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Written by

Transportation for America

Published on

January 13, 2017

National & policy

Chao skates through hearing despite little info on infrastructure. “Transportation Secretary-designee Elaine Chao emerged from the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing today largely unscathed despite offering few concrete details about how she or Donald Trump planned to roll out a massive infrastructure investment program that the president-elect has promised.” (Politico)

Pelosi: Dems won’t back tax breaks ‘disguised’ as infrastructure bill. “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday reiterated a commitment to work with President-elect Donald Trump on a massive infrastructure package, but only under certain conditions.” (The Hill)

Transportation Agencies Will Finally Measure the Movement of People, Not Just Cars
“What you measure is what you get,” the saying goes, and for a long time, America’s transportation policy establishment was obsessed with measuring one thing: car congestion. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in the quest for free-flowing vehicular traffic. The result is wider highways, more sprawl, and more people stuck in congestion. But this week U.S. DOT took an important step to change course, releasing new standards to guide how transportation agencies measure their performance. Advocates for transit and walkability say the policy is a significant improvement.” (Streetsblog)

Local & state news

Walking in Nashville
CityLab
“Only about half of Nashville’s roads currently have sidewalks, and no one knows where to find the money to cover the rest of them. The sidewalk situation even became a point of contention in last year’s mayoral campaign. “We’re just chipping away at a huge deficit and huge need,” says Mary Beth Ikard, Nashville’s Transportation & Sustainability Manager.”

Transit

Openings and Construction Starts Planned for 2017
The Transport Politic
“There are major transit infrastructure projects under construction throughout North America thanks to significant interest from local officials and support from national governments. That momentum is likely to continue thanks to the passage of several transit-supporting tax referenda last November. But in the U.S., there are big questions about the impact of the incoming Trump Administration.”

Shared-use mobility & tech

New Transportation Department panel on automation to weigh in on self-driving cars
LA Times
“The U.S. Transportation Department has created an advisory committee on automation filled with representatives from the auto industry, ride-hailing companies, universities and the mayor of Los Angeles. The committee will hold its first meeting Monday to discuss automation issues, such as the development and deployment of self-driving cars.”

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ICYMI Member News transportation transportation funding