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High Transportation Costs Make a Lot of HUD Housing Unaffordable
Rental assistance from HUD isn't enough to make the cost of living affordable when the subsidies go toward housing in car-dependent areas, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Utah. The study evaluated transportation costs for more than 18,000 households that receive HUD rental subsidies, estimating that nearly half of recipients have to spend more than 15 percent of their household budgets on transportation.
February 29, 2016
Sober Non-Partisan Analysis: America Wastes a Ton of Money on Highways
A good deal of the $46 billion the federal government pours into highway spending each year is going to waste, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report [PDF].
February 23, 2016
Obama’s Last Budget Lays Out a Smart Vision for American Transportation
The White House released its 2017 budget [PDF] this morning, which includes more detail about the exciting but politically doomed transportation proposal President Obama outlined last week. Obama's plan doesn't have a chance in the current Congress, but it shows what national transportation policy centered on reducing greenhouse gas emissions might look like.
February 9, 2016
Obama’s Politically Impossible Transpo Plan Is Just What America Needs
It may be "seven years too late," as tactical urbanist Mike Lydon put it, but President Obama has released a transportation proposal that calls for big shifts in the country's spending priorities.
February 5, 2016
The Best and Worst of the New 5-Year Transportation Bill
Smart people are wading through the 1,300-page transportation bill that came out of conference committee earlier this week, and we're starting to get a clearer sense of how it will change federal transportation policy for the next five years.
December 3, 2015
5-Year, $300 Billion “FAST Act” Will Extend Transpo Policy Status Quo to 2020
They've done it. Representatives from the House and Senate have emerged from conference committee with a five-year transportation bill, which is expected to be quickly approved and become first "long-term" bill in more than a decade.
December 2, 2015
The Highs and Lows of Hillary’s Bland Infrastructure Plan
We're getting some insight into what White House transportation policy would look like in a Hillary Clinton administration, following the Democratic frontrunner's release of a 5-year, $275 billion infrastructure plan yesterday. It's not exactly a visionary plan, but despite its blandness it's still likely to be DOA if Republicans retain control of Congress as expected.
December 1, 2015
It’s Time to Stop Pretending That Roads Pay for Themselves
If nothing else, the current round of federal transportation legislating should end the myth that highways are a uniquely self-sufficient form of infrastructure paid for by "user fees," a.k.a. gas taxes and tolls.
November 25, 2015
Let This RPA Vid Explain Why We Need More Rail Tubes Under the Hudson
The Regional Plan Association produced a nice explainer video on why the region needs to build more rail capacity under the Hudson River, the risks facing the existing train tubes, and what will happen if one of them has to be taken offline for repairs before another tunnel gets built.
October 29, 2015
3 White Elephants That Help Explain America’s Infrastructure Crisis
A new report by the Center for American Progress zeros in on an under-appreciated culprit in America's much ballyhooed infrastructure crisis: All the money we waste on useless roads.
September 30, 2015