U.S. DOT
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Will US DOT’s Self-Driving Car Rules Make Streets Safe for Walking and Biking?
This week, U.S. DOT released guidelines for self-driving cars, a significant step as regulators prepare for companies to bring this new technology to market. Autonomous vehicles raise all sorts of questions about urban transportation systems. It's up to advocates to ensure that the technology helps accomplish broader goals like safer streets and more efficient use of urban space, instead of letting private companies dictate the terms.
September 22, 2016
State DOTs to Feds: We Don’t Want to Reveal Our Impact on Climate Change
Every year state DOTs receive tens of billions of dollars in transportation funds from the federal government. By and large, they can do whatever they want with the money, which in most states means wasting enormous sums on pork-laden highway projects. Now that U.S. DOT might impose some measure of accountability on how states use these funds, of course the states are fighting to keep their spending habits as opaque as possible.
August 18, 2016
Anthony Foxx to Local Officials: Transport Policy Should Tackle Segregation
Local transportation officials should actively work to reduce segregation and promote equal access to quality schools, three Cabinet members say in a "dear colleague" letter released last week [PDF].
June 16, 2016
Will U.S. DOT Get Serious About Climate Change? Here’s Cause for Optimism.
Last fall, national environmental advocates sat down with officials from U.S. DOT to talk about how federal transportation policy can address climate change.
June 3, 2016
House Panel Calls on U.S. DOT to Measure Access to Economic Opportunity
A bill working its way through Congress may prompt federal officials to get a better handle on how transportation projects help or hinder access to jobs, education, and health care.
May 27, 2016
U.S. DOT Wants to Show America How to Heal Divides Left By Urban Highways
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened up earlier this spring in a refreshingly personal speech about how highway construction in American cities isolated many neighborhoods -- especially black neighborhoods -- and cut people off from economic opportunity. Now U.S. DOT is following up with an effort to demonstrate how those wrongs can be righted.
May 5, 2016
U.S. DOT Blows Chance to Reform the City-Killing, Planet-Broiling Status Quo
The Obama administration purportedly wants to use the lever of transportation policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx recently said he'd like to reverse the damage highways caused in urban neighborhoods, but you'd never know that by looking at U.S. DOT's latest policy prescription.
April 19, 2016
U.S. DOT Wants States to Disclose Climate Impact of Transportation Projects
The Obama administration wants state DOTs to report on the climate impact of their transportation policies, reports Michael Grunwald at Politico, and the road lobby is dead set against it.
April 18, 2016
Anthony Foxx Wants to Repair the Damage Done By Urban Highways
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is offering a surprisingly honest appraisal of America's history of road construction this week, with a high-profile speaking tour that focuses on the damage that highways caused in black urban neighborhoods.
March 30, 2016
Finally, a Little Accountability for State DOTs on Bike and Pedestrian Safety
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.
March 15, 2016