Posts Tagged "COVID-19"
Will Congress hold Amtrak accountable for providing essential passenger rail service?
Communities large and small, urban and rural, are served by Amtrak’s national network of long distance routes, providing essential connections to jobs, services, and the broader economy. Amtrak is threatening to dramatically cut these services, severing essential connections despite clear directives from Congress.
How transit agencies are keeping workers and riders safe
As we slowly settle into a new normal, transit agencies across the country are making big changes to their operations to keep employees and riders safe. We checked in with our transit agency members across the country to see how they’re adapting to COVID-19 and what they need to keep going.
Transit agencies, riders, unions, and members of Congress rally to save transit
Last week, a diverse group of transit stakeholders advocated for at least $32 billion in federal emergency funding for public transportation during a virtual rally. Scores of transit riders, transit agency executives, union leaders and members of Congress made it clear that transit won’t survive this crisis without help.
Thriving Together: A springboard for equitable recovery & resilience in communities across America
A new report—Thriving Together—takes a comprehensive look at how “we can convert our immense loss from COVID-19 and other crises into renewal.” This report represents the combined efforts of more than 100 people and organizations, including Transportation for America, to create a thoughtful guide for rebuilding a more equitable society with “all people and places thriving. No exceptions.”
T4America statement on Senate Republicans’ HEALS Act
Senate Republicans’ COVID-19 relief funding proposal contains no emergency funding for transit for passenger rail. T4America released this statement in response.
Three things to know about FY2021 House transportation appropriations
Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Committee approved transportation funding levels for fiscal year 2021. Emergency funding for the primary transit construction program and passenger rail is great, but more money for highways—funnelled into existing broken programs that just make traffic worse—is not. Here’s what’s to like and not to like in the House FY2021 transportation appropriations bill.
Five things Congress can do to save transit
Public transportation is in crisis. Transit agencies are suffering tremendous losses in ridership and farebox revenue, as well as state and local revenues, with no end in sight. Meanwhile, the multi-year transportation bill passed in the House of Representatives that includes some relief for public transit won’t pass anytime soon. Here’s what Congress must do to truly save transit from collapsing.
Transit will be reeling from COVID-19 for years
When cities and states began shutting down in response to COVID-19, the financial impact to transit was swift and immense, but the immediate impacts only tell part of the story. Given the myriad ways that transit is funded around the country, the fiscal impacts of the pandemic will likely be varied and long-lasting. Congress and state legislatures should strive to find ways to adequately plan for and address those shortfalls in the long-term.
CDC quietly revises their guidance to encourage people to use transit safely
Two weekends ago the CDC quietly revised their guidance for using public transportation after an outpouring of criticism from Transportation for America, NACTO, TransitCenter, the American Public Transportation Association, and others that the CDC was contradicting years of their own public health guidance that encouraging more driving incurs massive public health costs in pollution, respiratory illnesses, obesity, and preventable traffic deaths.
New and expanded transit projects may not get built
City and state budget deficits and a drastic decline in transit ridership have pushed transit agencies to the brink of collapse. Communities that were on the verge of expanding or building new transit may not be able to finance their projects if Congress doesn’t act.
“Shovel-ready” projects just dig a deeper hole
Investing in “shovel-ready” projects—projects that are allegedly ready to go but just lacking funding—is an attractive idea for stimulating job growth. But as we learned in the 2009 stimulus, “shovel-ready” projects often aren’t all that shovel-ready, are frequently old road projects designed for the needs of the last century, fail to create jobs, and won’t help us build a safer, cleaner, and more equitable transportation system.
What do we do next? COVID-19 and the triple helix model of innovation
Where the triple helix may be most evident is how federal and state COVID-19 response guidelines affected government operations, educational institutions, and businesses.
Learning from COVID-19: Connecting with the research community
The research community is quickly engaging to help understand and evaluate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Practitioner and researcher collaboration will improve our understanding of what has worked and what has not, and how we might change our curbside in the longer term–whether for pandemic responses or for everyday operations in the coming “new normal.”
Over 160 sign letter in support of $32 billion for transit, but the fight isn’t over
Last week, the House of Representatives passed a COVID-19 relief bill that only included $15 billion in emergency support for public transportation. That’s not nearly enough; and it’s why over 160 organizations and elected officials signed our letter in support of $32 billion for transit on short notice. But we still need you to take action.
More than one million households without a car in rural America need better transit
Many people think the only Americans regularly relying on transit to reach jobs and services live in big cities. Yet the majority of counties with high rates of zero-car households are rural. In fact, more than one million households in predominantly rural counties do not have access to a vehicle. Rural Americans without cars face unique barriers and they deserve a tailored approach to their transit needs rather than just assuming they can or will drive everywhere.
House bill proposes $15 billion for transit. It’s not enough
Democrats in the House of Representatives only included $15 billion for transit in their next COVID-19 relief bill. That’s not enough—we need double that to ensure that transit survives this crisis. Send a message to your congressional delegation urging them to support $32 billion for transit.
COVID-19 & the curb: Private sector works to adapt and offer creative solutions
This blog is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of International Parking & Mobility Institute, Transportation for America, and Institute of Transportation Engineer’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to COVID-19, as well as create a knowledge base of strategies that communities can use to manage the curbside during future emergencies.
Curbside management in a recurring emergency scenario: A municipal perspective
This post is part of a special series on curb management and COVID-19. A joint effort of IPMI, Transportation for America, and ITE’s Complete Streets Council, this series strives to document the immediate curbside-related actions and responses to COVID-19, as well as create a knowledge base of strategies that communities can use to manage the curbside during future emergencies.
Memo: Smart transportation investments are key to future resiliency
The following is a memo published by Third Way on ensuring smart infrastructure investments, written by Third Way’s Transportation Policy Advisor, Alex Laska. Alex recently joined T4America Director Beth Osborne on a webinar, “Responding to the Crisis: What Does US Infrastructure Look Like During the COVID-19 Recovery?” presented by Third Way, Our Daily Planet, and the University of Michigan”.
The parking and mobility industry comes together in a time of need. Here’s how.
As communities enacted new policies to protect citizens by minimizing the spread of the coronavirus, their parking and mobility programs adapted curb management and parking policies to address emerging priorities.
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