Today’s Headlines

  • D.C. Metro crash casts a grim light on insufficient federal support for transit (Time)
  • LaHood: Looming highway trust fund bankruptcy will leave states in crisis … (WSJ)
  • … but the administration is proud of how quickly it’s allocated highway money (AP)
  • Rep. John Mica (R-FL) talks up the need for infrastructure investment (PBS)
  • DeFazio suggests paying for new transpo bill with a 0.02 percent tax on oil speculators (Infrastructurist)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Sober Non-Partisan Analysis: America Wastes a Ton of Money on Highways

By Angie Schmitt |
A good deal of the $46 billion the federal government pours into highway spending each year is going to waste, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report [PDF]. The conclusion won’t surprise regular Streetsblog readers, but it’s the source that’s interesting. The CBO is not an advocacy group or an ideologically-minded think tank. It’s a non-partisan budget watchdog charged […]

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Highway Removal

By Elizabeth Press |
In this week’s episode of “Moving Beyond the Automobile,” Streetfilms takes you on a guided tour of past, present and future highway removal projects with John Norquist of the Congress for the New Urbanism.Some of the most well-known highway removals in America — like New York City’s West Side Highway and San Francisco’s Embarcadero Freeway […]

55 FHWA Programs You Won’t Have to Kick Around Anymore

By Tanya Snyder |
We reported yesterday that the president’s six-year transportation plan proposes simplifying federal policy by eliminating 55 highway programs and rolling them all into five umbrella programs: the National Highway Program, Highway Safety Improvement, Livable Communities, Federal Allocation, and Research, Technology, and Education. Here’s the list, from DOT, of the 55 programs they intend to consolidate. There are […]