Stories worth reading – October 1, 2015
Good afternoon. Here are a few curated stories we’re reading and talking about this week.
Members-only story
The intersection of arts, culture and infrastructure: why transportation agencies should embrace “creative placemaking”
When arts and culture collaborations include a deliberate emphasis on community values and assets, they fall under an umbrella known as creative placemaking. In the transportation context, creative placemaking is an approach that deeply engages arts, culture, and creativity — especially from underrepresented communities— in planning and design so that the resulting infrastructure project better reflects and celebrates local culture, heritage and values.
How Can a State Department of Transportation Do Right by the Locals?
A key theme in a recent Washington State DOT conference was a recognition that the state DOT needs to do more to engage with local constituents and agencies and meet local needs, particularly in cities. Those cities are the engines of economic growth, and where the default approach of the past half-century — road widening to speed driving at the expense of other goals — did not, does not, and will not work.
Federal update: Path clears on a short-term deal to avoid government shutdown
Though all federal funding expires on Wednesday, September 30, 2015, Congress appears poised to avoid a government shutdown and extend current funding levels through December 11, 2015. The U.S. Senate may pass a continuing resolution (CR) spending bill tomorrow with House passage expected the same day. What will happen between now and this new December 11th spending deadline is less clear in light of Speaker of House John Boehner’s (R-OH) unexpected retirement announced last Friday.
From the T4A blog
Local communities in Utah and beyond will decide their transportation funding fate this November
As November approaches, voters in a majority of Utah’s counties will be weighing a decision to approve a 0.25-cent increase in their counties’ sales tax to fund transportation projects in those counties. This is just one of many notable ballot measures for transportation on the horizon for this fall and next year.
Providing a roadmap for starting passenger rail service between New Orleans and Baton Rouge
New Orleans and Baton Rouge are the two biggest cities in Louisiana, but they lack a passenger rail connection. On Monday, The Southern Rail Commission (SRC) released a gubernatorial briefing book, authored by Transportation for America’s Beth Osborne, that provides the Louisiana governor and legislature with a how-to guide for starting daily passenger rail service between the two cities.
Politicians meddling with North Carolina’s shift to a merit-based process for choosing transportation projects
Just two years after instituting a new process to choose transportation projects based on merit and award funds in a more transparent process intended to be free of political interference, a handful of North Carolina legislators reinserted politics back into the process in an attempt to stop a light rail project in the Raleigh-Durham metro area.
City leaders from Indy, Raleigh and Nashville get inspired by the secrets to Denver’s transit success
Delegations of city leaders from Nashville, Raleigh and Indianapolis wrapped up the latest two-day Transportation Innovation Academy workshop in Denver last week, where they learned firsthand about the years of hard work that went into Denver’s economic development plan to vastly expand the city’s transportation options, including new buses, light rail and commuter rail.
Headlines
8 cities that show you what the future will look like
Wired
The cities of tomorrow might still self-assemble haltingly, but done right, the process won’t be accidental. A city shouldn’t just happen anymore. Every block, every building, every brick represents innumerable decisions. Decide well, and cities are magic.
Transit-oriented developments key in addressing Hawaii’s housing crunch, state official says
Pacific Business News
When it comes to solving Hawaii’s housing crunch, especially on Oahu, state officials say they are looking at a wide variety of solutions, such as encouraging more housing development along the future rail line, pushing for more public-private partnerships, and reassessing the use of public lands.
Miami-Dade business leaders push for improvements in mass transit system
Miami Herald
Business leaders are taking a more direct role in promoting improvements and enhancements in South Florida’s public transportation system. The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, for example, is working to identify one or two achievable major transit improvements to advocate and push county officials to act on. The chamber’s transportation and infrastructure committee is also organizing four events aimed at promoting transit in creative ways to persuade people to drive less.
Transportation Among Barriers to Louisiana’s ‘Disconnected Workers’
WRKF (Baton Rouge)
“[A]t CPEX we have heard from all of these organizations and others that transportation is a consistent barrier for workers who are trying really hard to advance their situations, access services, get more education, get the training they need; they want these opportunities but if they don’t have access to a personal vehicle they may not be able to do it.”
Technology Might Kill The Idea Of Car Ownership — And That’s A Good Thing
Huffington Post
A new report released Monday by the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment declares that transportation is at a tipping point. “Megacities” such as London, Shanghai and New York City are already glutted with automobiles, but car ownership could double worldwide by 2030 if something doesn’t change. And something has to change: Cars already contribute an enormous amount of pollution to our atmosphere, and that pollution is a factor in millions of early deaths every single year. Forget the American dream: Solving this problem is a global imperative. Thankfully, we’re en route.