Barack Obama
Study: How The Last Three Presidents Helped Shape Our Local Transportation Landscapes
A deep dive on one of America's largest discretionary grant programs reveals the kind of transportation projects prioritized by the last three presidential administrations. What does it mean for the future?
October 9, 2024
White House: Make Cities Affordable By Building for Walkability, Not Parking
The Obama administration is taking on the crisis of rising rents in American cities, releasing a series of recommendations today to spur the construction of more affordable housing. Among the many ideas the White House endorses: allowing more multi-family housing near transit and getting rid of parking minimums.
September 26, 2016
Obama’s Last Budget Lays Out a Smart Vision for American Transportation
The White House released its 2017 budget [PDF] this morning, which includes more detail about the exciting but politically doomed transportation proposal President Obama outlined last week. Obama's plan doesn't have a chance in the current Congress, but it shows what national transportation policy centered on reducing greenhouse gas emissions might look like.
February 9, 2016
Obama’s Politically Impossible Transpo Plan Is Just What America Needs
It may be "seven years too late," as tactical urbanist Mike Lydon put it, but President Obama has released a transportation proposal that calls for big shifts in the country's spending priorities.
February 5, 2016
It’s “Transit Christmas” for These Bus and Train Projects in Obama’s Budget
In addition to the broad strokes of transportation policy outlined by the White House yesterday, the Obama administration also put out a much more specific proposal: the list of transit expansion projects recommended for funding in fiscal year 2016. Jeff Wood of The Overhead Wire and Talking Headways fame called it "Transit Christmas."
February 3, 2015
Obama’s New Transportation Budget: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
With federal transportation funding on track to run dry by May 31, Washington lawmakers are gearing up again to reset national transportation policy... or, if that doesn't work out, to limp along indefinitely under the status quo.
February 2, 2015
With No Transport Funding Fix, USDOT to Cut Payments to States Next Month
State transportation departments could see the federal funding they receive pared back as early as a few weeks from now if Congress doesn't come up with a transportation funding solution.
July 2, 2014
Is Obama Opposed to the Bipartisan Gas Tax Proposal or Just Noncommittal?
Yesterday, The Huffington Post ran this headline: “White House Appears More Open To A Gas Tax Hike.” Minutes later, The Hill published this one: “White House opposes gas tax hike to fix transportation funding.” So, which is it?
June 24, 2014
President Obama’s Hollow Push for Infrastructure Investment
This afternoon, President Obama stood by New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge and made a speech pressing Congress to do something about infrastructure investment. It’s part of his Infrastructure Week push for Congress to pass a fully funded transportation reauthorization bill. Many other groups are spending this week sounding the same horn.
May 14, 2014
In Obama Budget, a Glimpse of What Beefed-Up Transit Funding Could Do
The budget proposal released by President Obama yesterday fleshes out the transportation ideas put out by the White House last week and includes specific grants for transit upgrades and expansions in 2015, but many of them won't be part of this budget unless Congress agrees to increase funding for transportation.
March 5, 2014