Transportation for America

Today Transportation for America is releasing a 100-page document called "The Route to Reform," in which they outline policy recommendations related to the upcoming reauthorization of federal transportation funding legislation (download the executive summary here or the full report here). 

AARP announced today that it will join the Transportation for America campaign to advocate for a "broad restructuring" of national transportation policy. In a letter sent to Congressional leaders last week [PDF], AARP said that it is "working to enable older adults to live independently in their homes and communities throughout their lifespan, and transportation is critical to maintaining the community connections that make that possible."

The latest word from DC is that Kit Bond's pro-highway/anti-rail amendments have yet to come to the floor, while the Inhofe/Boxer amendment to create a $50 billion highway slush fund is still being finalized by its authors. The phone calls and emails are having an effect -- Boxer felt enough pressure to adjust her amendment, Transportation for America tells us, but the tweaks don't go far enough. (This huge pool of money would not, for example, set aside any amount explicitly for transit.)

Last night Jerrold Nadler's stimulus bill amendment, which would add $3 billion for transit, cleared the House Rules Committee. The full House may vote on the amendment by noon today, so the sooner you call your representative the better.

For everyone hoping that an $825 billion stimulus package might advance a visionary national agenda for sustainable transportation, yesterday's release of a draft economic recovery bill didn't deliver the goods. Nor did it include some pretty easy lifts, like the $1.7 billion for transit operations that the House approved in an earlier bill last summer.

With President-elect Obama back in Washington, action is heating up again around the economic recovery package, which could total up to $850 billion over the next two years. As much as $100 billion may be at stake for transportation projects. How will it be spent? The information that continues to trickle out of state departments of transportation is troubling. With a few exceptions, they are asking mainly to fund roadway expansion projects that would worsen traffic, pollution, and oil dependency, at the expense of transit, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure.

We've just launched our shiny new transportation-policy blog network, and we're pretty darn excited. You can find out why by clicking here.

With the Obama administration indicating that it may counter the current economic slowdown with much-needed infrastructure investment, Transportation for America has issued a letter calling for the president-elect to "lay the groundwork for a clean-energy future that is less dependent on oil."

It may look desolate, but business is picking up at the Fairbanks bus depot.