Special Reports

The House is about to vote on a motion to instruct, sponsored by Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN). It's a non-binding command to the House members of the conference committee to finish their work by June 22 -- this Friday. Walz's motion rejects the current talk of an extension in case the conference can't come to an agreement.

We reported last week that the House had proposed allowing states to “opt out” of funding bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements in its counter-offer to the Senate during transportation bill negotiations. The House GOP essentially wants to reject the Cardin-Cochran amendment, which gave local governments control over half the “Additional Activities” funding set aside for bike/ped programs, letting states make decisions about the other half.

The House GOP couldn't pass a transportation bill of their own, so now they want to undo one of the major bi-partisan achievements in the Senate transportation bill.

If you've been following the ongoing transportation bill saga, then you know there's a fair amount of gamesmanship going on in Congress right now -- lots of political posturing, little progress on substantive policy. Here's a great new example of what the House GOP has been up to instead of passing a transportation bill:

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Federal Railroad Administration chief Joe Szabo said that people are driving less and using transit more -- and that those changes are permanent. "America’s travel habits are undergoing rapid change," he said. It's a fact, he said ("not opinion -- statistically proven"), calling on Congress to show that it understands these changes by moving in a new direction.

A coalition of 70 organizations, including the US Conference of Mayors, American Heart Association, and the National PTA, have signed on to a letter from AmericaBikes urging Congress to preserve the Cardin-Cochran amendment -- a provision in the Senate transportation bill that allows local agencies to directly access funds street safety projects. The letter is addressed to the 33 House members and 14 Senators on the transportation bill conference committee. Neither co-sponsor of the original amendment is on the committee.

The MTA will be adding extra transit service on Barclays Center game nights. But past promises of free or discounted MetroCards for arena-goers did not materialize in the transportation demand management plan revealed yesterday by developer Forest City Ratner, which local advocates are calling "too little, too late."

When Brooklyn's Barclays Center opens with a Jay-Z concert this September, it will be one of the most transit-accessible arenas in the United States. But as Streetsblog has noted before, the transportation planning for the stadium is excessively car-oriented. Developer Forest City Ratner had been planning to build an 1,100-space surface parking lot, marring the pedestrian environment and inducing more driving to the stadium. As opening day nears, there's good news and bad when it comes to parking.

Saturday will mark two months of non-stop acclaim for Gridlock Sam’s traffic-pricing plan. The accolades kicked off on March 5 with a gushing op-ed, "Meet Sam Schwartz," by New York Times emeritus editor Bill Keller, and they haven’t let up. The Wall Street Journal, Transportation Nation, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, Channel 13, and Crain’s New York (a profile plus an editorial) have extolled Sam’s plan to overhaul New York’s tolling network and generate $15 billion over the next decade to improve roads, bridges, subways and buses across the city. By now, any New Yorker who professes ignorance of the plan has either been hiding under the proverbial rock or is flummoxed by its political implications.