All posts from the month of June 2010
Today’s Headlines – 6/30/10
June 30, 2010By Transportation for America
Millions in transit earmarks from the current SAFETEA-LU transportation law remain unspent. (SacBee)
With the trickle of recovery act spending slowing and low prospects for another infusion, many worry about a double-dip recession. (LA Times)
The Washington Post profiles Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has turned a low-profile department into a clearinghouse for activity and reform. (WP)
LaHood took to his blog to discuss how livability fits with the mission of AARP and quality of life for older Americans. (DOT Blog)
Even a scaled-back climate bill would still induce clean energy innovation. (TNR)
And, the L train in New York City, which stops in Brooklyn and elsewhere, is a disproportionate source of Craigslist Missed Connections. (City Room)
Today’s Headlines – 6/29/10
June 29, 2010By Transportation for America
California will receive $2.3 billion high-speed rail funding from the Obama administration. (Oakland Tribune)
Washington state received $1.3 million in federal recovery act funds for electric vehicle charging stations. (BizJournal)
With an $800 million deficit, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is selling millions in bonds and cutting more subway lines. (BusinessWeek)
The continuing cuts have led to confusion and fewer options for New York City commuters. (NY Times)
And, transportation issues and the future of the proposed Purple Line in Maryland are prominent in the state’s gubernatorial race. (WJZ)
Secretary LaHood, members of Congress celebrate Pennsylvania Avenue’s new bike lanes
June 28, 2010By Sean Barry
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| LaHood with Mayor Fenty, DDOT Director Gabe Klein and Reps. Blumenauer and Oberstar. Photo courtesy of USDOT. |
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has made a point of championing bicycling as a legitimate travel option everywhere, but he is also keeping an eye on his own backyard, including Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. LaHood joined DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, city staff and members of Congress in inaugurating the new dedicated bike lanes on what is known to some as “America’s Main Street.”
According to the Washington Post, the new lanes are part of a pilot program on streets expected to be able to accommodate both significant automobile and bicycle traffic. They run along Pennsylvania between Third Street and 15th Street in DC’s Northwest quadrant.
One of the most important people to attend the event, held last Wednesday, June 23, was among the least known: DC Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein. Although local bicycling advocates had differing opinions on how to construct the Pennsylvania Avenue lanes, no one can dispute that Klein has been a visionary in making DC more livable and accessible by all kinds of transit options. Klein and his staff at DDOT, many of whom attended themselves, deserve a lot of credit.
Here is LaHood on his blog, describing two bike boosters in Congress who attended the inauguration.
We should also thank two of our nation’s most effective bicycling advocates, Rep. Blumenauer and Rep. Jim Oberstar, Chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, both of whom joined us in yesterday’s heat to celebrate these new lanes–in their work shirts and ties, along with helmets, gloves, and ankle straps to keep their pants out of their bike chains.
In his remarks, Rep. Blumenauer made a terrific point, reminding motorists that, “A bike is really a driver’s best friend. Because every bike you see cruising down one of these lanes is one less car to compete with in traffic, one less bit of congestion, one less driver buying fuel.”
But it was Rep. Oberstar who may have had the best line of the day: “Bicyclists aren’t burning hydrocarbons; we’re burning carbohydrates!”
Today’s Headlines – 6/25/10
June 25, 2010By Transportation for America
Heath hazards could be another aftermath of the Gulf oil spill. (NRDC Blog)
BP is moving ahead with a controversial drilling project three miles off the coast of Alaska. (NY Times)
DC Metro fares will go up this weekend, with an 18 percent increase for rail and 20 percent percent for buses. (WP)
A key California legislator wants members of the state’s high-speed rail authority to be banned from serving on local transit boards simultaneously. (LA Times)
And, St. Louis’ mayor signed a “complete streets bill” with promises to make the city friendlier for biking and walking. (Times-Dispatch)
Transportation for America proposal creates more jobs than current transportation law, Economic Policy Institute finds
June 24, 2010By Sean Barry
What if we could re-design our nation’s transportation policy to increase travel options, reduce oil dependency and create more jobs? According to an Economic Policy Institute study, we could do just that if Congress adopts Transportation for America’s proposal for the next surface transportation law.
The economy is showing some signs of growth, but that’s little encouragement for the millions of Americans without a job – the unemployment rate nationwide is still a notch below 10 percent. It is difficult to see how America’s economy can grow and recover without sustained job creation.
EPI ran the numbers and found that T4 America’s proposed $500 billion transportation bill would support 400,000 more jobs than would be created by continuing SAFETEA-LU, the existing transportation law, at that same $500 billion level. The T4 America proposal would support more than 7.2 million jobs.
T4 America’s proposal is an effective and swift job creator because it calls for investment in some of the more labor-intensive areas of transportation, such as repair and maintenance of existing infrastructure and public transportation, all reliable job creators. Many highway expansion projects take longer to move because they require permits and spend a larger percentage of funds on land acquisition rather than labor. As a result, many of these projects also end up employing less people.
Adopting T4’s plan would give a leg up to the Americans hardest hit by the economic downturn, especially low-wage workers and Americans who did not go to college. In fact, 80 percent of the new jobs created would be filled by Americans without a four-year degree. And the proposal is also a good deal for the working men and women of organized labor – 15 percent of the jobs created would be union jobs, compared to just 12 percent of the jobs in the overall economy.
And these are not just jobs for jobs sake – T4’s plan puts people to work building the transportation system we need for the 21st century, an all-of-the-above approach that rebuilds and maintains roads and bridges, expands travel options, implements real accountability for how we spend precious taxpayer dollars and ensures America’s small towns and rural areas take part in our economic recovery as well.
We need strong infrastructure to achieve steady growth and opportunity in the decades to come.
The ability of T4 America’s proposal to create good-paying jobs and promote economic growth has won our coalition broad support. Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, a T4 partner, praised the proposal as “an important and timely message for Congress” and “critical to economic development not only in metro Atlanta but across the country.” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa says the kind of investment in clean transportation advocated by T4 America “will create millions of good paying quality jobs and put our nation on a path to a lasting economic recovery.”
You can read the full report here, or check out T4 America’s release and fact sheet.
Economic Policy Institute: Transportation for America Proposal Would Create More Jobs Than Reauthorization of Current Law
June 24, 2010By Transportation for America
Study finds that T4America’s policies would support 400,000 more jobs
than continuation of SAFETEA-LU
As America continues to reel from sustained, high unemployment, a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that, with a smart investment strategy, authorization of a proposed $500 billion transportation measure could support more than 7.2 million jobs.
EPI examined the jobs impact of two investment scenarios: a continuation of current transportation law, known as SAFETEA-LU, and a package of investments proposed by Transportation for America that emphasized maintenance and retrofits of existing infrastructure and completing the transportation network with adequate public transportation, in addition to highway capacity. The analysts found that, given an investment of $500 billion under either scenario, the T4America proposal would yield 400,000 more jobs over the six-year life of the law, for a total of more than 7.2 million jobs.
“The T4America proposal creates more jobs in large part because it calls for investments in more labor-intensive sectors of the economy, including repair and maintenance of the existing transportation system and public transportation,” said Ethan Pollack, the principle author of the study.
The analysis also found that the T4America investment strategy would especially benefit those hardest hit by the recession, including low-wage workers and Americans without a college degree. About 80 percent of the new jobs created would be filled by Americans without a four-year degree. The proposal also would create jobs at a higher level of unionization (15 percent) than the overall economy (12 percent).
“This study shows why America needs a new direction in our transportation policy,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “Cleaner and smarter transportation investments will create millions of good paying quality jobs and put our nation on a path to a lasting economic recovery.”
The EPI study echoes the 2009 findings of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. That study showed that public transportation generates 31 percent more jobs than new construction of roads and bridges, and repair work on roads and bridges generates 16 percent more jobs than new road and bridge construction. While the T4America package includes ample funds for new highway capacity, the emphasis on maintaining existing infrastructure and on completing the transportation network with adequate transit produces more jobs than a continuation of current policy.
The T4America strategy would support more than 761,000 manufacturing jobs, helping to expand or revitalize a range of industries associated with transit vehicles and other technologies. Another study released today by Duke University and the Apollo Alliance found that the rail industry is poised for particularly strong growth. The study examined the U.S. manufacture of rail vehicles in intercity passenger, high speed, regional, metro, light rail and streetcars. It finds that the U.S. rail supply chain includes at least 247 manufacturing locations in 35 states. More robust investment in rail would especially benefit New York (with 31 rail manufacturing facilities), Illinois (23), Pennsylvania (26), California (22) and Ohio (13).
“Transportation for America has an important message for the nation: The right kind of transportation investment creates jobs,” said Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, a T4America coalition member. “The vision of complete transportation networks, connected cities and viable transit options is critical to economic development not only in metro Atlanta but across the country. This is an important and timely message for Congress.”
Central to the T4America proposal is an emphasis on repairing existing infrastructure and expanding public transportation options in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, provide well-maintained roads and bridges, convenient public transportation and safe places to walk and bicycle, boost our economy and keep Americans active and healthy.
Today’s Headlines – 6/24/10
June 24, 2010By Transportation for America
The Washington DC Metro board will vote Thursday on yet another round of fare increases. (WP)
While transit cuts are inconvenience for many Americans, they can be a disaster for the poor and often for minorities, writes Laura Barrett of the Transportation Equity Network. (HuffPost)
The Electrification Coalition is urging passage of the Electric Vehicle Development Act of 2010. (Wheels Blog)
Biking – and the availability of bike parking – are on the rise in Fort Worth, Texas. (Streetsblog)
And, a low revenue stream has forced Dallas transit to scale back, and left some scars in the process. (Morning-News)
Congressional Quarterly highlights Obama administration’s livability push
June 23, 2010By Sean Barry
Does it really require an “assault on the automobile” to begin to change the government polices that literally drove us into abject oil dependency?
That’s the underlying question in a fascinating cover story in Congressional Quarterly this week. Reporter Kathryn Wolfe looks at the challenges facing the Obama administration’s efforts to get three agencies – the EPA, HUD and US DOT — to link transportation policy with housing, environmental and economic development goals.
One of the aims of this three-agency “sustainability partnership,” though not the only one, is to rethink the policies that needlessly foster over-reliance on driving to live our daily lives. This could include, say, locating subsidized housing nowhere near public transportation; or building highways through city neighborhoods in a way that makes it all but impossible to walk or bicycle safely; or putting excessive clean-up requirements on centrally located industrial land so that it can never be redeveloped.
The efficiencies and smart planning the administration is trying to promote would be the correct thing to do under any circumstances. People today want and need a wide range of transportation and living options. Governments at all levels are strapped and can’t afford to make ill-considered, single-purpose investments.
But the tragedy in the Gulf and growing American anxiety over our intractable oil dependency make these initiatives imperative. Fully 70 percent of the oil we use is consumed for transportation. We need to provide more travel and living options, first to meet the demand that already exists for them, and second, to ensure that we’re not engineering ourselves into deeper dependency.
Defenders of the status quo, however, are perfectly happy with giving Americans one option, as the CQ article makes clear. The writer quotes representatives of what she calls the “highway lobby” and libertarian Randal O’Toole accusing the administration of trying to “make cities hostile for the 80 percent or so of people who are happy to rely on automobiles.”
Nonsense, Shelley Poticha, a senior adviser for sustainable communities at HUD, tells CQ.
“I think that it’s overblown, this whole notion that we’re going to just rip cars out of peoples’ garages,” Wolfe quotes Poticha as saying. “I don’t know how to say it more clearly. We’re going to give funding so that communities that are interested in updating their zoning codes can do that. Were not going to tell them how to do it or where to zone what. That’s a local decision.”
Even Brown University anthropologist and author Catherine Lutz, whose research found that “cars are the country’s favorite commodity,” conceded that most Americans want more choices. “There are a lot of people who would like to have more options, who would like to do more walking, who would like to have transit for certain trips,” Lutz told Wolfe, adding that “lot and lots of people who don’t want to give up their cars still want increased public transit.”
Also quoted in the article was Rob Puentes, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, who took on critics who have simultaneously complained about the lack of detail in Obama’s livability push, while insisting that the programs were aimed at “social engineering.” Right-wing columnist George Will, for instance, has referred to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican, as “secretary of behavior modification.”
“You can’t say it’s too vague and at the same time that the federal government is trying to dictate to people where they’re going to live and how they’re going to get around,” Puentes told Wolfe. “It can’t be both.”
The definition of insanity, Einstein said, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So, given that our 1956-vintage transportation policy has helped make so many of our neighborhoods completely dependent on driving, which in turn creates the oil dependency we are bemoaning today, one would think proposing a new direction would be regarded as, well – sane. Kudos to CQ for bringing these issues to the forefront.
Today’s Headlines – 6/23/10
June 23, 2010By Transportation for America
Two members of the DC Metro board of directors called on Virginia to maintain its funding pledge. (WP)
The Metro system is reflecting on a tragic train crash along the Red Line last year. (WP)
A top Republicans weighed in in favor of high-speed rail in America’s Northeast corridor. (Hill)
A writer urges urban environmentalists to say “yes in my backyard” when confronted with new development. (Mother Jones)
And, Portland’s mayor wants to see “20 minute complete neighborhoods” in his city. (Fast Company)
Today’s Headlines – 6/22/10
June 22, 2010By Transportation for America
Congressman Earl Blumenauer says transportation and how we build our communities ties directly to oil dependence. (StreetsblogDC)
If Congress does not pass climate legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency may use existing authority to act on its own. (TNR)
Deep cuts to the Sacramento transit system in California’s Capitol began yesterday. (SacBee)
Detroit is attempts to add new life by subtracting buildings. (NY Times)
And, a CEO explores how to pay for new infrastructure projects. (Infrastructurist)
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- Saving a transit system and turning the tide for the future of a mid-sized city
May 15, 2012 - U.S. communities step up, hoping a strong federal commitment to infrastructure will follow
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
- Saving a transit system and turning the tide for the future of a mid-sized city
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