Transportation Funding
Streetsblog LA
Tell Congress: Don’t Waste Money on Highway Expansion
With President-elect Obama back in Washington, action is heating up again
around the economic recovery package, which could total up to $850
billion over the next two years. As much as $100 billion may be at
stake for transportation projects. How will it be spent? The
information that continues to trickle out of state departments of
transportation is troubling. With a few exceptions, they are asking
mainly to fund roadway expansion projects that would worsen traffic,
pollution, and oil dependency, at the expense of transit, bike, and
pedestrian infrastructure.
January 8, 2009
Measure R Highway Funds Ready to Roll. Transit Funds? Not So Much.
Yesterday, the Bottleneck Blog publicly released the changes to Metro's Long Range Plan that will be voted upon by the Metro Board at the end of the month. Steve Hymon noted that there were many changes to the timelines to complete projects, and many of them weren't acceleration notices. Below is the timeline, with various comments that were collected from around the Internet and news reports included.
January 7, 2009
Tell the Mayor That You Want Better Transportation
Mayor Villaraigosa wants to hear from you!
December 22, 2008
Stimulus Package on Track to Perpetuate Transpo Status Quo
A front page story in yesterday's Washington Post
has the most thorough analysis to date of how infrastructure spending
may be divvied up in an Obama stimulus package. Nothing is set in
stone, but the dividing lines are increasingly clear: States and their
DOTs are emphasizing road projects, while cities are looking for ways
to reduce congestion. The emphasis on getting shovels in the ground
quickly will also skew spending, says Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak:
December 15, 2008
San Francisco Breaks Ground on Transit Mega-Center
At a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited Transbay Transit Center
in San Francisco yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom asserted the project
will be "so much more extraordinary than Grand Central Station."
December 11, 2008
Tell the Highway Lobby About ’09 Transpo Spending
Not to be outdone, the road-building lobbyists at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) have launched their campaign to influence federal transportation spending priorities over the next year, including the 2009 TEA package.
December 2, 2008
T 4 America Interviews Denny Zane on Measure R and LA’s Future
The Transportation for America Campaign interviewed activist and former Santa Monica Mayor Denny Zane, who had as much to do with Measure R's passage as anyone. You may remember Zane as thr driving force behind the It's Time to Move LA Conference last January which led directly to Assemblyman Feuer's legislative efforts. By bringing together environmentalists, labor leaders and busniess leaders; Zane built a coalition that overcame provencial interests in November's election to get Measure R passed.
November 20, 2008