Federal Policy

A half-century after the federal government instituted a national maximum speed, setting speed limits that keep all road users safe has become a political battleground.

No states will face penalties for building needless toxic road projects — but they also won't be able to hide those impacts from the public.

As he concludes his nearly 30-year career in Congress, Earl Blumenauer says America has never been better positioned to make a "quantum leap" towards bikeability.

Once again, transportation funds that could be used to repair streets, roads and bridges are instead diverted into costly, damaging highway expansion projects. Here's this year's list of the worst of the worst.

"We don’t want the infrastructure law to compound our geographic inequalities. We wanted it to be an equalizing moment," said James Anderson of Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The post How a New Program is Helping Small Cities Transform Their Transportation Systems appeared first on Streetsblog USA.

Here's what's on the chopping block — and why advocates are staying optimistic.

The post GOP Appropriations Bill Would Slash Transit Funding and Key Safety Policies appeared first on Streetsblog USA.

Despite a binding requirement to release an updated version more than a month ago, the Federal Highway Administration missed the deadline to release a new edition of America's federal street design guidelines. Advocates fear the delay will result in yet another green light for increasing traffic fatalities.

The post The MUTCD Update is Late — And While We Wait, People Are Dying appeared first on Streetsblog USA.

A poison pill buried within the new debt ceiling deal would "gut" key elements of the nation's bedrock environmental law in exchange for preventing a national default and could make it easier for highway-building agencies to expedite road projects that harm vulnerable communities for generations, advocates warn.

The future of interstate rail travel is in jeopardy if the White House caves to House Republican spending cuts as part of the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations, advocates say.