T4America Blog

Transportation for America’s year in review

As 2014 draws to a close, we are taking a look back at our five most popular posts over the last year.

It has been a busy 12 months: We stood up an advisory board of prominent mayors, business leaders and others as we continued to make local funding and latitude our top priority. We brought people from 30 states together as we launched our new state advocacy network and followed it immediately with a new guidebook for innovative metropolitan regions. We dogged the implementation of MAP-21, and won a victory on a proposed safety rule. We tracked the progress of smart transportation plans at the ballot box, and demonstrated that nearly all state legislators lived on after to voting to increase their state’s gasoline tax.

Here are T4America’s most-clicked posts over the past year:

5. Important transportation ballot measures decided yesterday

“Despite the defeat Tuesday of some high-profile measures, transportation funding asks continue to be approved at very high rates – and a few key wins may have impact for years to come.”

4. Inclusive planning, bipartisan support and ambitious investments are fueling economic prosperity

 “With stories of partisan gridlock making headlines every day, Utah stands out as a model of collaborative planning for a better future. State leaders and citizens have managed to stare down a recession while making transportation investments that accommodate projected population growth and bolster the economy and quality of life.”

3. States stepping up to raise transportation revenue

Since the start of 2013, major new proposals from governors, state legislatures and blue ribbon commissions galore have sparked a new debate over the ways we collect revenue for transportation at every level.

2. The Innovative MPO

 America today is a metropolitan nation: More than 85 percent of us live in metro areas large and small. That makes planning for how people and goods move within and through these metropolitan areas more critical than ever. You may never even consider the fact, but chances, your commute this morning was shaped by the work of a metropolitan planning organization – and not only your commute, but also your entire metro region, to some degree. The organizations who are tasked with providing that guidance are known as metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs).

1. T4America launches new state transportation network during ‘historic’ gathering in Denver

Representative from 30 states – business leaders, legislators, local elected leaders, advocates and others – gathered in Denver’s historic Oxford Hotel and its newly reopened Union Station for our Capital Ideas conference to learn how states can raise money for smart, 21^st century investments in transportation. Judging by the enthusiastic engagement over two days last Thursday and Friday, it felt like the start of something big.