Illinois Senator Dick Durbin to highlight threatened TIGER grants program in Moline this Monday
As the House continues debating a 2011 budget that threatens many of our nation’s core transportation needs, some leaders are stepping up to defend these programs as critical to the lives and livelihoods of regular Americans. This Monday, Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, will headline an event in the city of Moline, highlighting how the targeted transportation investments in TIGER have created jobs and revitalized communities.
House approves 2011 budget containing deep cuts to transportation
UPDATE, 2/19/11, 9am: The House voted 235-189 in favor of an FY2011 budget containing $60 billion in spending cuts, including $430 million in cuts to the New Starts program that funds new transit construction, $152 million in cuts to Amtrak and a zeroing out of both high-speed rail and the innovative TIGER program. No Democrats supported the continuing resolution and three Republicans opposed it.
House transportation leaders kick-off nationwide tour in West Virginia
West Virginia’s Beckley (right) and Charleston were the first two stops on a multi-state tour that House transportation leaders hope will result in a bipartisan bill to fund the nation’s infrastructure. The current law, known as SAFETEA-LU, expired in September 2009 and has continued under a series of short-term extensions, the latest expiring in March. […]
Americans want Congress to ‘fix it first’, invest in and improve our transportation system
In the midst of the fervor about the House’s budget resolution for 2011 released Friday, and the President’s budget proposal for 2012 dominating the news this week, a new bipartisan poll from the Rockefeller Foundation contains compelling arguments from a majority of Americans in favor of more investment in transportation.
President Obama proposes $556 billion, six-year federal transportation program
President Obama released a budget for fiscal year 2012 this morning that includes a significant boost to our nation’s infrastructure and a long-overdue emphasis on options and accountability. The $556 billion, six-year proposal is an ambitious standout in a largely sober blueprint.
House budget for the rest of 2011 has deep cuts for transportation
On the Friday before the President releases his budget for 2012 (forthcoming sometime this morning), the House Appropriations Committee, led by Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) released their funding proposal to carry the government through the rest of 2011. Quick refresher: The government is currently operating under what’s known as a Continuing Resolution (CR) that expires […]
More infrastructure investment will create jobs, boost economy, according to Treasury Sec. Geithner
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner hammered on the job-creation and economy-boosting effects of the Obama administration’s plan for infrastructure investment in a blog post on the department’s website. Writing the same day Vice President Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood were in Philadelphia promoting a $53 billion, 6-year passenger rail package, Geithner argued that investing in our nation’s roads, bridges, rail and transit systems creates “both immediate and long-term economic benefits.”
Vice President Biden makes the case for rail, cites T4 America co-chair’s hometown as an example
Vice President Joe Biden made an emphatic case for high-speed rail in Philadelphia today as the Obama administration kicks off series of events to highlight the need for infrastructure investment. The Vice President singled out Meridian, Mississippi mayor and T4 America campaign co-chair John Robert Smith, who served his hometown for four terms.
Proposed budget would gut transit spending, passenger rail funding
The budget proposal from the Republican Study Committee, which consists of 165 of the 242 GOP House members, released a week or so ago, calls for completely eliminating the main federal transit program, zeroes out Amtrak, cuts all funding for the metro system in the nation’s capital and slashes $2.5 billion in high-speed rail grants. Sign our petition objecting to this assault on public transportation funding.
New report shows the job-creating potential of smart transportation investments
Smart Growth America is out with a report demonstrating the potential for smart transportation spending to create jobs today and grow our economy tomorrow. According to data sent by the states to Congress, the states that created the most jobs invested their stimulus funds in public transportation and projects that maintained and repaired existing roads and bridges.
President Obama calls for fixing 20th century infrastructure while building for the 21st
The theme of President Obama’s State of the Union address last night was winning the future, and investing in America’s infrastructure was an integral part of it. Other nations have outpaced our investment in roads and railways, and our own engineers have graded our infrastructure a “D,” he noted.
So what do you want from transportation?
We noticed that the folks at AASHTO are asking all their visitors to weigh in and “tell Congress” what they want to see in a transportation bill, and more broadly, what they think we need to be building and doing with our transportation dollars. During the six-week campaign, people can use AASHTO’s Facebook page to […]
Blaming the pedestrian won’t solve the problem
Walking in the ditch Originally uploaded by Transportation for America to Flickr. If this woman got hit by car, it’s probably her fault, right? Photograph by Stephen Lee Davis/Transportation for America. We noted on Twitter this morning a story in the USA Today about pedestrian deaths increasing in 2010, halting a decline that had been […]
California needs smart station planning to maximize high-speed rail’s benefits
High-speed rail investment has the potential to yield great economic and environmental rewards for California, but only if communities make smart decisions about land-use and growth at and around new stations. A new report prepared by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association offers prescriptions for how communities can prepare for rail investments.
What do the House rule changes mean for transportation spending?
Earlier this week the House adopted rules for this new session of Congress. It’s a bit of inside baseball that can be hard to decipher, but these rules determine how bills are considered by lawmakers and what bills can and cannot do. Streetsblog Capitol Hill covered this issue on Monday and today, but it’s worth […]
Could another new passenger rail line be facing the ax?
Potentially following in the footsteps of Wisconsin and Ohio, the Republicans in the state legislature are considering the possibility of killing Iowa’s portion of a planned higher speed passenger rail line from Chicago to Iowa City that would pass through the Quad Cities and the new Moline (Ill.) multimodal transportation hub funded by a TIGER grant.
Debunking some myths about the gas tax in a new report
A new report out today contains some fascinating facts about the federal gas tax – a subject sure to be of great contention as this new Congress tries to decide whether to raise it and how best to spend it. “Do Roads Pay for Themselves? Setting the Record Straight on Transportation Funding,” a report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Smarter transportation case study #9: New Mobility Hub Network in Chennai, India
Automobile use in Chennai, India is growing by 13 percent a year and a new transportation hub has helped to integrate the city’s diverse transit network for both residents and visitors. Our new report on smarter mobility demonstrates how existing and emerging technologies can squeeze more capacity from over-burdened highways, help commuters avoid traffic delays and expand and improve transportation options, all while saving money and creating jobs. (From our series of 14 case studies.)
Smarter transportation case study #8: Bus Rapid Transit Priority in Salt Lake City, Utah
Rapid growth and a growing tourism industry prompted Salt Lake City officials to bring increased efficiency and connectivity to the area’s bus system. Our new report on smarter mobility demonstrates how existing and emerging technologies can squeeze more capacity from over-burdened highways, help commuters avoid traffic delays and expand and improve transportation options, all while saving money and creating jobs. (From our series of 14 case studies.)
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