This morning, representatives from Transportation for America and other key stakeholders joined President Obama and a bipartisan working group in making the case for renewed and expanded investment in America’s infrastructure. The accompanying report concludes that immediate and aggressive action on rebuilding roads, bridges, rail and public transit would create good-paying jobs and lay the foundation for future economic growth.

When President Obama made his announcement on Labor Day about investing in infrastructure, most media outlets focused in directly on the $50 billion amount that would be spent up front to jumpstart infrastructure investment — something we already noted last week. But he also talked about the need for a reformed long-term transportation reauthorization, the full six-year bill that would provide certainty to job creation and the economy. So the million dollar question has been, when will we see this bill?

The Transportation Equity Network’s “More Transit = More Jobs” report dovetailed nicely with President Obama’s infrastructure initiative unveiled this week, receiving a good deal of media coverage for its conclusion that transit investment would result in hundreds of thousands of jobs. TEN outlined how a significant shift in federal transportation funds from highways to public transit — without spending more money overall — would impact 20 metropolitan areas in the United States.

President Obama was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin today, Labor Day, talking up the White House’s brand new plan to create jobs through $50 billion in new transportation and infrastructure investment. “The President’s initiative, as we understand it based on the broad outlines issued today, will give much-needed help to the economy while kick-starting the long-delayed transformation of the nation’s outdated surface transportation program,” said T4 America Director James Corless.

A map of the Chicago Transit Authority system. Note: a version of this post was also published on the National Journal’s Transportation Experts blog. This country is in desperate need of innovation. We are still mired in a recession triggered by a collapse in real estate that was driven in no small part by the [...]

Does it really require an “assault on the automobile” to begin to change the government polices that literally drove us into abject oil dependency? That’s the underlying question in a fascinating cover story in Congressional Quarterly this week. Reporter Kathryn Wolfe looks at the challenges facing the Obama administration’s efforts.

President Obama stressed America’s reliance on oil during his Oval Office address last week, noting that we consume 20 percent of the world’s reserves while supplying only 2 percent. The transportation sector accounts for 70 percent of the nation’s oil consumption. The need for a blueprint to address these imbalances could not be clearer, says Natural Resources Defense Council Executive Director Peter Lehner. Lehner points to the T4 Blueprint as an important guidepost.

President Obama signed the HIRE Act this morning in the Rose Garden at the White House, and T4 America was fortunate enough to have been invited to the event. While this bill doesn’t contain the amount of money for transportation infrastructure like the stimulus had last year, it does have a few important provisions for transportation.

Is “livability” a valid proposition for big metropolitan areas alone? Some in Congress seem to think so, but we suspect that arises from a misreading of the term. Recently, some members of Congress have expressed concern that this initiative applies only to urban areas. The truth is that rural towns and smaller cities have just as much – and very likely more – need for funds to help create smart plans and to fund innovative projects than metro areas.

President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget is a step forward for transportation options and livable communities and contains $1 billion in programs and grants to help turn this positive vision into reality. It is gratifying that Obama chose to boost funding on transportation and livability as other programs face cuts. His team understand that investing in the neighborhoods and communities of tomorrow can both create jobs and lay the foundation for future prosperity.