Transportation Policy
Streetsblog Basics
See Where New York’s House Candidates Stand on Transportation
The outcome of New York's Congressional races on Tuesday may end up determining federal transportation policy for years to come.
October 29, 2010
Cuomo’s Econ Plan Whispers Sweet Transportation Nothings
When Andrew Cuomo released his "New York Works" economic development plan earlier this week, much attention was paid to the fact that he did it in Carl Paladino's backyard. But there's also a full chapter on rebuilding New York State's infrastructure, particularly its transportation system, buried in that document.
October 1, 2010
Report: Investing in Transit Could Create 180,000 Jobs, for Free
Between calls for renewed stimulus on the one hand and for deficit reduction on the other, Washington, D.C. is stuck. A new report by the Transportation Equity Network, however, shows one easy way to put people back to work without increasing federal spending: shifting our transportation investment to transit.
September 3, 2010
To Address Demand for Oil, We Must Focus on Transportation
Editor's note: Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) sent us this commentary on the the BP oil spill, climate change, and the need for transportation reform.
June 21, 2010
AFL-CIO Flexing Its Muscle for Senate Transit Operating Aid Bill
The AFL-CIO, a formidable lobbying force in Washington, is throwing its weight behind a Senate bill offered last week that would authorize $2 billion in emergency funding for transit agencies forced to hike fares or cut service in lean budgetary times.
June 2, 2010
Transit Industry and State DOTs Agree: Senate Climate Bill Needs ‘Rewrite’
The transit industry's leading D.C. lobbying outlet today joined the umbrella group for state DOTs and two major construction groups to protest the Senate climate bill's failure to set aside all of the revenue from its proposed new fuel fees for infrastructure projects -- specifically, to the cash-strapped highway trust fund that is generally split, 80-20, between roads and transit.
May 19, 2010
Former U.S. DOT Chief on Worst-Case Scenario: Four Years of Extensions
To a certain extent, hope springs eternal in federal transportation circles. Even as state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations operate under the latest in a series of extensions of the 2005 law that governs road, transit, and bike-ped spending, few are willing to envision a future in which new legislation doesn't pass by next year.
April 19, 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
What Happened to the Proposed “Transportation Tax” on Wall Street?
For several weeks last fall, as members of the House infrastructure committee pushed for passage of a new six-year federal transportation bill as a strategy to rouse the economy from recession, a proposal to pay for the legislation with a small tax on oil futures trades attracted a healthy crop of Democratic cosponsors and some vocal pushback from Wall Street.
April 5, 2010
Feds Begin Redefining ‘Affordable Housing’ to Include Transport Costs
The process of expanding the federal government's definition of "affordable housing," a stated goal of the Obama administration's sustainable communities effort, began in earnest yesterday with the introduction of a new index that integrates transportation prices into the cost of living for hundreds of metro areas.
March 24, 2010