Transportation Policy

As the drumbeat for domestic drilling grows louder, can the Democratic leadership come up with a better alternative than tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Over at the Huffington Post, Shelley Poticha and Geoff Anderson of Transportation for America propose a few ideas that will actually pay dividends. Pols who are serious about reducing the impact of high gas prices should listen up:

Queens Congressman and 2009 mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner released a manifesto of sorts yesterday. "Keys to the City" lays out his plan, in broad strokes, to "keep New York the capital of the middle class." Toward the end, Weiner touches on transportation policy. While he remains opposed to congestion pricing, he comes out in favor of making "alternative modes" more viable:

Matthew Yglesias over at The Atlantic points us to this eye-popping chart from A Better Way to Go, a USPIRG Education Fund report published in March 2008. Download the report here. It's a good one to have on-hand. A few factoids to accompany the chart:

Remember that web site, Walk Score, that you could use to rank your neighborhood's pedestrian-friendliness? They just came out with a souped-up new version that is very cool yet somehow manages to rank San Francisco the #1 most walkable city in the U.S. and New York City #2. Is Eastern Queens really dragging us down that badly? Doesn't pretty much everyone have a car in the Bay Area? Of the 138 "Walker's Paradises" (neighborhoods with a Walk Score of 90 or higher) 38 can be found in New York.

CNN also led off this morning with a relatively in-depth piece on U.S. cities scrambling to meet rising demand for mass transit.

Transit agencies all over the country are nearing a state of emergency. At the same time that rising gas prices are leading more Americans to opt for buses and trains, transit operators are being forced to cut service and raise fares due to budget shortfalls.

From the Australian Bicycling Council comes word of a new amenity for bicycling commuters In Brisbane, Australia. Called cycle2city, it provides secure weekday parking and showers for up to 420 members, who will pay between $5 and $7 a day for the privilege of using the facility (that and other figures quoted here are Australian dollars, which are close to even in value with the US dollar these days).

The $1.7 billion in public transportation funding promised by the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act would be a step in the right direction, but it pales in comparison to what might have been. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act -- the cap-and-trade bill that died in the Senate last month -- would have brought 100 times that much in federal transit investment, thanks in large part to Senator Ben Cardin. In a recent interview with Grist, the Maryland Democrat offers a refreshing perspective on the future of US transportation policy.

With transit ridership up across the country, Congress may finally be taking notice. Last week, the House of Representatives passed the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act of 2008. Sponsored by Minnesota Democrat James Oberstar, the bill would allocate $1.7 billion in grants to public transportation over the next two years. The grants would help transit systems expand or stave off service cuts due to rising costs and budget reductions. It also includes a provision requiring federal agencies to offer transit benefits to over a million government employees.