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Stories You May Have Missed – Week of August 18th

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.

  • Driving Community Change, The National Urban League and Lyft Inc. are joining forces to advance ride-hailing services for every community, especially those that are underserved. (Morning Consult)
  • Traffic deaths down slightly, but still historically high. Traffic deaths have declined slightly this year but are still higher than two years ago, according to preliminary estimates.(The Hill)
  • Public forum will explore TOD in Chicago. (Curbed Chicago)

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of August 10th

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 says he may not work with Dems on infrastructure” but still expects bipartisan support for any plan his administration proposes. (The Hill)
  • “Self-driving cars could transform jobs held by 1 in 9 U.S. workers” (Marketwatch)
  • “Salt Lake City seeks major transit improvements, but money could be a roadblock.” (Salt Lake Tribune)
  • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says that New York will actively consider congestion pricing in New York City. (NY Times)
  • The Washington Post looks at the transit renaissance going on in Los Angeles (Washington Post)

An exciting time for bus rapid transit

A new study found that BRT in Eugene, OR had a positive impact on the livability of the surrounding communities. (Photo credit: Lane Transit District)

Investments in high-capacity public transit such as light rail and subways continue to demonstrate their ability to substantially increase property values along transit alignments. But can we say the same about buses?

Interest in bus rapid transit (BRT) is booming across the country as an effective and more affordable transit investment. Yet little research has been completed on their economic impacts in the U.S., partially because only a limited number of BRT projects have been completed here. Elected officials, real estate developers, and other key decision-makers are eager for more information on whether investments in BRT will pay off in their own communities.

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), in partnership with Transportation for America, released an early study last year that found that BRT can indeed generate economic development, attract jobs, retails, and affordable housing.

Building on that research, NITC recently published a new study that takes a closer look at the impact of one specific BRT system. Researchers examined the Emerald Express (EmX) — a BRT system that connects downtown Eugene to Springfield, Oregon — and found that the EmX line improved the livability of the surrounding communities:

“The EmX line had a statistically significant positive impact on property values, which stands to benefit the community as a whole: the related taxes can be used to pay for transportation and other infrastructure, further enhancing the economic development of the community.”

This is an exciting time for BRT in the U.S. — BRT projects are currently underway in dozens of cities, several of which are taking part in the FTA TOD Technical Assistance Initiative. Visit the TODresources.org hub to access a trove of research on how to maximize the development potential of BRT corridors.

Recent TOD news

Here are a few things that have been happening this week with TOD projects across the country.

(Cross-posted from TODresources.org)

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of August 4th

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. 

  • “Infrastructure borrowing drops as U.S. states await” details on President Trump’s infrastructure plan. (Reuters)
  • Amid growing frustration with the lack of details from the Trump administration about their infrastructure plan, Congressional committees are moving ahead gathering input and drafting their own plans. (The Hill)
  • The Atlantic Magazine dives into why Congressional Republicans are having trouble passing a Fiscal-Year 2018 budget resolution and what it means for their legislative agenda, including tax reform. (The Atlantic)
  • The Federal Rail Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have withdrawn a proposed regulation from the Obama administration that would have required railroad and truck companies to test employees for sleep apnea. (USA Today)
  • Senators from New York and New Jersey have prevented confirmation of certain U.S. DOT nominees because of a dispute with U.S. DOT on the amount of federal involvement in the Gateway project that would build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City. (Cetus/Wall Street Journal)
  • U.S. DOT has announced the winners $79 million in FASTLANE/INFRA grant awards for small projects. Awards for large projects under FASTLANE/INFRA have been delayed until the fall and U.S. DOT is requiring entities seeking awards for large projects to resubmit their application. (Progressive Railroading)

Summary of FY2018 Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development “THUD” Appropriations Bill

On Thursday July 27, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is funded at $19.47 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2018. This is $978 million above the FY2017 enacted level. The Committee’s priority is placed on programs that improve the safety, reliability, and efficiency of the transportation system.

The Senate Appropriations Committee proposes to increase funding for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program after the President and the House Appropriations Committee proposed to eliminate it. Instead, the bill increases funding to $550 million – $50 million more than the FY 2017 funding level. The bill also reserves 30 percent of the awards for rural areas.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Susan M. Collins in her opening statement at the markup highlighted that TIGER is a proven program that funds competitive grants for state and local road, transit, port, and railroad construction projects. “Last year, 585 applicants from all 50 states and territories requested nearly $9.3 billion in assistance, demonstrating the need for and popularity of this program. Only 40 of these applications could be funded,” said Chairman Collins.

The committee expressed strong support for the TIGER program in the report that accompanies the appropriations bill and required the Trump Administration to apply the criteria used in FY2016 to the FY2018 round of TIGER.

The Senate bill allocates a total of $2.133 billion for the transit Capital Investment Grant (CIG) Program, which is $279.7 million less than the FY 2017 enacted level and $900.9 million more than the President’s budget request. Of the $2.133 billion, 1.008 billion is set aside for New Starts projects that already have full funding grant agreements (FFGAs), and $454 million is reserved for new New Starts FFGAs. Additionally, $149.9 million is reserved to complete funding for previously funded Small Starts projects that do not have signed agreements, and $168.4 million is reserved for new Small Starts projects. Finally, $200 million is set aside to cover the cost of the two existing Core Capacity projects, and $145.7 million is reserved for new Core Capacity FFGAs.

The Senate Bill 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 Committee included this language in response to the Administration’s budget proposal that stated it would only fund transit projects with an existing FFGA.

The appropriations bill also fully funds the highway, transit, and safety programs authorized by the FAST Act and funded through the Highway Trust Fund. The bill includes $45 billion for the Federal-aid Highways Program. In addition, the bill continues to grant State Departments of Transportation permission to repurpose old, unused earmarks for important infrastructure projects.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is funded at $1.97 billion, $122 million above the FY 2017 enacted level. The bill provisions include $358.4 million for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and $1.242 billion for Amtrak’s National Network, which is enough funding to continue service for all current routes. The bill also provides $250.1 million to fund FRA’s safety, operations, research and development activities. The Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement Grants Program is funded at $92.5 million, of which $35.5 million is for initiation or restoration of passenger rail. The Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Grants program is funded at $26 million and the Restoration and Enhancement Grants program is funded at $5 million.

Additionally, the committee made a major statement to the administration about policy in its appropriations report (page 8 and 9) and the importance of stable and robust transportation funding.

“The President’s request includes $200,000,000,000 to leverage $1,000,000,000,000 in new investment in the Nation’s physical infrastructure. This proposal is expected to include policy, regulatory, and legislative proposals, ranging from changes to existing programs, to the creation of new programs and initiatives to reshape how the Federal government invests, permits, and collaborates on infrastructure. To date, no such proposal has been submitted to the Committee. While the Committee fully supports additional spending for our Nation’s infrastructure, it strongly disagrees with the Administration’s assertion that providing Federal dollars for infrastructure has created, ‘an unhealthy dynamic in which State and local governments delay projects in the hope of receiving Federal funds.’”

“Without Federal investment in infrastructure, particularly in our nation’s highway network and transit systems, the ability to move freight across the country and the free movement of people between States with vastly differing abilities to fund infrastructure would be compromised. The Committee is also concerned that the Administration does not realize that State and local governments, through the statewide transportation improvement program planning process, already determine the “right level–and type–of infrastructure investment needed for their communities.” More troubling is the fact that the budget request assumes that after fiscal year 2020, highway trust fund outlays will be at levels that are supported with existing tax receipts, resulting in an outlay reduction of $95,000,000,000 over fiscal years 2021-2027. The Administration’s approach is dangerously close to support for devolution of Federal funding provided by the Highway Trust Fund, an idea the Committee strongly opposes.”

Overall, the bill protects funding for the programs that T4America believes are crucial to our transportation system like TIGER and the Capital Investment Grant Program. This bill is a great step to ensure that key infrastructure and transit programs will be funded accordingly, and will continue to serve the nations most vulnerable persons.

T4America and LA CoMotion partner for a week-long discussion on urban mobility challenges and solutions

Transportation for America is delighted to partner with LA CoMotion, a unique five-day event bringing together the global leaders of the urban mobility revolution this November. 

The first edition of LA CoMotion takes place in Downtown Los Angeles’ vibrant Arts District from November 15th through 19th, 2017. The immersive event features cutting-edge discussions, demos, test drives and exhibitions – an exciting glimpse into our urban future. 

John Rossant, Founder and Chief Curator of LA CoMotion said:

“The urban mobility revolution is set to transform every city in the world. Robust urban transport is indispensable to making cities more inclusive, connected, healthy and vibrant. LA CoMotion is pleased to partner with Transportation for America, an alliance of community leaders working to build stronger economies through better transportation networks. We look forward to working with T4America to deploy mobility solutions for all communities, large and small.”

LA CoMotion will also dovetail with the next meeting of our Smart Cities Collaborative, which we’ll be hosting in Downtown Los Angeles, November 14th and 15th. 

This meeting will close out the first year of our Collaborative. As they have throughout the past year, participant cities will collaborate to develop policies and projects enabling them to test and pilot automated vehicles, shared mobility and other emerging technologies. Additionally, cities will explore innovative procurement and contracting models, how best to partner with private mobility and data providers, and will work together to create state level policy frameworks in preparation for the upcoming 2018 legislative sessions across the country.

We’re looking forward to our partnership with LA CoMotion and to an inspiring week of dynamic conversations around the future of smart mobility this November. 

Friends and members of Transportation for America can request a special discount code for LA CoMotion here.

National brain trust gathers to strategize around arts, culture and transportation

Last month, a group of twenty four transportation officials, engineers, planners, artists, policymakers, and advocates from around the country gathered together in Indianapolis to sweat and scheme about how to use arts and culture to build support for more equitable transportation infrastructure.

Twenty-four leaders, ArtPlace America and T4America gathered in Indy for a rare opportunity to talk transportation and creative placemaking.

Transportation for America (a program of Smart Growth America) and ArtPlace America co-hosted this working group, which was graciously hosted by Big Car Collaborative and the Harrison Center for the Arts, two of many incredible organizations working at the intersection of arts, culture, and community development in Indy.

We chose Indianapolis partly because Indy voters approved a 0.25 percent income tax hike back in November 2016 to drastically improve bus service. The new tax will raise more than $54 million annually for the construction of three bus rapid transit lines, new buses, increased route frequency and new sidewalks and bus shelters. But the devil is in the details, and Indy-based transportation, community development and arts organizations and individuals are keen on ensuring that these new investments serve existing residents by centering community input through arts and culture. Local organizations like Transit Drives Indy, LISC, House Poem, Big Car, IndyGo, and others have invested in creative placemaking practices to tackle the role of transportation in improving access and quality of life for everyone in the Indianapolis region. (T4A will also be working closely with Transit Drives Indy over the coming year as part of the Cultural Corridor Consortium.)

Geoff Anderson, President of Smart Growth America, welcomes the working group.

During our time in Indianapolis, the working group visited a few sites including a complete streets project at Maple Crossing, part of Great Places 2020, and Big Car’s Artist & Public Life Residency, an artists’ housing and community land trust development. We also heard from leaders of creative placemaking projects around the country; working group participants Amanda Newman, Joseph Kunkel, Alan Nakagawa, and Peter Svarzbein shared stories from their roles as the creative instigators behind incredible arts-driven transportation projects in Takoma Park, MD, Kewa Pueblo, NM, Los Angeles, CA, and El Paso, TX, respectively.

We ended our time together by breaking into four groups — federal, state and regional, local municipal, and local advocacy — to brainstorm specific ideas and initiatives to further support the adoption of arts and cultural strategies as crucial to solving challenges within the transportation sector.

A storefront in the Maple Crossing corridor where Harrison Center for the Arts is fostering arts programming that engages the local community.

Several themes emerged as the working group participants reflected on our team’s ongoing research:

The need to define “community engagement”

Considering how arts and culture can help transportation agencies better engage communities is just one, narrow aspect of how creative work can help produce better transit infrastructure. There are also varying degrees and definitions of community engagement. While to some it may conjure images of an inaccessible public sector official sitting behind a desk while community members yell at them, others see community engagement as a more significant power shift where transit planning is led by residents themselves. Many working group members agreed that approaching transportation planning through arts and culture helps us go beyond the cursory or surface-level community engagement that is all too common.

Leading with equity and inclusion

The inclusion of arts and cultural strategies doesn’t automatically lead to transportation projects that serve everyone fairly or reflect the diversity of all stakeholders. Equity must be part of the DNA of any project. One participant identified the need to be clear about what ethnic and socioeconomic communities a project is intended to serve and what kinds of cultural heritage the arts and transit project would lift up: If the neighborhood is predominantly African American, yet the arts presented are culturally European, what message does this send regarding the project’s audience? Another participant suggested that because some communities have experienced a history of disinvestment — notably communities of color, immigrant communities, and lower- or mixed-income communities — an equitable approach to transportation investment will actually require disproportionate investment to level the playing field.

Making a stronger argument for how arts and culture impact key transportation priorities: safety, congestion, schedule, and cost

The transportation field operates with these four core considerations, and participants noted that we must effectively demonstrate how arts and culture impact these concerns to be taken seriously. Others felt that the inclusion of arts and cultural approaches should and could actually help shift which considerations are important and what transportation professionals actually evaluate as success, moving away from impersonal quantitative metrics to a more holistic picture that includes the quality of experience. Yet, other participants prioritized the importance of continuing to identify the key traditional transportation stakeholders who need to understand and advocate for the impact of creative placemaking, and create tools that can empower these allies.

Changing arts and culture from being a “nice to have” to a “need to have”

Many in this field have been working for decades to build beautiful public art at transit stops and on bus and train lines. However, our group noted that an area for growth is the opportunity to impress upon transportation leaders that apart from this more visible form of the arts, arts and culture can play a vital role in the actual transportation planning processes, implementation, policymaking, and more.

Making better use of a variety of forms of expertise, including lived experience, technical knowledge, and political power in our planning, design, and maintenance of transit infrastructure

We spent a lot of time discussing the different barriers to better integrating cultural approaches to transportation. For example, engineers may not feel comfortable with or be encouraged to communicate transparently with residents, and residents may feel unmotivated to share their experiences after past histories of being negatively impacted or disrupted by new transportation projects. Participants discussed how to overcome these kinds of barriers, articulating that this kind of synergy is required to get us to better community outcomes and that arts and culture can help lead the way.

Stay tuned for the release this fall of our Arts, Culture and Transportation Field Scan — an examination of creative placemaking in practice across the country by T4A’s Arts and Culture team, commissioned by ArtPlace America — which includes deeper exploration of the ideas discussed above. Sign up for our newsletter here to receive ongoing updates.

This post was written by Mallory Nezam for T4America and Danya Sherman from ArtPlace America.

Working group participants:

  • Geoff Anderson, Smart Growth America
  • Chris Appleton, Wonderroot
  • Emiko Atherton, National Complete Streets Coalition
  • Scott Bogren, Community Transportation Association of America
  • Rochelle Carpenter, Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization
  • Stephanie Gidigbi, Natural Resources Defense Council
  • Tedd Grain, Local Initiatives Support Corporation Indianapolis
  • Neil Greenberg, Detroit Department of Transportation
  • Susie Hagie, Colorado Department of Transportation
  • Sabina Haque, Artist
  • Scott Hercik, Appalachian Regional Commission
  • Joseph Kunkel, Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative
  • Joung Lee, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
  • Dana Lucero, Oregon Metro
  • Alan Nakagawa, Los Angeles Department of Transportation
  • Amanda Newman, Health for America, Artist
  • Peter Svarzbein, Artist
  • Anthony Taylor, Major Taylor Bicycling Club of Minnesota
  • Shin-Pei Tsay, Gehl Institute
  • Sarita Turner, PolicyLink & Transportation Equity Caucus
  • Jim Walker, Big Car
  • Patricia Walsh, Americans for the Arts
  • Orson Watson, Consultant
  • Sara Zimmerman, Safe Routes to School

About Transportation for America’s Arts & Culture Initiative

In 2016, T4A began its arts and culture initiative with the launch of The Scenic Route, an interactive creative placemaking resource for transportation professionals. More recently, T4A launched the Cultural Corridor Consortium, a grant making and technical assistance program that supports communities to use arts and culture to solve local transportation challenges. T4A is currently producing a field scan in collaboration with ArtPlace America examining the impact of arts and culture on transportation projects. T4A is a leader in the national creative placemaking movement, which seeks to support and institutionalize the role of artists in contributing to community development projects, especially in advancing smart and equitable transportation solutions.

About ArtPlace America’s Research Strategies

ArtPlace Research Strategies seek to understand both the processes undertaken and the outcomes achieved by creative placemaking practice.  By looking deeply into the activities and learnings surfaced in both the National Creative Placemaking Fund and Community Development Investments program, we bring the arts and cultural work happening in communities of all sizes and contexts together with an analysis of key trends and measures of success in community development practice. Rather than attempting to develop a single approach or system for evaluating creative placemaking project impacts – which vary widely depending on local context, stated goals, and partners – ArtPlace research products are intended more broadly to support practitioners and organizations interested in taking up creative placemaking work. Our partnership with Transportation for America is part of a broader research initiative that we refer to as the Translating Outcomes initiative.

Learn about asset recycling, a financing approach for infrastructure

With the current administration’s intense focus on public-private partnerships and ways to bring more private sector dollars into building transportation infrastructure, join us on August 16th for a discussion of a specific form of public-private partnership (P3) known as asset recycling. 

Asset recycling is the practice of selling or leasing existing, publicly-owned infrastructure and using the proceeds to pay for building or maintaining other infrastructure. While we like to point out that financing is not a replacement for direct federal or state investment infrastructure, it’s clear that the current administration and Congress are both eager to encourage more private dollars to flow into infrastructure investment and financing somehow.

Join us for this short webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, August 16th where we’ll discuss the strengths, weaknesses and potential pitfalls of this approach for transportation through three case studies from Australia, Virginia, and Chicago. We’ll consider some key questions, like whether this approach is realistic for rural communities and the ways it may or may not generate revenue as compared to more conventional public private partnerships.

REGISTER HERE

For T4America’s members, we’ve produced a short memo explaining this topic in more detail, which you can find below if you are logged in.

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Click to read: Asset Recycling – an Alternative Approach to P3s

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Asset Recycling – an Alternative Approach to P3s

This memo provides background on asset recycling, including its strengths, weaknesses and potential pitfalls. To learn more join us on Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 2pm EDT for a discussion on asset recycling. Register here.

What Is Asset Recycling?

Asset recycling is selling or leasing public assets and using proceeds to pay for other infrastructure. This type of public private partnership (P3) is different from other P3s, which typically engage the private sector in building and operating new infrastructure. Asset recycling instead involves two pieces of infrastructure, the asset being sold or leased to the private sector, and a second piece of infrastructure – unrelated to the first – built with the proceeds of that sale or lease. The name “asset recycling” comes from the idea that the value of the old asset is recycled to pay for the new asset.

The new infrastructure being funded by asset recycling may not be a revenue generator – whereas most other P3 approaches would require the new infrastructure to be revenue generating. The asset being sold or leased must generate revenue to be of value to private sector purchaser.

What Asset Recycling Isn’t

Asset recycling does not recycle the asset itself, only the value of that asset. Unless unused excess public property is being sold off, the fundamental underlying principle of asset recycling is that a public entity privatizes a public asset to gain access to capital in the short term at the expense of longer-term revenue. This process creates a one-time funding infusion, generally at the expense of longer-term revenue. This is not a source of long-term funding and would be better described as a form of financing, not funding.

Case Studies

Australia’s Asset Recycling Initiative

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched a 2-year Asset Recycling Initiative in 2014 offering $5 billion in federal funds to incentivize privatization of infrastructure like ports, power stations and transmission lines. As long as the state or territory invested the sale or lease proceeds in infrastructure, the federal government provided a 15 percent match. The program addressed state and territory-owned infrastructure, not municipal infrastructure. The Australian Senate conducted an inquiry into the process and found major risks to this approach. The report found that the program distorted the market through incentivizing the sale of assets that would not have been sold without the Australian government’s subsidy. Also, the Senate found that linking asset sales to new infrastructure investments could in fact have a negative fiscal impact by selling income-generating assets to fund infrastructure that does not generate any income. In the end, the report recommended, “the link between privatization and infrastructure funding under the Asset Recycling Initiative should be removed.” P.M. Turnbull ended the Asset Recycling Initiative in May 2016, redirecting remaining funds to other infrastructure programs.

Virginia’s I-66 Outside the Beltway

Virginia Department of Transportation entered into a P3 with Express Mobility Partners to build express lanes on a segment of I-66 outside the beltway. In one sense, this was a traditional P3 in which the private sector entity builds the express lanes and collects the tolls. However, VDOT negotiated a deal which requires Express Mobility Partners – in exchange for the rights to this project – to pay $500 million upfront for improvements to the corridor. The State also required the concessionaire to pay $800 million for transit service and $350 million for other improvements to the corridor over the next 50 years. These additional resources secured from the private entity can be viewed as recycling the value of the expressway asset into additional infrastructure and services, and they were made possible because of the McAuliffe administration’s investment in P3 expertise and development of reforms to Virginia’s approach to P3s after some past failures.

Chicago’s Parking Meter Deal

In 2008 Chicago mayor Richard Daley leased the city’s parking meters to Chicago Parking Meters LLC for 75 years in exchange for $1.16 billion. The private entity increased meter rates, added metering in areas that had not yet had it, and charged the city for lost revenue whenever parking spaces were unavailable – for example, during repaving. The deal also prevented the city from opening new off-street lots that could compete with the on-street metered spaces. In addition, rather than reinvesting the funding in new infrastructure, the city used it to fill budget holes. By 2010, only $180 million of the original sum was left.

Concerns And limitations

There are many elements to privatizing a public asset that impact whether that asset can serve its function effectively, such as determining:

  • whether the agreement requires the asset to be properly maintained before being passed back to the public ownership at the end of the lease;
  • how much local control to surrender;
  • the price the public pays for the service change;
  • whether the asset will be managed in a way that is consistent with public goals.

Without expertise in P3 agreements, governments risk negotiating problematic deals for themselves. P3 offices established in Virginia and District of Columbia have helped them to cultivate expertise to support P3 agreements.

Unlike other P3 arrangements, asset recycling couples two separate decisions – selling or leasing a publicly owned asset, and investing in new infrastructure. Each of these has its risks, but when they are combined in a single action with the federal government incenting the deal, the risks multiply. As with other P3s, asset recycling are better viewed as a form of financing rather than a source of long term funding. Selling or leasing a revenue-generating public asset means a government loses ongoing revenue in exchange for a one-time payment.

One concern with evaluating P3s and asset recycling is that both public and private debt should be considered in order to leverage financing. Optionality is key to a good deal. By comparing the private sector funding source against public or municipal debt, communities will be able to negotiate the best deal for taxpayers.

Limitations in Rural Communities

Asset recycling is of limited utility for smaller jurisdictions, who are less likely to own public infrastructure that can be effectively privatized. Aside from some toll roads, most revenue generating infrastructure assets – such as airports, parking garages, ports, or transit systems – are in dense urban areas, not rural or mid-size communities. The assets that small communities do have may not generate significant enough funding to address local infrastructure needs.

Smaller jurisdictions also have more limited resources to invest in P3 expertise. For example, moving forward on projects that involve the private sector without having capacity to calculate the net present value (the difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows) can open communities to unwanted risk.

An analysis published by APM Reports in May shows that of 520 projects submitted to the Trump Administration for possible inclusion in an infrastructure package, 46 projects have sponsors considering private financing and of those only 2 projects are located in rural communities.[1] This analysis clearly shows that private investment primarily focuses in larger population centers.

Some have suggested that using asset recycling to finance project in urban areas would make more resources available for rural areas, or that states might consider urban assets to fund rural infrastructure needs. However, if the income from the asset being sold had previously gone to the urban area, this could be a highly controversial diversion of funds from one portion of the state to another. Existing funding sources already raise a disproportionate amount of funding from metropolitan regions, but do not meet the full needs in rural communities.

[1] http://wuwm.com/post/trumps-desire-private-infrastructure-money-will-narrow-his-choices-mostly-urban-projects#stream/0

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of July 28th

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.

  • The Senate Appropriations full committee approved the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development “THUD” bill last week. The bill maintains the TIGER program which President Trump and the House Appropriations Committee proposed to eliminate. (Bloomberg BNA, T4America)
  • Last week, the House Energy and Commerce passed comprehensive legislation related to automated vehicles (AV’s). The legislation creates a federal-state framework for regulation of AV’s, that pre-empts state regulation in certain areas and increases the amount of safety exemptions to 100,000 over three years that manufacturers can obtain in order to test AV’s. (Recode)
  • The House of Representatives has delayed consideration of their FY 18 budget resolution until September (The House is in recess in August. Republicans have still not reached an internal caucus agreement on non-defense spending levels. (The Hill)
  • S. DOT’s “Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on Monday that would allow public transit projects to streamline some steps in the regulatory or permit approval process if they prove that it will attract more private investors.” (The Hill)
  • The Trump Administration’s first proposed effort on privatizing infrastructure, spinning off the air-traffic control system to a non-profit corporation, is struggling to find support in Congress. (The Hill)
  • Our partners on the Federal Highways Administration system performance measures rule, the National Resources Defense Council and U.S. Public Research Interest Group, are suing the Trump Administration over their delay on the greenhouse gas measuring requirement. (NRDC)
  • Biking is becoming mainstream in New York City. (NY Times)

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of July 21st

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.

  • The Senate Appropriations Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development “THUD” Subcommittee is scheduled to markup the THUD appropriations bill on Tuesday and the full Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the bill on Thursday. T4America will have more details on the bill’s provisions later this week. (Senate THUD Subcommittee, Senate Appropriations Committee)
  • Last week, the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection passed comprehensive legislation related to automated vehicles. (Bloomberg)
  • The House Budget committee passed the FY 18 budget resolution out of committee last week on a party-line vote, but its prospects are uncertain in the full House because of an internal Republican divide on how much to cut non-defense spending. (The Hill)
  • Politico takes a deep dive into Republicans’ struggle to pass a budget that includes cuts to discretionary non-defense spending. (Politico)
  • The NY Times investigates where Trump’s infrastructure draft plan is and finds that it has stalled. (NY Times Note: NY Times has a limit of five free articles a month)
  • The Caltrans electrification project, which obtained a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) from the Trump administration after a period of uncertainty, broke ground last week. Service is expected to start in 2021. (Streetsblog SF)
  • An influential Colorado House Republican has proposed to tax bicycles to pay for infrastructure projects. This proposal comes after Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law a transportation-funding package that includes a tax on bicycles. (Colorado Politics)

Catch up with the recording of our online discussion of a Colorado city’s partnership with Lyft

Last week we held a webinar with the city of Centennial, CO, one of the 16 members of our Smart Cities Collaborative, about their six-month partnership with Lyft to connect more residents to their existing transit service. Catch up with the full recording of the session right here.

Centennial is a mid-sized suburb southeast of Denver that has connecting light rail service, but it’s difficult for many of the residents of Centennial to reach the stations from their homes. This pilot project provided free Lyft rides between between the Dry Creek light rail station and nearby homes within a 3.75 square-mile service area with the aim of incentivizing transit use and reducing congestion for trips into downtown Denver.

Did you miss the webinar? Catch up with the full recorded presentation below, and download the accompanying slide presentation here. (pdf)

The pilot project was of the first of its kind in the nation and ran from August through February of this year. The city recently finalized its final report with detailed project results, lessons learned, and next steps. Melanie Morgan, a Data Analyst for Centennial’s Innovation team and the pilot project manager, presented on the report and fielded participant questions on funding, payment, data reporting, scalability, paratransit, and more.

For more on the pilot project and to download the full report, visit http://go.centennialco.gov/.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of July 14th

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.

  • The Transportation and Housing Appropriations (THUD) bill was released last week and it proposes to eliminate the TIGER program and decrease funding for other important programs, including New Starts and Small Starts. See T4A’s full member summary here.
  • last week USDOT put out a notice for approximately $226.5 million in funding for the Bus and Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment competitive grant program. Applications must be submitted by August 25, 2017. (USDOT)
  • The full House Appropriations Committee will markup the Transportation and Housing Appropriations (THUD) bill on Monday July 17th. (House Appropriations Committee)
  • House Republicans are looking at passing all 12 appropriations bills, including the transportation and housing appropriations bills, in one large “omnibus” package before the August recess. (The Hill)
  • The House Budget Committee will mark up their fiscal year 2018 budget resolution in Committee on Wednesday. The resolution is expected to include special instructions directing committees to start working on tax reform, potentially allowing tax reform to pass in the Senate with 50 votes, instead of the usually required 60 votes. It is still unlikely that tax reform will be used to fund an infrastructure package. (The Hill)
  • The Bipartisan Policy Center explores what “asset recycling” is and the potential benefits and challenges. (Bipartisan Policy Center)
  • The Nation Magazine comes out strongly against asset recycling and articulates why they just view it as another form of privatization. (The Nation)
  • Des Moines Register Editorial: “Trump’s infrastructure plan isn’t a plan at all.” (Des Moines Register)

U.S. DEPARTMENT of TRANSPORTATION FY2018 APPROPRIATIONS BILL SUMMARY

As introduced on July 10, 2017

Late on July 10, the House Appropriations subcommittee released a draft bill to fund transportation and housing programs for fiscal year (FY) 2018. The bill would appropriate $56.5 billion in discretionary spending, which is $1.1 billion below FY 2017. USDOT would receive $17.8 billion in discretionary FY2018 funding, a $646 million decrease from FY2017. The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the draft bill on Monday, July 17.

The full text of the draft bill can be found here. A summary of the appropriations bill can be found on the House Appropriations Committee page here.

BACKGROUND

Congress must take action on addressing the budget caps enforced through the Budget Control Act (BCA), which passed into law in 2011. The Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has hinted that the Treasury Department could run out of room to borrow under the current debt limit as early as September. While Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has not given an estimate of exactly when the Treasury was most likely to hit the debt limit, October or November is likely.

Despite the absence of a budget deal, the House Appropriations Committee has come out with interim 302(b) allocations, which set the spending level for each appropriations subcommittee. Under this document, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) subcommittee has a FY 2018 funding cap of $56.5 billion, a $1.1 billion decrease from FY 2017 funding level. See interim sub-allocations document here.

TIGER

The House FY2018 bill eliminates funding for the TIGER program. In past appropriations, the House has also used this same strategy – zero out the program and rely on the Senate to maintain funding for TIGER. Then when they conference the House and Senate bills into one bill, the House pushes the Senate to cut funding from another program in order to maintain TIGER funding.

It is unclear the extent to which the Senate will continue to carry the weight of supporting the program moving forward.

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

The House bill allocates $1.75 billion to the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program, which is a 27 percent cut from, or $660 million less than, the FY 2017 funding level of $2.4 billion. It is also $549 million less that the authorized level for the program in the FAST Act. Of this, $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.

Of the remaining CIG funding, $400 million would fund “joint Amtrak-public transit projects.” This language provides a clue 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.

While the House leaders included 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, the lack of funding available to do that would effectively prevent projects from moving forward until at least 2019.

Amtrak, CRISI, State of Good Repair, and REG

The FY2018 draft bill provides $1.4 billion for Amtrak. Of this, $1.1 billion is 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 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.

The FY2018 bill 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.

Analysis

The House draft THUD appropriations bill does not have as drastic funding cuts as those proposed by the Administration (see T4America summary of the Administration’s FY 2018 budget proposal here). However, it still represents significant cuts from current funding levels and would have far-reaching impacts for communities’ transportation and housing programs.

On July 11, the House Appropriations THUD Subcommittee held a short mark-up and passed the draft bill without any amendments. The bill is scheduled for consideration by the full House Appropriations Committee on July 17 and may move forward to the House floor. However, Congress is not expected to complete any of the FY 2018 appropriation bills before the fiscal year begins on October 1. T4America encourages communities to reach out to their representatives to ensure funding is maintained for the key programs your community relies on.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of July 3rd – July 7th

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.

  • Congressional Republican disagreement over a plan to private the air traffic control system could mean trouble for President Trump’s broader infrastructure plan. (Washington Examiner)
  • The House Appropriations subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development will mark up the FY18 “THUD” bill on Tuesday evening. T4America will have more coverage of the markup and the bill when it is released. (House Appropriations Committee)
  • The Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development will hear U.S. DOT secretary Elaine Chao testify on Thursday about U.S. DOT’s FY18 budget request. T4America will have more coverage of that hearing later this week. (Senate Appropriations Committee)
  • “House Republicans stymied in their efforts to adopt a budget.” (Fox News)

Stories You May Have Missed: June 26th – June 30th

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. 

  • Senator John Thune (Republican-South Dakota), the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said work on an infrastructure plan could slip into next year. (The Hill)
  • With “asset recycling” a big part of President Trump’s infrastructure plan, the Economist explores the “promises and pitfalls” of asset recycling. (The Economist)
  • S. DOT has revised the FASTLANE program’s criteria and changed the name to the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program. (The Hill)
  • Amidst proposals from the White House to privatize some infrastructure to pay for their proposed infrastructure plan, the Senate Commerce Committee has rejected the White House’s proposal to privatize the U.S.’s air-traffic control system. (The Hill)
  • Amtrak has named former Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson as their new CEO effective June 12th. He will be co-CEO with current CEO Wick Moorman until December 31st. (The Hill)
  • The Hill lists six potential contenders to be Uber’s new CEO after former CEO Travis Kalanick resigned. (The Hill)
  • Oregon Governor Kate Brown and state legislature leaders reached an agreement on a package to raise funds for transportation. (The Register Guard)

Hear from a city that partnered with Lyft to increase access to their public transit network

Join us on July 13th to hear about how one Colorado city in our Smart Cities Collaborative has been experimenting with connecting more residents to their transit service by partnering with Lyft.

Updated 7/19: If you missed the webinar, you can watch the full recording here.

One of the major challenges faced by the members of our Smart Cities Collaborative is figuring out how to improve first- and last-mile connections to existing transit hubs in order to leverage existing transit service and connect more people to quality service that might not live within walking distance of it. Over the course of the Collaborative, cities have considered a number of pilot projects to solve this issue, from microtransit options, to on-demand transit shuttles, to partnerships with ridehailing companies like Uber, Lyft and others.

One of the cities in the Collaborative, Centennial, CO, recently completed their own first/last-mile pilot project. (The launch was covered here last August by Laura Bliss in CityLab.) Centennial is a mid-sized suburb southeast of Denver that has light rail access to downtown Denver, but it’s difficult for many of the residents of Centennial to reach the stations from their homes.

To help residents take advantage of this service, the city entered into a six-month partnership with Lyft to provide free rides between the Dry Creek light rail station and nearby homes within a 3.75 square-mile service area. The aim of the project was to incentivize transit use, enhance regional transportation, and reduce congestion for trips to and from downtown Denver by shifting some of those trips to transit.

One of the core principals of our Smart Cities Collaborative is encouraging cities to thoughtfully test new technologies and share those results with other cities to inform their pilots and help them learn from another city’s progress — or mistakes? So how did this pilot turn out? What was the response from their residents? Was the partnership with Lyft successful? Transportation for America and guests from the City of Centennial, CO will host a webinar on July 13th at 3 p.m. Eastern to discuss the results of the GoCentennial pilot.

REGISTER HERE

 

The team from Centennial will present on its final report, which includes metrics, lessons learned, and next steps. Full text of the report can be found here. (pdf) We’ll also provide participants with the opportunity to pose questions to Centennial on the results of their pilot, their evaluation tactics, and their plans for future projects. If you would like to submit a question ahead of time to ensure your question is answered, please share it with us via email (smartcities@t4america.org) at least 48 hours before the webinar.

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of June 16th

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. 

  • Both Republican and Democratic House Appropriators pushed back against the Trump Administration’s proposed U.S. DOT budget cuts during a hearing with U.S DOT Secretary Elaine Chao. (Bloomberg)
  • U.S. DOT Secretary Elaine Chao called the TIGER program “earmarks” and said the Administration equivocally does not support the New Starts program during the hearing with House Appropriators. (Route Fifty)
  • “After President Trump’s ‘infrastructure week’ was widely mocked among media members, some politicians, lawmakers and advocates who are serious about wanting to see the nation’s roads and bridges improved are grappling with how to move forward.” (Washington Examiner)
  • Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (Republican-South Dakota) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (Democrat-Florida) released a set of six bipartisan legislative principals for any future regulation of automated vehicles. (GovTech, Senate Commerce Committee)
  • An effort to raise the Louisiana gas tax this legislative session failed and may not come back until 2021. (The Advocate)
  • A new report finds that New York City “vision zero” efforts finds that pedestrian and cyclist fatalities have declined on streets have that have received vision zero redesigns, but increased on streets that haven’t received redesigns. The report also finds that New York City is not investing enough money in street redesigns in low-income neighborhoods relative to the risk of biking and walking in these neighborhoods and a large factor is internal community board resistance. (Streetsblog, Manhattan Institute)

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of June 9th

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 and the bipartisan infrastructure plan?  (Washington Post)
  • President Trump’s infrastructure plan relies on public-private partnerships. (Politico)
  • “Australia’s Tantalizing Lessons on Privatizing Infrastructure.” (CityLab)
  • The Columbus Dispatch covered President Trump’s speech on his infrastructure plan and how his plan may not help Ohio that much. (Columbus Dispatch)
  • “Uber Weighs Leave of Absence for Chief Executive.” (NY Times)
  • “NACTO Wants to Find Out How Cities Can Design Better Streets, Faster.” (Streetsblog USA)

Stories You May Have Missed – Week of June 2nd

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 has kicked off a week-long focus on infrastructure that the White House is calling infrastructure week. (Washington Post)
  • “President Trump Launches $1 Trillion Initiative to Fix America’s Infrastructure.” (Time)
  • “Trump Plans to Shift Infrastructure Funding to Cities, States and Business.” (NY Times)
  • “Trump ‘Self-Help’ Infrastructure Plan Irks State, Local Leaders.” (Bloomberg)
  • Oregon Legislators release a proposed 10-year $8.2 billion transportation spending plan. (Statesman Journal)
  • Bill to raise the gas tax dies in the Louisiana House of Representatives. (WBRZ)
  • San Jose, California released an autonomous vehicle (AV) request for information as part of an effort to launch AV pilot projects in five city corridors. (Govtech)