House of Representatives
Streetsblog Basics
Congress to U.S. DOT: Streets Aren’t Safe Until They’re Safe For Everyone
Yes, traffic fatalities have been (mostly) going down, but as long as cyclist and pedestrian fatalities keep going up, we can’t truly say our streets and roads are getting safer. That’s the message from 68 members of Congress to one pretty receptive audience: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
March 29, 2013
Pro-Bike Republican Tom Petri to Chair Key House Transpo Panel
The Republican co-chair of the Congressional Bicycling Caucus is getting a leadership position with some real gravitas. Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) was just named the new chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee in the House -- the epicenter of the chamber's surface transportation legislation.
January 16, 2013
Do T&I Committee Members Get the Transpo Needs of American Cities?
Who will be looking out for the interests of transit riders in the 113th Congress? It’s easy to figure it out, said Cap’n Transit over the weekend: Just check whether they have an R or a D next to their names.
January 8, 2013
Mica’s New Post Gives Him a Good Vantage Point For Sniping at Amtrak
Perhaps Rep. John Mica's most remarkable legacy as chair of the House Transportation Committee is the single-minded focus he gave to attacking Amtrak. Under the guise of wanting it to succeed, Mica has repeatedly excoriated it as a "Soviet-style monopoly" and a waste of taxpayer dollars. He's tried to sell off its only profitable line, the Northeast Corridor, and made a mockery of every aspect of its operations, right down to food service. If there's anything he got more glee out of criticizing, it was the Transportation Security Administration.
January 3, 2013
Transit Tax Benefit Equalized With Parking Benefit in Fiscal Cliff Deal
Happy New Year, transit riders! Thanks to some shrewd maneuvering on the part of some U.S. Senators, transit commuters will be able to claim as much in tax benefits as car commuters do in 2013.
January 2, 2013
Four Republicans Who Might Work Across the Aisle on Transportation
First Rep. Tim Johnson of Illinois announced his retirement. Then Ohio’s Rep. Steve LaTourette said he couldn’t take the petty gridlock anymore and followed suit.
December 4, 2012
Will the Next Transpo Chair Continue Attacks on Bike/Ped Funding?
This is the second of two posts examining Rep. Bill Shuster’s candidacy for the chairmanship of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Yesterday, we took a look at Shuster's positions on rail and his leadership style. Here we delve into his record on active transportation and the always-thorny topic of funding.
November 15, 2012
What Kind of Leadership Would Bill Shuster Bring to the Transpo Committee?
This is the first of two posts examining Rep. Bill Shuster's candidacy for the chairmanship of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. We'll post the second one, focused on his positions on bike/ped programs and funding issues, tomorrow.
November 14, 2012
How MAP-21 Allocates Transpo Funds Where They’re Needed Least
Transportation reauthorizations have typically not been a time for major discussions about national policy goals. They’ve been a time for getting while the getting’s good, a time for deal-making and pork and a lot of back-room transactions to make sure every member of Congress could go home and talk about how much federal money they were bringing home.
October 3, 2012
Reminder: Amtrak Subsidies Pale in Comparison to Highway Subsidies
Mica went after subsidies in this one, and he clearly thinks this is a winning issue. After all, Amtrak has gotten nearly $1 billion a year in federal funds over its 41-year existence. The per-ticket subsidy over the past five years has averaged nearly $51. Mica compared that to other forms of transportation: Using 2008 data, he showed that the average per-ticket subsidy to aviation was $4.28, for mass transit was 95 cents, and for intercity commercial bus service 10 cents.
September 21, 2012