Bike/Ped

“In 2014, federal investment in surface transportation -- which is currently about $50 billion per year -- will drop to $6 billion or $7 billion. In one year.”

For years, the federal government has adopted roadway guidelines that fall far short of what's needed -- and what's possible -- to protect cyclists and pedestrians. By "playing it safe" and sticking with old-school engineering, U.S. DOT allowed streets to be unsafe for these vulnerable road users.

The Republican co-chair of the Congressional Bicycling Caucus is getting a leadership position with some real gravitas. Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) was just named the new chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee in the House -- the epicenter of the chamber's surface transportation legislation.

Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a new rule requiring automakers to install event data recorders, known as EDRs or black boxes, in all light passenger vehicles. While the rule would expand the number of vehicles equipped to record critical information in the moments preceding a crash, that alone won't aid investigations of traffic deaths or strengthen cases against reckless drivers. For black boxes to help get to the bottom of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, changes to local crash investigation procedures and to EDR technology itself need to happen as well.

OK, truth: Raise your hand if you find federal transportation legislation intimidating and incomprehensible.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article included Robert Dold as the fifth potential aisle-crosser. I've since been informed that Dold lost his re-election bid this year. Charlie Bass and Judy Biggert, named briefly at the bottom for supporting the Senate transportation bill and Amtrak funding, also lost their elections, making this list even shorter.

If I’ve learned one thing from all the meetings about transportation I’ve covered, it’s this: There is no progress without a solution on funding.

This is the second of two posts examining Rep. Bill Shuster’s candidacy for the chairmanship of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Yesterday, we took a look at Shuster's positions on rail and his leadership style. Here we delve into his record on active transportation and the always-thorny topic of funding.

Why do traffic delays jump in September? Obviously, fewer people are on vacation. But it's not just commuters back to the grind getting to and from work. It's parents dropping their kids off at school, often with even less forgiving start times than an adult workday.