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Stories You May Have Missed – Week of September 15th

Stories You May Have Missed

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.

“An Infrastructure Deal Should Be Easy, But Isn’t.” (Bloomberg)
The House of Representatives passed the package of eight appropriations bill, including the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill, that they began consideration of last week. (The Hill)
The Chair of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, John Barrasso, published an op-ed about his plans on infrastructure. (Washington Examiner)
Slate covers U.S. DOT’s recently released autonomous vehicle regulation and explains why relying on voluntary safety efforts could be harmful to our communities. (Slate)
Wisconsin’s state budget bans cities and towns from using eminent domain to expand or build new sidewalks, bicycle lanes and trails. No such provision is applied to using eminent domain for expanding highways or roads. (Wisconsin State Journal)
Politico Europe covers how Amsterdam is leading in transportation innovation and how their embracement of the bicycle is a big reason why. (Politico Europe)
Op-Ed Essay: “The end of walking.” (Aeon)

Washington State DOT: Inspiring internal innovation

Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) second annual Innovations and Partnerships conference in Tacoma brought together hundreds of WSDOT staff and transportation experts from local jurisdictions as well as the private and non-profit sectors.

The conference’s purpose is to inspire WSDOT staff and their partners to more effectively engage the public and do more with less, by innovating in how they design and deliver transportation projects. This purpose fits well within WSDOT’s efforts on Practical Solutions, a smart new process that emphasizes public engagement to clearly define transportation problems, and be flexible about addressing them.

“The way we used to do it was design, display and defend,” said Secretary Roger Millar in opening remarks, referring to the old practice of checking the public engagement box rather than engaging with the public and using their feedback to actually shape the project appropriately.

The concept of an annual WSDOT conference was started by Secretary Lynn Peterson last year and continued this year under the leadership of Secretary Roger Millar, but Smart Growth America (SGA) has had a notable influence on it. Ms. Peterson, is now with SGA, and WSDOT hired Mr. Millar from SGA to eventually succeed Ms. Peterson.

Both leaders see shifting WSDOT’s culture as critical to more effectively implement Practical Solutions. For a state bureaucracy with thousands of employees, many of whom have been with the agency for decades, a culture shift is a big task that the conference helps support.

Toward this goal of culture shift, the conference had a strong element of inspiration, including an inspirational speaker from outside the transportation sphere, and speakers on topics that challenge conventional wisdom on transportation planning and engineering.

This year, the inspirational speaker was Lt. Col. Rob ‘Waldo’ Waldman, former Air Force F-16 fighter pilot and author of Never Fly Solo. He spoke about his experiences flying into danger while relying on his fellow pilots and support crew to survive anti-aircraft attacks. He related how those experiences inform the concept of building trusting relationships and challenging yourself and those around you to excel at what you do.

By the end of his motivational talk, he had hundreds of bureaucrats and transportation geeks shouting “push it up” as they mimicked the motion pushing the throttle forward on their own imaginary F-16s.

Breakout sessions and panels aimed at some big picture concepts that challenge the road-heavy conventional wisdom that keeps many state DOTs mired in doing the same old things:

Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns provided a perspective that challenges the fiscal wisdom of low-density development, showing that a more incremental development in existing downtowns produces more economic value.
Three WSDOT employees representing Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers discussed generational differences and the unique challenges and opportunities in working with each other.
Robert Bullard gave conference attendees an overview of the emerging field of environmental justice and how WSDOT could incorporate this concept in order to be more inclusive in various aspects of its work
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and former Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory shared their experiences in partnering with their state DOTs to deliver (and sometimes block) transportation projects and the significant impacts for the communities they serve.
A panel on future trends in transportation included Harriet Tregoning, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Community Planning and Development at HUD; Dan Burden, Director of Innovation and Implementation at Blue Zones; and Ben Stone, T4A’s own Director of Arts and Culture.

We’ll continue to watch and encourage WSDOT’s efforts at innovation and Practical Solutions as they deliver projects from the new $16 billion legislative package that was passed in 2015. Practical Solutions language in that bill commits WSDOT to save 20-40 percent on the earmarked projects even as they engage to ensure they are meeting the needs of local communities.

WSDOT employees are not fighter pilots with their lives on the line if they don’t deliver, but the agency’s reputation is on the line, as are the lives of those who depend Washington’s ferry and highway system to deliver them safely to their destination every day.

“How Do We Become the Department of Yes?”

A new T4America member is hoping to successfully leverage the exploding landscape of new mobility options to meet more of their goals for encouraging smart development, reduce the amount of required single-occupant car trips and create a better city for tomorrow along the way.

This is a post originally published last week on our member portal especially for T4America members. Would you like to find out more about joining as a member?

Tell Me More

Scott Kubly, Seattle DOT

At the Intelligent Transportation Society of America Symposium at University of Washington in Seattle back in July, I had the privilege of hearing Seattle DOT Director Scott Kubly speak to the challenges local governments are facing as they attempt to adapt to new forms of mobility exploding all over the country — ride-for-hire services like Lyft and Uber, carshare services like Zipcar and Car2Go, and bikeshare. (Seattle is a new T4America member.)

I was impressed by Scott’s ability to step back and look at the whole picture in the context of the City of Seattle’s goals.

Seattle is growing quickly. There simply isn’t enough physical space for business as usual, and the city is adjusting accordingly. In the last 4 years, downtown Seattle added 40,000 employees, made possible in part because they planned for, and achieved, a drop in single occupant vehicle mode-share from 35 percent to 31 percent.

New mobility options are often sprouting so fast that it’s difficult for local governments (and regulations) to keep up, but they present a great opportunity for Seattle given the geometric constraints on physical space. “As we keep growing, we need to keep setting that mode-share target lower and lower and get people to use different types of modes, and we need to look at new options,” he said.

Scott suggests re-imagining departments of transportation less as infrastructure providers, and more as systems integrators whose actions are driven by the idea of improving the user’s experience.

As some examples of where that sort of integration to improve overall mobility for users, Scott pointed out the big return on investment for bike-share, and the potential for Uber and Lyft to provide more affordable late-night service than transit can accomplish.

The advent of Uber and Lyft certainly raises questions about drivers’ wages, equitable access, and the risks of congestion caused by oversupply of rides-for-hire that must all be addressed, but in a call to move the ball forward, Scott asks this:

“How do we become the department of yes? How do the public and private sectors work together and say ‘this is what our shared goal is’, so when there is a new service with no regulatory framework, how do we say ‘yeah that’s a cool idea and let’s figure it out.’”

Seattle seems to be figuring out a lot, and we’re excited to have them on board as a new T4A member.

It’s also worth reading this Scott Kubly interview with startup incubator 1776 from earlier this year. -Ed.

New bill would give local communities greater access to federal transportation funds

A bill introduced yesterday would give local communities across the country greater access to federal transportation funds to invest in their homegrown transportation plans and projects — answering one of the most consistent requests we hear from our coalition of local leaders and officials across the country.

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), speaking at a briefing on Capitol Hill in February, introduced the new Innovation in Surface Transportation Act with Rep. Dina Titus this week.

The Innovation in Surface Transportation Act (HR 4726), introduced yesterday in the House of Representatives by Reps. Rodney Davis (R-IL) and Dina Titus (D-NV), would provide improved decision-making, responsibility and greater access to federal transportation funds for local communities. It would carve out dollars within each state for competitive grants to be awarded to local communities by a diverse selection panel that includes representatives from the state DOT and local jurisdictions.

A constant refrain from the many local elected and business officials we’ve met with over the last few years is that they have little to no access to funds, or, no seats at the decision-making table. This bill would fix exactly that while also spurring innovation, collaboration and efficiency through competition. Awarding funds through a panel of stakeholders and DOT experts will help steer investment toward projects with the greatest bang for the buck.

“Competition spurs innovation that formula funds never ever will,” as T4’s Beth Osborne wrote about this type of competition in the Atlantic Cities a few weeks ago. “Competition generates incredible excitement and a desire to outdo your neighbor. As a result, federal dollars are made to go farther, more non-federal funds are brought in from both public and private sources, and every penny is targeted to accomplish multiple goals.”

We know that the civic leaders in communities across the country are more than willing to compete and be held accountable for the results of their investments, but they currently just don’t get enough access to the funds they need to meet their communities’ needs. This bill would require that some of the money flow down to communities — a great way to make good on Congress’s promise of more local control in MAP-21.

Eligible projects for the in-state grant competition would include all projects currently appropriate for the Surface Transportation Program — such as bridge repair or improvement, highway projects, freight movement, bike and pedestrian safety and transit, to name a few.

This proposal — along with its Senate companion discussed last week by Senators Booker and Wicker — would take a major step toward bringing funds down to the local level to ensure that the people who know the needs of their community best will help decide how transportation dollars should be spent.

We’ll have much more on the details of this program next week, so stay tuned.

Urge your Rep and your Senators to cosponsor this bill today. Send them a message today.

Read more from the press event where the bill was initially introduced to the public in Rep. Davis’ district last week.

U.S. communities step up, hoping a strong federal commitment to infrastructure will follow

Is the era of massive, transformational infrastructure investment over? Or are we merely in a transitional phase as the gas tax loses its former power and we debate both new revenue sources and even more importantly, new priorities, for the next generation of transportation investment?

One thing is certain: as Congress is finally close to passing a transportation bill more than 953 days after it first expired, many cities and communities have charged ahead with more “fine-grained” approaches to transportation funding and construction. These cities and regions have a sharp understanding that the choices made about infrastructure today affect their economies for years to come and are taking steps to make those needed investments today.

But will they be enough without the strong federal partner we’ve had for the last 50 years leading the way?

That remains to be seen, according to this compelling new report from the Urban Land Institute out yesterday, which lays out the state of infrastructure investment here and around the world. But it also points out innovative ways to take the situation we have — flat-lined federal investment and no likely windfall of cash for large scale infrastructure anytime soon — and do all we can with the dollars we have to build the system that will carry us deep into the 21st century.

One key change ULI suggests we might see is one we’ve been pushing for from day one at T4 America — and also in the current House/Senate conference: measuring the performance of the dollars we spend to see if they’re helping us meet our goals, and holding states accountable if they don’t. “Ironically, fiscal constraints finally may compel some better results,” they say, “figuring out what matters most, and what will get the best bang for the buck, becomes even more urgent.”

The report is a good overview of the state of our country’s infrastructure, how we fund it, and the challenges we’re currently facing right now — all of which are things we’ve all heard regularly. There’s been no shortage of reports and calls to action and reminders of the sorry state of our country’s infrastructure over the last few years. Which is why the most exciting parts of this report chronicle all the different ways that states, cities and local communities are stepping out on their own, raising funds from innovative sources, casting their own vision for transportation, and hoping that the federal government will soon again reaffirm its commitment as a strong financial partner.

As we’re fond of pointing out, when there’s transparency and accountability for exactly what transportation dollars are going to buy — this new transit line, that new busway, this new bridge project — transportation ballot measures pass close to 70 percent of the time, even when voters are taxing themselves. Check out this graphic from the report on transportation ballot measures.

Click to enlarge.

There’s also a great section on Measure R and America Fast Forward, Los Angeles’ innovative plan to build 30 years of transit projects in 10 years. Two-thirds of L.A. voters approved a 30-year sales tax as a dedicated funding stream for the program that will also be used to leverage what they hope will be loans and low-cost financing from the federal government. This L.A. story, just like so many others of innovation highlighted in the report, are indeed examples of innovation, but examples that urgently need federal help and partnership to truly succeed. They’re stepping up with innovation and local funding, but they can’t go it alone.

Let’s hope that Congress passes a strong transportation bill soon and affirms a new role for the federal government in both supporting and rewarding the kind of innovation highlighted in this report that’s beginning to bubble up around the country.

Read the full report here.