Government Organizations

Anthony Foxx, who resigned yesterday as mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, was sworn in today at 11 a.m. as the new U.S. secretary of transportation. The Department of Transportation sent the following information in a press release after the ceremony:

It certainly won't be the most talked about Supreme Court decision handed down this week, but "Koontz v. St Johns River Water Management District" [PDF] will have a long-term impact on the ability of local governments to shape new development.

Last week, a House panel envisioned some big cuts to next year’s transportation budget. TIGER and high-speed rail would get nothing, Amtrak would get slashed, and ixnay on all that green “livability” crap. (And that's practically a quote.)

Nearly 500 cities, states, and counties around the United States have enacted complete streets policies, according to Smart Growth America. Now a bipartisan team of lawmakers has introduced legislation to make it a matter of national policy that streets should be designed not only for driving, but for walking, biking, and transit as well.

States increased their transit spending more than 5 percent between 2007 and 2011, reaching $13.9 billion annually, according to a recent report from the Association of American State Highway and Transportation Officials. But that increase was concentrated in just a handful of states.

Constrained by Paul Ryan's budget and the sequester, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and HUD passed a $44 billion spending bill for 2014 – 15 percent lower than 2013 enacted levels. The bill contains $15.3 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Transportation, also 15 percent below enacted 2013 levels and amounting to about two-thirds of the president’s request. It passed the subcommitee this morning on a voice vote.

It’s been six months since Lisa Jackson announced she was stepping down as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, but there’s still no replacement. President Obama nominated Gina McCarthy to be Jackson’s successor in early March, and the Senate EPW Committee confirmed the nomination almost a month ago – albeit by a party-line vote of 10-8.

A new transportation plan put forward by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory will make it "almost impossible to find money for passenger trains, sidewalks, bicycles and regional transit," according to the Raleigh News Observer.

The Federal Highway Administration classifies roads as either "rural" or "urbanized." But the "urbanized" label is deceptive, because it applies suburban street design standards to any street that isn't rural. So if you live in, say, downtown St. Louis, the FHWA applies the same standards to your streets as to the streets in Orlando's most distant suburbs. This contributes to a horrendous mismatch: Many city streets where walking should take precedence are in fact designed for moving massive amounts of traffic.