Today’s Headlines
The Senate environment committee was once known as a hotbed of bipartisan congeniality … though it can still look that way, judging from this year’s transportation debate (ClimateWire) The construction industry promotes the role it can play in economic recovery effort (Portfolio) Trucking industry accuses the New York Times of ill treatment after a critical … Continued
October 1, 2009
Senate Passes One-Month Extension of Transport Law … For Now
By a vote of 62-38, the Senate has just passed a one-month extension of the 2005 transportation law, which was set to expire at midnight tonight and leave state DOTs without a steady source of funding for road, bridge, and transit projects.
September 30, 2009
The ‘Elitism’ Trap Migrates From Transport Reform to Climate Change
Transportation debates have a terminology all their own, whether arcane ("multi-modal"), hard to define ("subsidies"), or outright misleading -- as is the case with "elitism," the standard line that road-building acolytes often apply to those who suggest that the government focus more on expanding transit and other forms of clean transport.
September 30, 2009
Senate Climate Bill Released With Much Fanfare, Little Focus on Transport
Flanked by fellow Democrats, members of the military, and a crowd hoisting signs with buzzwords like "clean energy" and "green jobs," Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) today released the first draft of their legislation to curb U.S. emissions and combat climate change.
September 30, 2009
U.S. DOT’s Distracted Driving Summit: Follow it Live
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is hosting a summit on the issue of distracted driving -- specifically, driving while texting -- with an eye to marshaling support for a national ban on the practice.
September 30, 2009
Today’s Headlines
Ahead of today’s U.S. DOT texting-while-driving summit, the Obama administration signals it’ll work to pass a national ban (NPR, US News) Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) makes the case for transportation reform being health reform — if inadvertently (Yglesias) The EPA is preparing to revise its method of measuring cars’ energy use, to prevent GM and … Continued
September 30, 2009
Could Congress Let States (Start to) Lose $8.7 Billion in Road Money?
The short answer: Maybe.
September 29, 2009
Senate Climate Bill Leaks: The Good News and Bad News for Transport
The Senate's climate change legislation will finally make its debut tomorrow, courtesy of environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and foreign relations committee chairman John Kerry (D-MA). But the Washington Post has already obtained a "close-to-final" version of the bill [PDF], which provides some details but leaves unanswered the key question of how much aid will go towards clean transport.
September 29, 2009
New Report: Feds Subsidizing Parking Six Times as Much as Transit
"Subsidy" is a word used quite often in transportation policy-making circles, whether by road acolytes who claim (falsely) that highways are not federally subsidized because of the gas tax or by transit boosters who lament Washington's unceasing focus on paying for more local asphalt.
September 29, 2009
Today’s Headlines
The Obama administration has received applications worth $57 billion for the stimulus law’s $1.5 billion TIGER grant program, designed to focus on multi-modal projects (JOC) LaHood jabs at the media after a critical piece on road stimulus spending … (Dallas M-N) … and announces plans to go to Copenhagen for Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid (WH … Continued
September 29, 2009