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Maryland attempting to bring accountability & transparency into process for selecting transportation projects

Maryland is attempting to join the growing movement of states trying to ensure that transportation projects are selected and built on their merits in a more transparent process. T4America testified today in favor of a Maryland bill that would move the needle in that direction.

The Maryland Open Transportation Investment Decision Act (HB 1013/S 0908) would define state goals and measures to score and choose transportation projects, helping to program scarce transportation dollars more objectively. The bill is similar to a new process approved by Maryland’s neighbors in Virginia several years ago, which we covered recently in detail here: “Virginia launches program to remove politics from transportation investment decisions.”

T4America was invited by several START network members in Maryland to offer a national perspective on the bill, and policy director Joe McAndrew testified in support earlier this afternoon. (Note: START is T4America’s State Transportation Advocacy, Research & Training Network for state elected leaders and advocates working on these issues. Find out more here. -Ed.)

Many Americans find the byzantine nature of their transportation system confusing, reducing their trust and inclination toward increasing investments for a 21st century transportation system. Who can blame them? …The public wants to know that transportation funds are being invested to provide not just movement but safe, reliable, affordable access to necessities like jobs, education, health care, and groceries. Measuring our limited investments in a way that matters to the public is critical going forward.

One thing was clear in today’s House Appropriations Committee hearing as local & state officials, delegates, and other citizens had a lively back and forth: Few people look at how the Maryland Department of Transportation chooses projects and feels like they have any clarity on how decisions are made.

Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn, though testifying in opposition to the bill, isn’t opposed to bringing more transparency into that process, but he was reticent about this bill as the right solution.

“We are willing to study this concept to try and find a process that fits Maryland,” Rahn said. “That, I believe, is something that we can certainly agree to. But what’s come out of this process…is not Maryland. Rather than jumping into this to implement this now, should be a study so we can find something that’s more appropriate to Maryland.”

START Network members in Maryland, like Delegate Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore), are hopeful and eager to work with Secretary Rahn (and other Delegates in the House and Senate) to amend and improve the bill, helping Maryland take this essential step.

Del. Lierman, while responding to MDOT director Pete Rahn’s testimony, questioned the impossibly opaque current system, holding up thousands of pages of project requests from counties where simple binary check marks were the only scores and suggesting that there was no way to know how projects were chosen.

What she and countless other Maryland taxpayers, local leaders or businesses really want to know after the state spends hundreds of millions more in transportation dollars over the coming few years, is: Will my commute get better? Will I end up with more options to get where I need to go each day? Are transportation projects being picked because they have political connections or because they make fiscal sense?

Projects in Maryland (and elsewhere) are rarely, if ever, justified through tangible, measured answers to these questions. And as a result, taxpayers understandably may have little confidence in handing over any more of their hard-earned money to invest in the system.

Even the Baltimore Sun knows that the current system is far from transparent, though coming down in favor of Maryland’s status quo in this fairly surprising recent editorial where they called politically motivated transportation spending an “unfortunate necessity” and “the grease that lubricates the squeaky political wheel.”

Hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for transportation are far more important than political or partisan favors to be used to grease the skids. Taxpayers expect and deserve far more.

Maryland legislators should be applauded for this attempt to remove politics from the process of choosing which transportation projects to build — bringing some much needed transparency and accountability to a process that the public feels is murky, mysterious, and wholly political.

Stay up to date on the latest with state transportation policy & funding with our new resource for bill tracking.

Seattle finds a way to communicate effectively about parking prices

The City of Seattle (a T4America member) is one of relatively few cities that price on-street parking responsively and dynamically to most effectively manage demand.

This maximizes the use of available parking space while generating turnover so that it’s possible to find a parking spot on any block at any given time (cutting down on the congestion generated by drivers circling blocks while searching for on-street parking.). Seattle DOT recently put together this impressively clear video to explain how and why they adjust parking prices and regulation to manage parking supply and demand.

In this day and age of scarce transportation funding, communicating clearly about your city’s policies can make a big difference in building the trust you’ll need when it’s time to ask for more funding — Seattle just won a $930 million funding measure in November at the ballot — or increase your parking meter rates.

USDOT announces funding available for the new FASTLANE freight and highway grant program

Last year’s five-year FAST Act transportation law included a new freight program for the first time (see this section under “A one-size-fits-all freight program“) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has announced that the first round of $800 million in competitive grants is open for business.

Last Friday, USDOT released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the new competitive grant program for freight and highway capacity projects, created in last year’s FAST Act.

The Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program includes a dedicated competitive freight program totaling $4.5 billion over the life of the five-year FAST Act, with $800 million available in FY2016. The department has renamed the program and it’s a mouthful: The Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) grants.

Last week’s FASTLANE funding notice outlines the FY2016 discretionary competition structure and criteria being used to measure applications. Full applications are due by 8:00 PM EDT on April 14, 2016 and should be submitted through www.Grants.gov.

Transportation for America has summarized the NOFO for our members. Download the members-only summary here (pdf).

While Congress’ FAST Act legislatively limits Secretary Foxx to using the majority of this program’s funding for highway-only capacity improvements for freight, there are still possibilities to think outside of the box. The grant program does indicate a determination to support projects that reconnect communities torn apart from interstate development, such as capping highways.

Beth Osborne, T4America’s Senior Policy Advisor, and Michael Rodriguez, AICP, Director of Research for Smart Growth America, will provide an informative session discussing both the FY2016 FASTLANE and TIGER grants program for T4America members on Thursday, March 4 at 4:00 pm EST. Register for this members-only webinar here.

Walking the talk with Mark Fenton in the Portland region

Back in December, two T4America members in the Pacific Northwest (Portland Metro and the City of Portland) and other allies organized events to bring in Mark Fenton, a leader in clear thinking on transportation, health and walkable communities.

The Portland region was Mark’s first stop on a speaking tour of Oregon supported by the state Department of Land Conservation and Development. I attended both events, and I was most impressed by Mark’s persuasive arguments for charting the smartest course for making our communities the best places they can be, even if it cuts against the pervasive conventional thinking about moving cars.

SGA Local Leaders Council member Mayor Denny Doyle kicked off the morning event at the Beaverton Public Library by sharing the work this light rail suburb on the west side of the Portland metropolitan region has been doing to boost its downtown vibrancy and walkability.

Then Mark took the stage, and after having us close our eyes and recall our first memories of being physically active, led the audience through a few points of agreement:

Generation Xers and Baby Boomers (the vast majority of those in attendance) grew up “free range” and experienced physical activity that way – with their friends and typically without adult supervision.
Most kids do not have the same opportunities for free range physical activity today.
Everyone in the audience agreed kids would benefit from being more free range today.

So, “What are you doing about it?” Mark asked.

He then put forward a compelling argument that right land uses, complete active transportation networks and welcoming community design are the key issues to to make walking, biking and transit safe, convenient and intrinsic to daily life. Doing so can act as a foundational component of getting people physically active again so that we can address the public health crisis and escalating costs to taxpayers — America spends 30 percent of its GDP on health costs.

Along the way Mark invited participants to air concerns and addressed them.

Stranger danger is the same today as it was in the 1970’s.
Legal pressures against free-range parenting are overblown. In Bethesda, Maryland, where two kids were scooped up by the police for being a half-mile from home, the city has since adopted a resolution supporting free-range parenting.
Cultural norms around active transportation aren’t going to shift if the infrastructure doesn’t change. Cultural norms around tobacco use shifted because public policy compelled changes in bars, restaurants, planes, and workplaces.

Mark also met with community leaders and city staff in East Portland’s Jade District, where T4A has been working with Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) on creative placemaking around the proposed Powell Division bus rapid transit line.

The proposed BRT improvements have raised local hopes of improved transportation in their neighborhoods, but also heightened fear of displacement as property values and rent costs increase when the neighborhood becomes more desirable. This conflict can lead disadvantaged communities to resist necessary improvements they would otherwise want because they’re scared that if the neighborhood becomes too desirable, they’ll be priced out.

Mark’s take: gentrification is already happening, so arguing for the “B-version” won’t prevent displacement, but will certainly result in a neighborhood that is less than it could be. Instead, Mark argued, leaders should push for both: the best anti-displacement strategies and the best possible project. (Something that a creative placemaking approach can help achieve.)

I’ll be watching to see how these ideas resonate and impact the conversation amongst members and allies in the Portland region.

Carrying the message of Gulf Coast support for passenger rail up to Capitol Hill

After last week’s inspiring rail trip along the Gulf Coast where we witnessed firsthand the massive support for restoring passenger rail service along the coast, a member of the Southern Rail Commission testified before the Senate’s key rail committee earlier this week to deliver the same message Gulf Coast citizens so passionately presented at each stop last week.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Mayor Knox Ross, the mayor of Pelahatchie, Mississippi and one of the state’s representatives appointed to the tri-state Southern Rail Commission (SRC), came to Washington following last week’s trip to deliver testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee for a previously scheduled hearing on America’s passenger rail system. Note: T4America serves as policy advisors for the SRC. -Ed.

In a refreshingly moving bit of testimony before the eleven committee members present, Mayor Ross shared his experiences from last week and urged the members to build on the groundwork laid by this very committee’s hard work to include smart passenger rail policy in last year’s broader surface transportation bill for the first time in history. (The FAST Act.)

“As our commission has visited communities across the gulf South, we have found the transportation options available to our citizens are becoming more limited and costly,” Mayor Ross told the committee. He noted in his written testimony how other options like air service and intercity buses have scaled back in the last decade in many of the rural communities along the coast, and how citizens have responded to this possibility of having a new connection between cities small and large.

“We saw an amazing outpouring of support in every city. …They just want an opportunity. Every city turned out. They’re looking for a hand up and saw Amtrak service as that opportunity,”

Just like the other local officials we spoke to, Mayor Ross sees this passenger rail connection as a powerful economic development tool for these Gulf Coast cities, small and large.

“We’re gearing toward connecting our smaller cities to our larger ones and giving these cities the opportunity to compete. All the cities along this route see the economic development potential of the train,” he said, drawing the same parallel to the interstate system that we did in our second post on the trip. “We invested in the national interstate system years ago and saw tremendous economic development, but now we’re having to put more money than ever into it with diminishing returns as we add lanes. Every modest investment in passenger trains across this country can create large economic development opportunities in all these cities.”

The impact of last week’s trip wasn’t lost on the outgoing Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman, who also testified Tuesday. “I think the excitement you saw last week is dramatic evidence of just how much we can bring to those towns – and how deeply they appreciate it,” he said.

“We all have an interest in ensuring that Amtrak continues to be as effective as possible, and that the American people in all regions of the country receive the passenger service they deserve. …The respective needs wherever you are in this network, for state corridors, long distance services, and the northeast corridor, and unifying those interests here in congress and across the country is critically important,” Mr. Boardman said.

Before the testimony began, the committee showed the short movie about the trip that T4America produced.

Mayor Ross followed up with perhaps the most powerful observation from the trip; the one was that stuck in the heads of many of the people we talked to along the way.

“One thing I hope you saw in that film….you saw black, white, republican, democrat. This is a bipartisan issue that we can all back and all agree on, an issue that can help bring our country together.”

Refreshed T4America bill tracker for following state transportation funding and policy progress

While at least 23 states have raised new funding for transportation at the state level since 2012, there’s a renewed focus on the underlying policies to make the most of limited infrastructure dollars. Which states are proposing to change to how those dollars are spent? Which states are working to create more transparency and build more public trust in transportation spending?

Click here to see our refreshed bill tracker.

For the last few years, we’ve been closely tracking the states attempting to raise new transportation funding. Now, we’ve adding a new resource to keep up with the states that are trying to change the underlying policies for spending those dollars. Are any states following the lead of others outlined in our last report, Twelve Innovations in Transportation Policy that States Should Consider?

Visit our refreshed state policy bill tracker to see current information about the states attempting to raise new funding in 2016, states attempting to reform how those dollars are spent, and states taking unfortunate steps in the wrong direction on policy.

Also, bookmark our new hub for all state policy and funding related resources. Past and current reports, bill trackers, and other helpful information for getting engaged at the state level with transportation funding and policy.

Want to know more about transportation demand management?

Join a webinar to learn how policies can leverage the private sector to manage transportation demand.

Join us on Friday, February, 26, 2015 at 1:00 PM EST to learn from two national experts on how states can get more out of their existing transportation networks by better managing travel demand. Patrick Sullivan of MassCommute explains how Massachusetts supports local transportation management and Brian Lagerberg of Washington State DOT shows the benefits of that state’s Commute Trip Reduction program (a policy we highlighted in our recent policy guidebook).

State update

Many legislatures are already wrapping up; others are just getting started for the year. Here’s a brief roundup of important transportation news coming out of state capitols over the last few weeks.

Maryland legislative leadership releases reform package

Leadership in the Maryland General Assembly called for new accountability in transportation project selection and rolled out a package of transportation reform bills. The Maryland Open Transportation Investment Decision Act (HB 1013/S 0908) defines state goals and measures to score and choose projects, helping to program scarce transportation dollars more objectively. Also included in the package is a bill to create a board of local appointees to oversee the state transit agency, the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA).

New tolls to fund bridge repair in Rhode Island

Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo (D) signed a bill to raise new revenue for maintaining and repairing bridges across the state by increasing new tolls for big trucks traveling the state’s interstates. The measure will add tolls of up to $20 on trucks crossing the state and is expected to raise $45 million annually to be directed to bridge repair. Rhode Island sits near the bottom of the list for greatest bridge repair needs, so legislators were wise to direct new funding to this growing demand and they may have landed a new, politically palatable revenue source. The trucking industry has voiced opposition, however, and legal challenges may be coming.

Mississippi sees an opportunity to raise state gas taxes

Mississippi legislators are discussing proposals to raise new revenue for transportation. The state’s fuel tax rate has not been changed in twenty-nine years and the state DOT reports that they need $526 million more annually to maintain and expand the state’s roads and bridges. With gas prices down, legislators think this may be an opportunity to hike fuel taxes without facing political consequences.

What’s next in New Jersey?

Legislators in New Jersey continue to look for ways to shore up a near-bankrupt state transportation fund. The state’s gas tax rate is currently the second lowest in the country and the state has heavily relied on bonding for the program. An astonishing 100 percent of gas tax revenues now collected are used to pay down the debt and costs of past projects. Without new money the program will go bankrupt when it hits its debt cap in July. In January the legislature recommended a constitutional amendment that would dedicate all fuel tax revenue to transportation projects. That measure will go to voters for approval this November. Transportation leaders hoped Gov. Chris Christie (R) would be more open to negotiations on this issue since suspending his presidential campaign, but his budget proposal offered no new revenue and he has dismissed that the impending bankruptcy even registers as a crisis.

Holding out for reform in South Carolina

South Carolina Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) is continuing a filibuster to block any new funding for transportation until the legislature passes reforms to the state transportation commission. Sen. Davis wisely notes that opportunities to completely reexamine the ways the state spends money on transportation projects are rare and legislators should not simply keep up existing processes and outdated priorities for another generation.

Local funding

Paying for free parking

Washington’s House transportation committee considered a bill to allow local governments and transportation districts to levy fees on free parking spaces in order to fund transportation. These local governments can already charge a fee on paid parking, so this proposal introduces equity for parking fees and also may serve as a subtle disincentive to the spread of free parking that encourage more trips and greater traffic congestion.

Local funding for transit

Georgia’s senate transportation committee has advanced a bill to allow metro Atlanta counties to raise new money for the MARTA regional transit system through a voter-decided, 0.5% sales tax increase. The bill is expected to be heard by the full Senate soon.

Keep up on these bills and many more on our refreshed bill tracker. If you are working on a bill we haven’t seen that should be added to the chart, let us know!

Though the program’s future is uncertain, $500 million in TIGER grants are now available

Though the future of the program could be in doubt, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced yesterday that $500 million is now available for the best local projects in the next round of the TIGER competitive grant program.

Sec. Foxx making the TIGER announcement at the NACO conference. Photo from the USDOT Fast Lane blog.

Projects hoping to win TIGER funds compete against each other and are selected on their merits to ensure that each dollar is spent in the most effective way possible. The program has funded an incredible multimodal station in Normal, Illinois, an overhaul of the downtown street network in Dubuque, IA that helped expand the tax base by $77 million and an improvement to the West Memphis port to boost cargo capacity by 2,000 percent, among hundreds of others.

It’s one of the few ways that local communities of almost any size can directly receive federal dollars for their priority transportation project, spurring innovation, leveraging federal funding by matching it with greater local dollars and targeting projects that provide a high return on investment.

The program is open and available, with grant applications due on April 29th.

We’ve got a special members-only webinar coming up on March 3rd with our TIGER grant expert Beth Osborne, T4A’s Senior Policy Advisor. T4America members can find a link to register below.

[member_content]Members: Interested in applying for this round of TIGER grants? Join T4A and TIGER grant expert Beth Osborne, T4A’s Senior Policy Advisor, for an informative session on March 3, 2016 at 4pm EST. Register here. [/member_content]

While this eighth round of TIGER is open for business now, will there be a ninth? Don’t forget that congressional appropriators will soon be deciding TIGER’s future, along with that of other important transportation programs. Do you represent a city, county, metro planning organization, or other group? We’re looking for these sorts of groups to sign a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of these programs.

Watch last week’s creative placemaking online discussion

As part of the kickoff for T4America’s brand new online interactive guide to creative placemaking in transportation, we hosted an online conversation on the topic last week. If you missed the webinar, you can catch up here.

T4America’s new online interactive guide, The Scenic Route: Getting Started with Creative Placemaking in Transportation, introduces the concept to transportation planners, public works agencies and local elected officials who are on the front lines of advancing transportation projects.

Watch last week’s archived webinar

Participants heard from James Corless, Director, Transportation for America; Erika Young, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Transportation for America; Duncan Hwang, Development & Communications Director, Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO); Luann Algoso, Community Engagement Manager, APANO; Laura Zabel, Executive Director, Springboard for the Arts; and Jun-Li Wang, Artist Community Organizer, Springboard for the Arts.

In the webinar, APANO shares some of the creative placemaking strategies employed to combat the pressure of displacement anticipated by a forthcoming high-capacity transit project in the Jade District of Portland, OR. Continuing the conversation, Springboard for the Arts discusses its grassroots efforts to advance the community’s vision for the Twin Cities’ Green Line light rail.

Watch the webinar, browse the guide, share it with others, and let us know what you think!

View the Guide

Though Congress passed a transportation bill, funding for key programs still up in the air

Though Congress passed a five-year transportation bill back in December, the fate of many important transportation programs will still be decided in Congress’ appropriations process this year. Among them is one of the few ways that local communities can directly receive funding for smart projects.

Tiger Map

The TIGER competitive grant program is one of the few ways that local communities of almost any size can directly receive federal dollars for their priority transportation projects. Unlike the overwhelming majority of all federal transportation dollars that are awarded via formulas to ensure that everyone gets a share, regardless of how they plan to spend it, TIGER projects compete against each other and are selected on their merits to ensure that each dollar is spent in the most effective way possible.

This competition spurs innovation, leverages federal funding by matching it with greater local dollars and awards funding to projects that provide a high return on investment. Choosing projects based on their potential benefits is exactly the direction that transportation spending needs to move in, and we need to ensure that this vital program continues.

Because TIGER was not even authorized in the five-year FAST Act and therefore wholly lacks any certainty of funding, congressional appropriators play an incredibly important role in deciding once again how much funding to provide for TIGER (and other key transportation programs) in the coming year. We want to ensure that the Senate’s key committee begins the process by providing at least the full $500 million they’ve provided in the past.

Members of Congress need to hear from you today. Do you represent a city, county, metro planning organization, or other group? We’re looking for these sorts of groups to sign a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of these programs. (We are not targeting individual letters at this time.)

But TIGER isn’t the only crucial program that appropriators will decide in the coming weeks of 2016. The federal government’s primary resource for supporting new, locally-planned and supported transit expansion projects is also up in the air. The New and Small Starts programs have facilitated the creation of dozens of new or extended public transportation systems across the country, awarded competitively to the best projects.

Sound Transit’s LINK light rail on the Seattle-SeaTac line. LINK is being expanded by a combination of local funds approved by voters and federal New Starts funds.

Under this program, FTA awards grants on a competitive basis for large projects that cannot traditionally be funded from a transit agency’s annual formula funds. Congress already recognized the importance of this program in the FAST Act when they increased its authorization by $400 million for this fiscal year.

But now we need to ensure that the federal appropriators actually provide that level of funding here in the critical moment.

You may have seen the news of President Obama’s budget being released a few weeks ago, which asked for $1.2 billion more for these transit capital grants compared to what was in the FAST Act. While the President makes a request and Congress actually makes the budget, that list of transit projects included in the President’s budget does show which projects would be in front of the queue if Congress comes through with the money this year or next.

That list included Indianapolis’ ambitious plan for a new north-south bus rapid transit line through the city from the suburbs on one side to the other, an expansion of Seattle’s LINK light rail system that will be supported by new local revenues approved on the ballot late last year, and projects to add new capacity to Chicago’s strapped Red Line.

Both of these critical programs — TIGER and transit grants — provide unique, cost-effective, and innovative solutions that also leverage private, state, and local investment to solve complex transportation and spur economic development.

Do you represent a city, county, metro planning organization, or other local/state group? We’re looking for those groups to sign a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of these programs. Find out more here. (We are not targeting individual letters at this time.)

A look back at the overwhelming support for restoring Gulf Coast passenger rail [VIDEO]

The Gulf Coast inspection train, run by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), toured a potential route and examined the CSX tracks last week from February 18-19th. It was the product of years of work by local residents and elected leaders at almost all levels to restore the passenger rail service wiped out by Katrina over ten years ago.

Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.

Transportation for America was along for the ride, interviewing local residents and the local, state and federal elected officials along the two-day route. Read all of our posts on the trip here in order:

And don’t miss this short video below that we produced on the trip, which was shown to the Senate Commerce Committee this morning in a hearing on passenger rail issues.

Gulf Coast leaders intent on boosting their economic prospects with passenger rail

While the local residents who turned out along the Gulf Coast last week to support the return of passenger rail through their communities are perhaps most hopeful for a new way to get where they want to go, their leaders are focused intently on the significant economic development potential for their cities, region and states that will come from the new connection.

The Gulf Coast inspection train, run by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), toured a potential route and examined the CSX tracks on February 18-19. It’s the product of years of work by local residents and elected leaders at almost all levels to restore the passenger rail service wiped out by Katrina over ten years ago. Read our first post for the backstory and our second post on the people we saw along the way. Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.

This prospective Gulf Coast passenger rail line would add a brand new connection, which can provide more bang for the buck than the diminishing returns of making improvements to existing connections. The interstate highway system is a powerful example of this. There were amazing economic impacts when new interstates were built between cities that weren’t well connected, allowing goods and people to flow back and forth like they never could before. But 50 years later, when projects are undertaken to add a lane or two to those existing highways, the cost could be greater than the original project in today’s dollars, but the actual fiscal impacts are far less than that of the original connection.

Adding new passenger rail service would create a brand new efficient connection between these Gulf Coast cities. And no matter their party or political philosophy, every single one of the local leaders that we spoke to along the coast was focused on the economic potential of passenger rail for their communities.

Greater New Orleans, Inc. is focused on helping the entire region stay competitive and focuses significant energy on recruiting new businesses to the region. GNOI’s Lacy Strohschein told us that for New Orleans, which has emerged as a tech hub, to compete against peer cities like Austin and Seattle, “You have to be selling them something.” Quality of life is a huge piece of what they’re selling in New Orleans, but what else does that talent want?

“They want access, they want to be in connected, walkable urban downtowns. Many come from places where they’re used to jumping on the train,” she said as we traveled just east of New Orleans on the train Thursday morning. “We have the most beautiful beaches within five hours of New Orleans, but if they don’t want to drive, there’s no easy way to get there. There’s a bottom line return, and [passenger rail service] is a critical piece to the puzzle for the quality of life that we’re offering.”

Gulfport is the second biggest city in the state of Mississippi. It was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, though the city has bounced back in the intervening decade.

“I believe [passenger rail] is one more link in the chain that helps us recover,” said Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes while chatting in the one-of-a-kind Ocean View dome car between Bay St. Louis and Gulfport.

Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes chatting on the ride into Gulfport on February 18, 2016. Photo courtesy of Charles Gomez / Amtrak

Half a billion dollars come into Gulfport’s state port each year and drawing tourists to the beaches of Gulfport is a critical part of their local economy, according to Mayor Hewes. “We’re doing quite well now, but this is adding another piece of that puzzle that we’re offering,” he said.

When the train pulled into Gulfport, where a thousand or more people were packed in between the old depot and a downtown parking garage, Mayor Hewes was beaming as he took to the podium.

“Your enthusiasm today is sending a message to Washington and our friends with Amtrak, how much we would like to have [rail service] back,” Hewes spoke into the microphone. “How much this is a real piece — not the final piece, but another piece of the puzzle — for what we’re offering, for the amenities that we have that make us so rich with so much opportunity here in Gulfport and across the entire Gulf Coast.”

Hundreds of Gulfport residents packed the space next to the depot for the second whistle stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

One of the biggest champions of this project has been Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who took several hours out of his busy day to board the train in Bay St. Louis with his wife for all of the Mississippi stops. It’s hard to overstate the impact of his leadership on this issue, as a conservative Republican governor from a deep South state. Gov. Bryant clearly understands the economic potential.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (right) talks to Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes (left) and FRA Administrator Sara Feinberg (right of Hewes) on the Gulf Coast Inspection Train on February 18, 2016.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (right) talks to Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes (left) and Federal Railroad Administrator Sara Feinberg (right of Hewes) on the Gulf Coast Inspection Train on February 18, 2016. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

“I brought convention after convention here [to the Gulf Coast]. Each time…they say to me, ‘We had no idea how beautiful this Gulf Coast was,'” Governor Bryant told the enormous crowd in Gulfport, hammering home the potential of making it easier for visitors to reach the Mississippi coast.

“Now, we’re going to get them here. We’re going to get them on board and we’re going to get them on this train. And this is going to be where they talk to all of their friends, all across the nation, and say, ‘If you want to see the beauty of God’s great creation, come to the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” he said.

“We just need more people to come and see this beautiful city; come see this beautiful Gulf Coast,” Gov. Bryant bellowed one stop further down the tracks in Biloxi. These people need “to come and stay a week or a month or two — and bring their money with ’em!” Gov. Bryant exclaimed, to an explosion of applause from the residents of Biloxi.

Mobile, Alabama is a huge center of commerce and industry for the state of Alabama and the entire Gulf Coast region. The city has the first Airbus factory on U.S. soil, an active shipbuilding industry, a busy port, interstate access and five railroads, according to Mobile District 1 City Councilmember and Council Vice President Fred Richardson.

Mobile City Councilmember Fred Richardson talking to a member of the media in New Orleans before the departure of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Mobile City Councilmember Fred Richardson talking to a member of the media in New Orleans just before the departure of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

“We all realize the value of passenger rail,” Councilemember Richardson said, offering a specific example.

“We have the busy Carnival cruise ships in the port…but is there another way to get all these tourists to and into our city? We’ve got air, we’ve got water, but we don’t have rail. So we’re trying to send a message today; a message that old people, young people, black and white people in Mobile — they want Amtrak and passenger rail. It’s galvanized people in our region and they want the train to roll. We’re missing this part of the puzzle that can help us bring another one million tourists into our city.”

Mobile, Alabama. Photos by Steve Davis / T4America

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), who is responsible for the creation of the new Gulf Coast rail study group through his work to include it in the FAST Act, is working to ensure that new passenger rail service on the coast will also be a good deal.

“We’ve got the top brass, we’ve got the local leaders, and we’re gonna make this work for Mississippi and the taxpayers,” The Senator said in Gulfport.

#YallAboard

Update: Find links to all of our posts and photos from the trip as well as a short video we produced on the trip here in this short recap post.

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

A massive show of support in Gulf Coast communities for passenger rail

A massive show of support yesterday from the people of the Gulf Coast welcomed the first passenger rail train east of New Orleans since Katrina, with thousands of residents in scores of communities from New Orleans to Atmore, Alabama turning out to send a clear message to their elected leaders that they want passenger rail service back.

Atmore, Alabama

This week’s Gulf Coast inspection train, run by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), is touring a potential route and examining the CSX tracks. It’s the product of years of work by local residents and elected leaders at almost all levels to restore the passenger rail service wiped out by Katrina over ten years ago. Read our first post for the backstory. Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.

#YallAboard

Although everyone involved with this trip had heard there were festivities planned in each stop along the way, no one seemed to be ready for what awaited us in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. People in conversation on the train stopped cold as they heard a band playing and a crowd cheering before the doors even opened on the train. Elected officials were clearly overwhelmed by the show of support as they stepped off the train to take a champagne toast to the first passenger train to stop in the city since Katrina.

The people of Bay St. Louis are a little excited about getting passenger rail service back. #YallAboard pic.twitter.com/OsRUkIZv6P

— Transport. 4 America (@T4America) February 18, 2016

Administrator Sara Feinberg of the Federal Railroad Administration was clearly taken aback as she stepped off the train, shaking hands with excited residents lining the train platform and pulling out her phone to take pictures of her own. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson posed for pictures with smiling and yelling residents like he was a rock star.

Shawn Wilson, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, takes photos of the crowd in Bay St. Louis, MS.

As John Sharp wrote in AL.com after riding from New Orleans to Mobile, it felt like a cathartic moment for this city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and has fought for years to bounce back. Schools were closed yesterday morning, costumes were donned, signs were made, songs were played, and the small community of Bay St. Louis made a powerful, moving display of support for restoring passenger rail to the city, bringing tourists to their beautiful city and giving residents a new option for getting back and forth along the coast to wherever they’d like to go.

Rich people, poor people, black people, white people, young people, old people — all asking their elected leaders for the same thing: We want passenger rail back on the Gulf Coast.

Gulf Coast rail trip gulfport people

This moving scene was repeated again and again at each stop in Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Mobile and Atmore, Alabama. In Gulfport, the second biggest city in the state, the crowd was so huge squeezed between the depot and a parking garage, you could hardly see a spot without people.

Gulf Coast rail trip gulfport crowd

Giant American flags were hung from fire department ladder trucks in almost every city. And not once did we leave the train without being accompanied by a band — including the historic Excelsior Band in Mobile. There was visible support even in communities along the way without a stop, like Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where children lined the fence by the tracks and waved at every crossing.

It was an incredible sight to see, and it had a palpable, powerful effect on the elected officials and VIPs from Washington on board. None of them will be able to go back to work in their government offices without thinking of the faces of the people they saw on this trip and how excited they were about the prospect of seeing this vital connection restored.

Pascagoula, Mississippi

We’ll have more later on from some of the mayors and other local leaders we’ve talked to this week. Each one we spoke to zeroed in on the economic potential of having this connection restored. All spoke eloquently about how passenger rail is a piece of the puzzle for staying competitive and helping move their people. And elected leaders from the cities, states and Congress all spoke passionately about how they’re working to make this service happen in a way that’s a good deal for taxpayers. We’ll get to their inspiring speeches too.

But it would be a mistake to start a look back on the trip anywhere other than with the amazing and inspiring people of the Gulf Coast who turned up yesterday — in the middle of a workday no less — to show their support for what their elected leaders are working hard to accomplish for them. They don’t appear to care a lick about the political or philosophical debate over transportation modes or funding that dominates conversations in Washington.

They just want to have another way to get where they want to go.

Y’all aboard.

Continue following along with the trip on Twitter with #YallAboard and @t4america

Update: Find links to all of our posts and photos from the trip as well as a short video we produced on the trip here in this short recap post.

Gulf Coast Rail Trip Atmore tribal girls

Atmore, Alabama

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Pascagoula, Mississippi

Mobile, Alabama

A first step toward restoring passenger rail to the Gulf Coast

A train full of elected, civic and other local leaders from the Gulf Coast and beyond will ride a special Amtrak inspection train from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida this week — a step toward restoring the passenger rail service east of New Orleans wiped out by Hurricane Katrina more than ten years ago — and Transportation for America will be along for the ride.

Flickr photo by Kurt Haubrich httpswww.flickr.com/photos/kphaubrich/8417825227/

When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in September of 2005, it wreaked havoc on all aspects of the Gulf Coast’s transportation network. Roads were underwater, bridges were washed away, transit systems shut down, airports closed temporarily, and passenger/freight rail through the most heavily afflicted region east of New Orleans closed indefinitely. After months and years of rebuilding in the region, including a mammoth five-month rebuilding effort along the CSX-owned freight rail line (also used by passenger trains) to reconnect the region, every one of those transportation modes was eventually restored.

Every one of those modes, that is, except for passenger rail service from New Orleans to Florida along those same CSX tracks.

That could be about to change, and this week will be the first chapter in the story of how that could happen. Well, it’s more like the fifth or sixth chapter, because the inspection train being run this week from New Orleans to Jacksonville by Amtrak in partnership with the Southern Rail Commission and CSX is not the beginning of the story.

This week, we’re going to be telling more of this story of how a coalition of local leaders, mayors, businessmen, governors and ultimately their representatives in Congress are leading the way to create what could be the first new long-distance passenger rail service in the U.S. in more than half a century — not in the Midwest, not in the Northeast, but down in the deep South.

httpwww.southernrailcommission.org/gulf-coast-rail/

The route the inspection train will be taking this week from New Orleans to Jacksonville.

It’s the product of an amazing amount of work by the Southern Rail Commission, a Congressionally established tri-state rail compact with members appointed by the governors of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. SRC has been hard at work bringing together local mayors along the line and building support amongst business leaders in the region. (Note: Transportation for America serves in an official capacity as policy advisors for SRC. -Ed.)

These efforts were heartily supported early on by a conservative governor in Mississippi and ultimately advanced in a key way by a bipartisan collection of congressional representatives from the region (Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Corrine Brown of Florida) and far beyond (Senator Cory Booker of NJ) in 2015 with the FAST Act surface transportation law.

While the FAST Act overall was a missed opportunity, it did for the first time ever also include passenger rail policy, including a provision that created a new working group to study exactly how to restore Gulf Coast passenger rail service. The omnibus budget bill passed in late 2015 provided the funding to start the working group. Led by Administrator Sara Feinberg of the Federal Railroad Administration, the working group held its kickoff meeting in New Orleans Tuesday where Feinberg encouraged the group to think bigger than just restoring service to the region, but to also consider how to build a system ready for the region’s future population and economic growth.

The first meeting of the Gulf Coast passenger rail working group on 2/16/16, with FRA Administrator Sara Feinberg at the center. Photo by Mayor Knox Ross.

The Amtrak planning meeting for Gulf Coast passenger rail on 2/17/16. Photo by Mayor Knox Ross.

The Amtrak planning meeting on Gulf Coast passenger rail on Wednesday, 2/17/16. Photo by Mayor Knox Ross.

A few of us from Transportation for America will be riding on the inspection train on Thursday and Friday this week, and we’ll be writing a few posts, posting photos, and talking to some of the mayors of cities from Louisiana to Florida along the line on the train about why they’re all in on passenger rail helping them reach their economic development goals.

For a taste of what we’re expecting to see, John Sharp with AL.com has some ideas:

Marching bands will lead pep rallies in Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Biloxi while a jazz band will serenade a gathering in Pascagoula. In Mobile, the Excelsior Band will be on hand in what could be a Mardi Gras-themed welcoming. And all along the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida Gulf coasts, people will be encouraged to show up, bring signs and wave banners in support of Amtrak’s first trip from New Orleans east toward Jacksonville, Fla., since before Hurricane Katrina blasted through a decade ago.

Follow along with us at @t4america and with the hashtag #YallAboard all this week on Twitter. We’ll also be posting photos directly to our Flickr account, and likely Facebook as well. Stay tuned!

Update: Find links to all of our posts and photos from the trip as well as a short video we produced on the trip here in this short recap post.

T4America launches a new online guide to creative placemaking in transportation

Today T4America is proud to launch a brand new online interactive guide, The Scenic Route: Getting Started with Creative Placemaking in Transportation. Creative placemaking is an emerging approach to planning and building transportation projects that taps local culture and to produce better projects through a better process.

https://t4america.org/creativeplacemaking

After checking out the new guide, be sure to share the news on Twitter and Facebook.

So what is creative placemaking?

Creative placemaking is a better process for planning and building transportation projects. It’s an approach that deeply engages the arts, culture, and creativity — especially from underrepresented communities — in planning and designing transportation projects so that the resulting communities better reflect and celebrate local culture, heritage and values.

Think of it this way: When anyone begins the process of a transportation project of any size, the first question usually (hopefully!) asked is, “What are we doing and why?”

In a creative placemaking approach, the next question to ask is, “How can the distinctiveness of this place and the people in it contribute to the success of what we’re doing? How can the arts and culture of this place be a part of the process and the final product?”

We wrote this guide to introduce the concept to transportation planners, public works agencies and local elected officials who are on the front lines of advancing transportation projects.

Why we need a better approach to transportation projects

More than ever, transportation agencies need a greater level of support in local communities to make projects happen. Meaningfully engaging the public so they have a say over the project may be a little daunting for public agencies, but it ultimately makes the project more successful — whether a project as basic as the redesign of an intersection or as complex as the construction of a new light rail line.

Building more support by better engaging the public can help avoid 11th hour controversies and build the type of public trust that is more important than ever for advancing ambitious infrastructure plans or winning new revenue for transportation at your city council, the ballot box or in your state legislature.

Creative placemaking harnesses the power of arts and culture to allow for more genuine public engagement — particularly in low-income neighborhoods, communities of color and among immigrant populations — in the development of transportation projects. Forget the traditional, staid public meeting format and instead imagine artists engaging community members using multiple languages to generate meaningful dialogues, capturing their creativity and local knowledge to better inform the ultimate design of the project.

Done right, creative placemaking can lead to both a better process and a better product, in this case integrating community-inspired art into the ultimate design of the project as so many of the case studies in this guide demonstrate.

The end results are streets, sidewalks and public spaces that welcome us, inspire us and move us in every sense of that word. It doesn’t take much to get started, but it does require a new approach to public engagement along with intentional partnerships with artists, arts councils and community-based organizations.

We hope this guide serves as your starting point to a journey that can truly transform your city. Browse the guide, share it with others, and let us know what you think.

Our deepest thanks to the Kresge Foundation for their support in producing this resource.

View the Guide

Dive into creative placemaking with an online discussion about our new interactive guide on 2/17

Join Transportation for America as we release our new online interactive creative placemaking guide, The Scenic Route: Getting Started With Creative Placemaking in Transportation, with an interactive webinar on Wednesday, February 17, 2016 at 3:30pm EST.

America’s cities, towns and suburbs are rapidly changing and evolving, and transportation investments are playing a catalytic role in transforming communities. But all too often, major transportation projects are disruptive to the surrounding community, and frequently impact or even displace existing residents and businesses.

For those of you planning, designing and building transportation projects, creative placemaking is an emerging approach that every community should consider.

What is creative placemaking? An approach that can lead to better projects and better places, that uses arts and culture to more genuinely reflect what makes a community unique, that builds the kind of trust and relationships between the public and the planners that can make it easier to advance these important projects or the funding required to build them.

Join the kickoff webinar to learn about some of the most exciting placemaking projects in the country. You’ll also get an early copy of the forthcoming guidebook when it’s released. The event will be a chance to ask questions of our placemaking experts. And be sure to share your own successes on Twitter at the hashtag #CPguidebook.

We look forward to having you join us next week!

President Obama releases robust final budget; summary included

Today, the White House released President Obama’s fiscal year 2017 (FY17) budget proposal, the final of his presidency. This budget adheres to the $1.07 trillion spending cap that resulted from the bipartisan two-year budget deal agreed to last November. The President’s budget proposal either falls in line with or exceeds FAST Act funding levels, increases transit and rail funding, and funds TIGER (the FAST Act does not authorize the program), among other programs. The budget also calls for the creation of a 21st Century Regions program, a clean communities competitive grant program and funds the President’s 21st Century Clean Transportation Plan.

Speaker Ryan (R-WI) has asked congressman to maintain the funding levels agreed to last November, though there are signals that some may seek additional cuts.

Read a more detailed analysis here.

The 1 thing you need to know about President Obama’s clean transportation plan

On February 4, the White House released President Obama’s 21st Century Clean Transportation System plan to be included in his FY2017 budget proposal expected out on February 9. The President asserts that his budget proposal will strengthen the nation’s transportation fund through one-time revenues from business tax reform and a $10 per barrel fee on oil, and make large investments in transit and improve funding for local and regional governments.

“This is a new vision. We’re realistic about near-term prospects in Congress, but we think this can change the debate,” one senior administration official said.

The announcement comes two months after the passage of the 5 year surface transportation bill known as the FAST Act. However, Congressional leaders have not expressed willingness to consider the proposal.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) made this point clear. “President Obama’s proposed $10 per barrel tax on oil is dead on arrival in the House.”

What the plan proposes

The plan includes a wide range of innovative solutions. It would refocus federal investments to reduce congestion, reform the existing transportation formula programs, and invest in competitive programs, including the popular Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program. It would also increase investments in mass transit funding by $20 billion annually, provide $2 billion for an autonomous and low-emission vehicle pilot, and add $10 billion per year to reform local and regional transportation programs. The latter would include new discretionary grant programs for regions that lower emissions and better link land use decisions with transportation investments.

To pay for these investments, revenues from a $10 per barrel fee paid by oil companies would be phased in over 5 years. During the development of the FAST Act, Congress was unwilling to even hold a floor vote on increasing transportation user-fees, which hasn’t been raised in over 23 years.

What can other states learn from California’s shift to better measure how streets move people

In 2013, the State of California passed legislation that makes a dramatic change in how the state measures the performance of their streets. Rather than use the traditional level of service (LOS) measure that focuses far too narrowly on moving as many cars as fast as possible — regardless of the context or needs of a street — California’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) is shifting to an alternative of measuring vehicle-miles traveled (VMT).

In this first post of a six-post series only for T4America members, Transportation for America will walk through the change from LOS to VMT, highlight the opinions of a variety of leaders on this issue and discuss the implications for California’s transportation system and potential implications nationwide.

Reminder, moving away from level of service (LOS) was one of the key recommendations in our new state policy report, released in January 2016. Don't miss that helpful resource.

Note: moving away from level of service (LOS) was one of the key recommendations detailed in our new state policy report, released in January 2016. Don’t miss that helpful resource.

In 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 743, eliminating the use of LOS for projects within designated transit priority areas (TPAs). As Streetsblog LA reported in 2013, SB 743 was a compromise between interests who wanted the full elimination of LOS in California and advocates pushing for the full and immediate elimination of LOS as a requirement for any project. But, because most urban areas fall within the state-defined parameters of a TPA, the enactment of SB 743 means that LOS is largely eliminated for urban projects.

Additionally, SB 743 authorized Governor Brown to develop a new way of measuring traffic impacts of major projects statewide and based the new way on total VMT rather than intersection congestion. (1) This will change how development projects are analyzed and scored in traffic impact studies and thus the type of development projects that California supports.

What this means

In short, instead of measuring whether or not a proposed project will make it less convenient to drive, (CalTrans) will now measure whether or not a project contributes to other state goals, like reducing greenhouse gas emissions, developing multimodal transportation, preserving open spaces, and promoting diverse land uses and infill development. (2) It is expected that this change will make it easier to build transit projects, as well as bicycle and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.

But perhaps a larger change will be the type of development the law now encourages. Instead of encouraging sprawl that goes against California’s own environmental goals, these new guidelines will encourage development that moves California to a more sustainable transportation system. (3)

Status of Draft Guidelines

In August 2014, OPR released draft guidelines proposing to substitute VMT for the LOS metric (as authorized by SB 743). Under the draft guidelines, California no longer considers bad LOS a problem that needs fixing under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). (4)

On January 20th 2016, OPR released the final draft of the changes to CEQA. The January 20th release signals the 45-day initial public comment period before finalizing the proposal and submitting to the California Natural Resources Agency to begin the formal rulemaking process under the Administrative Procedure Act. The regulations are anticipated to be effective statewide in 2019. (5)

Final Guidelines

The final guidelines are very similar to the draft guidelines with only slight changes. In the final proposal, OPR continues to recommend replacing LOS with VMT as the primary metric for analyzing a project’s transportation impacts, including the presumption that projects near transit (1/2 mile or less) should be presumed to cause a less than significant transportation impact and that transportation projects which add lane miles may result in induced vehicle travel. (6) In a big win for smart growth advocates, the guidelines emphasize that effects on automobile delay do not constitute a significant environmental impact. (7)

The new guidelines would remain optional for a two-year period following adoption, but would apply statewide to all development projects by 2019. (8)

Draft Guideline Rules on Impact Analysis

The final guidelines contain significant changes on the types of triggers needed to spur an environmental impact statement. Divided into three categories; land use projects, residential projects and office projects, all triggers are established at below a commonly accepted baseline level. The new proposal attempts to streamline the implemention of SB 743, with recommendations regarding significance thresholds, for required traffic analyses of development projects. (9)

These new threshold guidelines mean that development projects that will significantly increase the amount of automobile traffic that will be required to undergo rigorous environmental impact statements to ensure that they are compliant with California’s statewide greenhouse gas law.

Citations:

Newton, D. and Curry, M. (2014, August 7^th). California Has Officially Ditched Car-Centric ‘Level of Service’. LA Streetsblog. Retrieved February 1^st from /http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/08/07/california-has-officially-ditched-car-centric-level-of-service/
Newton, D. (2016, January 22^nd). State Releases Proposed Rules That Would Finally End LOS in Enviro. Law. Streetsblog California. Retrieved February 1^st from http://cal.streetsblog.org/2016/01/22/state-releases-proposed-rules-that-would-finally-end-los-in-environmental-law/
Ibid 2
Ibid 2
Ibid 3
Lathom and Watkins LLP. (2016, January 26^th). California Governor’s Office Releases Updated CEQA Guidelines Proposal on SB 743 Implementation. Retreived 2016/2/01 from http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=b070fa40-a4ff-4ce1-a6db-f2bd104cce31
Ibid 5
Ibid 5
Ibid 5

Alabama DOT out-of-step with metro business leaders on economic development

A coalition of business and local leaders in Birmingham, AL are pushing back against the state’s plans to widen an interstate through downtown, advocating instead for a more up-to-date approach to economic development for the revitalizing downtown core.

A story earlier this week caught our eye and iIllustrates how state departments of transportation can often be out-of-touch with the diverse transportation needs of local communities and cities. From the Over the Mountain Journal:

Downtown Birmingham has many prominent features and landmarks. The recently renovated Lyric Fine Arts Theatre, the Birmingham Museum of Art and the McWane Science Center are just a few attractions drawing people in. But there is one feature many area business leaders find worrisome: the Interstate 20/59 corridor cutting through downtown. The Alabama Department of Transportation is moving forward with plans to reconfigure and widen the interstate. Civic leaders believe the plan will have long-term, detrimental effects on the city.

birmingham google maps

Interstate 59 and Interstate 20 merge together on the east side of downtown Birmingham and, similar to post-war road designs in scores of other U.S. cities, cut a path through the heart of downtown Birmingham, with part of that route in the form of a 1.3-mile elevated viaduct.

Just like many of those other cities, Birmingham has also experienced a rebirth of downtown in the last decade, with $728 million “in 32 downtown projects under construction or recently completed,” according to Business Alabama. More residents are now moving in than moving out (changing a decades-long trend), and thousands of new housing units have been added. A quarter of the region’s jobs are located downtown, public investments have spurred millions in private investments, and the city enjoys the presence of a growing state university campus (U. of Alabama at Birmingham) just south of downtown.

birmingham 20:59 viaduct

Yet, many city leaders and residents have pointed to the aging viaduct as a barrier to the potential economic growth percolating downtown. After ALDOT’s repair plan for the aging viaduct morphed into a much larger plan to replace and widen it, the City of Birmingham commissioned the firm that helped produce their 2013 comprehensive plan to produce an alternative study. “Participants during the comprehensive planning project identified the I-20/59 viaduct as a barrier to full revitalization of downtown and adjacent Northside neighborhoods,” it read.

The coalition of local business and civic leaders speaking out against the project — including the former head of the state’s third largest private company — believe that not only should Birmingham have more of a say in their own future, but that a better plan created in collaboration with city leaders could do a better job of boosting the city’s economic competitiveness, which is also in the state’s interest. The Over the Mountain Journal piece continues:

F. Dixon Brooke Jr., former president and CEO of EBSCO, and nearly a dozen other business and community leaders are asking ALDOT to look at alternatives. Brooke said the current layout of the interstate has hurt Birmingham’s revitalization. “It has proven to be dividing the city for years. It has limited quality of life and the ability to revitalize,” Brooke said.

Those leaders are hopeful, and they crave a more transparent process that incorporates goals other than moving cars through the city.

“I need ALDOT to exhibit genuine interest in collaborating and consider alternatives. They feel they’ve looked at all options because they think this is the best one, but I’m not convinced. We want an open, honest collaborative view.” He said he isn’t looking for a fight, he is just asking for transparency. “At the end of the day we may look at everything and see there just isn’t a better way to do it,” Brooke said.

While their complaints so far have been tabled by the Alabama DOT, it will be an interesting case to watch.

It’s yet one more sign of a growing coalition of local business, elected, and civic leaders in similar midsize cities across the country pushing for a smarter approach to transportation investment and a break from the past conventional wisdom.

How many states will try to do something different in 2016?

With Congress finally wrapping up their five-year transportation bill in late 2015, the spotlight will burn even brighter on states in 2016. With 40 state legislatures now in session and six more set to begin in the coming weeks, how many states will raise new funding? How many states will attempt to improve how they spend their transportation dollars? How many will take unfortunate steps backwards?

As we highlighted in our most recent report that contained 12 recommendations for bringing state transportation policy out of the stone age, these state legislators will face the most critical of choices: continue pumping scarce dollars into a complex and opaque system designed to spend funds based more on politics than needs, or find a new approach that will boost state and local economies and restore taxpayer confidence in a broken system.

Here’s a short roundup of some of the states and bills that we’ll be watching.

Increases in funding on the horizon?

Louisiana’s new governor, John Bel Edwards (D), and a new legislature have highlighted transportation as a priority issue. Edwards’ transition team recommended a big ramp up in spending for transportation projects — and especially on rail, transit, freight and other key, non-highway projects that have long been neglected. The transition team also recommended that — to make those projects possible — the state will need to move ahead on staffing and setting up the new office of multimodal commerce created by the legislature in 2014 as a way to reform the Department of Transportation and Development and broaden the state’s transportation focus. A special legislative session on the state budget begins in mid-February. Transportation is unlikely to be included in this session, but legislators will be laying the groundwork for raising new funding in a later session or next year.

Following years of unsuccessful efforts, Missouri’s legislature is again looking for ways to raise new state revenue for transportation. A voter initiative in 2014 was defeated in part because it would have taxed metropolitan areas most heavily but not given cities the autonomy to spend these funds on their most pressing transportation needs. To get support for new funding — several bills have been introduced already this year — legislators will likely need to reform the way funds are distributed and spent, but few reforms have been offered.

A special transportation finance panel called by Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) recommended multiple sources of financing to fund the state’s long list of repair needs and planned projects. But it called for the state to first implement several reforms, including setting aside fuel tax and toll revenues exclusively for transportation projects and for enabling new local or regional funding options to allow alternative funding for local priorities.

Colorado’s legislature is fielding a slew of calls for new ways to get more money to transportation projects. Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) has called for a tax swap that would allow the state to spend existing revenue on transportation projects. Some transportation advocates have called for general obligation bonds, shifting money now used for road repair to pay for new projects, or a statewide ballot measure to increase revenue for transportation.

After months of publicly calling for state legislators to boost state transportation funding and barnstorming the state to make his case, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) has pushed the issue off the agenda until 2017. The call for new revenue got a chilly reception with state legislators, including leaders in Haslam’s own party. Fortunately, as we highlight in our report from two weeks ago, Tennessee’s DOT is already a leader in finding cost-effective solutions and saving state money by right-sizing their projects — keys to building trust and ensuring voters that any new money down the road will be well-spent.

New local funding

Local communities want and need to put their own skin in the game, and states should enable them to do so. Far too many states restrict the ability for locals to tax themselves to raise their own funds for transportation, but scores of other states are looking for ways to enable local communities to raise their own dollars for their most pressing needs.

A bill was introduced in Massachusetts by START Network member Rep. Chris Walsh (D-Framingham) to allow cities and towns to impose a payroll, sales, property, or vehicle excise tax to fund local transportation projects, including repair and new construction of streets, bridges, transit, and pedestrian or bike infrastructure. A bill in Wisconsin allows counties or municipalities to impose a temporary, 0.5-percent sales tax to raise money exclusively for street and highway repair. Both bills would require the new taxes to be approved by the local government and a voter referendum.

A 2013 transportation funding bill in Virginia added extra fuel and sales taxes for the state’s most populous urban regions of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to help them meet the large, complicated transportation demands. Two bills introduced this year add a new floor to the local supplemental tax equal to the amount that would have been charged in February 2013, already in place for the statewide wholesale rate, and increase the wholesale rate for the Hampton Roads region from 2.1-percent to 5.3-percent.

Measuring performance

Last month, Virginia Department of Transportation released its first list of projects scored and ranked to receive funding in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. This program is the result of a dogged focus by legislative leaders and the administration of Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) to reform the state’s transportation program. START members and other local leaders have had positive feedback thus far for the new system intended to increase transparency and public understanding of transportation investments by objectively screening and scoring transportation projects based on their anticipated benefits.

Massachusetts is in the midst of implementing a similar program that was created as part of the 2013 transportation funding package.

Moving backward

While legislators in many states are looking for ways to meet diverse transportation needs, some legislators are leading efforts to entrench systems that fund highways only. A bill passed out of Colorado’s Senate Transportation committee would eliminate $15 million in state money directed to transit from a 2009 funding bill. A bill in Tennessee would limit state transportation funds, including those distributed to cities and counties, exclusively for highways and bridges.