Transportation Funding

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and a key player in the federal transportation re-write, just released a statement hailing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s call for an 18-month extension of the existing transport law: I am very pleased that the White House is being proactive in working with the … Continued

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is asking Congress to extend the existing federal transportation law for 18 months, averting the coming insolvency of the nation's highway trust fund while putting off broad-based transport reform for as long as the Bush administration did in the days surrounding the 2004 election.

In a teleconference with reporters today, the presidents of three of BART's five unions accused BART management of not showing good faith in efforts to complete negotiations on a new 4-year contract by June 30th, the day the current contract expires. The unions claim that management talks a good game in public, assuring the press that union and non-union workers will share the pain of cutting $100 million in labor costs to drive down an expected $250 million deficit over four years, but that management expects union workers to shoulder more than proportional burden.

San Francisco complete streets advocates have an opportunity tomorrow to ensure that the city prioritizes bike route repairs and sidewalk enhancements if voters pass a proposed street safety and streetscape improvement bond measure this November.

House and Senate negotiators struck a deal last night on a $106 billion war spending bill that also gives cash-strapped transit agencies the ability to use 10 percent of their economic stimulus grants to pay operating costs.

The House and Senate are racing to reach agreement on a $90 billion bill to keep the Iraq and Afghanistan wars funded, but the legislation also could mark a pivotal victory for transit.

To all but the most ardent transit wonks, the phrase "New Starts" sounds like a motivational tape sold on late-night TV. But those two words actually represent Washington's predominant mechanism to pay for major transit expansions -- everything from expanding an existing rail station to building a new bus line.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of San Francisco's famous "Freeway Revolt," car-free Board of Supes President David Chiu has introduced a resolution calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to reallocate funds for highway expansion and "prioritize investment in public transit maintenance."

MTA Director Malcolm Heinicke must have heard the recent calls from advocates like Tom Radulovich for the MTA Board to follow the charter and "diligently" seek out new sources of revenue, but his latest idea is raising quite a few eyebrows. At today's meeting, Heinicke, fresh from a trip to Chicago where he saw how some streets have honorary names, said he would like the MTA to explore offering "unobtrusive" corporate or individual sponsorships of street and cable cars.