Transportation Policy
Streetsblog LA
Senate Health Bill Holds Onto Grants For Healthier Transportation
Back in June, when the Senate was in the early stages of its marathon health care reform debate, several Republicans blasted
the proposed legislation for including a grant program aimed at
encouraging construction of local infrastructure to promote healthier
movement.
November 23, 2009
Just How Regressive is America’s Federal Housing Policy?
(ed. note. Please welcome contributor Chris Bradford, author of the economics blog Austin Contrarian.) As this recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report reminds us, the answer is “very regressive.” Even in lean economic times, the average rent in San Francisco (above) is close to $2,000/mo. (Photo: BinBin.net) The disparity between the federal government’s support for … Continued
November 20, 2009
Grassley: ‘Two or Three Other’ Republicans Open to Climate Change Deal
The Senate's propensity for filibusters, delay, and fruitless attempts at bipartisan deal-making is earning it quite the reputation these days. And climate change legislation, with its big-ticket implications for transit and urban development in general, is becoming increasingly caught up in the Senate's peripatetic politics.
November 10, 2009
CNU Transportation Project Raises Bar on Planning for Livable Cities
Photo: npGreenway The Congress for the New Urbanism’s Project for Transportation Reform summit in Portland, Oregon, has brought together transportation engineers, city planners, and transportation reform advocates to share best practice policies for reforming transportation metrics, funding mechanisms, and regional practices that isolate transportation planning from land-use and growth targets. The highlight of the first … Continued
November 5, 2009
The Senate Climate Bill Reaches a First Milestone Today — Maybe
The Senate environment committee is slated
to begin formally voting on its climate change bill today in an
atmosphere of high drama, thanks to Republican members who have vowed to boycott the proceedings in a bid to delay the legislative process.
November 3, 2009
Is America Subsidizing Sprawl?
One of the themes of the financial and economic crisis we've faced
over the past two years is that government, pressed into responding to
serious economic pain, has often found itself supporting the activities
that got us into this mess in the first place.
November 2, 2009
Transportation Policy Becomes the Proverbial Tree Falling in the Forest
Halfway through this afternoon's rally
in support of a new federal transportation bill, there came an
accidental but telling moment. A group of tourists, attracted by the
hundreds of orange flags planted in the National Mall for the rally,
walked through the event and whispered questions to attendees about its
purpose. Once their curiosity was sated, the group lost interest and
ambled away.
October 28, 2009
At Senate Climate Hearings, Lots of Transport Talk and All Eyes on Baucus
Yesterday, the Senate environment committee held the first in a three-part marathon of hearings on its climate change legislation,
with supporters singling out the bill's investments in clean
transportation even as one senior Democrat notably withheld his support
from the measure.
October 28, 2009
GOP Senators Protest Evaluating the Climate Impacts of Transport Projects
The 40-year-old National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA),
which requires the federal government to evaluate the environmental
consequences of future projects, is a valuable tool for local residents
and green groups that work to defeat highway expansions -- but as Streetsblog L.A. noted earlier this year, NEPA can be an equally valuable tool for opponents of clean transportation projects.
October 26, 2009
Senate Climate Bill Triples the House’s Investments in Clean Transportation
The Senate environment committee released new details of its climate
change legislation over the weekend, including the share of "emissions allowances"
-- the revenue generated by regulating carbon in a cap-and-trade system
-- that the bill would reserve for various sectors of the American
economy.
October 26, 2009