A newly-released documentary available both on radio and online surveys a variety of Americans about their perspectives on the nation’s public transportation system. “Passengers,” as the program was dubbed, aired on WAMU (D.C.’s NPR affiliate), a number of public radio stations in most major U.S. markets and nationwide on NPR World and NPR’s Sirius XM [...]

Walk Score, an innovative tool that allows users to check an areas’ walkability and accessibility, just released its revised rankings on America’s most walkable cities. The top ten finishers for 2011 were: 1) New York; 2) San Francisco; 3) Boston; 4) Chicago; 5) Philadelphia; 6) Seattle; 7) Washington, DC; 8) Miami; 9) Minneapolis; and 10) Oakland. [...]

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 [...]

Photo Credit: TransLink In a blog post last Thursday, Streetsblog Capitol Hill’s Tanya Snyder tackled a question that has been marinating since Transportation for America released “Aging in Place, Stuck without Options,” addressing seniors’ mobility challenges: Is it the job of overextended transit agencies – and the responsibility of taxpayers – to expand transit to [...]

By 2015, more than 15.5 million Americans 65 and older will live in communities where public transportation service is poor or non-existent. That number will continue to grow rapidly as the baby boom generation “ages in place” in suburbs and exurbs with few mobility options for those who do not drive. How will we address [...]

Last week, we released Aging in Place, Stuck without Options, documenting the more than 15.5 million Americans 65 years and older who, by 2015,  will live in places with poor or non-existent public transportation. The report ranked metro areas according to the percentage of seniors projected to face poor transit access, and asked: How do [...]

A poll released last week shatters the conventional wisdom that Americans are divided about climate change and its potential cures. Contrary to an undeniable divide in elite political opinion, the survey from Yale University’s Project on Climate Change Communication found that 71 percent of Americans believe global warming should be a priority, with 13 identifying [...]

In April, the Long Island Bus system in Nassau County, New York was on the verge of cutting bus service in half until a funding deal between state and local officials halted the reductions with an $8.6 million cash infusion. Now, with the temporary lifeline slated to end in December, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has announced his intention to privatize the system by 2012.

By 2015, more than 15.5 million Americans 65 and older will live in communities where public transportation service is poor or non-existent. That number will grow rapidly as the baby boom generation “ages in place” in suburbs and exurbs with few mobility options for those who do not drive. This new report ranks metro areas by the percentage of seniors with poor access to public transportation, now and in the coming years, and presents other data on aging and transportation.

The unofficial release of a draft six-year transportation bill last week offers a promising albeit non-definitive glimpse of Obama administration priorities for the nation’s infrastructure programs. The proposal, titled the Transportation Opportunities Act, boosts resources for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s core highway program while making significant investments in transit. High-speed rail receives $8 billion upfront and $53 billion over six years, and $27.5 billion is directed toward a new Livability Program that folds many existing pedestrian, bicycling and transit elements under one umbrella.