Transportation for America, Author at Transportation For America

About Transportation for America

For general inquiries about the campaign, email info [at] t4america [dot] org.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of October 6th

Stories You May Have Missed

As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you pertinent information. This includes news articles to inform your work. Check out a list of stories you may have missed last week.

President Trump still hasn’t released his infrastructure plan, despite repeated promises to do so. (NPR)
The New Democrats, a group of centrist House Democrats, released their infrastructure package policy principles last week. (The Hill)
“Congress Poised to Let Autonomous Car Companies Run Wild in Cities.” (Streetsblog)

What’s at stake for small and rural transit providers?

Federal transit funding is still on the chopping block. Those who operate or depend on transit — whether in small, rural areas or large, urban ones — must band together to convince both Congress and the President of the vital nature of public transportation services.

While we’ve frequently highlighted the ongoing, existential threats to the main source of federal funds for helping cities expand or create new public transportation lines or service, smaller cities and rural areas are also at risk of funding reductions, phase-outs or the total elimination of vital programs they depend upon.

In this new detailed memo (pdf), T4America lays out the specific threats facing rural areas and explains Congress’ and the administration’s efforts to cut or eliminate vital funding programs for public transportation. Get the full summary on:

What the president has proposed and the status of the current appropriations process
What you can do today
Formula transit programs, Small Starts, the TIGER competitive grant program, and
The outlook for the transit program

Transit providers of all sizes, in all parts of the country, should band together and start making the strongest possible case for preserving the federal transit program. Read our full summary and learn how you can take action.

Join us on October 23 for a live webinar discussion

Our team of experts will discuss rural transit providers, the projects that are at risk from these cuts, and what you can do to defend transit in your region. Join the live discussion on Monday, October 23, 2017 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT. Register today.

What’s at Stake for Rural Transit Funding in 2018 and Beyond

Federal transit programs for communities of all sizes face unprecedented levels of cuts

Federal transit funding — including the funding on which small and rural transit providers rely — is once again on the chopping block. At risk for smaller cities and rural areas are funding reductions, phase-outs or the total elimination of Small Starts, TIGER and formula funding. Those who operate or depend on transit — whether in small, rural areas or large, urban ones — must band together to convince both Congress and the President of the vital nature of public transportation services.

This detailed memo lays out the threat to rural areas from Congress and the administration’s efforts to cut or eliminate vital funding programs for public transportation. Read full memo here.

Also join our experts on October 23, 2017 at 3PM EDT and learn what is at stake for small and rural transit providers and what it means for your local and regional projects. Register here.

T4America Statement on Senate Commerce AV START Markup

On Wednesday, October 4, the Senate Commerce Committee marked up and approved the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act. Beth Osborne, senior policy advisor for T4America, offered this statement in response.

“We share the committee’s enthusiasm about the potential of automated vehicles (AVs) to reduce fatalities and improve access to necessities for all Americans. However, today’s committee markup is emblematic of what has been troubling about this entire process — it has all been too rushed and the process is too opaque.

“The committee is not listening to nor addressing the concerns expressed by city and state leaders who are ultimately responsible for the roads where these vehicles will operate. The preemption language in this bill challenges their ability to regulate their own roads and, without requirements to share any data on their operations, creates a climate of secrecy around AV testing or deployment. This approach is unlikely to win the public trust, which will be necessary to successfully bring these vehicles to market.

“Neither this bill nor its House counterpart is a product of methodical policymaking, gathering robust feedback from everyone involved, and forging a true bipartisan consensus. It’s more the product of an unfortunate lack of interest on a critical issue that could reshape our towns and cities.

“Local and state transportation leaders stand ready to address these problems before work on the bill is completed — or whenever the auto industry and Congress realize the confusion and problems this approach creates.”

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Senate revises bill on automated vehicles but fails to address the primary concerns of cities and states

On Wednesday, October 4, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act. A revised draft was released by the committee on September 29.

In numerous meetings with the Senate Commerce Committee, staff have agreed with us that cities and states must maintain their existing authority to manage the operation of all vehicles on their road networks. Unfortunately, the revised draft introduced last week does not reflect this.

“We appreciate that the committee heard our concerns on preemption, but they merely replaced their preemption language with language from the House bill, which still puts just as many cities and states at risk of losing control of their roads,” said Beth Osborne, Senior Policy Advisor of Transportation for America. “That House bill, and the preemption language within it, was hastily assembled and rushed through a House committee overnight with no time for comment or thoughtful debate from city or state transportation officials or law enforcement.”

The Senate bill restricts local governments from passing or enforcing any laws that are an “unreasonable restriction on the design, construction, or performance” of an automated vehicle. Without defining what “unreasonable restriction” or “performance” means, the language enables an endless series of lawsuits and leaves the management of our roads in the hands of judges.

Automated vehicles should be tested in real-world situations, but proper management and public safety should be paramount. This requires manufacturers sharing information on how these vehicles are operating and where they are struggling to keep up with the rules of the road with the agencies charged with managing those roadways. Merely requiring a publicly available safety report once a year does not cut it. Without access to real-time or near-real-time data on how these vehicles move throughout our streets, city and state governments as well as law enforcement will be unable to enforce their laws or adapt their infrastructure designs and investments in a timely way to ensure these vehicles have the necessary tools on the road to operate safely.

“Automated vehicles have the potential to make our cities safer, more efficient, and more economically productive, and cities want to do their part to bring this new technology to our streets,” said Linda Bailey, Executive Director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). “The legislation as currently written hinders this progress — weakening instead of strengthening cities’ and states’ ability to engage with private partners on safe operations and data sharing.”

This new technology is exciting and poised to have dramatic impacts on the safety of our streets in the long-term. But in the short-term, we need to give our cities and states — where these vehicles are operating — the authority and information to ensure their safety. Getting this right requires tackling challenges head on, and we’re disappointed the committee has chosen to run away from them.

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About T4A

Transportation for America is an alliance of elected, business and civic leaders from communities across the country, united to ensure that states and the federal government step up to invest in smart, homegrown, locally-driven transportation solutions — because these are the investments that hold the key to our future economic prosperity. Visit t4america.org

About NACTO

NACTO is an association of 55 North American cities formed to exchange transportation ideas, insights, and practices and cooperatively approach national transportation issues. The organization’s mission is to build cities as places for people, with safe, sustainable, accessible, and equitable transportation choices that support a strong economy and vibrant quality of life. To learn more, visit nacto.org.

Contact: Alexander Engel
National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO)
alex@nacto.org

Contact: Steve Davis
Transportation for America
202-971-3902
Steve.davis@t4america.org

Take action on Senate automated vehicles bill that would would leave cities, states, and the public in the dark

Congress is on the cusp of passing the very first federal law to regulate automated vehicles (AVs). Unfortunately, a Senate committee has produced a law that would leave cities, states, and the public in the dark while handing the keys to the industry.

Flickr photo by Ed and Eddie. Source

The AV START bill could put hundreds of thousands of AVs on the roads, preempt states and cities from having any oversight on how those vehicles operate, and keep the public from accessing any of the valuable data about where and how they are operating.

The Senate Commerce Committee will be considering this bill on Wednesday, October 4. Write your Senators today and urge them to reconsider and improve their approach.

Thus far, Congress has hastily legislated on a complicated issue with impacts that will be felt for decades primarily by people and groups who were never invited into the room.

Any state and local laws for AVs could be at risk if they are found to be an “unreasonable restriction” — vague language that will almost certainly lead to costly legal battles.

For example, if a city wants to prevent empty AVs from endlessly circling their streets or keep them from operating on certain streets, they could be left with no recourse for setting local policies to do so.

When it comes to safety, cities (and others) also need access to data on these vehicles’ performance on their own streets. Is there a particular intersection that’s more dangerous than others for automated vehicles? They’ll have no way to find out on their own.

While the bill does require manufacturers testing AVs to report all crashes to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and produce a publicly available annual safety report, there are no requirements for sharing more robust real-time or near-real-time data with cities or states. This ensures that no one other than the private companies doing the testing will be able to learn anything from the massive amounts of data produced by the tests.

In order to create more hospitable conditions for all modes of travel — especially AVs — cities and states need these data to inform and optimize their planning, policymaking and operations to prepare for the coming wave of automation.

Take action and tell the Senate that they need to do better — this issue has the potential to dramatically reshape our cities in profound ways.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of September 29th

Stories You May Have Missed

President Trump expressed skepticism over the idea of using public-private partnerships to fund infrastructure, saying those deals “don’t work”. (Bloomberg)
President’s Trump apparent change of heart on public-private infrastructure could threaten the administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure package proposal. (Transport Topics)
The Senate Environmental and Public Works (EPW) Committee is holding a hearing on Thursday on Paul Trombino, President Trump’s nominee to be Administrator of the Federal Highways Administration. Mr. Trombino is the former director of Iowa DOT. (Senate EPW)
Senate Democrats push for $500 billion in infrastructure investment (Washington Post)
The National Association of Rail Passengers (NARP) released a study on the positive economic benefits of Amtrak’s national network. (NARP)
Portland’s transit agency Tri-Met is “pitching a $1.7 billion bond measure to help pay for a new light-rail line as well as a slate of other regional transportation projects”. (Oregon-Live)

Introducing Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan

Transportation systems can and should be a powerful tool to help people access opportunity, drive economic development, improve health and safety, and build the civic and social capital that bind communities together.

And when artists team up with transportation professionals at a project’s outset, their collaboration can lead to new, creative, and more comprehensive solutions to today’s transportation challenges. This process known as creative placemaking is happening in communities across the country and transportation professionals are eager to know, what are the key trends and best practices?

Introducing Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan, a rigorous national examination of creative placemaking in the transportation planning process. Released today by Transportation for America in partnership with ArtPlace America, this new resource identifies ways that transportation professionals can integrate artists to deliver transportation projects more smoothly, improve safety, and build community support.

Download the report

This field scan explores seven of the most pressing challenges facing the transportation sector today, identifies how arts and culture contribute to solutions, and offers case studies from diverse community contexts:

Generating creative solutions for entrenched transportation projects
Making streets safer for all users
Organizing transportation advocates
Engaging multiple stakeholders for an inclusive process
Fostering local ownership
Alleviating the disruptive effects of construction
Healing wounds and divisions

In addition to transportation professionals, this new resource is designed for artists and other arts and cultural practitioners. The field scan aims to help these two audiences develop a shared language and set of mutual goals, so that communities will benefit from these powerful, cross-sector synergies.

Join the live webinar discussion

~~For a deep dive into Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan, register now for the live webinar discussion happening on October 13, 2017 from 1:00-2:00 pm EDT.~~

Catch up with a recording of the full webinar here:

Catch up with the launch webinar for Arts, Culture and Transportation: A Creative Placemaking Field Scan

Member Policy Report – Week of September 22nd

As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you pertinent information. This includes policy updates and summaries to inform your work. Check out the latest on Automated Vehicles and TIGER Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Senate Bill on Automated Vehicles

On Friday, September 8^th the Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) released draft legislation to set new federal regulations for automated vehicles (AVs). The bill would set nationwide policy for AVs and preempt state and local requirements; significantly expand the number of test vehicles allowed on the roads; and limit data sharing requirements. AV manufacturers and operators have advocated for a single, national set of rules. T4America and our partners are concerned that this bill cuts out local governments and undermines safety in our communities. T4America has been working with the Senate to ensure local governments preserve their authority to control their roadways, and improve data collection and sharing about autonomous vehicles.

A detailed summary of the draft bill is included below.

Background

On Friday, September 8, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee released a draft of their automated vehicle legislation. Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) have been leading the legislative efforts on automated vehicles in the Senate.

T4America expects the sponsors to release an updated bill draft this week. This revision may address some of the concerns raised by stakeholders, including T4America. The Commerce Committee is expected to markup the revised bill next week.

The release of the Senate discussion draft follows action in the House of Representatives, which on Wednesday, September 7 passed by voice vote their bipartisan automated vehicle legislation, H.R. 3388, the SELF DRIVE Act.

The impetus for both bills comes from a desire from manufacturers and operators of automated vehicles to move away from the current patchwork of state rules and regulations over testing and deployment of automated vehicles, and instead establish a relatively uniform standard at the federal level.

What T4America is Doing

T4America is working with the 16 cities in our Smart City Collaborative (SCC) and a number of partners including the National Association of Transportation Officials (NACTO), the National League of Cities (NLC), and New York City to give feedback to the Senate Commerce Committee on the concerns we have about the discussion draft, and push our proposed legislative language changes. We met with both majority and minority Committee staff on Friday and the Committee seemed receptive to some of our concerns around preemption and data sharing.

Additionally, we have met with staff for numerous Senators on the Commerce Committee about the discussion draft, including staff from Senators Nelson (D-FL), Baldwin (D-WI), Peters (D-MI), Cantwell (D-WA), Duckworth (D-IL), Klobuchar (D-MN), Markey (D-MA), Blumenthal (D-CT), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Inhofe (R-OK), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Blunt (R-MO).

What is in the bill

The Senate discussion draft does a number of things including:

Delineating the federal and state/local roles when it comes to regulating automated vehicles via a pre-emption clause;
Establishing a specific exemption from federal motor vehicle safety standards to test automated vehicles;
Raising the number of safety exemptions a manufacturer can get to test vehicles to 100,000 over three years; and
Establishing an automated vehicle advisory committee to advise the Secretary of U.S. DOT on a number of issues related to automated vehicles.

Preemption

The Senate draft preempts any state or local government from passing a new, or enforcing an existing, law or regulation in any of the nine categories of data that manufacturers are required to submit to the Secretary of Transportation as part of the Safety Evaluation Report required in section 9 of the draft. The nine areas preempted in the draft bill are:

How the AV avoids safety risks, including whether its safety systems are functioning properly;
Data collection of an AV’s performance, including its crashes and disengagements;
Cybersecurity;
Human-machine interface;
Crashworthiness;
Capabilities of the automated vehicle;
Post-crash behavior;
Compliance with traffic laws and rules of the road; and
The behavior and operation of the AV during on- or off-road testing, including an AV’s crash avoidance capability.

The stated intent is to apply the existing federal-state preemption framework, which mainly deals with the design, construction and performance of vehicles, to automated vehicles. However, as written the preemption language seems to be broader than the existing framework because it would preempt any state or local law and regulation related to the areas listed above, rather than just laws dealing with the design, construction or performance of automated vehicles in those areas.

Safety Evaluation Report

The Senate discussion draft requires that manufacturers must submit a Safety Evaluation Report (SER) to the U.S. DOT Secretary in order to receive the exemption to test AVs. The bill specifies that the manufacturer’s SER should provide a description of how the automated vehicle would address the same nine areas mentioned above.

The discussion draft also requires the Secretary to make this data publicly available. However, the draft requires the Secretary to redact the data considered to be a trade secret or confidential business information The bill prohibits the Secretary from conditioning pre-approval of the testing, deployment, or sale of automated vehicles to consumers on a review or approval of the Safety Evaluation Report submitted by manufacturers.

Data Sharing

Other than the SER that operators must submit to U.S. DOT, the discussion draft includes no requirements that operators or manufacturers of automated vehicles share any data with the states, localities, or law enforcement organizations in the places they are testing or deploying automated vehicles.

Automated vehicle technology has the potential to provide aggregated information about how people and goods move through our streets, but without access to these data, city and state governments will be blind to the impacts of emerging transportation technologies.

Data on vehicle collisions and near-misses allows cities to proactively redesign dangerous intersections and corridors to ensure safety for all street users. Understanding vehicle movement at the corridor level provides immense value for governments and citizens. Real-time data on vehicle speeds, travel times and volumes has the potential to inform speed limits, manage congestion, uncover patterns of excessive speeds, evaluate the success of street redesign projects and ultimately improve productivity and quality of life.

Because of the importance of real-time data, T4America and our partners are urging the Committee to include data sharing requirements which protects the privacy of users and legitimate trade secrets while providing states, municipalities and law enforcement the real time data necessary to ensure the safety of AVs in their communities. Such data would potentially cover areas like the number of crashes and disengagements an AV has had, the types of roads AVs have had problems on and the weather conditions at the time of a crash or disengagement.

Level of Exemptions

The bill would allow manufacturers to apply for an exemption from federal motor vehicle safety rules to test automated vehicles. Over a period of three years, the Senate draft would raise the cap on exemptions per manufacturer for testing automated vehicles forty-fold, from 2,500 to 100,000. There are potentially up to 20 manufacturers interested in testing automated vehicles, so if each manufacturer maximizes the 100,000 exemptions allowed, that could be up to 2 million automated vehicles testing on the road. There are no restrictions in the bill on where automated vehicles could test or restrictions on how many automated vehicles could be tested in a given area. Theoretically, a manufacturer could test all 100,000 vehicles in one city or state.

Automated Vehicle Advisory Committee

The Senate discussion draft proposes a new “Highly Automated Vehicles Technical Safety Committee” to advise the U.S. DOT Secretary on a host of issues related to the safety of automated vehicles. The discussion draft specifies that the Secretary shall select 12 members of the Committee drawing from industry, safety advocates, or state and local government representatives. The bill does not specify committee memberships for specific groups, however. Theoretically, the Secretary could appoint all 12 members from industry and zero from state and local governments or vice versa.

Commercial Vehicles

One issue totally left out of the Senate discussion draft is whether commercial vehicles (defined as motor vehicles over 10,000 pounds) should be included in this bill, which is a controversial topic. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing this past Wednesday specifically to examine whether commercial vehicles should be included in the bill. A number of witnesses, including the American Trucking Association, urged the Committee to include commercial vehicles, so that remains a possibility as the legislative process in the Senate moves forward. From our understanding, Chairman John Thune (R-SD) would like the legislation to include trucks while Democrats, including Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) are vehemently opposed to including automated trucks in this draft. If trucks are included in the draft, staff from Democratic offices have indicated that any chance of bipartisan support for the bill would go away.

Conclusion

There is tremendous interest in Congress in speeding up the testing and deployment of automated vehicles because of the concerns of industry that the U.S. is falling behind other countries because of a lack of a national regulatory framework for AVs. Additionally, Congress is excited about the life-saving and revolutionary benefits AVs can bring in terms of motor vehicle safety and expanding mobility options for the people with disabilities, seniors, and other groups that may not drive or have access to a car. Therefore, legislation in some form around AVs is likely to become law. Right now, Congress is trying to strike the right balance between deploying these AVs as fast as possible while making sure they are tested and deployed in the short term in a safe manner that doesn’t endanger the safety of other persons because of the problems and unforeseen issues that arise when testing a new technology.

TIGER Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

As a reminder, U.S. DOT recently released the FY 2017 notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the $500 million TIGER program. U.S. DOT will evaluate projects based on the extent to which they benefit safety, economic competitiveness, state of repair, quality of life and environmental sustainability. These are the same selection criteria used in the TIGER rounds from 2014, 2015, and 2016. However, this Administration will emphasize “improved access to reliable, safe, and affordable transportation for communities in rural areas, such as projects that improve infrastructure condition, address public health and safety, promote regional connectivity, or facilitate economic growth or competitiveness.”

Applications are due by 8:00 p.m. E.D.T. on October 16, 2017 through the grants.gov portal. U.S. DOT hosted informational webinars on Wednesday September 13th, Tuesday September 18th, and Wednesday September 19th. You can find recordings and information related to the webinars from U.S. DOT here.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of September 22nd

Stories You May Have Missed

London revoked Uber’s ability to operate in their city, saying Uber is “not fit and proper.” (Tech Crunch)
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has found that “the operators of two commuter trains involved in separate New York City-area crashes in the past year were both suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea.” (Progressive Railroading)
The Denver Post takes a look at the successes and failures of Denver’s transit system since Denver hosted Rail-Volution recently. (Denver Post)
The Washington Post reviews the four “dockless” bike share companies that recently launched their service in D.C. Dockless bike share has been popular in Europe and Asia, but is just starting to come to the United States. (Washington Post)
A district court in Massachusetts ruled against the city of Newton, Massachusetts’s restrictions on drone use, saying some of those restrictions were preempted by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. The ruling raises questions about the impact that any federal automated vehicle legislation might have on states and local governments, including cities. (Rupprecht Law)

Statement from Transportation for America on House Passage of THUD Appropriations

On Thursday, September 14, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3354, the “Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018”, which contains the fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations. Beth Osborne, interim T4America director, issued the following response:

“We are disappointed and concerned that the House decided to move ahead with a bill that cuts federal appropriations for vital transportation programs, including the TIGER and transit Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Programs. Local governments and voters are investing their own dollars on innovative transportation, housing, and neighborhood revitalization projects but they need help from these vital federal programs to make these things happen. This spending bill pulls the rug out from under those communities.

“The House-passed THUD spending bill zeroes out funding for TIGER, a crucial program that gives local governments direct access to federal dollars for innovative projects. TIGER projects are overwhelmingly multimodal and multijurisdictional projects — like rail connections to ports, complete streets, passenger rail, and freight improvements — that are often challenging to fund through the underlying formula programs. In 2016, U.S. DOT received 585 applications totaling over $9.3 billion, reflecting an overwhelming demand across the country for the TIGER program. Through the first seven rounds of grant awards, each TIGER dollar brought in 3.5 non-federal dollars. Given the $500 million appropriated last year by Congress, that’s over $1.5 billion in other critical infrastructure spending that would likely be lost under this bill.

“This bill also appropriates no money for new transit investments through the Small Starts and New Starts programs. These programs provide federal matching funds for communities and regions that are taking the initiative and committing hefty sums of their own local dollars to build or expand transit systems. Without additional federal funding for transit construction, its likely that few, if any, new transit projects will be built.

“This appropriations bill ignores why communities need federal community development and transportation programs. It’s not just that they need money or innovative tools — which, for the record, they do. They also need a reliable partner who can support their work, not austerity measures that punish them for taking action. If the federal government quits being that reliable partner — which this appropriations bill absolutely implies — it will cause lasting damage to American communities and break the President and Congress’s promise to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure. These programs invest in communities across the country, improving mobility, security, and economic opportunity. Now is not the time to slash these investments.

“We urge the Senate to reject the disinvestment this bill represents and instead pass a bill that reinvests and rebuilds America for the future.”

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of September 15th

Stories You May Have Missed

“An Infrastructure Deal Should Be Easy, But Isn’t.” (Bloomberg)
The House of Representatives passed the package of eight appropriations bill, including the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill, that they began consideration of last week. (The Hill)
The Chair of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, John Barrasso, published an op-ed about his plans on infrastructure. (Washington Examiner)
Slate covers U.S. DOT’s recently released autonomous vehicle regulation and explains why relying on voluntary safety efforts could be harmful to our communities. (Slate)
Wisconsin’s state budget bans cities and towns from using eminent domain to expand or build new sidewalks, bicycle lanes and trails. No such provision is applied to using eminent domain for expanding highways or roads. (Wisconsin State Journal)
Politico Europe covers how Amsterdam is leading in transportation innovation and how their embracement of the bicycle is a big reason why. (Politico Europe)
Op-Ed Essay: “The end of walking.” (Aeon)

Senate automated vehicles legislation would jeopardize the safety of millions and leave cities and states on the side of the road

For Immediate Release
September 12, 2017

Transportation for America (T4A) and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) issued the following response to the released Senate discussion draft of the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV START) Act from Chairman John Thune (SD) and Senator Gary Peters (MI).

We support the deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) and are pleased to see Congress supporting the effort of automakers to test and improve this technology. The best way to do this is to ensure that the testing is done with full transparency and in cooperation with the cities and states that own and manage the roads on which AVs are operating. Sadly, this legislation does not do that.

Protecting public safety is the fundamental role of government and has been the stated priority of the Commerce Committee for regulating automated vehicles, but the staff discussion draft circulated last Friday by Chairman Thune and Senator Peters puts business interests above the basic safety of Americans.

No one wants to see a patchwork of regulations that stifle innovation, but the unified federal framework is a poisoned chalice: it provides no mechanism for local, state, or even federal safety regulators to hold companies accountable for the safety of their vehicles or technology.

The bill’s requirement of a safety report is just an exercise: the draft bill actively prevents USDOT or any local government from taking any action based on a review of that data. If the safety report showed that a particular fleet of AVs was frequently blowing through red lights, even the Secretary of Transportation would have no recourse to require changes or to pull the cars from the road.

The bill strips states and local governments of the authority to manage the vehicles on their roadways and leaves them without the tools to deal with problems already arising during the testing and deployment of automated vehicles. Cities work to make streets safe places for all users and are not willing to endanger citizens for the sake of innovation with no levers of control. For example, if the safety report showed that a certain type of LIDAR system is incapable of reading a stop sign if vandalized with graffiti, or confused by bike lanes if painted a certain shade of green, state or local authorities — who own and maintain almost all roadways — would have no ability to intervene.

Automated vehicles will be deployed at the state and local level. But the draft legislation kicks cities and states to the curb by both failing to require any inclusion of state or local representatives on a new federal Highly Automated Vehicles Technical Safety Committee and by stripping away key means of local government control.

AVs should be tested in real-world situations, but proper management and public safety should be paramount. This draft legislation would put hundreds of thousands of untested vehicles on our streets without giving state and local governments critical information about where and how those vehicles are operating.

Understanding vehicle movement at the corridor level provides immense value for governments and citizens. Data on vehicle collisions and near-misses allows cities to proactively redesign dangerous intersections and corridors to ensure safety for all street users. Real-time data on vehicle speeds, travel times and volumes have the potential to inform speed limits, manage congestion, uncover patterns of excessive speeds, evaluate the success of street redesign projects and ultimately improve productivity and quality of life. But without access to these data, city and state governments will be blind to the impacts of emerging transportation technologies, how their construction and management of their roadways interacts with those technologies and unable to determine their own destinies.

Protecting public safety is the fundamental role of government, but this bill would actively prevent federal, state and local authorities from creating safe conditions for the testing and deployment of automated vehicles. Building public confidence should be in the industry’s self-interest and if the public doesn’t believe AVs are safe, this technology will go nowhere. It is hard to imagine how the deployment of AVs could be promoted effectively by hiding from the public their safety performance and preventing the managers of our roadways and public safety officers from having a role in managing them.

Instead of creating a framework that unlocks the transformative potential of this technology and allows cities and states to experiment and innovate to tackle their most pressing challenges, this draft puts business interests first, handcuffs transportation leaders and revokes their ability to keep our streets and residents safe by deploying automated vehicles in a thoughtful manner.

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About T4A

About NACTO

USDOT Seeks Applications for a Ninth Round of TIGER Grants

As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you the latest information and developments around federal policy. This information comes straight from the desk of our TIGER expert and T4America Interim Director Beth Osborne.

Dear T4America members,

USDOT is now seeking applications for a ninth round of TIGER grants. USDOT will be awarding a total of $500 million on a competitive basis to transportation projects that “will have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area, or a region.” While T4America fights for the continued existence of the TIGER program in 2018 and beyond, we wanted to share four quick things about this ninth round of TIGER grants as you consider applying:

1) There’s no need to rethink your existing projects or recast them for the new administration. It may be a surprise, but USDOT is using the same criteria for this round that they were using under President Obama in 2016. If you have a project you think is competitive or have submitted for recent rounds, don’t recast the project or rework the application expecting the criteria to be drastically different.

The one change was an inclusion of a rural focus, but even that emphasizes the typical goals of TIGER: “improved access to reliable, safe, and affordable transportation for communities in rural areas, such as projects that improve infrastructure condition, address public health and safety, promote regional connectivity, or facilitate economic growth or competitiveness.” And though unspoken in this notice of funding, USDOT and the Trump administration have put a big emphasis on public-private partnerships, which surely would be welcomed in the TIGER program as well.

2) Get your applications in quick. Another reason to avoid trying to recast a project or come up with a brand new project is that applications are due very soon. Unlike past rounds with as much as three months to prepare applications, there’s just a little over a month to submit your applications for consideration by October 16th. Therefore, you should choose a project that has a firm scope, budget and partners in order to get those applications in by the deadline.

3) Broad support will be vital. While the criteria may not have changed, the administration is likely to respond better to projects that have the broadest support from other local, state and federal elected leaders as well as business and civic leaders from you area. If you don’t have your congressional delegation on board, set up meetings as soon as possible to garner their support. Ask them to write supportive letters to USDOT and include your project as a topic of conversation at meetings with USDOT and other administration representatives. Having a broad bench of support from all levels of government for their project can have a positive impact on your project’s likelihood of winning an award. Why should USDOT select a project that’s not even supported by all the stakeholders?

4) Don’t forget, members can tap our expertise. As a benefit of membership, you can get free advice and staff time from T4America to answer questions about your application and help you submit the strongest application possible. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, which you can do through outreach director Ranata Reeder: ranata.reeder@t4america.org

We wish you all the best of luck. And we hope to have good news about preserving funding for TIGER in 2018, though we’ll be counting on your continued support and advocacy to buttress those efforts in Congress over the next month or two.

Beth Osborne
Interim Director

Recent Congressional Activity Summary-Week of September 8th

As a valued member, Transportation for America is dedicated to providing you the latest information and developments around federal policy. This dedication includes in-depth summaries of what is going on in Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT). Check out what you may have missed in our member webinar last week.

House of Representatives Appropriations

Before this Friday, current appropriations for the Federal Government were scheduled to expire September 30^th, which is the end of the 2017 fiscal year.

During this past week, the House of Representatives (House) considered H.R. 3354, a mini-omnibus package consisting of 8 appropriations bills, including the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill. The official title of the omnibus package is the “Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018.”

The four appropriations bills the House considered on Wednesday were 1) Agriculture/Rural Development 2) THUD, 3) Homeland Security and 4) State/Foreign Operations. On Thursday and Friday, the House began consideration of the four remaining appropriations bills which are 5) Interior/Environment, 6) Commerce, Justice, Science, 7) Financial Services and 8) Labor/Health and Human Services.

While a final House vote on the House appropriations package was initially scheduled for Friday, the impending arrival of Hurricane Irma caused the House to delay final consideration and passage of the “Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018” until this upcoming week. This decision was made in order to give the representatives from Florida, and other states likely to be impacted by Irma, time to get home to their constituents.

After the passage of these 8 bills, the House will have passed all 12 of their appropriations bills that fund the activities of the Federal Government. The House passed their first four appropriations bills before August recess; those bills fund the Defense Department, the Department of Veteran Affairs, Legislative Operations, and Energy and Water.

The House Rules Committee, which is the body of the House that determines the rules for debate on a given bill, advanced for floor consideration roughly 40 amendments out of the 90 amendments that were submitted to the Rules Committee for consideration on the House THUD bill. You can access T4America’s tracker of the amendments T4America was watching closely here.

There were two amendments that were made in order that T4America was concerned about. Those two amendments were the Ted Budd amendment (Republican, North Carolina’s 13^th Congressional District) and the Mo Brooks amendment (Republican, Alabama’s 5^th Congressional District). Representative Budd’s amendment would have: 1) cut $475 million from the Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair grants, which was funding intended in part for the Amtrak gateway project, 2) eliminated the possibility of restoring funding for the TIGER program by applying the savings to deficit reduction and 3) Shifted $400 million in funding from intercity city passenger rail grants to the New Starts Program. Representative Brooks’ amendment would have eliminated federal funding for Amtrak’s national network operations.

Thankfully, the Budd amendment failed to pass by a vote of 159-260 and the Brooks amendment failed to pass by a vote of 128-293.

Debt Ceiling and Continuing Resolution Agreement

On Wednesday, during a meeting with Congressional leaders from both parties, President Trump reached an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi to extend the debt ceiling and government funding by approximately three months until December 8^th, as part of a legislative package that provides federal funding for Hurricane Harvey relief and extends the federal flood insurance program temporarily. The Senate passed this legislative package on Thursday by a vote of 80-17 and the House of Representatives passed it on Friday by a vote of 316-90, sending the legislation to President Trump, which he signed into law on Friday.

Surprisingly, a majority of Republicans in both Houses voted to pass the package even though Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated they strongly disagreed with the deal President Trump struck with Democrats and the influential House Republican Study Committee and other outside conservative groups opposed the deal as well.

Due to the passage of the legislative package, the debt ceiling and appropriations for the Federal government will now end on December 8^th. We expect this deadline to lead to intense, high-stakes negotiations to reach a full year appropriations agreement and a long-term extension of the debt ceiling. Additionally, because of the importance of these negotiations, we expect immense pressure to include other items that are unrelated to appropriations but important to one party or the other. For example, early indications are that Democrats will insist on no discretionary funding spending cuts, the inclusion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and health care insurer payments to stabilize ACA as the price for their votes.

Senate Appropriations

The Senate Appropriations Committee is still in the process of writing and approving their Appropriations bills. So far, the process in the Senate has been bipartisan and they have rejected cuts to non-defense discretionary spending that the House has adopted in their appropriations bills. Due to the spending cuts, the process in the House has been more partisan than the Senate.

There has been no indication from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that there will be Senate floor time to consider individual appropriations bill. At this point, T4America expects that all 12 of the appropriations bills will be rolled up into a giant omnibus by the new deadline of December 8^th after negotiations over top line funding levels are completed with the House and between the two parties.

House and Senate Automated Vehicle Legislation

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed by voice vote their bipartisan automated vehicle legislation, H.R. 3388, the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution Act” or the “SELF DRIVE Act. Members can see our statement about the bill here. The House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection (DCCP) has been examining the issue since late 2016 and actively considering legislation since June.

The legislation that passed the House this past Wednesday was led by DCCP subcommittee Chairman Robert Latta (Republican, Ohio 5^th Congressional District) and ranking member Jan Schakowsky (Democrat, Illinois 9^th Congressional District). The legislation does a number of things including: 1) delineating the federal and state/local roles when it comes to regulating automated vehicles via a pre-emption clause, 2) establishing a specific exemption from federal motor vehicle safety standards to test automated vehicles, 3) raising the number of safety exemptions a manufacturer can get to test vehicles to 100,000 over three years and 4) establishing an automated vehicle advisory committee to advise the Secretary of U.S. DOT on a number of issues related to automated vehicles.

On Friday, the Senate Commerce Committee released a draft of their automated vehicle legislation. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (Republican, South Dakota) and Senator Gary Peters (Democrat, Michigan) have been leading the legislative efforts in the Senate. The Smart Cities team is currently analyzing the Senate bill and will continue to work with Senators to make improvements to the House AV bill.

TIGER Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

On Thursday, U.S. DOT released the FY 2017 notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the $500 million TIGER program. U.S. DOT will evaluate projects based on the extent to which they benefit safety, economic competitiveness, state of repair, quality of life and environmental sustainability. These are the same selection criteria used in the TIGER rounds from 2014, 2015 and 2016. However, this Administration will emphasize “improved access to reliable, safe, and affordable transportation for communities in rural areas, such as projects that improve infrastructure condition, address public health and safety, promote regional connectivity, or facilitate economic growth or competitiveness.”

Applications are due by 8:00 p.m. E.D.T. on October 16, 2017 and U.S. DOT is hosting informational webinars on Wednesday September 13^th, Tuesday September 18^th, and Wednesday September 19^th.

President Trump Nominations to U.S. DOT Agencies

On Friday, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Mr. Howard R. Elliot to be administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and Mr. Paul Trombino III to be the administrator of the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA). Mr. Elliot most recently served as the Vice President of Public Safety, Health, Environment and Security for Class 1 Railroad CSX Transportation. Mr Trombino is the former director of the Iowa Department of Transportation from 2011 to 2016 under Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and the former President of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO). The U.S. Senate must confirm both nominees.

With these nominees, President Trump has nominated someone to head FHWA, PHMSA, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) while the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) still await nominees to lead them.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of September 8th

Stories You May Have Missed

The House of Representatives on Friday cleared a short-term measure to avoid a government shutdown and raise the debt limit through December 8th, ratifying a deal President Trump struck with Democrats. (The Hill)
Earlier in the week, President Trump reached a deal with Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to provide Hurricane Harvey relief and raise the debt ceiling and extend government funding until December 8^th. (Politico)
The House of Representatives began consideration of a package of 8 appropriations bills this week, including the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill. (See T4America’s blog post and amendment tracker here)
The House of Representatives rejected a proposed amendment to the THUD appropriations bill that would have defunded Amtrak. (The Hill)
Because of Hurricane Irma, the House delayed final passage of the appropriations package until the week of September 11^th. (Politico)
House Republicans still lack the votes to pass their draft House budget, putting at risk their efforts to pass tax reform. (The Hill)

U.S. DEPARTMENT of TRANSPORTATION House FY2018 APPROPRIATIONS BILL AMENDMENT SUMMARY

As of September 5th 2017

INTRODUCTION

On Monday July 17^th, the House Appropriations Committee marked up and passed the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2018. The House THUD bill would appropriate $17.8 billion in discretionary FY 2018 funding to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), a $646 million decrease from the FY 2017 funding level. The full text of the House draft bill can be found here.

The THUD bill is part of a package of six appropriations bills that the full House of Representatives will consider together, and we expect that the House will consider this package during the week of September 4^th. The House Rules Committee is scheduled on Tuesday September 5^th to consider the 89 amendments proposed to the THUD bill and decide what amendments to make “in order” and advance to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

We urge you to call your Representatives and make your voices heard on the below amendments that the House of Representatives may consider in the near future.

TIGER

Current Bill: The House FY 2018 bill eliminates funding for the TIGER program, which was funded at $500 million in FY 2017.

Amendments Proposed:

Maxine Waters (D-CA) Amendment #1: Provides $7.5 billion for the TIGER program.

Maxine Waters (D-CA) Amendment #2: Provides $550 million for the TIGER program, specifically requires the Secretary to award the funds using the 2016 notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) criteria, and requires that the Secretary distributes the grants 225 days after the enactment of the bill.

Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) Amendment: Provides $500 million for the TIGER program.

Rod Blum (R-IA) Amendment: Provides $200 million for the TIGER program and reduces HUD tenant rental assistance by $200 million as an offset.

T4America’s Position: We SUPPORT efforts to fund TIGER because it is a crucial program that gives local governments direct access to federal dollars for innovative projects. TIGER projects are overwhelmingly multimodal and multi-jurisdictional projects – like rail connections to ports, complete streets, passenger rail, and freight improvements – that are often challenging to fund through the underlying formula programs.

However, we OPPOSE paying for a TIGER program by cutting the HUD tenant rental assistance program, which is also a crucial program. There is enough money, as evident by past appropriations bills that fund both, to sufficiently fund these two important programs.

New Starts, Small Starts, Core Capacity (Capital Investment Grant Program)

Current Bill: The House bill allocates $1.75 billion to the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program, which is $660 million less than the FY 2017 enacted funding level of $2.4 billion. It is also $549 million less than the authorized level for the program in the FAST Act. Of this $1.75 billion, $1.008 billion is set-aside for New Starts projects that have full funding grant agreements (FFGAs), $145.7 million for Core Capacity projects, and $182 million for Small Starts projects.

Of the remaining CIG funding, $400 million would fund “joint Amtrak-public transit projects.” This language indicates that the Subcommittee intends the funding to go to the Gateway project, a rail improvement project in the Northeast Corridor. With all this funding dedicated to Gateway, there would be no remaining funding would be available for any of the CIG projects that anticipate getting an FFGA signed in 2018 or late 2017.

The House bill also includes language directing the USDOT Secretary to “continue to administer the Capital Investment Grant Program in accordance with the procedural and substantive requirements of” the law, including directing the “Secretary to continue to advance eligible projects into project development and engineering in the capital investment grant evaluation.” Basically, when CIG projects become eligible to move along in the pipeline, this language requires the Secretary to advance them. The Committees included this language because the Administration has stated a desire to block funding for any new CIG projects by not advancing or taking in new projects into the program. While this language challenges that approach, under the House bill, the lack of funding available for additional New Starts projects would effectively prevent new projects from moving forward until at least 2019.

Amendments Proposed:

Darren Soto (D-FL) Amendment: Increases the amount of funding for small starts funding by $82 million and decreases funding for intercity passenger rail projects by $82 million as an offset.

Mark Amodei (R-NV) Amendment: Requires the Secretary of Transportation to continue administering the current Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program in accordance with current law and requires the USDOT secretary to enter into a grant agreement with any small starts project that has satisfied the current eligibility requirements of the small starts program.

T4America Position: We OPPOSE proposals to offset funding for small starts by taking money from intercity passenger rail funding, which is also important. There is enough money, as evident by past appropriations bills, to sufficiently fund both programs and we should not be cutting funding from one program to fund the other.

We SUPPORT legislative language that increases the likelihood that the CIG program will continue operating as it should and also moves future small starts projects forward by ensuring these projects get grant agreements when they are ready.

Amtrak, CRISI, State of Good Repair, and REG

Current Bill: The House FY 2018 bill provides $1.4 billion for Amtrak. Of this, $1.1 billion is reserved for the National Network, which is consistent with the FAST Act authorized amount, and $328 million for the Northeast Corridor (NEC), which is a decrease from the $515 million authorized amount in the FAST Act.

The Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program is funded under the House bill at $25 million, a decrease from the $230 million authorized under the FAST Act and less than half of the $68 million that the program received in FY 2017. The draft bill does not provide funding for the Restoration and Enhancement Grants (REG) program, which authorized at $20 million under the FAST Act and funded at $5 million in FY 2017..

The House FY 2018 bill also provides $500 million for Federal State Partnership State of Good Repair grants, significantly above the $175 million authorized for FY 2018. In spending this funding, the bill directs USDOT to “first give preference to eligible projects for which the environmental impact statement required under the National Environmental Policy Act and design work is already complete at the time of the grant application review, or to projects that address major critical assets which have conditions that pose a substantial risk now or in the future to the reliability of train service.” This language indicates that funding would be directed to the Gateway’s Portal North Bridge and Hudson River Tunnel projects. Overall, the Gateway project could receive $900 million in grant funding under the bill – about one sixth of the $5.4 billion in discretionary appropriations for non-aviation programs.

Amendments Proposed:
Mo Brooks (R-AL) Amendment #1: Eliminates funding for Amtrak’s National Network only.

Mo Brooks (R-AL) amendment #2: Eliminates both the funding for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and Amtrak’s National Network.

Mo Brooks (R-AL) Amendment #3: Eliminates funding for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor only

Jim Himes (D-CT) Amendment: Increases funding for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor account by $30 million and decreases essential air service funding by $30 million as an offset.

Ted Budd (R-NC) Amendment: Eliminates the $900 million allocation for the Amtrak gateway program, increases funding for national New Starts Projects by $400 million and applies savings from the elimination of the TIGER Grant program to deficit reduction.

T4America’s Position: We STRONGLY OPPOSE the elimination of funding for Amtrak, which is crucial to the economy vitality of our nation and communities across our country. The National Network provides mobility options for and acts as an economic catalyst to small and rural communities across the country. For many residents in these communities, the Amtrak connection is their primary way of traveling around the country, especially in areas that are losing Essential Air Service. Similarly, Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor is the primary travel option for millions of people traveling the congested Northeast Corridor every year. Not only does it take cars off our congested roadways, benefiting train and road users alike, but the Northeast Corridor is a huge economic driver for communities located along the Corridor. Cutting funding for Amtrak’s National Network and Northeast Corridor would decrease our nation’s prosperity, harm the economic vitality of communities that Amtrak serves, and greatly lower the amount of personal mobility and freedom that people that use Amtrak currently have. The House of Representatives rightly voted down these amendments two years ago and should do so again.

We also OPPOSE funding for the Northeast Corridor by taking funding from the Essential Air Service program. While Northeast corridor rail funding is important to the urban communities along the corridor and our nation’s economy as a whole, the essential air service program is important to many rural communities that would not have airline service otherwise. Our transportation system should and can meet the needs of both our urban and rural communities and this amendment would needlessly cause a divide between urban and rural communities when we need all of our communities united in a push for greater infrastructure funding overall.

Finally, we OPPOSE amendments that pit one infrastructure priority against another one.

Other Amendments To Watch:

Kevin Brady (R-TX) Amendment: Prohibits federal funding, including a grant or loan agreement, for the development or construction of high-speed rail, with non-interoperable technology, in the State of Texas.

T4America’s Position: We OPPOSE efforts to limit the ability of the federal government to advance high-speed rail in Texas. Texas currently has an exciting privately led effort underway to build high-speed rail between Houston and Dallas. While the private group leading the effort has indicated they don’t have plans to seek financial support from the federal government, we shouldn’t prohibit the federal government from providing financial support if the need arise and there are benefits to providing that financial support. The federal government provides billions of dollars in funding to other modes of transportation, including highway and other transit projects, so the federal government shouldn’t be prohibited from providing funding in this case if it becomes a good idea to do so.

Jamie Herrera-Butler (R-WA) Amendment: Prohibits federal funds from being used to establish or collect tolls on Interstate 5 or Interstate 205 in the state of Washington or Oregon.

T4America’s Position: We OPPOSE efforts to limit the ability of Washington State or Oregon to use tolling as a financing option for infrastructure projects. Congress hasn’t raised the gas tax since 1991 and therefore there is a national funding crisis for transportation. Because Congress has repeatedly been unable to step up to the plate, States increasingly have taking the lead and either raised their gas tax or found other innovative solutions, including tolling, to raise revenue to fund transportation and other infrastructure projects. Congress shouldn’t prohibit states from taking much needed steps, including tolling, to solve a problem that Congress has so far refused to solve.

Al Green (D-TX) Amendment: Restores $250,000 in funding for the Department of Transportation Office of Civil Rights and reduces USDOT salary and expenses by $250,000 as an offset

T4America’s Position: We SUPPORT efforts to maintain funding for the Office of Civil Rights within USDOT. Unfortunately even today, there are still many equity issues in the way we fund transportation projects and the individual projects and modes of transportation that we do ultimately fund. The Office of Civil Rights is crucial in our effort to ensure that we solve the equity challenges and gaps that still exist in our transportation system today.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of September 1st

Stories You May Have Missed

“President Trump’s infrastructure package will be broken up into three pieces, with the largest chunk of funding dedicated to projects that already have some private or local money secured.” (The Hill)
“Trump infrastructure package could be stretched too thin.” (The Hill)
“White House wants to help states, cities offload infrastructure.” (Reuters)
The House of Representatives will vote on automated vehicle legislation next week. (Reuters)
“Governing Examines How Better Bus Service Became ‘“The Hottest Trend In Transit.”’ (Governing, via Streetsblog)
A coalition has formed to support Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s proposed transit referendum in 2018. (Tennessean)

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of August 25th

Stories You May Have Missed

President Trump has dropped plans to form an infrastructure council that would have advised him on the infrastructure plan his administration is putting together. (Bloomberg)
“The Trump administration is seeking input from rural communities around the U.S. as it assembles a $1 trillion infrastructure package.” (The Hill)
The U.S. Senators from New Jersey and New York have called on U.S. DOT to revisit their plan to withdraw a proposed regulation to test rail and truck operators for sleep apnea. (Progressive Railroading)
Our partners, the National Complete Streets Coalition (NSCS), did a question and answer session with a board member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on their new report documenting that 31% of all deaths on our roadways are due to speeding. The report provides recommendations on how to reduce deaths. (NCSC, Streetsblog)
Asset Recycling an Alternative Approach to P3s. Learn more about the practice of selling or leasing existing, publicly-owned infrastructure and using the proceeds to pay for building or maintaining other infrastructure. Read T4A member summary here.

Webinar recap: What is asset recycling?

Catch up with our webinar on Asset Recycling: An Alternative Approach to P3s with the full recording of the presentation.

In light of the current administration’s intense focus on public-private partnerships (P3s), last week we discussed a specific type of P3 known as asset recycling, the practice of selling or leasing existing, publicly-owned infrastructure and using the proceeds to pay for building or maintaining other infrastructure.

Along with T4America expert Beth Osborne, Robert Puentes, President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, discussed the strengths, weaknesses and potential pitfalls of this approach for transportation, and shared three specific case studies from Australia, Virginia, and Indiana.

View the full session below.

Is your organization a Transportation for America member? Transportation for America is dedicated to building strong coalitions and delivering policy wins, funding opportunities, and more to our members. Proudly supporting public entities, businesses, non-profit organizations, and universities, our members receive exclusive transportation policy information and a host of other benefits. Contact us about joining today.

T4A members can read the full summary on asset recycling here. (You may need to log in first.)