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Indiana Governor signs bill allowing Indianapolis to vote on transit ballot measures
In a huge victory for citizens and the local business community, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) Wednesday signed a long-sought bill giving metro Indianapolis counties the right to vote on funding a much-expanded public transportation network, including bus rapid transit.
Locals encountering help or hindrance from states on their transportation plans
Several places have been in the news lately as they find their ambitious efforts to solve transportation challenges hinging on legislative action this lawmaking season. In some, state legislators are helping out with enabling legislation, but in others they are challenging the concept of local control and threatening needed investment.
As feds OK funding, critical legislators move to block Nashville’s planned transit investment
Opponents in the Tennessee legislature have put forward an amendment designed to stop Nashville’s bus rapid transit line, eliciting howls of protest over legislative intervention in a local project previously approved by the state DOT.
Summary of the President’s budget for transportation
This week President Obama released his proposal for next fiscal year’s budget (FY15), outlining his vision and priorities for the coming fiscal year starting this October. The President’s budget for transportation, which aligns with many things that Transportation for America and our alliance of local leaders across the country have been proposing — from the need to shore up the trust fund to the urgent economic imperative to make new investments in transportation at all levels.
In Hill event, local leaders make case for federal support for transportation needs
Before a packed room on Capitol Hill, local leaders from three very different communities shared one very specific message with a handful of Congressmen and at least four dozen staffers: If Congress doesn’t act to shore up the nation’s transportation fund before it goes insolvent later this year, their cities and communities would bear the brunt of the pain.
Our series on local successes continues: Normal, Illinois
This inspiring story from Normal, Illinois is one that we’ve been following here for quite some time. Normal’s story is the third in our series of these stories that illustrate how local communities across the country are casting a vision for transportation investments and often putting their own skin in the game first with local funding while hoping for a strong federal partner to make those plans a reality. And that’s just what Normal found through the federal TIGER program.
Shining a spotlight on the nation’s strapped transportation fund this Wednesday
It’s not a new story by now: states and local governments stand to lose nearly all access to federal transportation support next year if Congress doesn’t act to shore up the nation’s transportation fund sometime before the end of the summer. So far, we’ve mostly talked about this as a national story, but make no mistake: insolvency would have huge impacts on local communities. To explore the issue in that light, we’re supporting a bipartisan briefing pulled together by two key House members
Denver conference will showcase transportation success – but will others be allowed to emulate it?
Almost 1,000 people heading to Denver, Colorado this week for the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference will get to see up close what we recently called “a bold bet on an ambitious and comprehensive plan to expand their transportation network a decade ago” in our profile of Denver’s transportation success.
CBO: Highway Trust Fund hole even deeper than expected
New revenue projections for the Highway Trust Fund released this week from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that, not only is the nation’s transportation fund going in the red sooner than expected, but the gap to maintain promised funding levels has increased by about $5 billion.
Cities are “laboratories of innovation.” Should they have more control of transportation funding?
That was the implied assertion made by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in a widely-circulated op-ed last week on Huffington Post. But is it accurate to paint today’s debate over this point as a black-and-white “age-old tug of war between state transportation officials and their city-level counterparts” about doling out money, as National Journal did in a question to their panel of transportation experts? Or is the problem more that we’re entering a new age of transportation needs armed with the last era’s transportation policies?
Our Can-Do Places series continues: Denver
Faced with potential employers suggesting that the lack of transit connections were preventing Denver from realizing their economic development goals, the region’s leaders banded together and made a bold bet on an ambitious and comprehensive plan to expand their transportation network a decade ago.
Graphic: Comparing the 2014 bipartisan budget to 2013
Congress passed the first full budget in three years last night after the Senate vote that will provide stable or increased funding for key programs we’ve been fighting for over the last few years. Take a look at this graphic which shows the good news for transportation in this 2014 budget compared to FY2013 figures post-sequestration.
Cuts restored, progress possible in critical budget deal
Positive news from Congress today! Yes, you heard right. Just months after budget sequestration and a government shutdown put transportation funding at risk, House leaders have agreed to a budget deal that would provide stable or increased funding for key programs that you’ve helped us defend over the last few years.
In 2013, 20-plus states took up transportation funding: Here’s the final tally
With a large number of state legislatures convening as the new year gets underway, it’s worth a look back at an important trend from 2013: States stepping forward to raise additional money for transportation. With federal funding remaining flat in 2012′s transportation bill (MAP-21) and after years of deferred action during the long recession, a large number of states, metro areas and local communities moved to supplement federal dollars with new revenues of their own.
T4 brings mayors to Washington to tell Secretary Foxx about the importance of passenger rail
T4America brought together a group of mayors to visit with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx — a former mayor himself — and deliver a message about the importance of passenger rail to the economies of those communities they represent.
Watch live today as we launch a new alliance of #CanDoLeaders
Today, we’re launching the next phase of T4 America: A new alliance of business, elected, and civic leaders from cities, towns and suburbs across the nation. The new alliance kicks off today: Tune in this morning to the live webcast, which goes live at 8:30 a.m. eastern time.
Amendments offered to improve the already solid Senate yearly transportation funding bill
Already standing in sharp contrast to the House’s approach to funding transportation for the next fiscal year, leaders in the Senate are working to further improve the smart Senate transportation funding bill through a handful of amendments to the bill as it reaches the floor.
As the House aims to slash, tell the Senate to protect money for rail, transit & TIGER in next week’s budget vote
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While the House plan for transportation slashes money for passenger rail, new transit construction and innovative TIGER grants, a Senate committee has drafted a budget that increases funding for new transit construction, keeps and expands TIGER, provides support for Amtrak and passenger rail improvements, and funds a new grant program to jumpstart progress on repairing critical bridges.
Key Senate committee recognizes the importance of passenger rail, TIGER, transit and repairing our nation’s bridges
Less than a week after the release of The Fix We’re In For — our report on the nation’s bridges showing that one in nine US bridges are structurally deficient — a key Senate committee passed a yearly funding bill that provides new money for repairing these deficient bridges across the country.
The backlog of our country’s deficient bridges is indeed shrinking, but barely
We hope you had a chance to check out our new report yesterday on the state of our nation’s bridges? 1 in 9 US bridges — about 66,500 in total — are rated structurally deficient and in urgent need of repairs, maintenance or even replacement. This is an updated version of the data we released two years ago, and the findings are much the same: Everyday, Americans of all different stripes drive across these deficient bridges, with more than 260 million trips taken each day on these bridges. And though we’ve gotten about 0.5 percent better nationally in the last two years, from 11.5 to 11 percent total deficient, that’s only a difference of about 2,400 deficient bridges.
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