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Five Reasons Reformers Are Rallying Behind Obama’s Transpo Push
When President Obama announced his push for a long-term transportation bill on Monday, he introduced a report by his Council of Economic Advisors and the Treasury Department analyzing the economic impact of infrastructure investment [PDF]. At face value, the numbers in the president's plan might not look so impressive. It calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, laying and maintaining 4,000 miles of railways, and the restoration of 150 miles of airport runways.
October 13, 2010
The Problems With Ports, or Why We Need a National Freight Act
Maybe you commute by train, or maybe you've switched from driving to biking. But your stuff is still traveling the country by diesel truck.
August 6, 2010
State DOTs’ Prescription for American Cities: More Highways
AASHTO’s new report recommends that America’s urban transportation policy repeat the mistakes of the past. Photo of the Cross-Bronx Expressway: Tool Ake via Flickr The umbrella group for America’s state DOTs, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, has started a major new push for, you guessed it, more highways. The new campaign … Continued
May 17, 2010
Transport Contractors Urge White House to Revamp Enviro Review Rules
The trade group representing private-sector transportation contractors is urging the Obama administration to change the way environmental reviews are conducted for infrastructure projects, proposing to favor "categorical exclusions" (CEs) from federal review rules over the lengthier process of measuring the environmental impact of construction work.
April 12, 2010
Think Roads Pay for Themselves? Think Again
The myth that U.S. roads "pay for themselves" thanks to user fees is a subject that's likely familiar to many Streetsblog readers -- but just how much of the nation's highway funding is provided by charging drivers?
November 24, 2009
Report: Even After MN Bridge Collapse, Transpo Earmarks Shun Repair
In the wake of the 2007 collapse of Minnesota's I-35 bridge, Washington policymakers vowed a renewed focus on repairing the nation's aging infrastructure. But weeks after the fatal collapse, Congress approved a transportation spending bill with 704 earmarked projects, at a total cost topping $570 million -- and just 11 percent of those earmarks went towards bridge repair, according to a new report released today.
November 12, 2009
New Report: Feds Subsidizing Parking Six Times as Much as Transit
"Subsidy" is a word used quite often in transportation policy-making circles, whether by road acolytes who claim (falsely) that highways are not federally subsidized because of the gas tax or by transit boosters who lament Washington's unceasing focus on paying for more local asphalt.
September 29, 2009
PBS NewsHour Takes on Alabama’s “Zombie Highway” Tonight
What is a "zombie highway"? Exactly what the name suggests: a road that won't die, swallowing government funds and congressional earmarks while posing potential harm to those who live near it.
August 6, 2009
McCain & Coburn: Let’s Make Roads Safer — by Slashing Safety Money
A report released today [PDF] by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK), timed to coincide with debate on a $7 billion highway trust fund fix, accuses their fellow lawmakers of "raiding" the fund for transportation "pet projects."
July 30, 2009
Stim Cash Gone Bad: Feds Fund Houston’s Highway to Nowhere
Reuters just wrapped up a two-day "Infrastructure Summit" and published a great collection of stories about the state of transportation policy in the U.S. I especially like this piece, featuring Robin Holzer of the Houston-based Citizens' Transportation Coalition, who does a great job illustrating some of the major deficiencies that the federal stimulus bill failed to address:
May 8, 2009