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.

846 days and counting since our transportation program formally expired; both the House and Senate are finally on the verge of moving a transportation bill. We already wrote that the House could release their draft transportation bill as early as Friday. What about the Senate? They’ve made some progress already, moving 2 of 4 portions of their [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate Commerce Committee today adopted two key policy measures for the upcoming authorization of the federal transportation program. The “Surface Transportation and Freight Policy Act of 2011” establishes policy goals for the federal surface transportation program, such as addressing congestion, improving access to multiple travel options, supporting domestic manufacturing and reducing [...]

The House has not yet released the full text of a transportation bill proposal, but the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has released an outline of the principles that will be included in the bill. We posted an analysis of the outline here. This is one in a short series of posts looking into some of [...]

Many states fail to track the results of their transportation dollars, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States and the Rockefeller Foundation. The report, Measuring Transportation Investments: The Road to Results, is quick to tie the timing of its findings to the current debate over including more performance measures in [...]

U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) took a big step forward today in the fight to build a 21st Century transportation system by introducing “The Federal Surface Transportation Policy and Planning Act of 2009″ — a bold bill laying out clear guidelines for exactly what the next five-year federal transportation spending plan should accomplish, and Transportation For America’s proposals were clearly echoed in the legislation.