Posts Tagged "usdot"
Last-minute budget deal holds good news for the safety of all who use our roads
In a rare weekend session, the U.S. Senate finally passed the FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations Act, sending it to the President and avoiding a government shutdown. Buried deep within the legislation, was a simple paragraph enacting a proposal that Transportation for America and many others have long advocated for.
Congress postpones insolvency, but uncertainty still plagues the Highway Trust Fund’s future
The last-minute patch to the Highway Trust Fund that Congress enacted on the way out the door last week delayed immediate insolvency, but it hardly ends the uncertainty for states or addresses our nation’s long-term prospects.
Senate poised to take up House plan to patch Highway Trust Fund until Spring 2015
Sometime this week the Senate is expected to take up and vote on the House’s bill to postpone the insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund until May of 2015 via an array of accounting maneuvers to cover ten months of transportation funding.
“They’re gonna need to see this upstairs.”
“They’re gonna need to see this upstairs.” That’s what staff at the U.S. Department of Transportation told Smart Growth America president Geoff Anderson yesterday when he showed up with 1,500 letters from T4America and Smart Growth America supporters urging USDOT to improve their targets for reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on our streets and to better hold states accountable for reaching those goals.
U.S. DOT offers great proposals, but the program needs more money to make them real
The Obama Administration last week unveiled its bid to save the federal transportation program with only months to spare before most states and metro areas lose the majority of their funding to maintain and improve transportation networks – unless Congress acts. While the Administration foreshadowed its priorities in its March budget request, the proposal – […]
Too weak to be effective: U.S. DOT’s first proposed performance measure needs work
While the 2012 federal transportation law, MAP-21, was not the transformational milestone many of us hoped for, it did put in motion a first-ever framework for accountability and transparency, establishing 12 basic metrics by which to judge agencies’ performance. It was left to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to put flesh on the bones by adopting rules for how to apply those performance measures.
T4 brings mayors to Washington to tell Secretary Foxx about the importance of passenger rail
T4America brought together a group of mayors to visit with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx — a former mayor himself — and deliver a message about the importance of passenger rail to the economies of those communities they represent.
Reaction to President Obama’s nomination of Mayor Anthony Foxx as U.S. DOT Secretary
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Responding to President Obama’s nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Transportation for America Director James Corless issued this statement:
How civic open data can help make us safer
A federal government commitment to open data — epitomized in a White House “datapalooza” last Friday — has catalyzed the development of apps and tools that can help enrich citizens’ lives and help keep them safer.
Smart questions submitted for Secretary LaHood to answer
Last week we asked you for questions for U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and you came through with some great questions and topics that he’ll hopefully consider for his next edition of “On The Go,” his recurring video segment where he answers questions and discusses transportation topics at a little more length than he can […]
Do you have a burning question for Secretary Ray Lahood?
I hope so, because the U.S. Secretary of Transportation wants to answer yours! Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has asked Transportation for America’s many partners and supporters to submit questions for him that he’ll answer in his next edition of “On the Go,” a monthly video segment with the Secretary where he answers a few […]
Partnership for Sustainable Communities celebrates two years, and we hope for many more
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an innovative plan to get federal agencies working in concert instead of at cross-purposes, is celebrating its two year anniversary. And there is good reason to celebrate. The Partnership, a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency, promotes […]
Two former secretaries of transportation stress renewed focus on infrastructure, better ways to pay for it
Former secretaries of transportation Norman Mineta and Samuel Skinner want less talk on infrastructure and more action. In a briefing on Capitol Hill yesterday, this bipartisan duo that both worked in Republican administrations called for increased attention on the nation’s infrastructure, more accountability and wisdom for how we choose what projects to fund and declared the existing gas tax an insufficient funding source for the future.
Secretary LaHood, members of Congress celebrate Pennsylvania Avenue’s new bike lanes
LaHood with Mayor Fenty, DDOT Director Gabe Klein and Reps. Blumenauer and Oberstar. Photo courtesy of USDOT. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has made a point of championing bicycling as a legitimate travel option everywhere, but he is also keeping an eye on his own backyard, including Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. LaHood joined DC Mayor […]
Dozens of bicyclists ride to USDOT Friday to tell Secretary LaHood “thanks”
Transportation for America was proud to co-author and circulate a letter thanking Secretary Ray LaHood for USDOT’s policy statement elevating walking and biking in national policy. Last Friday, several of us at T4 cycled with a handful of national partners to DOT Headquarters across town to thank the Secretary in person.
Secretary LaHood on T4 America’s poll: “People want better options”
We got some superb media coverage last week on the release of our national poll and there’s an engaging discussion underway today on the National Journal experts blog, but we wanted to especially highlight a terrific post today from Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, on his official DOT blog.
Secretary LaHood says that our poll echoes the same drumbeat he’s heard all around the country from people in big cities, small towns and all the places in between during his first 14 months in office: “people want better options.”
Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign a positive step, but must emphasize transportation voices
In February, First Lady Michelle Obama announced her exciting “Let’s Move” campaign and the goal of seriously confronting childhood obesity in the United States within a generation. Now, the campaign – more formally known as the Presidential Task Force on Childhood Obesity – is getting to work on an action plan to influence federal policy. This is a great start, but there’s an omission: the task force does not include a representative from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
TIGER Grants Offer Critical Support to Communities with Innovative Transportation Projects
The Obama Department of Transportation today broke historic ground in unveiling projects chosen in a first-ever program to award federal dollars on a competitive basis to innovative projects that address economic, environmental and travel issues at once. The 51 projects announced under the TIGER grant program, funded by $1.5 billion included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), meet a broad array of challenges.
Feds announce change to consider livability in funding transit projects
Following through on a policy change hinted at for much of 2009, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced this morning that federal transit officials would begin considering expanded criteria as they select which transit projects to fund, focusing on livability and sustainability.
Secretary Ray LaHood on the the Daily Show with Jon Stewart
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was the guest on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, and got an easy question right off the bat. When asked by Stewart about how a high-powered CEO could get from New York to D.C. “when it’s foggy out,” alluding to the three Wall Street CEOs who had their plane grounded in last week’s fog, missing a meeting with the President, Ray LaHood gave a simple answer. “Amtrak runs in the fog,” he said.
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