Why Buy More Trains If You Can’t Afford to Run Them?
Down in balmy South Florida, D-Day is approaching for riders of the the popular Tri-Rail transit system. A looming $18 million shortfall has forced the Tri-Rail board to approve a budget that slices daily service and stops all trains by 2011 -- although ridership has doubled since 2005.
May 27, 2009
Infrastructure Bank Plan Gaining Attention And Momentum
In today's New York Times, columnist Bob Herbert spotlights the congressional proposal for a National Infrastructure Development Bank that would issue bonds, make loans and create securities to help finance needed rebuilding projects around the country. As Herbert put it:
May 26, 2009
LaHood: ‘About Everything We Do Around Here Is Government Intrusion’
Ray LaHood is known for his disarming candor -- his recent admission that he's not "that great a transportation person" being a case in point -- and those qualities were on vivid display today as the Transportation Secretary delivered an address to the National Press Club.
May 21, 2009
What Happens to a Closed-Down Auto Plant?
The bankruptcy of Chrysler may sound like good news to critics of American auto culture, but the resulting job losses and plant closures are poised to deal a serious blow to already-struggling midwestern towns. Which is why it's heartening to see that the Obama administration is working on a plan to help clean up the land surrounding shuttered plants and give it back to its rightful owners in local communities.
May 21, 2009
Senator Takes Hybrid Hummer on a Semi-Wild Ride
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has a knack for puncturing Capitol Hill's bubble of obliviousness. His classics include the spotting of Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) leaving an event that protested high gas prices in an 18-miles-per-gallon car -- for the one-block trip back to her office.
May 21, 2009
Just Four Lawmakers Show Up to Pitch Local Transportation Projects
Members of the House had an open invitation today from the panel in charge of annual funding for transportation and housing: Any lawmaker could come and personally make the case for why their local bridge, road, or transit project should get a share of the federal money.
May 20, 2009
Portland Congressman to George Will: Let’s Debate
Just when you thought George Will's pouty, ill-informed tirade against new Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was going to stand unchallenged, here comes Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).
May 20, 2009
Transportation ‘Expert’: Long Commutes Are a Status Symbol
Transportation consultant Alan Pisarski, author of the National Academies' Commuting In America series, has advised Washington policymakers on infrastructure development for decades. And judging from the presentation I watched him deliver at the Heritage Foundation last week, he's downright aghast at the prospect that the Obama administration could begin shifting national policy away from total reliance on sprawl and automobiles.
May 20, 2009
Illinois Congressman Pushes for Pro-Bike Transportation Bill
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), an early supporter of the congressional "complete streets" bill, is circulating a letter to his House colleagues that urges support for pro-bike provisions in the upcoming federal transportation bill. Here's how Lipinski put it:
May 19, 2009
The Long, Ugly Road to a Federal Transportation Plan
You've likely been hearing a lot, on this blog and others, about the coming expiration of the federal transportation bill. Come September 30, Congress has to have a plan in hand to fund the nation's trains, buses, bikes, bridges and roads -- or pass an extension of the 2005 federal bill, locking in the same spending patterns that have nurtured Americans' addiction to the automobile.
May 19, 2009