Feds. Look at Miami HOT Lanes and See Good News for Transit
Miami's conversion of HOV lane space to new high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes as part of the federal Urban Partnership
program, which also prompted New York City's congestion pricing push,
is cutting travel times for local transit and boosting use -- but
overall bus ridership in the corridor has stayed static, according to a
new report from the U.S. DOT.
January 22, 2010
Obama Previews His New Budget’s Urban Policy Moves
When it comes to re-centering the Washington bureaucracy to better
accommodate cities' needs, the first year of the Obama administration
has brought its share of progress (a three-agency partnership set to spend $150 million on sustainable development) and hiccups (a White House urban affairs office with lots of talk but little action).
January 22, 2010
More Proof That L.A. Isn’t Getting Its Fair Share of Stimulus and Other Federal Funds
The U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report
this week with some dire conclusions for the nation's cities: Even the
payroll growth that many prognosticators anticipate this year won't
make a dent in double-digit urban unemployment. Half of the 363 biggest
metro areas won't return to their pre-recession jobs levels until 2013
or beyond.
January 21, 2010
U.S. DOT Previews How New Transit Rules Could Define ‘Livability’
When the Obama administration announced an ambitious revamp of transit funding rules to, as the Transportation Secretary put it, “take livability into account,” urban planners and transit advocates alike were pleased — but also uncertain. Baltimore’s rail network, with the proposed new Red Line — which could get a boost from the U.S. DOT’s livability … Continued
January 21, 2010
A Common Thread in the Home Buyer’s Tax Credit and ‘Cash for Clunkers’
Back in the days of "cash for clunkers," which saw the Obama
administration send nearly $3 billion in taxpayer-funded rebates to
boost the sagging auto industry, our Ryan Avent and several other
economics wonks pointed out
an inconvenient fact: Many participants in the program would have
bought cars anyway, and the rebates only pulled their purchases forward
in time.
January 20, 2010
Dodd and DeLauro Vow to Get Infrastructure Bank Done This Year
Supporters from every corner of the transportation universe joined
Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Sen. Chris Dodd
(D-CT) today at a press event aimed at jumpstarting a National
Infrastructure Bank (NIB), which the two Connecticut lawmakers vowed to
steer to passage this year.
January 20, 2010
Obama Quietly Gets Federal Agencies Involved in Transport Planning
When President Obama signed an executive order in October requiring federal agencies to craft strategies for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, he described the mandate as Washington "lead[ing] by example" on the pollution-reduction front.
January 19, 2010
CBO Echoes Obama’s Candor on the Pitfalls of ‘Shovel-Readiness’
During last month's White House jobs summit, President Obama carved out
some common ground with critics of his first stimulus law's $47 billion
in infrastructure spending -- which was distributed mainly by the book
through state DOTs. "The term "shovel-ready," let’s be honest here,
doesn’t always live up to its billing," he acknowledged.
January 19, 2010
EPA Air Chief: We Need to Do More to Reduce VMT
Obama administration officials "need to align together" to work on reducing the nation's total vehicle miles traveled -- work that should go beyond a pending congressional climate bill -- the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) air-quality chief said today.
January 15, 2010