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Lower Taxes, Less Smog: The Carbon Tax’s Wild Success in British Columbia
Want to lower taxes? Reduce pollution? Promote savings and investment, rather than borrowing and spending?
July 11, 2012
We’re Still Living in the SAFETEA-LU Era For Three More Months
Something that escaped my attention until recently is the fact that MAP-21 is really only a 24-month transportation bill. Folded into the bill is an extension of SAFETEA-LU for another three months, until September 30 -- the end of this fiscal year.
July 10, 2012
States Already Licking Their Chops Over Newly “Flexible” Bike/Ped Funds
Just days after Congress passed a bill allowing states to spend funds supposedly designated for biking and walking on completely unrelated projects, transportation officials are already circling like vultures over that money.
July 10, 2012
Report: Traffic Studies Systematically Overstate the Benefits of Road Projects
Nearly every time a new road is built, traffic volume increases beyond the predictions of the traffic studies. And nearly every time, transportation planners are surprised.
July 9, 2012
Under New Bill, America’s Transpo Loan Program Ignores National Goals
In the highly polarized and antagonistic transportation bill negotiations, dragged out over the course of almost a year, there was one thing that Democrats and Republicans could agree on: vastly expanding the TIFIA loan program. The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program has, since 1998, provided federal credit assistance at favorable interest rates to surface transportation projects of national and regional significance.
July 3, 2012
Advocates: Transpo Bill Ignores Trends, Shrinks From 21st Century Challenges
National transportation reform groups released a collective groan yesterday, as the details of the two-year transportation bill agreement hashed out in committee were made available. While many acknowledged the bill could have been worse, it's still something of a kick in the shins for anyone who cares about safer streets and smart transportation policy. Here's a round-up of what people are saying.
June 29, 2012
Transpo Bill Cuts Bike/Ped Funding, Lets States Spend It on Left-Turn Lanes
In the transportation bill agreed to yesterday by Barbara Boxer, John Mica, and other Congressional leaders, the program that allocates federal transportation dollars to local street safety projects like bike lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks has morphed into a much more general fund for anything that can be considered an air quality improvement strategy. States have great leeway to shift funds around, and bike/ped projects will have to compete with road projects and much more.
June 28, 2012
Complete Streets Provision Eliminated From Final Transpo Bill
Transportation for America, the big-tent coalition for transportation reform, tends to be careful about the statements it puts out. Its folks are diplomatic, since they work with both sides on the Hill and a wide variety of coalition members. Yesterday, as details of the conference report were leaking out, they wanted to read the whole bill before weighing in publicly. Now that they've absorbed it all, they've come out swinging.
June 28, 2012
Boxer Confirms That Some Bike/Ped Protections Remain in Final Bill
UPDATED 1:17 PM PST
June 27, 2012