Upon the release of the president’s infrastructure plan and his budget request for FY19, T4America Director Kevin F. Thompson offered the following statement:
“One cannot claim to be investing in infrastructure on the one hand while cutting it with the other. The president’s infrastructure plan is merely a shell game, ‘investing’ money that his budget proposes to cut from other vital transportation and infrastructure programs. Taken together, they provide zero new dollars to invest in our country’s pressing infrastructure needs.”
“This proposal makes no progress on the four simple priorities we believe are essential for success. It provides no new money, does nothing to prioritize the smartest projects, and eliminates the programs that are most responsive to local needs. The president’s plan also fails to include any requirements to prioritize repair, even though he stated a clear preference for repair in his remarks this morning.
“The budget signals to local elected officials and taxpayers that they are on their own if they are to invest in transit, penalizing the communities that have already taken the initiative to raise local funding for new or improved transit service. The infrastructure plan gives blank checks out to governors to spend on projects with the greatest political sway—hardly the kind of accountability that taxpayers are clamoring for.
“We’re eager to work with Congress as they begin drafting their own infrastructure plan and setting the budget for the rest of this year and the next, and we hope they’ll follow our four simple principles and advance a national transportation program that invests more real dollars, rewards innovation and local revenue, funds only the smartest new projects, and provides states and localities with a trustworthy federal partner in their efforts.”
Denver’s RTD A Line commuter rail that connects Union Station downtown to Denver International Airport. (Photo provided courtesy of Denver International Airport)
Today, Smart Growth America and TODResources.org are releasing the second episode of Building Better Communities with Transit: “Decarbonize the city, a few blocks at a time.” This month, the podcast explores a new smart city concept taking shape in Denver, CO: Peña Station Next.
Host Jeff Wood talks with George Karayannis, vice president of CityNow, the smart city arm of Panasonic Corporation. George talks about smart cities, how to think beyond shiny new technology, and what it means for cities thinking about the future.
Jeff and George also discuss what CityNow is working on at Peña Station Next—a new smart city concept on Denver RTD’s A Line commuter rail that incorporates ideas such as district energy, smarter streetlights, and intelligent power management in buildings. George talks about how and why the station location was chosen for this innovative project.
Like the name suggests, this smart development is located at Peña Station, the last stop before Denver International Airport. In addition to being a testing ground for new technologies, Peña Station Next will eventually include residential, commercial, and retail space as we explored in a previous post on TODresources.org.
Building Better Communities with Transit is intended to provide more support to communities and local leaders who are working to catalyze new development around transit, give more people access to public transportation, increase access to opportunity, and build robust local economies. For easier access, the podcast now available on a number of platforms: Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher, and others with even more coming soon. You can also access the podcast’s raw RSS feed here.
Recent TOD News
Here are a few things that have been happening this week with TOD projects across the country.
The second year of our Smart Cities Collaborative will tackle how new technologies and new mobility are reshaping the right-of-way and curb space via four key topics. Our second post in a series on these topics examines the concept of using data to measure progress and outcomes.
Reminder: Applications for year two of the Collaborative are open until Friday, February 16. Find out more information about eligibility and apply to participate here.
As we continue building a forum for collaboration and providing direct technical assistance to a new cohort of cities, the second year of the Collaborative will explore how new technologies and new mobility are reshaping the right-of-way and curb space. The content and curriculum will be separated into four sub-topics; design, measure, manage and price. (Read the first post on design here.) This second topic will examine the importance of utilizing data to measure project and system performance to ensure that new technologies and mobility options are implemented in ways that help cities make progress on their long-term outcomes.
Measure
A heat map of biking trips logged in Seattle using the Strava app. Via https://labs.strava.com/heatmap/
Automated vehicles, shared mobility options, and innovations in transit have tremendous power to transform both the way we move around our cities and how our cities are designed. Yet, as these technologies become increasingly available, the possibilities for both positive and negative impacts for our communities grow in parallel.
And, although the tools are new and perpetually changing, cities must remain steadfast in pursuing their community’s vision.
These advances in technology are providing a wealth of detailed, real-time data that cities can and should use to measure their daily operations and inform their decision-making. Many cities recognize the value of this data and the impact it can have, but have struggled to find the right way to gather and utilize it effectively. As a result, even though they have access to more raw data than ever before, they are struggling to quantify how particular projects or initiatives are helping—or hurting—as they develop and test new solutions to their major challenges.
By using a robust set of performance metrics, cities can evaluate the impacts of pilot projects and better calibrate them to drive the outcomes they’re seeking. This data-driven approach ensures that cities implement new technologies in ways that tackle regional priorities, are anchored to long-term community goals and mitigate potential negative impacts of new technologies.
This focus on data tied to outcomes helps cities stay rooted and grounded in a climate where technologies are changing every single day.
This year, the Collaborative will continue to refine existing metrics that best indicate success across numerous priorities, such as equity, access to employment, safety, user experience and system performance, while working to develop new metrics and indicators for things such as curb utilization or street redesigns.
We’ll also endeavor to develop shared standards, allowing cities to compare the success of projects across jurisdictions, discover the best applications of innovative technologies and better determine how to affect positive change in their own community.
With these metrics firmly in mind, the Collaborative will introduce participants to the fundamentals of data science and cover best practices in data collection and analysis. We’ll focus on how internal governance can change to reflect a data-driven approach and ensure that resulting analyses are fed back into planning and real-time dynamic operations. We’ll also explore efforts across the country to create third-party repositories of mobility data—like Seattle’s, for example—that include both public and private transportation providers, and how cities are aggregating, anonymizing and utilizing these data.
Stay tuned for our next post on our third Collaborative topic this coming year—manage—and how cities can develop public-private partnerships and use curb management strategies as tools to drive long-term outcomes.
Catch up with yesterday’s launch webinar for T4America’s new guidebook, Fight for Your Ride: An advocate’s guide for expanding and improving transit, which offers tangible ways to improve transit in your city and region.
Quality transit service is increasingly becoming a “must-have” for economic development. Amazon’s HQ2 search is only the most public example of major businesses choosing locations with quality transit to expand. Quality transit is also vital to improving access to jobs and opportunity and creating pathways to prosperity for residents in your region. But how can business leaders, local elected leaders, or transportation advocates improve their local transit service?
T4America’s new guidebook, Fight for Your Ride: An advocate’s guide for expanding and improving transit, offers tangible ways you can make these needed improvements to transit in your city and region.
On a webinar to release the guide earlier this week, two local transit leaders—Karen Rindge, Executive Director of WakeUp Wake County in the Raleigh, NC area, and Christof Spieler, board member for Houston METRO—presented lessons from their successful transit initiatives. View the full webinar here:
Fight for Your Ride includes tactical guidance on how to build your coalition, how to hone your message, and how to advocate to your federal representatives. On the launch webinar, Karen Rindge shared her firsthand lessons from organizing a coalition and successful campaign in Wake County.
Rindge explained that the most important asset that helped power Wake County’s transit referendum campaign was a broad and diverse coalition. WakeUp didn’t wait until a referendum was on the ballot to build this coalition, but began nearly ten years ago engaging key partners in the effort to develop a regional transit plan and build up community support for new investments in transit. Having partners who could talk directly to different constituencies—like seniors, environmentalists, and African-American communities—allowed the campaign to cut through the crowded campaign news cycle and directly inform key voters about the referendum.
Fight for Your Ride also helps to diagnose transportation challenges in your region and offers examples of how other regions have made improvements to transit. The guide illustrates more than a dozen different approaches. Some, like building new transit lines, carry a large price tag and will take years to complete. But many of the solutions offered in the guide are smaller and can be implemented much more quickly. These include adding late night transit service, speeding buses through congested chokepoints, reducing fares for low-income youth riders, adding shuttle service to reach job sites, and realigning transit service.
On the webinar, Christof Spieler offered an example of this last tactic, presenting the story of how Houston Metro reimagined their bus system map to provide better service for riders without more funding.
Speiler explained that for METRO to change its service map, it first had to acknowledge that it was not providing useful service to all potential riders across the region.
It wasn’t that Houstonians wouldn’t ride the bus—data showed that on commuter corridors with quality bus service, more that a third of commuters were already choosing transit. But many dense corridors outside of downtown lacked frequent service, or were served by meandering routes that were too confusing for anyone except daily riders to understand. Spieler described the effort he and METRO’s leadership led to reroute all of Houston’s bus routes, all at once, to offer quality, frequent service across the city. He spoke about the obstacles they faced and how political support was critical for moving the new plan forward.
As he closed, Christof reminded us that improving transit is about more than just the right techniques or strategies — we have to be storytellers too.
“We need to talk about transit,” he said. “The more we tell the story of what transit does well, the more we tell the story of how to make transit effective, and the more we keep this on the front of people’s minds, the more success we’ll have in getting things done.”
We hope you will use Fight for Your Ride to plan efforts to improve transit in your community. We can help by leading workshops or leadership academies in your region to bring together diverse leaders and organize a transit improvement or turnaround plan.
In their search for a second HQ site, Amazon’s essential requirement for high-quality transit was, in the words of Laura Bliss at The Atlantic, “a come to Jesus moment for cities where high-quality service has long been an afterthought.” In many regions, the public transportation service just isn’t up to the task, offering infrequent, slow service and poor access to job centers or critical destinations—turning away potential riders and punishing those who must rely on transit.
But long before Amazon’s kick in the pants last year, scores of community leaders, business leaders, local elected officials, and grassroots advocates have been looking for ways to change the status quo. Many are eager to improve their local transit systems to speed up commutes, expand access to jobs and opportunities, attract and retain businesses and talent, and grow their economies.
This Transportation for America guidebook,Fight For Your Ride: An advocate’s guide for improving & expanding transit, offers local advocates and transit champions practical advice for making real improvements to public transit. Drawing examples from successful campaigns and reform efforts in small, medium, and large cities across the country, the guide illuminates effective ways to speed up transit, expand its reach, and improve service for riders. It offers tactical lessons on building a coalition, developing an effective message, and organizing a campaign for better transit in your community.
Catch up with our webinar on new creative placemaking technical assistance workshops
This past Tuesday, Ben Stone, T4America’s Director of Arts & Culture, and Patricia Walsh, Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Program Manager, spoke about our upcoming State of the Art Transportation Training. During the webinar we discussed the opportunity for three communities in 2018 to gain hands-on technical assistance to improve collaboration between local arts agencies and departments of transportation. The ultimate goal: use art to better address transportation challenges.
In the webinar, we explored relevant case studies, reviewed the application process, and answered questions. If you missed the webinar, you can find a recording below.
FAQs:
Where can I find more information on this opportunity?
Visit our State of the Art Training webpage to learn more about this opportunity and view the full webinar recording if you missed it. On the webpage you can find the PDF application and the link to apply. We recommend having your responses prepared in advance of starting the online application form.
Who are these workshops geared towards?
Please find more details of the eligibility requirements in the PDF application, but if you are looking to collaboratively and creatively solve your community’s unique transportation challenges and put into practice the concepts T4America explored in our recent Creative Placemaking Field Scan, we encourage you apply. As a reminder, the deadline to apply is 5:00 p.m. EST, February 23, 2018.
Am I eligible to apply if my organization doesn’t have a transportation agency?
A chief goal of the State of the Art Transportation Training is to improve collaboration between local arts agencies and departments of transportation to better address transportation challenges. We recommend that you demonstrate in your application the role of local transit agencies (or the local equivalent) in helping to address your transportation challenges.
Earlier this week, we held a webinar to explain and answer questions about year two of our Smart Cities Collaborative. Catch up with a full video of the short informational session here and apply soon — the deadline to apply is next Friday, February 16.
Transportation for America launched the Smart Cities Collaborative to build a forum for collaboration and provide direct technical assistance to 16 leading-edge cities advancing smart mobility policies and projects. Applications are open now for year two.
The second year of the Collaborative will focus on how emerging technologies and new mobility are reshaping the right-of-way. Content and curriculum will be separated into four sub-topics; design, measure, manage and price. We’ll cover how the right-of-way and curb space are evolving; measuring and analyzing project, modal and system performance; managing public and private mobility providers in tandem; and pricing road and curb space in service of long-term outcomes.
Last week we held a short informational webinar to provide an overview of how cities can apply for year two, discuss our planned curriculum and recap our lessons learned in year one. We also answered questions on the types of cities that can apply (all sizes!), pilot projects that were implemented in year one and the types of projects we anticipate cities will be working on in year two. Watch the full session below
During the first year of our Smart Cities Collaborative an overall theme emerged: how new technologies and new mobility are reshaping the right-of-way and curb space. Year two of the Collaborative will address these challenges head-on.
Reminder: Applications for year two of the Collaborative are open until next Friday, February 16. Find out more information about eligibility and apply to participate here.
As we continue building a forum for collaboration and providing direct technical assistance to a new cohort of cities, the second year of the Collaborative will explore how new technologies and new mobility are reshaping the right-of-way and curb space. The content and curriculum will be separated into four sub-topics; design, measure, manage and price.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll publish in-depth posts on each of these topics and explain how we’ll approach them in the Collaborative. This is part one of a four-part series and our first topic will examine how the right-of-way and curb space are evolving and what cities can do to adapt.
Design
Wikimedia photo by SounderBruce
With rare exception, city streets across the United States were and continue to be designed, operated and managed for use by the single occupant automobile. The demands and conflicts created by existing competing needs and uses—ridehail pick up and drop off, increased delivery in residential and commercial areas, separated and combined lanes for bike and transit use, pedestrian crossing and safety—are substantial and widespread, but are currently being addressed on a piecemeal basis.
Solutions are frequently just band-aids, making amendments to the existing streetscape rather than fundamentally redesigning the street for new needs.
And then there’s the deployment of automated vehicles, and the impacts and implications of them on the design, operation and management of streets. Coupled with heightened demands for wayfinding kiosks, electric vehicle charging stations, sensor networks and other digital infrastructure, it is clear there is a need for new streets that can not only accommodate but embrace and maximize the benefits of the new mobility era.
The past few years have provided cities with a wake-up call on the need to reassess current street design and curb management guidelines in an effort to reclaim our streets as cherished public spaces for people, while still serving as critical arteries for traffic.
Instead of examining these issues through the limited lens of a single technology or piece of infrastructure (e.g. “How can we fit bikeshare in here?”), the Collaborative will take a comprehensive look at how the street of the future should look, feel and operate, and determine the policies, design guidelines and new infrastructure that will help cities get there. We’ll examine various street typologies, look at every use case and user for right-of-way and curbside space, explore the variety of technologies and new mobility infrastructure that may need to be deployed on a given street, and ensure that we’re making streets that are safer and more accessible to everyone that needs to use them.
Throughout the year, the Collaborative will work with participants to rethink their streets and address these new demands for roadway and curb space while making them more human-centered and friendly. The end result will be an accessible document that describes:
The need for new approaches to our streets;
Provides street typologies with design guidelines;
Operation and management strategies;
Performance measurements; and
Pilot projects for cities to test.
Stay tuned for our next post on our second Collaborative topic this coming year—measure—and how a robust system of measuring performance along with using real-time data to inform operations and decision-making will prevent cities from getting lost in the web of information and help anchor projects in the service of achieving long-term outcomes.
A new opportunity for your transportation agency to become State of the Art
If there’s one industry that’s ruled by forms and regulations, it’s transportation. The ideal width of a bike lane, font on a street sign, and the length of a light-rail platform are all laid out in design manuals. And while there are often important safety and accessibility reasons for these standards, it doesn’t inspire a lot of creative thinking.
And that’s where art comes in–artistic involvement can help solve entrenched transportation problems by thinking outside the manual. It can help heal communities divided by destructive infrastructure, generate more local buy-in for transportation projects, bring diverse constituents to the table, and create a sense of place that reflects local values of the communities transportation systems serve.
To help communities better integrate artistic and cultural practices in transportation projects, Transportation for America is pleased to announce our State of the Art Transportation Trainings, a new technical assistance program made possible through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace America, in collaboration with Americans for the Arts.
“An artist thinks differently, imagines a better world, and tries to render it in surprising ways. And this becomes a way for his/her audiences to experience the possibilities of freedom that they can’t find in reality.”
– Guillermo Goméz-Peña
Next Tuesday, Ben Stone, T4America’s Director of Arts & Culture, and Patricia Walsh, Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Program Manager will be speaking about collaborating with artists to solve your community’s unique transportation challenges. In the webinar, we will explore case studies, review the application process, and answer your questions.
This is an excellent opportunity to see how your city can leverage creative placemaking in transportation projects and get tailored advice for your city’s unique challenges.
You can find more information about the application and the program on our website.
Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. EST, February 23, 2018!
The application process is online and can be completed via this form athttps://t4america.org/creative-placemaking-workshops/apply/. We recommend downloading the full application information (pdf) and preparing your responses before submitting the online form.
As expected, President Trump used his first State of the Union Address Tuesday night as an opportunity to discuss infrastructure. The speech was light on specifics, though the Washington Post and other outlets continue to report that the White House is preparing a full plan to be released in a few weeks.
In his address, the president urged Congress to “produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment we need” and said “every federal dollar” should be leveraged by funds from local governments and the private sector. Other than these few remarks, there were few details offered in the speech itself.
We agree with the president that it’s high time to repair and invest in our infrastructure.
Repairing the country’s roads, bridges, and transit systems while investing in new projects to strengthen the country’s global competitiveness does require a real commitment from the federal government. Gutting existing federal funds from other programs (such as transit, as Trump representatives have proposed) will undercut that effort during a time of mounting needs and increasing competition for waning federal funds. Only real funding will be able to fulfill the diverse infrastructure needs we have nationwide.
Yet over the past year, this administration has repeatedly proposed cutting federal funding for transportation projects, while hoping that private capital or dramatically increased local funding can make up the yawning gap. Picking projects only from communities that can come to the federal government with a huge chunk of their own money, or those that have high tolls to repay financing costs, does nothing to guarantee that we’re selecting the best projects to deliver long-term economic growth. The needs of smaller, rural, and poorer communities in particular will go unmet in this scenario as these communities won’t be able to compete against larger cities.
Further, a true effort to rebuild will ensure that repairing deficient bridges, deteriorating roads, and aging railways gets priority for funding. We cannot simply dole more money out to states in a big block and hope that they spend the money well—taxpayers deserve better. Any infrastructure plan should include clear goals and metrics for determining whether our investments are meeting our national goals.
Finally, the president spoke of the need to speed up the permitting and approval process for transportation projects. There are indeed many ways we can and should improve the process for new projects to both save money and time. However, it is important to remember that the approval process is not a trivial review or bureaucratic exercise. It’s the process by which we protect private property rights and ensure that communities are not divided or harmed unnecessarily. We could certainly build projects much faster if we simply seized people’s property and laid highways over neighborhoods. China and Russia can build much faster by taking that approach, but it’s not the American way. Speed of project delivery is not more important than building cost-effective projects that build strong communities.
To be successful, we urge the president to propose real funding targeted specifically to rebuild crumbling infrastructure in all communities across the country—large and small, rich or poor.
We look forward to seeing such a proposal from the administration in the coming weeks. In the meantime, though written as a preview of the speech, this post highlighting eight key questions about the president’s plan is still a relevant guide to evaluating what you hear from Washington when it comes to infrastructure.
President Trump has been telling us that infrastructure is a top priority since his campaign. Tonight, in his State of the Union address, all signs point toward the president providing a preview of his infrastructure plan followed shortly by a public release. If enacted, this plan could reshape our communities. As we listen tonight, how should we evaluate what we hear from the president on infrastructure?
Update: Few details were shared during the president’s State of the Union speech (here’s the full text on infrastructure.) But until we hear answers, these eight key questions are just as relevant and remain in the front of our minds as we await a more detailed version of the president’s infrastructure plan. -Ed.
As we watch the president’s speech tonight, here are eight key questions, derived in part from our own set of four simple guiding principles for infrastructure investment, to help analyze what we hear tonight when it comes to transportation funding and policy.
1) Does this plan actually propose real funding? Or will they gut transit and Amtrak to pay for it? 11 minutes after promising the U.S. Conference of Mayors last week that the president’s plan would not cut existing funding to pay the tab for their proposal, White House advisor DJ Gribbin reversed himself and said the administration is in fact planning to eliminate funding for Amtrak, new transit construction, and passenger rail to pay for part of it. To be clear, neither cutting funding that cities and states rely on nor simply shifting existing money around within federal transportation programs represent real new funding.
2) Other than slashing its funding, did you hear anything else about transit? In a dramatic shift, young people, empty nesters, and major corporations are voting with their feet and choosing to live and work in locations with access to transit. Is this administration serious about supporting the cities of all sizes that are investing their own dollars in transit to move people and connect them to opportunity? Amazon’s clear preference for a robust transit network in any potential host city for their second headquarters was a wake-up call for cities small and large, and like these state lawmakers in Indiana once opposed to transit, others have awoken to the reality that it’s a vital part of any metro area with a strong economy that’s competitive for talent. Whatever the president proposes for transit tonight, remember that this administration’s 2018 budget already proposed eliminating all funding to build or expand transit.
3) Will this plan shift the cost burden to states and localities? The federal government hasn’t raised the gas tax since 1994, so states and localities have been taking the hard votes to make up at least some of that difference between mounting needs and a stagnating federal gas tax. Whether the 31 states that have raised new transportation revenues since 2012 or the $2 billion in new local revenues for transportation raised in November 2016 alone at the ballot box, locals are already bearing the burden. Will this infrastructure plan meet them in the middle as a partner, or just further undermine local efforts to reinvest? And while some cities can go to the ballot or easily raise new revenues, many cities and smaller areas may not have the capacity to raise their own new transportation revenues to fill the gap.
4) Did you hear any recognition of the difference between financing and funding? We don’t lack financing for infrastructure projects, we lack the cold hard cash required to pay for them. Our highways and transit systems were built with real money, not financing gimmicks. Public-private partnerships and other financing tools can help, but they don’t replace real funding. The White House has consistently talked about unleashing private financing in infrastructure, but private financiers don’t invest in infrastructure as a charity, they expect to make money. If they’re financing a project with money up front, it’s because they expect to make more of it in the long-term through repayments of some kind, such as regular bond payments or a dedicated funding stream like toll revenues. We don’t lack for financing opportunities, we lack the money to pay that financing back. Incentivizing more private financing won’t fix that.
5) Where do rural areas, towns, and cities fit into this plan? The status quo prioritizes state DOTs over local governments. While larger metro areas receive some funds directly, cities themselves have no direct control of those federal transportation dollars. And though metropolitan areas drive our economy, will this plan recognize that fact by giving them greater access to federal transportation dollars? There are rumors that the plan could require 25 percent of the proposed funding be set aside for rural areas, which includes a lot of smaller cities. But even with such a requirement, that money would be directly controlled by the governor or their state DOT—not local communities. Will money for rural communities be spent on them, or by them? There’s a big difference between money being spent in their area according to someone else’s priorities, and controlling that money themselves.
6) Did you hear any focus on boring ol’ repair and maintenance? Any proposal that doesn’t prioritize repairing our existing infrastructure is not a proposal worth taking seriously. It makes little sense to build costly new infrastructure (which is equally expensive to maintain) without any accountability for maintaining what we’ve got. If the rhetoric is accurate and our infrastructure truly is “crumbling,” then simply building something new and shiny doesn’t solve the underlying problem. If your house has a leaky roof, are you going to take out a loan for an expensive new addition, or are you going to fix your roof first?
7) Will the plan prioritize building the smartest new projects, or just more of the same? If this plan produces any new money to invest in infrastructure, it should be awarded by the merits on a competitive basis to only the best projects. We know both that competition helps the best projects rise to the top, and that spending new money through outdated formulas will just lead to the same old projects. Will the president model his plan on successful competitive programs like TIGER, or will he just pour more money into the status quo and go ahead with his budgetary plan to eliminate TIGER?
8) Did you hear a call for accountability and measuring what we get for our billions in spending? Or just the same tired infrastructure rhetoric. Why spend more money on infrastructure if we don’t know that we’re going to be better off afterward? Why spend more if we don’t know that we’re going to create lasting prosperity or build a resilient framework for creating and capturing value? Spending more money on infrastructure without measuring success and considering the value of our investments is not only short-sighted, but wasteful and irresponsible. We need a transparent system of measuring performance and holding states and metro areas accountable for hitting those targets.
Our four principles place a new emphasis on measuring progress and success, rather than just focusing on how much it all costs. We want real funding for infrastructure, not just ways to borrow money or sell off public assets as a means to pay for projects. We want a real commitment to prioritize fixing our aging infrastructure before building expensive new liabilities. We want new projects to be selected competitively with more local control, spurred by innovation and creativity. And yes, we want to ensure greater accountability so taxpayers understand the benefits they are actually receiving for their billions of dollars. So as you listen tonight (and when a specific plan is released), keep these eight simple questions in mind and ask yourself: did you hear the answers to these questions?
One thing is certain: this has definitely been the longest “infrastructure week” of all time. And it’s apparently not over yet.
As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you pertinent information. This includes news articles to inform your work. Check out a list of stories you may have missed last week.
“Should Transit Agencies Panic? Many predict that new technology will doom public transportation. They’re wrong.” (CityLab)
“3 Transportation Predictions for 2018.” (U.S. News)
“White House plan would reduce environmental requirements for infrastructure projects.” (The Washington Post)
“Uber lays out infrastructure principles.” (The Hill)
After wrapping up the first year of our inaugural Smart Cities Collaborative at the end of 2017, we look back on all the progress cities made and reflect upon how they’re all collectively shaping the future of transportation by working together.
The day after the presidential election in November 2016, a roomful of strangers who collectively guide transportation decisions in cities small and large gathered in Minneapolis to begin unpacking one fundamental question together: “How can we proactively shape our cities through transportation and technology?”
We started that meeting in Minneapolis with a simple goal: help participants build relationships with others from their peer cities, establish the core problem or problems that they’re trying to solve and then start developing an action plan for a specific pilot project. For two days, we heard lively discussions as the participants described their inspiring views on what kind of cities they want be in the future, exactly what they want to accomplish during this yearlong Collaborative, and how technology can help them achieve their goals.
With the answers to those big picture questions firmly in mind and a spirit of collaboration already bearing fruit, we gathered in Washington, DC in early 2017 and spent two days going deep with notable experts on key issues like using technology to improve equity, accessibility and access to economic opportunity; performance measurement; data-sharing between cities and transportation network companies (TNCs like Uber and Lyft); modular contracting and flexible procurement, to name a few.
Gabe Klein with CityFi and formerly director of Chicago and DC’s transportation departments, walked a group through his experience with procurement.
During the summer meeting in Miami, we turned the focus back on the cities and devoted a full day to each city sharing presentations on their particular pilot project, the specific outcomes they’re driving towards, and the challenges they’re facing as they design and implement their projects. These challenges included the ongoing struggle to develop productive partnerships with the private sector. In an effort to bridge this gap and serve both sides’ needs, we organized an “industry day” with representatives from leading mobility and data companies like Sidewalk Labs, Uber, Urban Insights, Ford, Via and more to discuss how they could work together to achieve shared outcomes and collaboratively shape the future of transportation.
For our final meeting in Los Angeles a year after gathering in Minneapolis, we kicked things off with a discussion of the core principles of a smart city. What makes as city “smart?” How does one define it? We started with the basic premise that “smart” cities are those that guide themselves by a set of core values that inform the foundation of their work and how they approach challenges and opportunities as they come along. We’re putting the final touches on a final set of these values to be shared publicly, so stay tuned here on the blog.
In many cases, cities are also going to need help from their states to make some of their experiments or pilot projects possible, so in preparation for legislative sessions ramping up in the beginning of 2018, we also discussed a specific set of policy proposals that could or should be developed at the state level to enable these cities to harness new and emerging technologies in service of their residents.
Reflecting on the first year
We capped off the last day in L.A. with a small panel discussion where members spent some time reflecting back on all they’d learned since that November day in Minneapolis. And the biggest takeaway across the board, from nearly every participant, was realizing the collective power they have to shape the future — if they work together.
“The biggest a-ha moment was discovering that cities want to collaborate,” said Karla Taylor with the City of Austin. “The USDOT Smart City Challenge felt like warfare and zero sum. But here, we’ve been able to share our knowledge and it has really opened up a whole new realm for our cities.”
“We are all facing the same challenges and we are all in the same boat,” said Adiam Emery, an engineer with the City of Seattle. “The fact that we’re all trying the same thing and leveraging the others expertise is really a good thing.”
When cities cooperate and collaborate with one another, they’re able to learn and fail and iterate faster than they could ever do on their own.
“This is going to change everything about how we live and work. And no one quite knows what that impact will be,” said San Jose’s Shireen Santosham during the D.C. meeting. “It’s a pretty big revolution and having this brain trust of cities get together with experts really adds a tremendous amount of value as we embark on this. And frankly, we’re all going to be stronger together and benefit from the thinking if we work together — rather than all trying the same things and not sharing.”
Over the last year, we’ve been struck by watching how these local leaders have begun to crystalize a vision of the kind of city they want to be, determine how best technology can get them there and begin to implement their vision. And we’ve seen projects unfold in some of the cities, like the projects in Centennial and Lone Tree, Colorado that we’ve profiled here, and LA’s microtransit pilot that’s coming soon, for example.
As technology changes rapidly and affects how so many people get around in our cities, it’s truly a decisive moment.
As Seleta Reynolds, the LADOT director, told all of us at the close of the LA meeting, “we have to get people excited and inspired about a new vision. They want so much more from our streets than just moving cars back and forth. This moment allows us to be creative and reach other people who don’t normally care about transportation.”
The inaugural Collaborative helped make a tangible difference in the future of these 16 cities, and we’re eager to help others do the same in 2018.
The inaugural Smart Cities Collaborative was funded by Sidewalk Labs.
As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you pertinent information. This includes news articles to inform your work. Check out a list of stories you may have missed last week.
The U.S. Senate voted to end the current government shutdown today. (Politico) See T4America’s member summary for more details.
“Trump administration’s infrastructure plan taking shape.” (Reuters)
Brightline’s private All Aboard Florida service launched last week between West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. Service is expected to be extended to Miami later this year. (USA Today)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed implementing congestion pricing in New York City. (Citylab)
Costs for the California High Speed Rail System have increased another $2.8 billion. (LA Times)
Waymo announced they will test their self-driving minivans in Atlanta. (The Verge)
Last year, Transportation for America launched the Smart Cities Collaborative to build a forum for collaboration and provide direct technical assistance to cities advancing smart mobility policies and projects. Today we’re announcing the launch of a second year of the Collaborative and calling interested cities to apply.
The Collaborative was launched in an effort to capture the momentum created by the US Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge and help cities test concepts, understand market potential, assess regulatory and political hurdles, address environmental and equity issues and refine their approach to implementing smart mobility concepts.
This past year was a tremendous success and the Collaborative evolved into a close-knit network of 32 agencies from 16 cities that enabled participants to learn from their peers, develop policies, help launch pilot projects and form partnerships across cities and agencies.
To build on the lessons we’ve learned and expand to include other leading-edge cities, we’re excited to launch the second year of the Smart Cities Collaborative and open the application process today.
Over the past year, the Collaborative focused on the core topics of automated vehicles, shared mobility and data analytics. During this work an overall theme emerged: how emerging technologies and new mobility are Reshaping the Right-of-Way. This will be the theme and focus of the Collaborative for the coming year.
Our content and curriculum will be separated into four sub-topics; design, measure, manage and price. We’ll cover how the right-of-way and curb space are evolving; measuring and analyzing project, modal and system performance; managing public and private mobility providers in tandem; and pricing road and curb space in service of long-term outcomes. Over the coming weeks, we’ll publish more in-depth posts on each of these topics and how we’ll approach them over the coming year.
If you and your city are interested in participating in the second year of the Smart City Collaborative, please read and fill out the online application.
Smart Growth America’s arts and culture team and National Complete Streets Coalition, now in partnership with the Urban Land Institute, invite you to the only national conference focused on the intersection of arts, culture, and building safer, complete streets.
On April 3 and 4, in Nashville, TN, Intersections will bring together planners, artists, engineers, public health advocates, and many others to collaborate and find practical ways to integrate arts and culture to create streets that are not only safe for everyone, but also better reflect the unique character of their communities.
The arts and culture connection to Complete Streets
We believe that everyone in America—no matter their age, ability, income, or race—deserves the option to live somewhere affordable, convenient, beautiful, and safe. Our arts & culture team funds pilot projects, supports local and regional partners, and conducts research that shows that art and culture play a crucial role in supporting this vision by providing an organizing force for residents, business owners, and other stakeholders to work towards strengthening neighborhoods, by revealing the authentic character of communities, and by connecting citizens with decision makers to collectively pursue smart, equitable policies and projects.
Whether you’re an artist or an engineer, join us in Nashville to learn more about these vital connections.
The brand new conference website makes it easy to access everything you need to know about Intersections, with new speakers being added regularly. Registration is open, and you can purchase a ticket at the discounted rate of $195 (regularly $250) from now until 11:59 p.m. EST on January 31st by using the promo code: new year_new intersections.
In partnership with the Urban Land Institute
To bring this conference to the next level, we are partnering with the Urban Land Institute to expand conference offerings and explore how to transform vehicle-dominated commercial corridors to better serve those who live, work and travel along them. ULI will bring expertise gained through their Healthy Corridors project to understand the common issues facing commercial corridors that impact the social determinants of health, and how these corridors can be transformed to become safe, healthy,vibrant, mixed-use places.
Full agenda coming soon
The conference will start at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 3rd with registration and breakfast and end at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4th. Both days will be held at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN.
Speakers and panel sessions are being added regularly to the website. Click here to learn more about experts, advocates and practitioners from around the country who will be at the conference. The agenda will be packed with two full days of interactive panels, and breakout discussions about cutting-edge Complete Streets, healthy corridors, and creative placemaking research, ideas and practices.
T4America is eager to help communities better integrate artistic and cultural practices into the planning and construction of transportation projects, and is now offering free workshops to help three communities build their capacity to do so.
Transportation for America is pleased to announce State of the Art Transportation Training, an exciting opportunity for local transportation agencies to learn about creative placemaking and obtain technical assistance in using artistic and cultural practices to address local transportation challenges.
With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and in partnership with Americans for the Arts, T4A will award technical assistance to three communities in 2018 in the form of workshops to help them build capacity in artistic and cultural practices.
This is an excellent opportunity to learn how your community can integrate creative placemaking in transportation projects, receive hands-on technical assistance geared towards addressing your community’s unique challenges, and put into practice the concepts T4America explored in our recent Creative Placemaking Field Scan.We are especially committed to funding collaborative projects that expand transportation opportunities and local control for low-income people, recent immigrants, and people of color living in communities that have experienced disproportionate disinvestment.
Transportation systems can and should be a powerful tool to help people access opportunity, drive economic development, improve health and safety, and build the civic and social capital that bind communities together. And when artists team up with transportation professionals at a project’s outset, their collaboration can lead to new, creative, and more comprehensive solutions to today’s transportation challenges. Learn more and apply today for this free technical assistance opportunity.
Applications are due by February 23, 2018
The application process is online and can be completed via this form athttps://t4america.org/creative-placemaking-workshops/. We recommend downloading the full application information (pdf) and preparing your responses before submitting the online form.
The application deadline for this opportunity is Friday, February 23, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. EST.
We are planning for an informational webinar about the opportunity on February 6, 2018. Register here.
Note: Unfortunately, due to our previous work with projects in Los Angeles, Dothan, Indianapolis, San Diego, Nashville and Portland, OR, proposals from those cities are not eligible.
As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you pertinent information. This includes news articles to inform your work. Check out a list of stories you may have missed last week.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is supporting a 25 cents increase in the gas tax to fund an infrastructure package. (Washington Post)
Congress must pass an extension of government appropriations this week or a government shutdown will happen. (Vox)
“GOP leaders face most difficult shutdown deadline yet.” (The Hill)
Cities and researchers are finding clever ways to get data that transportation network companies (TNC) like Uber and Lyft refuse to provide. (Citylab)
GM says they plan to have a car with no steering wheel Or pedals ready for streets In 2019. (NPR)
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has proposed a $1.5 bond for infrastructure projects that would fund a variety of types of infrastructure, including express bus service in Minneapolis. (Minnesota Star Tribune)
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has proposed a $600 million highway improvement plan for the state. (The Advocate)
Pittsburgh north shore skyline. (Photo Credit: Nick Amoscato via Flickr)
Last week, our colleagues at Smart Growth America launched Building Better Communities with Transit, a new podcast series at TODresources.org about transit-oriented development and how it improves communities across America.
There’s a deep well of expertise when it comes to undertaking or encouraging development around transit stations or along transit corridors. This new monthly podcast taps into that expertise to share the experiences of communities across the country, large and small, when it comes to development near transit of all shapes and sizes—heavy rail, bus and everything in between.
Transit-oriented development is not a one-size-fits-all solution and it’s vital that projects are tailored to each community’s specific needs. Yet, the principles are the same. Beginning this month, host Jeff Wood will invite experts for short conversations about how communities can catalyze smarter growth by encouraging new development around transit stations. Jeff and his guests will discuss the finer points of developing local policies to encourage TOD, engaging the public, securing sources for funding, and how certain communities are experiencing success, among other topics.
All of this is intended to support communities and local leaders who are working to catalyze new development around transit, give more people access to public transportation, increase access to opportunity, and build robust local economies.
For this first episode, Jeff Wood speaks with Breen Masciotra, transit-oriented development manager for the Port Authority of Allegheny County, PA, and Karina Ricks, director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure for the City of Pittsburgh. We discuss the challenges they face in Pittsburgh, including topography, new technologies, and hostile streets. You’ll also hear about how they’re making a more walkable and multi-modal city through new bus rapid transit projects, transit-oriented development initiatives, and “eco innovation districts.”
As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you pertinent information. This includes news articles to inform your work. Check out a list of stories you may have missed last week.
President Trump and his administration are still divided over the merits of private-public partnerships (P3’s) after their meeting on Friday with President Trump expressing skepticism about P3’s. (Washington Post/The Press Herald)
A key Democratic Senator says Democrats can work with President Trump on infrastructure. (The Hill)
“A group of more than 150 national trade organizations last week urged Congress to advance an infrastructure investment package.” (Progressive Railroading)
Congress is expected to consider a Trump infrastructure plan sometime this spring if a plan is actually released. (Fox News)
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York is expected to endorse congestion pricing in parts of Manhattan. (Curbed NY)
“In Phoenix, a Light Rail Station Designed For, and By, People With Disabilities.” (Streetsblog)
