Transportation Policy
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GOP Senators Protest Evaluating the Climate Impacts of Transport Projects
The 40-year-old National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA),
which requires the federal government to evaluate the environmental
consequences of future projects, is a valuable tool for local residents
and green groups that work to defeat highway expansions -- but as Streetsblog L.A. noted earlier this year, NEPA can be an equally valuable tool for opponents of clean transportation projects.
October 26, 2009
Senate Signals 6-Month Delay for Transport Bill — But Will the House Agree?
The Senate is leaning towards abandoning the Obama administration's
push for an 18-month delay of the next long-term transportation bill
and now plans to pursue a six-month extension of existing federal
infrastructure law, according to a report from CQ this afternoon:
October 23, 2009
Seeking Stimulus Money For Bike Sharing, D.C. Looks Beyond Cutting CO2
The Transportation Planning Board (TPB), the Washington D.C. area's metropolitan planning organization (MPO), recently made a pitch to the U.S. DOT for a share of the economic stimulus law's $1.5 billion in innovative transport grants. Among the suggested projects was $13 million for bike sharing, enough to expand the D.C. program into a regional network that would use wi-fi internet to guide travelers.
October 22, 2009
The Top 10 States for Energy Efficiency — And Some Surprising Achievers
As Congress continues to debate climate change legislation that
would include energy efficiency measures, states are already making
progress in reducing the consumption of vehicles, utilities, and other
fuel users.
October 21, 2009
The Political Climate That Makes Transportation Reform Run
When House transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) recently accused his colleagues of lacking the “political will” to pursue long-term reform of infrastructure policy, he wasn’t simply employing a D.C. rhetorical flourish. To understand what Oberstar meant, let’s travel to Berlin for a moment. A German-made high-speed rail car. (Photo: Spiegel) Colby Itkowitz, CQ’s crack … Continued
October 20, 2009
Transport Debate Still Stalled As Oberstar Decries ‘Lack of Political Will’
Halfway through the extra month
that Congress gave itself to resolve a long-simmering dispute over
funding the nation's transportation system, Democratic leaders remain
deadlocked over whether -- and how long -- to wait before debating a
broad reform of federal infrastructure policy.
October 16, 2009
What Washington Can Do For — And Alongside — Metro Area Planners
At one point midway through yesterday's Brookings Institution forum on metropolitan planning, moderator Chris Leinberger
quipped that Portland was deliberately not represented. It's not that
Portland isn't a model of sustainability, he explained, but that "we
all have Portland fatigue" -- that urban policy thinkers are eager to
expand the models of local development beyond Oregon.
October 14, 2009
Obama Ally Breaks With White House on Timing of New Transport Bill
Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), the No. 2 Democratic leader in the upper
chamber of Congress and a close ally of the president, broke with the
White House yesterday and called for a new long-term transportation
bill to pass by early next year -- not after the Obama administration's
preferred 18-month delay.
October 13, 2009
Bush DOT Chief Urges More Transport Tech Funding
Former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters,
who served for eight years in George W. Bush's DOT, sat down with
Streetsblog Capitol Hill this week to urge that Congress add a
dedicated funding stream of $1 billion each year for transportation
technology to the next long-term infrastructure bill.
October 9, 2009