Transportation Policy

AARP announced today that it will join the Transportation for America campaign to advocate for a "broad restructuring" of national transportation policy.

Over at NYC Streetsblog, Ben Fried reports that the "Livable Streets Vibe" that's coming out of Washington is becoming part of how President Obama's USDOT presents itself when it takes its act on the road.  Reporting from the New York Metropolitan Council's annual meeting, Fried caught Vice Admiral Thomas Barrett, Deputy Secretary at U.S. DOT talking about the role that USDOT can take in creating stronger communities:

Yesterday, the California Pubic Interest Research Group, aka CALPIRG, released Spending the Stimulus, How California Can Put Thousands Back to Work & Jumpstart a 21st Century Transportation System,

Far be it from us to take political sides on Livable Streets issues--you don't have to be a donkey or an elephant to appreciate pedestrian safety, traffic calming, and quality public space--but why is it that two of the best columns connecting transportation policy reform, land use, and energy independence have come from conservative pundits? 

Here's newly appointed White House director of Urban Affairs Adolfo Carrión back in his Bronx Borough President days, striking a pose with Transportation Alternatives' Noah Budnick in 2006. The picture was snapped on Bike to Work Day, which Carrión observed every year by sponsoring a ride.

In case you missed the broadcast on Friday, watch this episode of NOW. Told mostly from the perspective of Charlotte's Pat McCrory, the Republican mayor who brought light rail to North Carolina's biggest city, the show hits just about every major transportation issue to surface during the stimulus bill debate. Federal policies that discriminate against transit, state DOTs that throw money at politically-driven highway projects, transit agencies in dire need of federal support as local tax revenues shrivel up -- it's all here.

Obama in Ft. Myers This is encouraging. On the stump in Fort Myers, Florida to campaign for the stimulus bill, President Obama took a detour from his well-worn “roads and bridges” infrastructure spiel to deliver some brief remarks on transit and land use. Obama’s answer came in response to a city council member who said … Continued

Forbes Magazine recently conducted a survey to determine which cities are getting better and which are getting worse for commuters.  Surprisingly, Los Angeles appears on the list of top ten cities for improving commutes, coming in at #6.

Barbara Boxer and infamous global warming denier James Inhofe will present an amendment to the Senate stimulus plan that could funnel as much as $50 billion in additional funding to highways, Streetsblog has learned. Friends of the Earth tells us that Boxer's staff confirmed she will introduce the amendment, which could bring the total for highways close to $80 billion, exactly the figure Inhofe demanded last week in a letter to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.