Pennsylvania Governor proposes a change to fuel taxes to help close the gas tax gap
On Thursday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett will release his long awaited proposal for remedying the Keystone state’s daunting transportation funding and policy difficulties. Leaks from several key legislative staffers indicate that his plan will propose a new source of transportation revenue that doesn’t violate his pledge to never increase taxes.
Sandy relief bill will provide billions for repairing and improving transportation systems
The Sandy relief bill on the cusp of final passage will provide billions for cleanup and more than $12 billion for transportation — including an unprecedented step toward making transportation networks around the northeast and NYC more resilient in the face of climate change, more frequent and unpredictable storms, and rising water levels.
From state to town, Michigan takes strong steps toward a better transportation future
Perhaps no place illustrates the national positive trends in transportation at the ballot box (and state legislatures) better than Michigan, where citizens voted to raise taxes for transportation investments in cities and counties across the state, at least one anti-transit elected official was ousted, a Republican governor led the charge for regional transit investment in the state’s biggest metro and when given a chance to bail in the name of “cost savings,” voters doubled down on their existing transit systems.
T4 America releases new guide to implementing MAP-21
A new easy-to-follow handbook, Making the Most of MAP-21: A Guide to the 2012 Federal Transportation Law — And How to Use it for Positive Change in Your Community, features both narrative chapters and two-page explainers on the key features of the new program, from the consolidated highway program to the new transportation alternatives, as well as new financing options.
What the 2012 elections mean for the federal transportation picture
Though some pieces have fallen into place – including a decision on who will lead the House’s key transportation committee for the next two years — the 2012 election still leaves a number of key questions hanging in the balance. We’ve looked at a few local transportation ballot measures, but what will the impact be on transportation at the federal level as a result of the 2012 elections?
A stirring persuasion for deciding to vote for transit: seeing it built next door
One of the most powerful avenues for persuading a skeptical community to invest in transit is to see it successfully implemented nearby — whether in the community or neighborhood right next door, or a city and region a few hours away. This trend is illustrated in two of this year’s Transportation Vote 2012 ballot measures through two very different stories in Virginia and North Carolina.
Tuesday’s vote: Strong support for more transportation options nationwide
During a federal election season that saw the presidential candidates making only the barest mention of our teetering system for funding transportation infrastructure, local voters took transit funding into their own hands in more than two-dozen locales Tuesday. Most of the measures that included public transportation and a more balanced set of transportation options appear to have passed — or in the case of California, came achingly close to the required two-thirds majority.
Telling only half the story of congestion, travel time and the quality of our metro areas
A popular study on traffic and congestion in our metropolitan areas is widely cited by the national, state and local media with every annual release, but it doesn’t tell the entire story. Far from it. That’s because measuring congestion while ignoring the actual time and distance spent commuting is a poor measure of what residents’ actually experience on a day-to-day basis.
Examining the progress made — and still needed — in communities across the country
Reconnecting America today released a trove of data measuring access, walkability, affordability and livability in an ambitious report dubbed Are We There Yet? Creating Complete Communities for 21st Century America.
Transportation Vote 2012: San Diego mayoral candidates indicate strong commitment to investing in transportation options in a televised debate
In San Diego, a region facing significant growth on a congested transportation system, the two mayoral candidates signaled their commitment to expanding transportation options throughout the region in the years to come — but shrinking transportation funding will test that commitment.
Automatic budget cuts looming for transportation programs
As part of the last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling earlier this year, a proverbial doomsday device was put in the room with the supercommittee charged with coming up with the cuts needed to lower the deficit, in hopes of getting them to reach an agreement: Come up with the required cuts/revenue increases to hit the mark, or else hefty budget cuts of 8.2 percent across the board to discretionary programs would go into effect on January 1, 2013 and last for ten years
How civic open data can help make us safer
A federal government commitment to open data — epitomized in a White House “datapalooza” last Friday — has catalyzed the development of apps and tools that can help enrich citizens’ lives and help keep them safer.
It’s not too late: join us today to learn about communicating transportation issues in 2012 and beyond
Are you curious how to talk about transportation best resonate with the general public? Do you want to know how to make sure that transportation gets covered during a busy news cycle in the period leading up to the 2012 election (and beyond)? Are you interested in increasing your outreach to local reporters? Join us […]
With cities and suburbs clamoring to build new transit systems, a new book showcases creative financing approaches for getting them built
The demand for public transit is at its highest point in 50 years, and more communities then ever before are looking for funds to build and operate rail and bus lines. Despite the challenges posed by ideological gridlock in Congress, dwindling federal gas tax revenues, and the elimination of earmarks, many communities are finding creative ways to move ahead.
Is metro Atlanta vote a bellwether for transportation funding?
The Atlanta region soundly rejected a penny sales tax to fund $7.1 billion in new transportation improvements for the traffic-snarled region. Coming on the heels of the passage of MAP-21, a federal bill indicating a shrinking federal role in transportation funding, many wondered: Will metro regions and localities be able to bootstrap their way out of congestion and mobility woes? Was the failure of Atlanta’s transportation vote a bellwether for votes in other states and metros?
TIGER brings joy to Normal, IL, as Uptown Station opens on time and on budget
This is a guest post by Kathleen Woodruff, T4America’s Illinois Statewide Field Organizer. Over 11 years in the making, the July 14 grand opening of Normal, IL’s multi-modal transportation center brought together T4A partner organizations, local officials, USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood and US Senator Dick Durbin. The project, designed to revitalize the downtown and provide transit […]
Atlanta transportation vote: “You pay it one way or another”
It took three tries in the Georgia legislature for metro Atlanta to win the right to vote itself a regional sales tax to fix its transportation woes, and another two years of a grinding political process to come up with a list of 157 highway and transit projects that just might do the trick. Now […]
Ten key things to know about the new transportation law
Download this Top 10 as a sharable PDF We’ll be honest: We were truly disheartened by the way the Senate’s solid transportation bill was mangled in the late-hour, backroom negotiations with the House late last month, and our early commentary showed it. Now that the President has signed MAP-21 into law, we are able to […]
1,000 days overdue: The clock literally runs out as House negotiators demand extreme provisions
Notice something funny about our “count up” clock, ticking off the days since the transportation law expired? It flipped to zero today, because we set it up to count only to 999 days. Because who would have believed in 2009 that we would be over halfway through 2012 with the prospects of a renewal just as […]
Weight of the Nation series highlights transportation’s potential to help fight obesity
HBO’s new film series highlights the shocking state of our country’s obesity levels and worsening health, highlighting the impacts of the transportation systems we build and where we live on those alarming trends. An influential public health expert weighs in for T4 America on the movie and the connections to transportation.
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