Transportation Policy
Oakland’s Stimulus Flap: A Shot Across the Bow for Transport Equity?
The Obama administration's warning that the Bay Area has jeopardized federal stimulus funding for its Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project could have national consequences for other urban transit proposals that risk harming low-income riders, civil rights and transit advocates predicted yesterday.
January 27, 2010
Democrats Learning to Love the I-Word — But Will Words Bring Action?
The White House is re-centering its message around economic and fiscal concerns ahead of tomorrow's State of the Union address, with a new package of job-creation measures expected to vault to the top of the agenda and a three-year "spending freeze" pitched to deficit-wary conservative Democrats.
January 26, 2010
In the White House’s High-Speed Rail Chase, a First Likely Winner: Florida
The prediction that Rep. John Mica (R-FL) backtracked on last month is starting to come true: President Obama is headed for Florida on Thursday, and the state is all but certain that he's coming with $2.6 billion in federal stimulus funding for a new high-speed rail link between Tampa and Orlando.
January 25, 2010
Obama Previews His New Budget’s Urban Policy Moves
When it comes to re-centering the Washington bureaucracy to better accommodate cities' needs, the first year of the Obama administration has brought its share of progress (a three-agency partnership set to spend $150 million on sustainable development) and hiccups (a White House urban affairs office with lots of talk but little action).
January 22, 2010
Feds on New Miami HOT Lanes: Good for Transit
Miami's conversion of HOV lane space to new high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes as part of the federal Urban Partnership program, which also prompted New York City's congestion pricing push, is cutting travel times for local transit and boosting use -- but overall bus ridership in the corridor has stayed static, according to a new report from the U.S. DOT.
January 22, 2010
Defining the ‘Public’ in Public-Private Partnerships
In a must-read piece for the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), Matt Lewis digs deeper into the network of cities and towns that employ D.C. transportation. He begins with a thought-provoking anecdote:
January 22, 2010
How Will Obama’s Sustainability Team Spend Its $150M? A Preview
Before the U.S. DOT gave some early clues as to how the agency would craft its new transit funding rules, deputy housing and urban development (HUD) secretary Ron Sims answered another question that's been on the minds of transit and local-planning wonks: How will the Obama administration's three-agency partnership for sustainable communities spend its $150 million in funding for this year?
January 21, 2010
U.S. DOT Previews How New Transit Rules Could Define ‘Livability’
When the Obama administration announced an ambitious revamp of transit funding rules to, as the Transportation Secretary put it, "take livability into account," urban planners and transit advocates alike were pleased -- but also uncertain.
January 21, 2010
Dodd and DeLauro Vow to Get Infrastructure Bank Done This Year
Supporters from every corner of the transportation universe joined Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) today at a press event aimed at jumpstarting a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), which the two Connecticut lawmakers vowed to steer to passage this year.
January 20, 2010