks it’s high time for American policy makers to stop focusing so much on moving single-occupancy vehicles. U.S. DOT is currently deciding how it will assess the performance of state DOTs. Will it continue business as usual and equate success with moving huge numbers of cars? That’s […]

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Stark Divisions Between Dems and GOP on Climate Impacts of Transportation

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 22, 2016

How polarized are the two political parties on key questions about transportation policy and climate change? As you can imagine, the answer is “very.” The senior Democrat and Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — California’s Barbara Boxer and Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe, respectively — each wrote an opinion this week for the Eno Center for […]

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It Just Got Easier for Cities to Design Walkable, Bikeable Streets

By Angie Schmitt | May 13, 2016

We probably haven’t seen the last of engineers who insist on designing local streets like surface highways. But at least now they can’t claim their hands are tied by federal regulations. Last week, the Federal Highway Administration struck 11 of the 13 design rules for “national highways” — a 230,000-mile network of roads that includes many urban streets. The rule change eliminates […]

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Finally, a Little Accountability for State DOTs on Bike and Pedestrian Safety

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 15, 2016

In a win for bike and pedestrian safety, the Federal Highway Administration announced yesterday that it will require state transportation agencies to do something they have never had to do before: set goals to reduce bike and pedestrian fatalities, and track progress toward attaining those goals. The news is part of FHWA’s roll-out of several “performance measures” […]

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