Ford Foundation to Send $200M to Local Transit-Oriented Development
The Ford Foundation, created seven decades ago by a U.S. car industry
scion, notably diverged from its past today by announcing a new, $200
million grant program aimed at promoting the local integration of
transportation and land use planning and a movement beyond auto-based
development.
May 18, 2010
Behind the Transport Industry’s Lament About the Senate Climate Bill
While transport reform advocates hailed last week's long-awaited Senate
climate bill for
directing an estimated $6 billion-plus towards local land use
planning and green infrastructure, state DOTs and construction interests
criticized the legislation -- suggesting that the measure's sponsors
could face stiff resistance from the transportation industry's
mainstream despite making concessions to win over all sides.
May 17, 2010
Dems, Obama Pushing Back Against Car Dealers’ Consumer Loophole
Auto dealers lobbied
hard to win an exemption from the new consumer protection agency
created by Congress' pending financial reform bill, but their free pass
could fall by the wayside today as senior Democrats and President Obama
press for a crackdown on deceptive lending practices in all industries.
May 13, 2010
Specter of Gas Tax Lingers as Rendell, Villaraigosa Push Infrastructure Bank
Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
(D), two of the nation's best-known advocates for greater investment in
the built environment, today joined several House Democrats in calling
for federal action on a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) -- even as
questions about how the bank's scope, and Congress' resistance to
raising sustained new transport funding, continued to dog the debate.
May 13, 2010
U.S. DOT Proposes Giving Minority-Owned Firms Greater Shot at Contracts
Women- and minority-owned companies would have an easier time winning federal transportation contracts under a new rule released by the Obama administration today, which comes in the wake of complaints from social-equity advocates that such firms had received just 2 percent of infrastructure contracts awarded under last year’s economic stimulus law. (Photo: CA DOT) The … Continued
May 7, 2010
Arizona Nixes Speed-Limit Enforcement Cameras
In the latest in a series of high-profile conservative
moves, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's (R) administration has announced it
will stop using cameras to enforce speed limits on the state's highways
-- ending a program once billed as a boon to road safety that would also
help raise revenue.
May 7, 2010
LaHood Answers GOP Critic, Soothes Dem Skeptic of Sustainability Budget
As Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tangled with a senior GOP
senator today over the White House's $500
million-plus request for its inter-agency office of sustainable
communities -- a
new project aimed at channeling federal energy towards local
transit-oriented and smart growth plans -- an influential Democrat
joined her fellow senator in raising questions about diverting highway
money to the effort.
May 6, 2010
EPA Adopting ‘Fix-it-First’ Infrastructure Policy — For Water
Environmental groups have long called for a national "fix-it-first"
standard to apply to new transportation projects, requiring states
to focus on repair of existing infrastructure before constructing new
lane miles. The approach has caught on in several state capitals, but
not in Washington -- except when it comes to water infrastructure.
May 5, 2010
Expectations for High-Speed Rail Coming Down to Earth
Three months after the Obama administration announced
the first winners of what it hopes will be the first of many federal
grants to build U.S. high-speed rail networks, advocates and planners
are settling in for a long battle to surmount the obstacles and unknowns
that stand in the way of long-term bullet train development.
May 5, 2010
Senate Dems Unveil Auto Safety Legislation
Democrats are moving quickly on their plan to take a unified
approach to auto safety reforms in the aftermath of the Toyota
recalls, with Senate Commerce Committee members releasing a new bill
today that would quintuple the maximum existing penalties for carmakers
who -- like Toyota -- fail to promptly notify the public of defective
products.
May 5, 2010