Author Archive
What do the House rule changes mean for transportation spending?
Earlier this week the House adopted rules for this new session of Congress. It’s a bit of inside baseball that can be hard to decipher, but these rules determine how bills are considered by lawmakers and what bills can and cannot do. Streetsblog Capitol Hill covered this issue on Monday and today, but it’s worth […]
Could another new passenger rail line be facing the ax?
Potentially following in the footsteps of Wisconsin and Ohio, the Republicans in the state legislature are considering the possibility of killing Iowa’s portion of a planned higher speed passenger rail line from Chicago to Iowa City that would pass through the Quad Cities and the new Moline (Ill.) multimodal transportation hub funded by a TIGER grant.
Smarter transportation case studies — innovation from around the world
When a resource is scarce, the first step is always to make sure that you’re using that resource to its fullest. A quick glance at a congested road, a street with no parking or a jam-packed morning rush hour train might tell you that there’s no excess capacity going unused, but is that really true? While we push for a greater investment in transportation overall to expand options for all Americans, are there ways to better use the resources that we’ve already got? This series of 14 case studies from around the U.S. and the world demonstrate the community benefits smart mobility solutions are giving regions, cities, and businesses.
Debunking the congestion index used to justify the policies that keep us stuck in traffic
The cycle is familiar by now. A study tells us what we all know: our roads are congested. We pour billions into new roads and lanes to “reduce congestion.” Then the study comes out two years later and just as before, our roads are still congested. There’s a call for new roads, new roads open up, we drive further and further and congestion goes up. But a significant new report from CEOs for Cities suggests that there’s a fundamental flaw in that study.
Once a critic, now a supporter, Ohio Rep. helps make complete streets bill bipartisan
Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) probably learned the hard way earlier this year that safe, accessible streets for bikers, walkers and all users don’t tend to have any party affiliation, and he is to be commended for proving his support for complete streets by signing onto the House complete streets bill last week, becoming its first Republican cosponsor.
DOT poised to move on a long-term transportation bill in 2011?
When President Obama made his announcement on Labor Day about investing in infrastructure, most media outlets focused in directly on the $50 billion amount that would be spent up front to jumpstart infrastructure investment — something we already noted last week. But he also talked about the need for a reformed long-term transportation reauthorization, the full six-year bill that would provide certainty to job creation and the economy. So the million dollar question has been, when will we see this bill?
Don’t let transportation get lost in the political shuffle; send a letter to your local paper
When President Obama announced his vision on Labor Day for investing in 21st century infrastructure, he put our country on the right path toward smart transportation reform. But his vision immediately came under fire from many of the usual suspects who prefer the current system of earmarks and oil industry tax breaks. We need to respond to these attacks on transportation reform. Take 5 or 10 minutes and write a letter to the editor of your local paper today.
USA Today on infrastructure spending: what do Americans want?
USA Today had a timely graphic up yesterday, considering the continuing media coverage around President Obama’s recent proposal for infrastructure spending and a reformed long-term transportation bill. Though we can’t see the rest of the questions or the context, it affirms a few things we already know about Americans’ attitudes about transportation. They want more accountability, safer streets, and more transportation options so seniors can maintain their independence and low wage workers can get to jobs.
National Geographic on Dangerous by Design
We mentioned this on Twitter when the issue came out back in July, but National Geographic had a nice one-page feature on Dangerous by Design, our study from 2009 ranking metro areas on their relative danger to those on foot and bike, focusing on Florida’s overall risk based on having 4 of the top 10 most dangerous metros. In the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in their community, and it’s high time that more attention was paid to this preventable loss of life that we far too often ignore or simple believe to be inevitable.
Access denied: gaining a disabled person’s perspective
We’ve talked a bit here for nearly two years about the need to make our streets safe and accessible for all users — whether young, old, walkers, bikers, drivers, or wheelchair users. Almost every time we post pictures like this or this showing inaccessible conditions on our streets, it’s a reminder of how shocking it […]
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