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Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN), the House transportation committee chairman is set to brief reporters this afternoon on his $450 billion, six-year federal transportation bill -- which he plans to pursue regardless of the Obama administration's push for an 18-month extension of existing law.

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

Everyone knows spotting an SFPD officer on Muni is rare, but now the department thinks it has a way to provide some accountability and track the number of officers who are actually riding the transit system: Translink cards.

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.

First he was rumored to have been considered for a job in the Obama administration. Then, it was the executive director opening at the LA MTA, a position insiders say he was interviewed for but didn't get. And even now, despite a pledge he made in an interview with Streetsblog that his "career goal" is "to focus on the San Francisco MTA," rumors persist within the MTA and at City Hall that MTA Chief Nat Ford continues to look elsewhere.

Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will release a “white paper” on his plans for the upcoming federal reauthorization bill in a press conference on Wednesday. It’s important to note that the paper will serve as an outline — legislative language is expected to emerge later. (Streetsblog Capitol Hill’s bet … Continued

More than a month after it was promised, the MTA has released a memorandum of understanding (PDF) with the San Francisco Police Department, an agreement that will give the transit agency and its chief Nat Ford control over SFPD officers who are supposed to be patrolling Muni.

It appears a consensus is forming among local governments that building more livable and sustainable communities is an immediate priority. At a conference in San Francisco yesterday, elected officials from across the Bay Area, along with business, housing, development and transportation groups, called for a coordinated land use and transportation planning strategy to account for the nearly two million more people projected to live in the Bay Area by 2035.