Stories worth reading – July 16, 2015
Here are a few curated stories we’re reading and talking about this week:
First, it’s another busy week in Congress. We wanted to make sure that you saw that we had a big win yesterday in the Commerce Committee. Read on for our take on what happened yesterday and what to expect as the July 31 deadline nears.
Senate committee responds to outcry, restores competitive TIGER grant program in final bill
From the T4A blog
After many of you combined to send in over 1,700 letters to your Senators over the last 48 hours and we organized a letter of more than 150 elected officials, DOTs, MPOs, chambers of commerce and others, Senate Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) amended the bill late yesterday before the committee markup and removed the language that eliminated the TIGER program as we know it.
Other stories on the T4A blog.
Join us on Thursday for an inside look at transportation reauthorization in Congress
From the T4A blog
Join Smart Growth America and Transportation for America for a special open conversation about what’s happening right now in transportation policy this Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 4:00 PM EDT.
Over 150 elected officials, DOTs, MPOs, chambers of commerce and others voice strong support for restoring TIGER program
From the T4A blog
With the the Senate Commerce Committee due to mark up their portion of a long-term transportation bill that will eliminate the competitive TIGER grant program and refocus its funds on a multimodal freight program, more than 150 organizations and elected officials signed a letter urging the committee to restore and authorize the TIGER program.
Headlines
Streets Experiments Made This City Engineer a Celebrity Bureaucrat
Next City
In responding so positively to DIY activists, Chang propelled himself into the consciousness of Seattle’s bike and ped-loving urbanist crowd and gave them hope that perhaps some SDOT engineers “got it” and might actually bring Seattle’s lagging infrastructure into the 21st century.
No Silver Bullet for Creating More Accessible Transportation Networks
Living Cities
Today, these “shared mobility” services connect many people to their destinations, while others—namely, low-income communities of color—have often been left behind. […] Like many complex urban issues, no one system or policy will be the silver bullet. Rather, cities need to provide a range of progressive policies and transportation choices, both public and private, to limit barriers and provide an array of opportunities for safe, efficient and inclusive transportation.
MARTA makes an $8 billion pitch to change the face of metro Atlanta
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Over the next seven months, the people at MARTA will quietly button-hole local leaders and state lawmakers — top Republicans included — with the aim of building support for an $8 billion expansion of heavy, commuter rail that would transform the region. The future of metro Atlanta could become startlingly linear — a single file of major economic development up and down what is now Georgia 400, built along a rail line that would link Alpharetta with downtown Atlanta and its airport beyond.
A researcher studied common claims of bikeshare benefits. Among those that held up: it’s good for health and for the local economy
Next City
It turns out that bike-share supporters aren’t grounded in hyperbole. [Study author Miriam] Ricci found evidence that supported many of the claimed benefits including economic and health impact, new cyclist creation, and more. But there’s also a serious lack of proof that bike-sharing programs reduce congestion (in some cases, they may even increase congestion), get people out of their cars or help the environment.
Zipcar, Google and why the carsharing wars are just beginning
GreenBiz
Now, however, the carsharing industry is at a turning point where evolving business models — round trip or one way? free-floating vehicles or cars docked at specific stations? — are poised to collide with parallel breakthroughs in ridesharing, electric vehicles and self-driving cars.
We can’t cross that bridge when we come to it if the bridge itself is in disrepair
Fast Lane (USDOT’s blog)
Today, we released a set of Fact Sheets showing the condition of transportation in all 50 states. It’s not a pretty picture.
The Clearest Explanation Yet for Why Millennials Are Driving Less
CityLab
Two theories lead the charge. The first is that demographic or economic factors are primarily to blame. Since so many Millennials are out of work or delaying the start of family life, they have less daily need to drive. That certainly makes sense. The second idea suggests that young people fundamentally have a different attitude toward cars than previous generations did at that age, instead preferring to live in the city longer and travel by multiple alternative modes. That’s also a logical conclusion, if a bit harder to quantify. The truth might be a little of this, a little of that, and even some of the other.
Advocates in Prince George’s County, Maryland, hope the Purple Line light rail line will spur greater economic development
The Washington Post
When finally built, the Purple Line will stitch together two jurisdictions with dramatically different needs, priorities and resources. Its 16-mile route crosses a stark east-west economic divide in the Maryland suburbs, from the cramped, immigrant-occupied apartments of Riverdale Park and Langley Park in Prince George’s to Silver Spring’s thriving business district and the multimillion-dollar condos rising in downtown Bethesda.
Hamilton County, north of Indianapolis, crafting tax-funded transit plan
Indianapolis Business Journal
Elected officials are wary to support a massive transit project, arguing public dollars shouldn’t be spent on a system that might fail to attract riders. But business and economic development representatives are welcoming the idea as some employees struggle to find transportation to and from work.