Transportation Policy

At a House transportation committee hearing today that marked the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration's economic recovery efforts, lawmakers offered praise for the stimulus law's impact on local infrastructure investments even as they hit upon three key areas of concern with its implementation.

The Obama administration today offered a one-page sample proposal to crack down on texting behind the wheel, aimed at helping guide states through the process of crafting their own distracted driving legislation.

To call Rep. Pete Sessions (TX), chairman of the House Republican campaign committee, a critic of the Obama administration's stimulus law would be putting it mildly. Sessions marked the one-year anniversary of the law's passage last week by labeling the stimulus a "massive spending binge" that only "allegedly" created jobs in his district.

With more than $56 billion in applications submitted for just $1.5 billion in available funding, the Obama administration's TIGER grants -- short for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery -- was one of the stimulus law's most hotly contested programs. So it's no surprise that the process resulted in its share of losers as well as winners.

The Obama administration today announced the winners of $1.5 billion stimulus in highly competitive stimulus grants under the program known as Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER. Southeastern and midwestern freight rail projects were the day's biggest winners, with urban streetcar projects also making a big splash.

Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are set to apply for federal disaster aid to offset the costs of cleanup from this month's record-breaking mid-Atlantic blizzards, according to the Washington Post reports today. But the so-called Snowpocalypse could dent more than just worker productivity -- already crunched transportation budgets are also on  the line.

As transportation reformers continue to wait for the Senate to join the House in offering a new federal transportation bill, Senate environment committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will hold a town hall meeting at the headquarters of L.A.'s Metro transit authority on Friday, February 19. 

(Chart: Oregon DOT) The prospect of an eventual move away from the gas tax and towards a fee on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has sparked consternation from some well-known bloggers this week, with Matt Yglesias asserting that “a VMT [tax] has no advantages whatsoever over higher gasoline taxes” and Andrew Samwick suggesting that declining fuel … Continued

Now that the Obama administration has awarded $8 billion in high-speed rail grants to more than two dozen states, with $2.5 billion more coming soon, why not keep thinking big when it comes to bullet-train expansion?