All posts from the month of April 2009
Today’s Headlines — 04/30/09
April 30, 2009By Andrew Bielak
- A new documentary chronicles the role of smart growth and transit-oriented development in downtown Arlington, Virginia. (Washington Post)
- Obama’s new White House Office of Urban Policy could get little attention and exert little influence. (The Root)
- Stimulus projects are expected to help raise up the economy in the coming months. (Reuters)
Transportation Secretary affirms smart principles for US transportation system
April 29, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
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| National Bike Summit – Day two-8 Originally uploaded by BikePortland.org |
| DOT Secretary Ray LaHood speaks at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC |
“Livable and Sustainable Communities.”
Those four words might not be at the top of the list of what one would expect to hear from the person in charge of how the federal government spends our tax dollars on all forms of transportation — ports, railroads, highways, interstates, sidewalks, bike lanes and more — but that’s exactly what U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood named as a primary goal for DOT while testifying before a Senate Committee yesterday (ahead of T4 America.)
In his remarks, he made it clear that DOT and the Obama administration see the deep connections between where and how we spend transportation dollars and the quality of life for everyday Americans.
One of the clear issues with our national transportation program since 1991 is that it’s been like a huge ship without a rudder — spending billions each year without any clear goals or vision for exactly what those billions should accomplish for us. Economic development? More travel options for everyone? Making transportation affordable and safe for all Americans?
After talking at length about the many challenges facing America, Secretary LaHood made it clear that DOT will be governed by some very clear principles in the future, including better quality of life as a goal for transportation spending:
With these great challenges it is essential that our transportation policies be framed so that we can meet these demands and at the same time be consistent with the major goals I have established for guiding the actions of the Department of Transportation: economic recovery; safety; and livable and sustainable communities will be the key organizing themes as we in the Department reformulate existing policies and develop new policy directions for the future.
You can download his full remarks from the committee web site here, (.pdf) but continue reading for a few select quotes:
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Today’s Headlines — 04/29/09
April 29, 2009By Andrew Bielak
- Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes says privatization won’t solve all of America’s transportation problems. (Dallas Morning News)
- U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar puts on the pressure for a mileage-based driving tax. (Associated Press)
- New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority looks at laying off as many as 600 workers to close its budget deficit. (New York Daily News)
- Congress faces a tough timeline for crafting a new transportation bill. (Reuters)
- Transit use soars in Chicago. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Full testimony from today’s Commerce Committee hearing
April 28, 2009By Transportation for America
As we mentioned earlier this morning, T4 America campaign director James Corless was on Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. He was joined by T4 America member Anne Canby of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and a founding member of the One Rail Coalition. The full testimony is quite detailed, but if you want to read it in full or download it, you can do so below.
Continue reading to see the full prepared remarks of T4′s James Corless.
(Continue Reading)
Today’s Headlines — 4/28/09
April 28, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
- As unemployment rises and discretionary income shrinks, millions fewer Americans are driving. (Wall Street Journal)
- While it is sometimes difficult to get around by car, members of Tampa, Florida’s regional transportation authority are making it as easy as possible to talk about the new mass transit plan they have drafted. (St. Petersburg Times)
- After eight years largely on the sidelines of the international policy debate on climate change, the United States is prepared to lead negotiations toward a new global warming treaty. (New York Times)
T4 America to testify on Capitol Hill this afternoon
April 28, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
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| PlatformLaunch3 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America |
| T4 America Campaign Director James Corless at our platform launch back in February. |
Transportation for America will be on Capitol Hill today testifying before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation about “The Future of National Surface Transportation Policy.” You can stream it live on the Committee’s website.
Campaign director James Corless, along with Anne Canby of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and a founding member of T4 America, will be testifying this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. EDT.
We’ll post the full testimony from each speaker later this afternoon following the hearing. James will be discussing how our current transportation policy lacks a unified, coherent purpose — hampering our national prosperity and preventing us from addressing critical national issues like congestion relief, energy security, reducing emissions, and making transportation affordable for all Americans.
Transportation investments are our nation’s best tool to improve our economic competitiveness; reduce energy usage and curb greenhouse gas emissions; provide good paying green jobs; increase economic opportunity; and improve quality of life for all Americans. The upcoming rewrite of our federal transportation law represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop a new national transportation vision and leave behind a legacy for our children and grandchildren.
Unfortunately, our nation lacks a cohesive national surface transportation policy, and consequently, cannot adequately address many of our transportation challenges — let alone address other pressing national issues.
Check back later this afternoon for their full testimony if you’d like to read it, or watch it live.
Today’s Headlines — 4/24/09
April 24, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
- An ironic beginning to legislative efforts to tackle the nation’s transportation woes. (Associated Press)
- LaHood is the stimulus package’s biggest Republican fan. (Washington Post)
- DOT has the highest profile in decades — is this more to do with the times than with the new administration? (Politico)
- NY Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith has proposed a $1 surcharge on NYC taxi fares to help close the MTA’s budget gap, as well as to pay for highway and bridge improvements upstate. (Crain’s New York Business)
“A small group of committed individuals can and often do make a difference.”
April 24, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
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| Bus Ride 9_26_07 013 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America |
| Dr. Scott Crawford being told that he can’t ride a JATRAN bus because the lifts don’t work. (Please credit photos to Dr. Scott Crawford) |
Policy may get made here in Washington, but transportation, mobility and safety are truly local issues. The kinds of transportation investments that we’re pushing for aren’t luxuries — they’re essential necessities that enable Americans to get where they need to go, safely and affordably.
It’s high time that we made sure we invested in a transportation system that is safe and accessible for everyone.
So why is access to transportation choices and safe, complete streets so important?
Just a couple of months ago, Dr. Scott Crawford sent us this sobering story about a friend of his in a wheelchair who was struck and killed by the driver of an SUV while in the shoulder of a main highway in Jackson, Mississippi. With no options for a safer way to travel — broken lifts on buses and a lack of sidewalks on main streets — 66 year-old James Smith was riding in his motorized wheelchair in the shoulder of Medgar Evers Boulevard in Jackson.
A collision in the middle of the road resulted in the SUV rolling into the shoulder, where he was crushed underneath the vehicle. (No one was charged.) Dr. Crawford told WAPT that it was only a matter of time due to the conditions of the streets in Jackson.
“I feel very sad for his family. It breaks my heart to see older adults riding in the streets in wheelchairs because they have no alternative.”
Dr. Crawford has been a tireless advocate for complete streets in Jackson, as well as more funding and accessibility compliance for the transit agency there. You may remember his story about the broken bus wheelchair lifts, inadequate transit facilities, and how unsafe and inaccessible most of the thoroughfares are for the handicapped or disabled in Jackson, Mississippi.
He told us in late 2008 that “they recently cut the budget for our transit system by 1.5 million dollars, and they are being sued by a consortium of people with disabilities for violations of civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (me being one of the plaintiffs).”
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| image004 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America |
| These are the 5 new paratransit buses that JATRAN ordered, in part due to Dr. Crawford’s efforts. (Please credit photos to Dr. Scott Crawford. |
But after several discouraging updates from Dr. Crawford, he sent us this development last week:
I figure you’re ready for some *GOOD* news from Jackson! The class action lawsuit I filed in Federal Court has started to result in some changes for the better: the city just bought 5 new paratransit buses for the JATRAN system, and they should be on the road this week. I’ve enclosed pictures if you are interested in posting them.
The suit is also pressuring the city to buy three new lift vans as “back-up” transportation should people like me be stranded by non-working lifts (but they have yet to arrive). The city also tells me (not yet in writing) that they will buy 13 new fixed route buses by November. It’s a start!
As he told us, “a small group of committed individuals can and often do make a difference.” So things are looking up in Jackson, right? They’ve got 5 new paratransit buses ready to hit the road and serve the estimated 16,000 citizens of Jackson who are physically disabled. Well, almost.
The new buses, while great, are yet to be put on the road due to insurance delays and inefficient paperwork.
Jackson is not alone, and it’s certainly not all their fault.
This is the current state of transit agencies in many of our smaller communities like Jackson. They are chronically underfunded and neglected by city or county governments. And more often than not, woefully ignored by State Departments of Transportation mostly concerned with using their federal transportation dollars to pour new asphalt and open new highways.
Public transportation and safe, complete streets are not just something for big, urban cities. And for people like James Smith and Dr. Scott Crawford in communities big and small, it’s a basic question of equity.
Do you have a story like Dr. Crawford’s you’d like to share? Send it to transitcuts@t4america.org
Rep. Oberstar stuck in traffic, misses release of report on public transportation
April 23, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
The Environmental Defense Fund held a news conference Thursday morning to release a new report profiling 10 innovative public transportation systems that are pushing beyond traditional ideas of transit, providing fast, clean and flexible service to help people get from A to B. Some special guests were invited, including transit supporter Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, who heads up the House committee responsible for writing the transportation bill this year.
So where was Rep. Oberstar when the press conference kicked off Thursday morning on Capitol Hill?
Stuck in gridlocked DC traffic, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Once the strong sense of irony subsided, EDF carried on with the release of the report that profiles 11 systems from coast to coast that are “Reinventing Transit” by thinking outside the box to implement innovative service that can keep Americans moving.
Rep. Oberstar offered his strong support for the report in absentia.
Reinventing Transit makes the case that reinventing the transportation bill to fund transit innovations in Minnesota and nationwide will deliver new jobs, new connections to jobs and economic development for communities of all sizes. Given our economic and environmental challenges, ‘business as usual’ transportation investments are not good enough. Reinventing Transit sets the standard for transit investments in the upcoming transportation bill to fuel America’s economic recovery.
Read more quotes from the guests and EDF in their press release.
Five of the systems profiled in detailed case studies have accompanying videos. The systems profiled span from coast to coast, and cities from small to large.
One system not profiled is Washington’s own Metro, which keeps thousands of cars off the road each day, keeping that infamous DC traffic from being even worse. And Metro does have several stops near the Capitol. :)
Thinking big: The Google Town Hall Meeting
April 23, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
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| Google Transit and T4 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America |
| Googlers Wayne Lin, left, and Jessica Wei hold a Transportation for America sign last week after the Google Town Hall Meeting. Jessica Wei works on Google Transit, the free service that integrates public transportation timetables and routes into their popular maps application. |
We want to amplify your voice, your vision for the future of transportation in America. So what should the future look like in your community? To help develop your community’s vision, we’re working to coordinate a series of town hall and house meetings all across the country.
And we want you to hold a meeting of your own.
One of the first stops on our cross-country town hall meeting tour was Google’s headquarters in California.
Last week, several of Google’s developers shared the latest in transit-tracking technology and real-time traffic mapping with our staff, and we got a chance to dig deep into the federal policy changes that could make our nation a more livable place for drivers, riders, and walkers.
Here’s a short summary of the meeting at Google from T4 Outreach Director Ilana Preuss:
Over the past year, I have spoken to many different crowds about transportation reform across the country. I asked people what they want to see from our federal government about transportation – what we fund and how we fund it.
But never before did I talk with an audience that said anything like this:
“Please figure out how to make transit authorities hand over their transit service information so that we can create a seamlessly integrated system of all transit services accessible through the web.“
And they know how to do it!
As I spoke with our crowd at the Google town hall, people offered their visions of our future transportation network. It’s clear that they were thinking big and visionary.
- A cell phone networked and safe ridesharing program for an entire region.
- A nation with increased access to transit service through more widespread service, but also through clear, thorough information shared about the services that already exist.
- Access to transit timetables and route information from all agencies nationwide so that developers like Google can make that data available to all users on their phone or web.
- An interstate rail highway that crisscrosses the nation, where the rails are publicly owned like our roads, and any company that has a train engine and car can use the system.
Every town hall meeting is a one-of-a kind. And Google certainly held true to that. Google staffers envisioned a future where every person with a cell phone or access to the web would be able to easily find a shared free ride or the fastest route with trains and buses to get to school, work or home.
So Google has had their say. What about your community?
We want to bring your voice, your vision for the future of transportation to Congress and President Obama. We want to tell them about the projects you want in your town, your goals for travel and living options, or your needs for getting employees and goods to your business.
To develop your community’s vision, hold a town hall or a simple house meeting in your community using a Transportation for America toolkit. Then, submit your community’s ideas to become part of the national vision for our new transportation in the 21st Century.
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