Tanya Snyder

Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts was elected to the Senate last month, setting off a chain of events that has led to the appointment of a new ranking member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee in the House. That new ranking member is DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Senator Barbara Boxer brought together transportation industry representatives this morning to highlight the damage that would be done to the economy if Congress doesn’t come up with a solution to the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund. New CBO estimates, released this week [PDF], project that the fund will be zeroed out by the time MAP-21 expires at the end of Fiscal Year 2014. Boxer says she doesn't intend to wait until the last minute to act.

Should the nation’s largest infrastructure loan program finance projects that make the transportation system more productive and efficient? Hell no, says Senator David Vitter, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Hundreds of millions of dollars should be available to any old project that comes along, as long as it has a good shot at repaying the loan.

Rand Paul is at it again.

There are five stages of mourning, and Congress is moving through them as they begin to face the inevitability of increased revenues for transportation. Lawmakers been through denial, anger, and bargaining, and now they’re pretty solidly in the depression phase. That leaves just one more: acceptance.

Obama Would Veto House Transportation Budget (The Hill) No Worries, The Senate Won’t Pass the House Bill. This Is What They’ll Be Doing Instead (WaPo) Anthony Foxx’s First Trip as Secretary Focuses on Rail Safety (Fast Lane) Chuck Schumer Wants Climate Adaptation Measures for Rail in Next Transpo Bill (The Hill) Sen. Wicker Pleads for … Continued

Paul Krugman: Sprawl Is What Did Detroit In (NYT) Brookings Lays Out the Path Forward for the Motor City Don’t Cry For Me, Detroit: These Five Cities Could Find Themselves in the Same Boat (Next City) … And a Lot of Cities Could Benefit From a Little Chapter 9 Magic Anyway (Slate) Oil Exploration Booms Anew … Continued

Stay inside, friends. The heat index is a sizzling 111 degrees here in DC and I'm betting it's not much better where you are. And heat exhaustion isn't the only reason to crank the air conditioning or lounge in the kiddie pool. Transportation systems are also breaking down in the heat.

Madison, Wisconsin, is on a building binge. Developers are constructing so much rental housing that market observers fear that the housing shortage could quickly turn into a glut. One thousand units were approved last year for large apartment complexes.

Rob Perks couldn’t understand why his friend, Megan, drove to work every day instead of taking public transportation. She said driving was cheaper and more convenient, but Perks had almost an identical commute and he was pretty confident he was saving a lot by taking transit. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation of all Megan’s driving costs showed that even paying $6.00 for the park-and-ride was cheaper than driving all the way in to the office. (Just imagine how much she could save if, like Perks, she could walk to the metro!)