All posts from the month of January 2009
Today’s Headlines — 01/30/09
January 30, 2009By Andrew Bielak
- The Wall Street Journal looks at Virginia’s stimulus-funded plans for highway construction.
- Transit ridership soars in the Twin Cities. (MSNBC)
- The Star-Tribune says the stimulus “provides an opportunity to get the nation’s transportation system back on track.”
- Senate Republicans offer varying opinions on the stimulus bill coming their way for a vote next week. (CNN)
- Former Mass. Governor and ardent transit backer Michael Dukakis talks to Wired about high-speed rail.
Economic Recovery Package Is First Step in Rebuilding 21st Century Infrastructure
January 29, 2009By Transportation for America
| Download this Release (.pdf) | ||
| Contact: David Goldberg 202-412-7930 david.goldberg@t4america.org Ben Grossman-Cohen 202-478-6185 bgrossman-cohen@mrss.com |
Washington — Shelley Poticha and Geoff Anderson, Co-Chairs for the Transportation for America campaign, today issued a statement in response to this evening’s vote on the House Economy Recovery and Revitalization Act:
“The passage of the Economy Recovery and Revitalization Act in the House of Representatives this evening marks a significant achievement for the new Congress. Transportation for America applauds the House’s efforts to bolster and stimulate America’s struggling economy, in part by shoring up our transportation system to meet our nation’s 21st Century needs.
Many provisions in the House bill serve to put Americans back to work and set the stage for the green energy future President Obama has repeatedly called for. For example, the bill includes $12 billion in funding for public transit including $2.5 billion to build new capital transit projects introduced as an amendment by Reps. Nadler (NY), DeFazio (OR), Lipinski (IL), McMahon (NY), Ellison (MN) and Perlmutter (CO) today, and supported by House leadership, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA). This emergency funding could not come at a better time for transit agencies facing unprecedented challenges — including record number ridership as well as budget cuts — during this economic downturn, and will go a long way to creating jobs and stimulating the economy.
We also applaud the groundbreaking transparency measures included in the House bill that will ensure recovery funds are properly monitored for fraud and conflicts of interest.
As the economic recovery negotiations move to the Senate, there are several remaining challenges left unanswered by the House that the Senate must address in their version of the bill. This includes adding criteria to ensure road and highway funding is prioritized for fixing our crumbling infrastructure. Without explicit language prioritizing a fix-it-first approach to infrastructure investment written into the legislation, federal funds could be wasted by adding new highways to a system already fraught with repair needs, and we will simply be digging ourselves a deeper hole of oil dependence even as investments elsewhere in the bill seek a way out.
Transportation for America calls on leaders in the Senate to increase funding for transit to the $12 billion passed by the House of Representatives and to ensure that strong accountability provisions for how transportation funds are used are included in their version of the bill.”
Today’s Headlines — 01/29/09
January 29, 2009By Andrew Bielak
- The stimulus passes through the House along partisan lines, with Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s amendment for $3 billion extra in transit funding earning widespread support. (Wall Street Journal)
- Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. transportation officials look at what could be coming their way through the stimulus. (Washington Post)
- Transportation infrastructure gets $42 billion in the House stimulus bill. (Boston Globe)
- Gas prices creep up across the U.S. (Forbes)
Nadler amendment passes overwhelmingly
January 28, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
Updated: With quotes from speakers
Rep. Nadler’s amendment passed, adding $3 billion to the transit funding in the House stimulus package this afternoon.
On C-SPAN at least, it was hard to hear any “nays” on the voice vote. Nearly everyone spoke in favor of the amendment, and it passed with only a voice vote. No roll call required.
There was strong support from Appropriations Chairman Obey, Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Oberstar, and moral support from the only opponent.
The only opposition was from Jerry Lewis: “If there were an offset, this is an amendment I could very much support.”
John Mica, the ranking Republican on the T&I Committee said, “the Nadler amendment is one we have to support. … What’s most offensive is they [the appropriations committee] took one of the most important parts out for rail and transit, actually cut it down. Let me tell you, that’s just a little bit of money. … Folks, this is about creating jobs, and every billion dollars we put in is 28,000 to 35,000 jobs.”
Rep. DeFazio, who co-sponsored the amendment and offered an amendment that would have extended operating assistance to transit agencies had this to say: “We’ve had the greatest one-year increase in riders in 50 years. Transit agencies have $160 billion in deferred maintenance. 12,000 buses … need to be replaced. Transit agencies have 10,000 options for buses made in America that can’t be executed.”
Several speakers mentioned the need for emergency operating assistance without saying it directly.
Thank you to everyone who called and weighed in on this amendment with your Reps. From everything that we heard from sources on the Hill and with leadership, our broad base of support and the many calls and meetings made a difference in getting this amendment to the floor and garnering the support of House leadership.
It’s not over yet, with the vote on the stimulus package yet to come, but this was a big victory.
Photo of Rep. Jerrold Nadler from America2050.org
Today’s Headlines — 01/28/09
January 28, 2009By Andrew Bielak
- The New York Times‘ David Leonhardt looks at a few of the weaknesses in the stimulus bill, including the lack of operating assistance for the nation’s beleaguered transit agencies.
- The U.S. House readies for a vote on the stimulus package and a potential $3 billion boost for mass transit. (Washington Post and Streetsblog)
- The recovery plan is still weak on public transportation. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
- Top Obama adviser Lawrence Summers clashes with supporters of infrastructure investments. (The Takeaway)
The Inauguration: A shining moment for public transportation
January 28, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
If you were watching television last Tuesday, you saw at least two historic things happen, but there’s a chance that the lesser of them escaped your notice.
What you might have missed was the fact that Washington, D.C. also managed to quadruple the number of people who travel into the city on a typical day — from 400,000 to 1.8 million — without breaking out into total chaos. And that number was quadrupled at on the same day that they closed all Potomac River bridges and banned private vehicles from a large area around the Mall and parade route.
The star performer of the day? What the Washington Post‘s Dr. Gridlock calls “the Washington region’s biggest transportation asset: The Metrorail system.”
By many accounts, it was the largest public gathering in city’s history. And for certain, it was the highest rail ridership day that Metro has ever had in its history. It wasn’t even close. The previous record, actually set just the day before at 866,681 trips, was completely obliterated with a total of 1,120,000 riders on Inauguration Day. There were problems with stations getting closed at times due to crowding, and definitely some packed platforms, but on the whole, Metro stood up to numbers far higher than anyone had ever seen before.
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| Even President Obama got there on public transportation |
The Post’s Dr. Gridlock wrote a four part post-mortem on “How It Worked,” and his general conclusion? Thousands biked, even more walked, roads and bridges were closed to cars, and embraced the superior carrying capacity of Metro.
Local blog Greater Greater Washington points to last Tuesday’s success as a blueprint for the future of a growing Washington, DC region:
If our region is to grow, we need to help more people reach their jobs. One approach is to add traffic lanes and parking garages at enormous cost, both financial and in lost urban vitality. The other solution is to move people as we did on Tuesday. More people rode the trains. Each vehicle coming into the downtown core carried far more people. Over 2,000 people used WABA’s bike valet. And many more people started their days within walking distance of downtown. Those houseguests raised our population density enormously, enriching our neighborhood businesses besides.
To follow that up, read what Ryan Avent points out about Metro’s ridership these days, especially in light of the city’s population continuing to grow.
And now, of the top 20 ridership days, one was in 2004 (Reagan’s funeral), one in 2007, 16 were last year, and two have already happened this year. And the metropolitan population continues to grow. One might think that WMATA and the District would work to enhance core service, by planning a new core line and by adding streetcar capacity to help with the intracity load.
So what’s the status of expanding and building upon “the region’s greatest transportation asset?” If you’ve seen the transit cuts map, you might already know the answer: Cutting nearly 900 jobs and cutting $73 million in service. That operating assistance sure would have been useful to keeping the economic backbone of the region functioning.
Photos by Steve Davis
Support Rep. Nadler’s amendment on transit funding
January 27, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
UPDATED: It passed! Thanks for all of your efforts and calls made. It passed with a voice vote and nearly zero vocal opposition. Find out more here.
After a flurry of activity over the last two days, the amendment offered by Rep. Jerrold Nadler to add $3 billion to the transit funding in the House Economy Recovery and Revitalization Act has cleared the Rules Committee and will reach the floor for a vote, possibly as early as Wednesday at noon.
Click for information on making a call
Thanks to everyone who has helped thus far, either by calling on behalf of DeFazio’s (withdrawn) amendment or calling House leadership.
But it’s not over yet. This is our last best chance to change the substance of the stimulus package in the House.
Now that it has made it to the floor, we need votes! We are asking all of you to call your Representatives and urge them to support this amendment that will add desperately needed funds to the transit portion of the House recovery package. The window is potentially very short, with only a few hours for action!
Tell your Reps to support the amendment offered by U.S. Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Peter DeFazio (D- OR), Dan Lipinski (D-IL), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Michael McMahon (D-NY) to increase transit capital funding. Specifically, the amendment would provide $1.5 billion in funding for transit capital improvement program and $1.5 billion for the New Starts Program, raising the total funding level for transit and rail in the recovery bill to $12 billion.
In the poll released a few weeks ago by Transportation For America and the National Association of Realtors, fully 80% of respondents said that stimulus funds should not only create jobs, but also help us meet the goals of reducing oil dependence, improving the environment and increasing transportation options. Now is the time to increase much needed funding for public transportation.
Transportation For America has identified more than $5 billion in new transit extension and rail projects that could be ready to go in 120 days, generating over 178,000 new jobs. These investments could put people to work building and operating rail cars and bus vehicles, in the steel and concrete industries and in design and planning professions.
You can also use these talking points from the National Association of City Transportation Officials, via Streetsblog:
Transit is the future of our nation’s metropolitan regions which represent 80% of the US population. Public transit ridership has been surging over the last year, but instead of capitalizing on the public demand for more and better transit, cities are being forced to curtail service and cut jobs.
These modest adjustments will result in far-reaching impact on mobility, pollution reduction, and economic stimulation in metropolitan regions.
Discuss the transit need in your city and the fact that federal resources for transit can absolutely be spent within the timeframes set out by the bill.
Click for information on making a call
(Image from Metro Transit. Thanks to SOTA for sending it in.)
Update to the Transit Cuts map; 51 systems covered
January 27, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
We knew when we put it together that our list of transit agencies facing fiscal crises was not going to be exhaustive. And as soon as it went live, we heard from a number of you with information on other systems that we either didn’t know about or couldn’t find information on.
So thanks to Hugh, Richard, Jef, Randy, and Jeff, we now have 51 systems covered in the map, representing ovevr 20 million daily trips by everyday Americans. If you embedded the map in your site, then it has automatically been updated with the 14 new systems.
Cities Added: Eugene, OR; Cincinatti, OH; Augusta, GA; Clark County (Vancouver), WA; Carbon County, PA; Binghamton, NY; Orlando, FL; Olympia , WA; San Francisco-San Jose-Gilroy, CA (Caltrain); San Mateo, CA; Monterrey, CA; Hollister, CA; Orange County, CA; Western Contra Costa County, CA
I’m sure there are yet more out there we’re unaware of, so if they’re facing cuts of any kind in your area, send information in to us. You can mail information to photos [at] t4america [dot] org. If you have a source you can point us to, then all the better.
Another nifty thing we wanted to point out is that you can use a Google map from the Gov Track system to overlay Congressional districts over the transit cuts. Keep in mind that the pin placements are not exact, but you can use this to see which Representatives should unquestionably be fighting for more transit funding in the House bill.
First click on the map link for our Transit Cuts map and then “Save to My Maps” in Google. Then click on this map link from Gov Track and do the same. Check both boxes and you’ll see a picture something like this at right:
More information at http://t4america.org/transitcuts
Yellow = Service Cuts Green = Fare Increases Purple = Service Cuts and Fare Increases Red = Service Cuts and Job Losses Turquoise = Fare Increases and Job Losses $$ = Service Cuts, Job Losses, and Fare Increases.
Update on Rep. DeFazio’s amendment for transit assistance
January 26, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
We received word this afternoon that Rep. DeFazio’s amendment that would have provided $2 billion in assistance to transit agencies was required to be withdrawn. We’ll post more as we learn it, but had something to do with parliamentary issues.
If you called Rep. Slaughter on the Rules Committee today, we thank you very much for your support and effort to get that crucial funding included in the economic recovery package. (And we point out that calls to her should no longer be made.)
The facts haven’t changed on what could be ahead for the millions of Americans who depend on public transportation to get to work each day.
Transit systems all across the country are facing budget shortfalls due to the economic climate. And while ridership is at some of its highest levels of all time, transit agencies are facing job cuts, fare increases, and service reductions. The everyday Americans who make up the 20 million combined trips on the 38 systems we profiled today will be the ones who bear the brunt of the cutbacks.
The assistance for transit agencies certainly should not have been cut out in the first place. But without that funding, the message on the stimulus is clear: We can find the money to bail out financial institutions that were mismanaged or corrupt in some cases, but we don’t have the money for transit riders who are merely victims of a tanking economy.
While we’re disappointed that the amendment was withdrawn, we’re still urging everyone to call in support of Rep. Nadler’s (D-NY) amendment that would add $3 billion to the transit funding in the recovery package. That would bring the transit amount up to the level in Rep. Oberstar’s previous proposal. Amendments will be determined by Wednesday, so act now.
You can still find out more information on the Transit Cuts page.
Peter Newman “Resilient Cities” Book Launch
January 26, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
Transportation For America, Smart Growth America and Island Press invite you to attend the launch of a new book by Australian urban planning expert Peter Newman. “Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change” is the newest book by Newman, the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Australia, and one of the most ground-breaking researchers and thought leaders on transportation and smart growth around today.
Prof. Newman is now working closely with the Australian government on environmental planning, helping the government to examine the future of their country in light of high energy prices and the impacts of climate change.
Resilient Cities discusses how cities can be made to be more independent and resilient by offering increased access to local food sources and alternative energy, creating stronger community ties and closer links with nature.
Transportation For America communications director David Goldberg cited some of Peter Newman’s latest research recently in a post on Worldchanging entitled “Is the Old Economy of Car Dependence Over?”
When the financial meltdown has cooled, lenders regain their intestinal fortitude and home-building fires up again, will most of the new housing follow the late 20th century pattern and pop up in car-dependent exurbs? Or will cities and their suburbs start filling in around newly-built public transit systems and take the form of walkable, less car-dependent neighborhoods?
The Australian government, apparently, is betting on the former, but new research from one of that country’s leading institutions pegs it as a losing proposition.
Car-dependent development on the urban fringe requires taxpayers to spend astronomical sums on spread-out infrastructure, even as it exacts a toll on the air, land and planetary climate. All in all, the costs are double those of more walkable neighborhoods closer to jobs and services, according to Curtin University’s Professor Peter Newman.
For those of you in DC, join us Tuesday night at the German Marshall Fund near Dupont Circle to meet the author and hear a little more about his work
RSVP’s are requested with the info above.
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May 10, 2012 - Graphic: A closer look at the Senate MAP-21 vote by state
March 27, 2012 - Fixing the House bill: Cutting regulatory burdens and bureaucracy
March 15, 2012 - Fixing the House bill: reducing air pollution by providing more travel options
March 13, 2012
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