Author Archive
Letter urges lawmakers to fully fund transportation this year and rethink the federal transportation program
WASHINGTON, DC – With over 200 signatures from elected officials and organizations, Transportation for America today sent a letter to Congress calling for Members to use fiscal year 2020 appropriations and the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization as two opportunities to fundamentally change the federal transportation program. Transportation for America (T4America) urges Congress to fully fund […]
Gulf Coast passenger rail receives $33 million in federal funding
New Orleans to Mobile passenger service gets a boost BATON ROUGE, LA, June 7, 2019 — The Southern Rail Commission’s efforts to restore passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast received a significant shot in the arm Friday with the long-awaited announcement of a $33 million grant from the Federal Rail Administration (FRA). This federal […]
The inside scoop on Repair Priorities 2019
After the release of Repair Priorities 2019, we hosted a webinar in partnership with Taxpayers for Common Sense to talk about the findings and recommendations of our new report.
In the Washington Post: Let’s skip the infrastructure spending spree
A new opinion piece in the Washington Post takes a contrarian view of all the talk about money during Infrastructure Week. Let’s skip the infrastructure plan and focus on policy, because without good policy more spending could actually do more harm than good.
Repair Priorities 2019 is here — and it shows that more money won’t fix our infrastructure problems
It’s infrastructure Week again and politicians are back at it, bemoaning our “crumbling roads and bridges” and insisting we must spend more to fix the problem. But we’ve got some cold water to throw on this pity party: Despite more transportation spending over the last decade, the percentage of the roads nationwide in “poor condition” increased from 14 to 20 percent.
New report chronicles how the nation’s road conditions have worsened as many states prioritize expansion instead of repair
WASHINGTON, DC — Repair Priorities 2019, a new report released today by Transportation for America and Taxpayers for Common Sense, shows that, despite more spending, the percentage of the roads nationwide in “poor condition” increased from 14 percent to 20 percent and 37 states saw the percentage of their roads in poor condition increase from 2009-2017.
How TIGER/BUILD can help improve the federal transportation program
The third and final part of our analysis of 10 years of awarding transportation funds competitively through the TIGER/BUILD program illuminates three simple principles that should help guide reform of the federal transportation system.
BUILDing a better competitive grant program, in 5 steps
Under President Trump, USDOT has hijacked the TIGER/BUILD competitive grant program, taking it far from its intended function. After a decade of experience with the program there are a number of simple steps that lawmakers could take to get it back on track and even improve it.
Taming the TIGER: Trump turns innovative grant program into another roads program
Under President Trump, the U.S. Department of Transportation has effectively turned the formerly innovative BUILD program—created to advance complex, hard-to-fund projects—into little more than a rural roads program, dramatically undercutting both its intent and utility.
Washington State Department of Transportation announces the selection of two artists to serve in the country’s first statewide artist-in-residence program
With today’s announcement that Kelly Gregory and Mary Welcome have been selected to serve as artists-in-residence with WSDOT for a year, Washington becomes the first state to embed an artist in a statewide agency.
Get to know Washington state’s new artists-in-residence
We announced earlier today that Kelly Gregory and Mary Welcome have been selected to serve as artists-in-residence with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) in a new fellowship program created by ArtPlace America and T4America, bringing a dose of creativity to the statewide transportation agency. Get to know this team of two artists with this brief Q&A.
Minnesota Department of Transportation to host a Community Vitality Fellow to advance transportation goals
Minnesota Department of Transportation joins Smart Growth America’s artist-in-residence program, by hosting a Community Vitality Fellow to creatively meet the agency’s goals of promoting economic vitality, improving safety, supporting multimodal transportation systems and creating healthier communities.
Walking through questions about our new Playbook for Shared Micromobility
With the help of representatives from two cities, T4America staff a few weeks ago walked through our new Playbook for effectively managing shared micromobility services like dockless bikes, electric scooters, and other new technologies.
T4America’s new “playbook” provides an evolving guide for how cities can manage shared micromobility services
Produced in collaboration with 23 cities, Transportation for America today released a new “Playbook” to help cities think about how to best manage shared micromobility services like dockless bikes, electric scooters, and other new technologies that are rapidly being deployed in cities across the country.
Small groups, big questions: 12 roundtable conversations at Capital Ideas 2018
Capital Ideas 2018 will be full of inspiration and best practices. But even with an agenda full of national experts, we know that we won’t possibly have all the answers to every community’s challenges.
Florida is out in front on driverless vehicles
The State of Florida knows that the way they’ve done transportation projects for the last 50 years won’t be the way to do them for the 50 years ahead. That’s why the Florida Department of Transportation, in partnership with the City of Gainesville, state legislators, and mobility company Transdev, are piloting one of the first autonomous vehicle shuttle projects in the country.
Here’s the full speaker lineup for Capital Ideas 2018
Update 10/18/2018: For the most up-to-date version of the conference agenda & speakers, please refer to the main conference page and click on the agenda tab. Capital Ideas brings together state and local elected officials, policymakers, advocates, chambers of commerce staff, academics, and industry leaders from across the country under one roof. This year’s conference […]
The newest intercity rail system in the country
Since it opened earlier this year, the Florida Brightline has been the only privately owned, operated and maintained passenger rail system in the United States. Now, they’re planning to do it again in California. Join us at Capital Ideas 2018 to learn how.
U.S. Senate passes transportation appropriations bill with robust funding for transit, rail programs
The US Senate again rejected the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate or severely cut vital transportation programs that local communities rely on by adopting its FY19 Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill. In perhaps their strongest rebuke of the president’s disdain for transit, the bill language specifically requests that USDOT manage the BUILD program (formerly TIGER) as it did during the Obama administration.
A vital tool in the transportation-funding toolbox
The current administration is doing what it can to interfere with federal funding for transit, which makes it important that localities have a broad set of tools if they hope to compete. Today, we share an argument from Timothy Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, on the need to legalize regional ballot initiatives in Massachusetts—and beyond.
Our three principles
It’s past time to elevate the national conversation about infrastructure beyond just the price tag.
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