The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released a draft of the transportation bill late last Friday. We’ve prepared a few pages on what this draft bill propose to do to the federal transportation program. This is a bit on the wonky side, but hopefully you will find it helpful if you’re trying to summarize the 600 pages of bill text. One of the most visible changes MAP-21 makes is to restructure seven core highway programs and 13 formula programs into just five core programs.

Bike and pedestrian projects get less than 1.5 percent of federal transportation funding — despite recent misinformation to the contrary. There’s some misinformation percolating about the size of the transportation enhancements program — the small dedicated program that has funded projects to make biking and walking safer and more convenient for 20 years. Some misleading [...]

USA Today had a timely graphic up yesterday, considering the continuing media coverage around President Obama’s recent proposal for infrastructure spending and a reformed long-term transportation bill. Though we can’t see the rest of the questions or the context, it affirms a few things we already know about Americans’ attitudes about transportation. They want more accountability, safer streets, and more transportation options so seniors can maintain their independence and low wage workers can get to jobs.

USA Today’s “Snapshot”on yesterday’s front page used data from a a poll conducted in January by Transportation for America and the National Association of Realtors. Source: USA TODAY