Senate Weighs $14B for Roads, $7.5B for Transit in Jobs Bill
Senate Democrats huddled behind closed doors this afternoon to assess
their options for a new job-creation bill, with one option of around
$80 billion making headlines even second-ranked leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) warned that no details are set in stone.
January 26, 2010
EPA Strengthens Nitrogen Dioxide Rules for First Time in 35 Years
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced
a new "one-hour standard" aimed at limiting Americans' short-term
exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant created by cars, power
plants, and other industrial sources.
January 25, 2010
In Texas, One Newspaper Laments the Highway Lanes Not Built
The Transportation Enhancements program, which requires states to set
aside 10 percent of their federal transport money for new bicycle and
pedestrian facilities, among other projects, turns 19 years old this
year. But you'd almost never know it after reading Saturday's Fort Worth
Star-Telegram, in which the paper
tallies -- with no shortage of alarm -- the federal money not being
spent on new roads.
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
What if America’s Urban Economies Were National Ones?
The U.S. Conference of Mayors released a
report this week with some dire conclusions for the nation's cities:
Even the payroll growth that many prognosticators anticipate this year
won't make a dent in double-digit urban unemployment. Half of the 363
biggest metro areas won't return to their pre-recession jobs levels
until 2013 or beyond.
January 21, 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 … Continued
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
rail fans alike were pleased -- but also uncertain.
January 21, 2010