SGA: Transportation Funding Pays Big Dividends Only If Invested Wisely
In just the last month, several reports have quantified, in various ways, how investing in transportation infrastructure pays off in jobs and economic health. Now Smart Growth America is out with new research showing that it's not enough to plunk down a bunch of money and expect miracles. You've got to do it right.
February 8, 2011
Obama Finally Brings the Chamber a Fruitcake (It’s Called Infrastructure)
President Obama paid a visit to the Chamber of Commerce this morning, trying to make nice after a hot-and-cold couple of years.
February 8, 2011
GOP Targets Transportation, Housing For the Deepest Cuts
The House Appropriations Committee yesterday gave a glimpse into their plans to cut spending as promised. Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) set spending ceilings each of the 12 Appropriations subcommittees, cutting the budget for the Transportation and HUD Subcommittee by 17 percent, or $11.6 billion.
February 7, 2011
AASHTO Suggests Some Tools for Getting Out of the Transpo Funding Mess
The Problem: Highway Trust Fund revenues only cover about 44 percent of the transportation system’s needs.
February 7, 2011
Boxer Will Co-Chair Hearing on Transpo. Reauthorization in L.A.
The T&I Committee has fleshed out the schedule of its nationwide tour to solicit input on transportation issues. The tour is an opportunity for lawmakers to hear what communities around the country would like to see in a new transportation authorization bill.
February 4, 2011
APTA Survey: Transpo Bill Delay May Force Job Losses in U.S. Transit Industry
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) both agree that a new surface transportation authorization bill needs to be finished before Congress leaves for the August recess. But that doesn’t mean it’ll happen.
February 3, 2011
What Will Become of Amtrak If It’s Left Out of Plans to Expand HSR?
When President Obama and Secretary LaHood talk about their bold new vision for high-speed rail, you don’t hear them mention the country’s very own train company, which just celebrated ten years of providing the closest thing this country has to high-speed rail service, in the Northeast Corridor.
February 2, 2011
Biggest TRB Meeting Ever Highlights Visionary Bicycle Research
If you attended last week’s annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, you were one of 10,900 people presenting 2,200 papers and 2,500 slide presentations on everything from the conspicuity of pavement markings to complete streets for blind pedestrians.
February 1, 2011
Transportation Committee Shrinks, EPW Announces New Members
The committees with jurisdiction over transportation are shrinking. In the Senate, committee membership is only going from 21 to 20. But the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is experiencing a much more significant belt-tightening, shrinking from a committee of 75 to just 59. Of those 59, 33 are Republicans and 26 are Democrats.
January 28, 2011