Special Reports
Streetsblog Basics
Mica Warns Boxer on Highway Trust Fund; House Plans Hearing on “Drill Bill”
“I want to congratulate you on your Committee’s approval of the ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act,” begins House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica’s letter yesterday to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
November 15, 2011
Senate Bill May Weaken Smaller Metros, Empower State DOTs
In Indiana, the state DOT wants to build a 142-mile extension of Interstate 69, but the Bloomington metropolitan planning organization won’t allow it – the group had written the road out of its three-year transportation plan and members are standing firm, refusing to write it back in. The MPO in Charlottesville, Virginia, similarly, is fighting the construction of a $245 million, six-mile bypass the state is planning to build to accommodate freight traffic.
November 14, 2011
Senate’s Draft Transpo Bill Weakens Bike-Ped Programs
Last Friday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released its draft transportation reauthorization bill. With the GOP-controlled House contemplating a national transportation policy designed for maximum fossil fuel consumption, the best opportunities for reform reside in the Senate.
November 7, 2011
Two Infrastructure Jobs Bills Die in Senate
Two competing versions of a transportation-related job creation bill went down yesterday in the Senate. The first, the Rebuild America Jobs Act (S.1769), was a Democratic proposal, modeled on President Obama's job creation bill, to invest $50 billion for infrastructure and another $10 billion as seed money to create a new national infrastructure bank.
November 4, 2011
Senate Panel to Vote on Transportation Bill Next Month
While a House transportation bill still appears to be a long way off, the Senate is prepared to move forward on its version. EPW Committee leaders announced yesterday that they’ll be marking up their two-year bill November 9.
October 21, 2011
The NBBL Files: Weinshall Got Randy Mastro Before the Paint on PPW Was Dry
Last week, opponents of the Prospect Park West redesign moved to appeal Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan’s decision to reject their complaint against the city. If the community board’s approval of the bike lane and the data showing its effect on speeding and safety didn’t persuade them not to sue in the first place, a judicial decision wasn’t going to persuade them now. The longer the litigation drags on, the more time they’ll have to muddy the truth.
October 3, 2011
Mica, GOP Leadership Looking to Raise Transportation Spending Levels in Bill
According to yet another great report from Jeff Davis at Transportation Weekly, House Republican leadership has given House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica permission to seek additional revenues to fund the transportation reauthorization at levels $15 billion higher than initially proposed.
September 23, 2011
Send Us Your Park(ing) Day Pics!
A quick Flickr search for "Park(ing) Day 2011" this afternoon turned up this excellent rug-based parking spot reclamation all the way down under in Adelaide, Australia. So far, nothing from NYC, arguably the birthplace of the Park(ing) Day concept (though the San Francisco partisans will have something to say about that).
September 16, 2011