Government Organizations
FHWA Proposes to Let States Fail Their Own Safety Goals With Impunity
This story has been updated to reflect comments and clarifications from the FHWA.
March 14, 2014
Sec. Foxx: Bicycle Infrastructure Can Be a “Ladder of Opportunity”
This morning, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx’s blog post is all about bicycling. He opens by touting the complete streets policy he helped implement in Charlotte (it passed before he was mayor) and the city’s bike-share system -- the largest in the Southeast.
March 5, 2014
Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: U.S. DOT Fails to Get Travel Forecasting Right
The U.S. Department of Transportation seems to be stuck in a bizarre time warp. For nine years in a row Americans have decreased their average driving miles. Yet U.S. DOT’s most recent biennial report to Congress on the state of the nation’s transportation system, released last Friday, forecasts that total vehicle miles will increase between 1.36 percent to 1.85 percent each year through 2030.
March 3, 2014
As Driving Continues to Stagnate, Some States Finally Start to Adjust
Another year, another decline in per capita driving. For the ninth year in a row, the cumulative distance Americans drive is down, adjusting for population, according to new data from the Federal Highway Administration. Total driving by all Americans has fallen about 2 percent since 2007 -- or 7 percent per capita -- and is lower than it was in 2005.
February 25, 2014
Why Is It Still So Hard to Find Out How States Are Spending Transpo Money?
You would be lucky to get half as much information about a $5 million transportation project in your state as you can get from a toothpaste tube about how to brush.
February 19, 2014
A Bill to Make American Streets Safer Surfaces in the Senate
Has the moment finally arrived for a national complete streets law?
February 7, 2014
The Revolving Door Spins Again: LaHood Joins DLA Piper
When former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced earlier this month that he was going to co-chair Building America's Future, I thought, "well that seems like a good place for him, but it's not going to make his wife happy." Mrs. LaHood has famously been needling him for years to get out of public office and make some money in the private sector.
January 24, 2014
What If There Was No Highway, Transit, or Rail Agency — Just U.S. DOT?
“Highway people like highways, transit people like transit, rail people like rail,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said yesterday at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. “But our transportation system should be greater than the sum of its parts.”
January 16, 2014
Secretary Foxx Pledges to Make Bike/Ped Safety a Priority
Pedestrian crash statistics aren’t just numbers to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. He himself was the victim of one of those crashes once, while out jogging. “I got lucky,” he told a packed room at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board today. “But there are lots of people out there that aren’t so lucky.”
January 15, 2014
The Next Transpo Bill: Can Congress Solve the Funding Problem?
It's that time again. Just 18 months after the passage of the latest federal transportation bill, known as MAP-21, Congress has to get serious about the next one. The first hearing on the bill that will replace MAP-21 took place today in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
January 14, 2014