Today’s Headlines — 11/26/08
November 26, 2008By Andrew Bielak
- New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority implements a new system notifying riders about delays via text or email. (New York Times)
- Amtrak names the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration as its new chief executive. (Wall Street Journal)
- Cuts to California’s school bus programs have left only 14 percent of the state’s students riding the bus to school. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
- CNN looks at Obama’s plan to stimulate the economy with investment in infrastructure.
Worldchanging: Is ‘The Old Economy of Car Dependence’ Over?
November 25, 2008By Stephen Lee Davis
If you’re not reading Worldchanging on a regular basis, you’re definitely missing one of the most positive, encouraging, and exciting daily blasts of news from the world of sustainability and innovation. Alex Steffen and his team have been tirelessly working to point the way to a brighter future for America and the world that contrasts powerfully to the most dire predictions of energy shortages and global warming if we do nothing.
Sometimes when we’re so focused on innovation, there can be a blind trust in some mystery technology, not yet created, that will solve our energy problems. This is especially apparent with regard to our automotive fleet that will “one day soon” run on banana peels or solar power. Alex and Worldchanging, to their credit, have looked around and seen obvious, ready-to-go solutions to curb our energy thirst and cut emissions, while still getting us where we need to go, outlined in a wonderful essay from a year ago, entitled “My Other Car is a Bright Green City.”
We bring up Worldchanging also to point you to a short piece written by Transportation For America communications director David Goldberg on the connection between the current housing crisis and the old development model based on inexpensive fuel.
In truth, the phenomenon of sending people ever farther into the countryside to find houses that they (barely) qualified to purchase played no small role in the current global financial crisis. The epicenter of the U.S. foreclosure crisis can be found on the metro fringes. The buyers who stretched and took on variable-rate or interest-only mortgages, along with punishing commutes, to get into houses on the edge found themselves caught in a double bind.
As gas prices and commute costs rose, their “cheap” houses became ever more costly, even as mortgage payments adjusted along with rising interest rates. But when they went to sell, they found the bottom had dropped out of that market, thanks not only to higher gas prices, but also to demographic and cultural changes that were leading more households to look for homes in more convenient locations.
Read the full article at Worldchanging, and bookmark them for return visits. Our thanks to Alex and Worldchanging for the space.
Today’s Headlines — 11/25/08
November 25, 2008By Andrew Bielak
- The Washington Post looks at some of the contenders for transportation secretary in an Obama administration…
- …And the myriad challenges he or she will face.
- With fares climbing and service dropping for transit in NYC, The New York Times wonders just how much a subway ride should cost.
- A look at the best cities for cycling. (Bicycling Magazine)
- Democrats in Washington push for a stimulus package that could go as high as $700 billion. (Bloomberg)
Today’s Headlines — 11/24/08
November 24, 2008By Andrew Bielak
- San Francisco takes a closer look at congestion pricing. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- New York City considers raising car registration fees to cope with a looming budget deficit for transit. (New York Times)
- Looking ahead to a second economic stimulus, California sees the possibility for a major investment in hundreds of ready-to-go transportation projects. (San Jose Mercury News)
- Urban walkability gets a boost in a new report from NYC’s Department of Transportation. (New York Times)
- Obama pushes for a larger stimulus package that could save or create 2.5 million jobs. (New York Times)
- Bus riders in Baltimore fight plans to cut service. (Baltimore Sun)
Getting Results on Transportation
November 21, 2008By Andrew Bielak
With the ripple effects of our economic downturn putting state departments of transportation and local transit agencies in serious financial trouble, our federal government needs to make a firm commitment to investing in our crumbling infrastructure and providing Americans with affordable, efficient transportation options.
In an excellent article in this week’s New York Times, writer David Leonhardt reminds us that we can’t simply face these challenges by throwing billions of dollars at new highway construction projects without a coherent set of goals or a system for measuring gains. We need to look at what we’re getting with the money we already spend — and then ask ourselves why the results aren’t better.
A lack of adequate financing is part of the problem, without doubt. But the bigger problem has been an utter lack of seriousness in deciding how that money gets spent. And as long as we’re going to stimulate the economy by spending money on roads, bridges and the like, we may as well do it right.
It’s hard to exaggerate how scattershot the current system is. Government agencies usually don’t even have to do a rigorous analysis of a project or how it would affect traffic and the environment, relative to its cost and to the alternatives — before deciding whether to proceed. In one recent survey of local officials, almost 80 percent said they had based their decisions largely on politics, while fewer than 20 percent cited a project’s potential benefits.
Without accountability at the state, local, or federal level, rigorous data collection to prove results, or coherent national goals that articulate the purpose of our investments, it comes as little surprise that Americans are faced with endless traffic jams, overburdened mass transit systems, and rising costs of transportation.
As Rob Puentes, a transportation expert at Washington D.C. think tank The Brookings Institution, makes clear, the system is broken in part because we don’t think about what benefits our transportation program brings; we just “send a blank check and kind of hope for the best.”
Today’s Headlines — 11/21/08
November 21, 2008By Andrew Bielak
- New York City’s transit authority plans to combine drastic service cuts with big fare increases this Spring. (New York Times)
- Massachusetts political leaders argue over a gas-tax hike and other funding issues. (Boston Globe)
- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger attacks the state’s budget deficit by diverting $230 million from public transit. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Officials in San Diego County expect a four-percent drop in revenue from a transportation sales tax, putting the area’s transit agencies at risk for major cuts. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
- Democratic leaders in Congress postpone plans for a large economic stimulus package. (Wall Street Journal)
- Lawmakers give Detroit’s auto execs 12 days to come back with a better argument for getting a $25 billion loan. (New York Times)
- Crude oil drops below $50 a barrel and gasoline nears $2 a gallon on the heels of more bad news in the stock markets. (Wall Street Journal)
Americans overwhelmingly support new transportation investments
November 20, 2008By Stephen Lee Davis
The results of November’s Presidential election may have represented a change for our country, but at least one trend at the ballot box remained unchanged from the past few elections: Taxpayers across the country approved a bevy of ballot measures to expand public transportation, commuter rail, bike and pedestrian access, and other innovative transportation projects.
It’s perhaps most telling that even in a time of brutal economic crises and expensive gas, taxpayers voted for 14 initiatives that will raise their taxes. In short, we seem to be collectively tired of business-as-usual — more highways, all the time, resulting in only more congestion, with no coherent vision for world-class transportation in our cities and communities — and we are willing to pay out of our own pockets for solutions that can get us out of traffic and keep us moving. Hit the jump for the details.
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Today’s Headlines — 11/20/08
November 20, 2008By Andrew Bielak
- The DCCC chair says Obama’s stimulus package will likely reach $300 billion and invest heavily in infrastructure. (U.S. News and World Report)
- A regional consensus on the need for mass transit puts Detroit a step closer towards building a new commuter line. (Detroit News)
- Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sets the stage for a major economic stimulus and a commitment to green infrastructure and mass transit. (Wall Street Journal)
- A Boston Globe analysis of the Big Dig’s impact shows that traffic has been cut downtown — and pushed out from the city into its suburbs. (via Planetizen)
- Inadequate investment and poor use of funds undermine Georgia’s transportation system.
President-elect Obama responds to Transportation For America
November 19, 2008By Stephen Lee Davis
Before the last presidential debate Oct. 15, Transportation For America asked our supporters to sign a petition urging Sen. McCain and then Sen. Obama to tell us their plans for keeping America moving and creating new jobs by investing in our critical transportation system and infrastructure.
If you signed that petition, you sent the candidates this message:
America’s transportation system is half a century behind and the increasing costs of moving around – paid for in dollars at the pump and hours lost sitting on congested, crumbling roads – are taking a real toll on American families.
We need our next president to lead an initiative to invest in public transit, high-speed trains, places to bike and walk, and green innovation. We need a president with a plan that can put millions to work in jobs that can’t be outsourced, bring down the costs of travel, and create a sustainable infrastructure that will keep America on the cutting edge.
I hope you will take the opportunity presented by your final debate to discuss your plans to build a 21st Century transportation system.
More than 3,300 of you signed your names to that petition we delivered to the candidates just before that last crucial debate.
President-elect Barack Obama heard you and responded to the campaign with a two-page thank-you letter outlining his thoughts on transportation and infrastructure that we would like to share with you. Hit the jump to read the full letter:
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Today’s Headlines — 11/19/08
November 19, 2008By Andrew Bielak
- Declining gas tax revenues and slumping car sales could force Maryland to slice off $2.5 billion in transportation spending. (Washington Post)
- New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority looks to plug a $1.2 billion budget deficit with a 23 percent increase in fare and toll revenues and painful budget cuts. (New York Times)
- A new experimental parking policy in San Francisco will set prices according to supply and demand. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Voices calling for action on infrastructure in Washington grow louder. (Wall Street Journal)
- The New York Times looks past the issue of funding for our national transportation program, and asks an even more important question — what is our money being spent on?
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- T4 America co-chair testifies before Senate on rural transportation
March 18, 2010 - Atlanta-area transit system 14 days from shutting down, 2 million rides disappearing
March 17, 2010 - U.S. Transportation Department makes good on promise to ensure our streets are made safer
March 16, 2010 - Obama’s livability programs help rural America too
March 16, 2010 - Transit grants out the federal door, but what about the cuts?
March 8, 2010
- T4 America co-chair testifies before Senate on rural transportation
The United States of Transit Cutbacks
Driving is down and transit ridership is at record highs. Yet transit agencies across the country are considering layoffs, service cuts and fare hikes. Find out more and learn what you can do to help at t4america.org/transitcuts
Transportation: In your eyes
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