Transportation Funding

In the years before partisan warfare became the norm in Washington, transportation tended to unite both ends of the ideological spectrum. Can rationality return to infrastructure policy debates that have become subsumed by culture clashes between cyclists and drivers, urbanists and suburbanites -- and, of course, Democrats and Republicans?

The Obama administration last night revealed the names of local transit projects getting recommendations for federal aid under the U.S. DOT’s New and Small Starts programs, which are set to receive $1.8 billion during fiscal year 2011. The list includes some familiar urban projects — New York’s Second Avenue Subway, for instance, already had a … Continued

In a fiscal year 2011 budget that proposes to increase spending on several core transportation priorities, the White House also aims to eliminate a few infrastructure programs that may prove popular with lawmakers.

The White House officially unveiled its $3.8 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2011 this morning, seeking $1 billion to continue its high-speed rail investment and $530 million for the transportation leg of the Obama administration's inter-agency push to promote sustainable planning on the local level.

Later this morning, the Metro Board of Directors will meet for the first time in the 2010 calendar year, and is faced with its biggest challenge since the passage of Measure R...a quarter of a billion operating deficit.  While some issues on the undercard are interesting, such as the Board finally moving to find a contractor to construct rail cars ten months after their quixotic quest to hand the contract to AnsaldoBreda kicked off; the largest issues is going to be what to do about the budget.  After years of shifting budgets and tapping contingency funds, Metro has to make some hard choices to make.

Senate Democrats huddled behind closed doors this afternoon to assess their options for a new job-creation bill, with one option of around $80 billion making headlines even second-ranked leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) warned that no details are set in stone. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) (Photo: STLToday) But as Democrats debate the wisdom of … Continued

I've written in the past three weeks My Case Against Bike Paths, my discontent about Bike Lanes and about  Bike Routes.

As Governor Schwarzenegger presses forward with his newest scheme to rob funds dedicated to transit, he's receiving a frosty response from legislators and opinion makers that could spell doom for this plan to balance the budget. 

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.