Polly Trottenberg Tapped for Senior U.S. DOT Spot
It's a happy Friday for transportation wonks: the White House has nominated Polly Trottenberg, executive director of Building America's Future, as assistant secretary for policy at the federal DOT.
May 29, 2009
Sotomayor’s Eminent Domain Stance: What Does It Mean for Cities?
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is dominating the conversation
in Washington as analysts begin to dig into her past rulings. And
while she has yet to weigh in on abortion, the judge has spoken loud
and clear on an issue of interest to livable streets advocates: eminent
domain.
May 29, 2009
Obama Keeps Roads Out of National Forests — For Now
Paved roads are a fact of life in most of the country, but should they
be permitted in the nation's protected forest areas? The Obama
administration says no, as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack affirmed
today in a directive that prohibits road construction in nearly 50 million acres of forest land.
May 28, 2009
Flashback: Obama Once Led Push for ‘Complete Streets’
With Congress out of town on its Memorial Day break, the nation's
capital is a quiet place to be -- but all of that will change next
week, as the appearance of the House transportation bill is expected to
kick off an intense battle to reshape federal policy on transit, bikes, roads and bridges.
May 28, 2009
Why Buy More Trains if You Can’t Afford to Run Them?
Down in balmy South Florida, D-Day is approaching for riders of the the
popular Tri-Rail transit system. A looming $18 million shortfall has
forced the Tri-Rail board to approve a budget that slices daily service and stops all trains by 2011 -- although ridership has doubled since 2005.
May 27, 2009
Infrastructure Bank Plan Gaining Attention and Momentum
In today's New York Times, columnist Bob Herbert
spotlights the congressional proposal for a National Infrastructure
Development Bank that would issue bonds, make loans and create
securities to help finance needed rebuilding projects around the
country. As Herbert put it:
May 26, 2009
LaHood: ‘About Everything We Do Around Here is Government Intrusion’
Ray LaHood is known for his disarming candor -- his recent admission
that he's not "that great a transportation person" being a case in
point -- and those qualities were on vivid display today as the
Transportation Secretary delivered an address to the National Press
Club.
May 21, 2009
Senator Takes Hybrid Hummer on a Semi-Wild Ride
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has a knack for puncturing Capitol Hill's bubble of obliviousness. His classics include the spotting of
Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer
(D-CA) leaving an event that protested high gas prices in an
18-miles-per-gallon car -- for the one-block trip back to her office.
May 21, 2009
Portland Congressman to George Will: Let’s Debate
Just when you thought George Will's pouty, ill-informed tirade against new Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was going to stand unchallenged, here comes Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).
May 20, 2009
Transportation ‘Expert’: Long Commutes Are a Status Symbol
Transportation consultant Alan Pisarski, author of the National Academies' Commuting In America series, has advised Washington policymakers on infrastructure development for decades. And judging from the presentation
I watched him deliver at the Heritage Foundation last week, he's
downright aghast at the prospect that the Obama administration could
begin shifting national policy away from total reliance on sprawl and
automobiles.
May 20, 2009