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New Stimulus Data: Road Funds 77% Under Contract, Transit at 74%
By Elana Schor |
As of the end of February, nearly $5.4 billion of transit stimulus money, or 74 percent, was under contract for projects in the 50 states and D.C., according to a Streetsblog Capitol Hill analysis of data released today by the House transportation committee. (Photo: DMI Blog) The success rate of transit stimulus spending was slightly […]
White House and Congress Take Issue With AP’s Transport Stimulus Claims
By Elana Schor |
The Associated Press published a piece today that, after putting "economists and statisticians" to work on analyzing $21 billion in federal stimulus money for transportation, reached a volatile conclusion: (Photo: WBEZ) Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation, raising questions about Obama’s argument that more […]
Killing the Myth of the ‘More Shovel-Ready’ Road Stimulus, Part II
By Elana Schor |
It has become one of the most enduring anecdotes surrounding the Obama administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus law: Democrats’ contention that White House adviser Larry Summers sliced transit aid by more than half, to $8.4 billion, out of concerns that projects were not "shovel-ready" enough. (Photo: DMI Blog) Has Summers been vindicated by the data? […]
Report: States Used $6.6B in Stimulus Cash on New Roads, Not Repair
By Elana Schor |
Today is the deadline for state DOTs to allocate at least half of the transportation money they received under the economic stimulus law, and Smart Growth America marked the occasion with a study of what types of projects are getting that cash. North Carolina spent $5.7 million in stimulus cash repaving I-540, pictured above, along […]
Transit Jobs Nearly Twice as Cheap to Create as Roads — By Congress’ Math
By Elana Schor |
During the first stimulus debate, House Democrats and the White House famously sparred over how quickly infrastructure money could be spent — with the data later proving that transit was just as "shovel-ready" as roads, if not more so. (Photo: DMI Blog) Now that transportation policymakers have turned to stemming the rising unemployment rate, three […]
California Cities Need A Predictable Fund For Transit Operations
By Matthew Roth |
Photo by George Donnelly, via Flickr When the State Transit Assistance (STA) fund was zeroed out to pass the budget a couple of months ago, the already dire situation for transit operators in California became much worse. In the Bay Area, AC Transit raised fares, the MTA has been considering budget cuts and fare hikes, […]