Centers for Disease Control: Transportation Reform is Health Reform
The connection between transportation and public health has slowly
edged into the mainstream since Streetsblog Capitol Hill began covering
it last year, first through a billion-dollar grant program added to Congress' sprawling health care bill and now in a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) brief that connects existing U.S. infrastructure with chronic disease, obesity, and premature deaths.
May 6, 2010
LaHood Answers GOP Critic, Soothes Dem Skeptic of Sustainability Budget
As Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tangled with a senior GOP senator today over the White House's $500 million-plus request for its inter-agency office of sustainable communities -- a new project
aimed at channeling federal energy towards local transit-oriented and
smart growth plans -- an influential Democrat joined her fellow senator
in raising questions about diverting highway money to the effort.
May 6, 2010
EPA Adopting ‘Fix-it-First’ Infrastructure Policy — For Water
Environmental groups have long called for a national "fix-it-first"
standard to apply to new transportation projects, requiring states
to focus on repair of existing infrastructure before constructing new
lane miles. The approach has caught on in several state capitals, but
not in Washington -- except when it comes to water infrastructure.
May 6, 2010
Expectations for High-Speed Rail Coming Down to Earth
Three months after the Obama administration announced
the first winners of what it hopes will be the first of many federal
grants to build U.S. high-speed rail networks, advocates and planners
are settling in for a long battle to surmount the obstacles and
unknowns that stand in the way of long-term bullet train development.
May 5, 2010
New Analysis: 59% of Road Stimulus Went to Repair, 33% to New Capacity
In
the first year of the Obama administration's economic stimulus law, 59
percent of its $27 billion in transportation formula funds went to
projects that preserve existing roads, while 33 percent was used to
build new pavement, according to an analysis by the advocacy group
Smart Growth America (SGA).
May 5, 2010
Senate Dems Unveil Auto Safety Legislation
Democrats are moving quickly on their plan to take a unified approach
to auto safety reforms in the aftermath of the Toyota recalls, with
Senate Commerce Committee members releasing a new bill today that would
quintuple the maximum existing penalties for carmakers who -- like
Toyota -- fail to promptly notify the public of defective products.
May 5, 2010
Obama Administration to Award $775M for Bus Transit Upgrades
The Obama administration plans to award $775 million in bus transit
grants this summer, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) chief Peter
Rogoff announced yesterday during a transit industry conference in Ohio.
May 4, 2010
Massachusetts Republican Cuts a Bike Version of Scott Brown ‘Truck’ Ad
After Sen. Scott Brown's (R-MA) January upset
in the race for the congressional seat long held by the late Ted
Kennedy, his win was chalked up to several factors: voter reluctance to
embrace health care reform, campaign-trail gaffes by the Democratic
candidate -- and a hyper-folksy ad campaign that featured Brown cruising around the state meeting voters in his "old truck."
May 3, 2010
GAO: Economic Recovery Benefits of ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Are ‘Uncertain’
"Cash for clunkers,"
the White House's much-touted program encouraging trade-ins for more
fuel-efficient autos, had an "uncertain" impact on economic recovery,
according to a new audit from the independent Government Accountability
Office (GAO) -- largely because it remains unclear how many of the car
sales it spurred would have occurred without taxpayer subsidies.
April 30, 2010
Dem and GOP Senators Seek More Long-Term Rail Vision From Obama Aides
The senior Democratic and Republican
senators in charge of setting annual transportation spending levels
today urged the leader of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to
develop a more comprehensive plan for using the White House's high-speed rail program to spur the development of viable U.S. train networks.
April 30, 2010