Officials in the San Francisco Bay Area want statewide transportation funding restored. (Chronicle)

There is a lot to like about a potential compromise on climate legislation, but where the revenue goes remains a key sticking point. (TNR)

Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, would “rather have my bill,” but is open to an alternative. (MotherJones)

Build America Bonds, meant to jump-start infrastructure projects, could be extended an additional 18 months. (BusinessWeek)

And, Transportation for America Director James Corless co-authored an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee today, making the case for a broad national transportation vision. (SacBee – subscription only)

Monday, we told you about a new bill in Congress from Rep. Earl Blumenauer that would help cities large and small begin to build complete active transportation networks, making it easier and more attractive to get around on foot or on bike, and most importantly, helping stem the tide of the 76,000 preventable pedestrian deaths over the last 15 years. We asked you to send a message to your Representative, and you didn’t disappoint, with thousands of messages going to offices representing districts from coast to coast.

Today, along with numerous other partners like Rails to Trails, League of American Bikers, America Bikes, and America Walks, we’re asking all of our supporters to make a phone call to your Representative to support this new bill — the Active Community Transportation Act.

With the National Bike Summit in town this week, more than 700 advocates for safe walking and biking are visiting the offices of their congressional delegations today, asking them to sponsor this bill and letting them know about all the benefits of making it easier to safely get around on foot or on bike. We want to back them up and have all of our voices heard loud and clear in the halls of Congress today.

So take just 2 minutes and call your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor this bill. It’s quick and easy.

Increasing the number of people who can safely walk or bike will reduce congestion, help cut emissions, keep Americans healthier and keep those people out there already walking and biking safe. Let your representative know that you think this bill is a great idea for your community, and for America.

DOT employees could be compensated for this month’s unexpected furlough days. (WP)

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the airline industry to “get on-board” with high-speed rail. (WSJ)

“Your street is fat,” one planner says of too many non-human-scaled Southern California roadways. (Grist)

And, in a reversal from previous legislation, a new House jobs bill is dominated by direct aid to America’s cities. (Streetsblog)

Stimulus-funded purchases of energy-efficient lighting products for roads required a suspension of “Buy American” rules. (NYT)

Despite clocking in as relatively dangerous for pedestrians, metro Atlanta still has some great places to walk. (Journal-Constitution)

Entrenched subsidies continue to tilt the scales in favor of sprawl over cities. (Globe)

Train agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area are expecting hundreds of millions of funding from a regional set-aside in California’s high-speed rail bond. (Mercury-News)

And, high-speed rail in Europe helped with social cohesion, a more difficult task in the vast United States. (Brookings Blog)

A reminder if you haven’t already, tell your Representative to support safer walking and biking by supporting the Active Community Transportation Act. We’re organizing a day of calls to Congress tomorrow, so check your email or follow us on Twitter for the details.

Federal investigators called for sweeping changing in a report on the safety of the Washington Metro system. (WP)

A national infrastructure bank would jump-start more projects, but put off the spending burden for a generation. (TransportPolitic)

Minority businesses are still receiving a disproportionately small share of federal stimulus contracts. (AP)

Paratransit riders would be hit the hardest by deep cuts in Sacramento. (News10)

And, a well-renowned expert on Detroit’s transit system died last week. (Detroit News)

In the last 15 years, 76,000 Americans have been killed while walking or simply crossing the street.

But help could be on the way. Rep. Earl Blumenauer introduced a bill last week to create a $2 billion competitive grant program to fund safe networks for biking and walking — giving states and cities the resources they need to start building projects they have waiting in the wings. This week, more than 700 bike advocates are descending on Capitol Hill to drum up strong support for the program while in D.C. for the National Bike Summit.

We need to back them up: Send a letter to your representative urging them to co-sponsor the Active Community Transportation Act (H.R. 4722).

This bill is a no-brainer. It will make America’s roadways safer, create jobs, reduce traffic congestion, cut emissions, and promote healthy living. It even pays for itself — as we make biking and walking safer and more accessible, we save billions of dollars on reduced healthcare, gasoline, and environmental costs.

And if we build it, they will come! Half of all trips taken in the United States could be accomplished with just a 20-minute bike ride, and a quarter are within a 20-minute walk. We need to make it safer and easier to make those trips on bike or foot. Polls have shown that Americans think their cities and communities should be more walkable.

Let’s get America back on its feet! Send a message to your representatives asking them to co-sponsor the Active Community Transportation Act.

Thanks to everyone who has already taken action today, retweeted the email alert, or posted it to Facebook to help us spread the word.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is (rightfully) touting the great news on his blog this morning that the Federal Transit Administration met their ambitious deadline for distributing 100% of the transit funds from the stimulus package. That’s great news, but it should be accompanied by the sobering reminder that these public transportation systems that get people to work each day largely couldn’t use that money to keep from having to cut service at a time when it’s needed the most.

The FTA has now doled out 881 grants totaling $7.5 billion since the stimulus was signed last year, and LaHood notes that these grants have funded the purchase of nearly 12,000 buses, vans and rail vehicles; construction or renovation of more than 850 transit facilities; and $620 million in preventive maintenance to keep systems running smoothly.

But what about the hundreds of agencies cutting back service, raising fares, or laying off workers — like the terrible story from Atlanta we chronicled last Friday, where 25-30% of all service may be history come June?

Unfortunately, the FTA’s hands were tied with the rules for the grants set by Congress, which meant that almost all of the money had to be used to purchase new equipment or perform maintenance, even if those agencies couldn’t afford to hire or train the new drivers to operate the buses or railcars. We say “most of the money,” because a group of lawmakers were able to successfully include a provision in a separate bill during the summer that made it possible for local transit agencies to spend up to 10% of their transit stimulus money on operations. But in many places like St. Louis, where the deficit was ten times the $4.6 million they could now spend on service, that’s not enough to keep from having to make drastic cuts or lay workers off, even while getting an influx of federal money.

With a full transportation bill likely months away, in the short term we need to urge the Senate to include money in any future jobs bills to help keep transit systems running.

With millions who depend on these systems each day to get to work, making sure that reliable transit service doesn’t disappear will help get them to their jobs quickly and conveniently each day, ensuring that many of them stay employed.

The stimulus bill has funded the purchase of nearly 12,000 buses, van and rail vehicles and the construction or renovation of more than 850 transit facilities. (DOT Blog)

New Jersey transit is likely to raise bus and train fares by a whopping 25 percent. (Star-Ledger)

Commuters in Charlotte, North Carolina could also face a 25 percent hike to stem service cuts. (Observer)

And, bicyclists should not just demand safety in Florida’s cities, but step up to make it happen. (Miami Herald)

Transit riders in Metro Atlanta will soon require a new system map to find their way because the current map is about to be ancient history, a document fit for use only by archivists and history buffs. Of course, this would only apply to those who still have a bus or train to wait for after MARTA goes through with massive cuts this year. This story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution was included in a few headline posts from the usual suspects earlier this week, including one of ours, but the desperate situation in Atlanta is worth a closer look.

Wrap your head around this number: MARTA is facing a budget deficit of $120 million, on an operating budget of $399.1 million, making their deficit nearly a full third of the operating budget.

As a result, the cuts the agency is forced to consider are downright shocking. More than half of Atlanta’s 131 bus routes could be cut entirely, and rail service will be cut severely. Wait times for a train could be as much as 30 minutes on weekends before 7 a.m. and after 9 p.m., and even rush-hour train intervals could be as much as 12 minutes. The AJC pegs the cuts as approximately 25-30 percent of all service.

While the loss of routes or the inconvenience of long waits and increased transfers will result in some riders going back to their cars or finding other options, what about the thousands who depend on MARTA as their transportation lifeline to reach work, get to the doctor or pick up their kids at school? The “lucky” ones might have an alternative, a longer wait or less convenience. But too many riders will be left completely stranded, unable to get to important destinations as routes disappear entirely in the South’s biggest metro and the economic core of the state.

The popular refrain among some Atlantans is that MARTA is a bloated bureaucracy that wastes money. The truth is far different. MARTA enjoys the lowest cost per-mile of passenger rail service for any heavy rail system in the United States, and survives on a penny sales tax from two counties, with no dedicated funding stream from the State of Georgia. They are the largest transit agency with no such dedicated funding source in the country.

This year’s situation was narrowly avoided last year when the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the region, found a way to transfer $25 million in last year’s stimulus funds to MARTA. In return the agency spent $25 million of capital funds on infrastructure improvements around their stations like better sidewalks, crosswalks, and other vital bike and pedestrian improvements to improve access.

The creative deal with the ARC was necessary because by a curious — and old — piece of state law, MARTA has to evenly split their tax revenues between operations and capital funds (they have a capital budget of $388 million this year), meaning they aren’t even able to set their own operating budget.

The Georgia State Senate passed a bill that would have removed that rule, allowing MARTA the flexibility to set their own operations and capital budgets. This would have enabled the agencyto basically plug budget holes with a share of (formerly) capital funds — never an ideal situation, but one that would have staved off dramatic fare increases and wholesale cancellation of service. Unfortunately for Atlantans, that bill died in the Georgia State House on the last day of the legislative session, leaving many upset and frustrated at the State’s failure to act.

Even with the funds from the ARC, MARTA had to raise their base fare $0.25, and weren’t able to restore all of the service that had been proposed for cuts, though they did avoid the drastic step of closing down service entirely one day a week.

MARTA Board Chairman Michael Walls pointed out that this was no permanent solution to the crisis, noting “this is a one-time infusion of funds” in a MARTA press release. “We are facing increasing deficits in the coming fiscal years. It is imperative that we identify a permanent, dedicated source of funding for transit as soon as possible in order to avoid more drastic cuts in the future,” he said.

That future has become the present, so what will the State do this time? Will they remove the barrier that prevents MARTA from making their own budget? At a broader level, what help will the federal government provide for the hundreds of other transit agencies facing this same crisis? Will they turn their back on the millions who depend on public transportation each day?

Want to do something? Here are three things you can do:

1. Tell Senator Harry Reid to include funding for keeping transit systems running in the next round of jobs-creation legislation he’s planning to bring to Congress.
2. Tell us your story! How are these cuts going to affect you in your daily life? Will you be going back to your car? Will you be stuck with no way to get to work? We want to know.
3. If you’re in Atlanta, join up with the Citizens for Progressive Transit or the Area Coalition for Transit Now Facebook page calling for Gov. Perdue to call a special legislative session. These groups are also joining with others in Atlanta to organize a “Ride MARTA” day in late March to drum up support statewide.