Today’s Headlines

  • Obama administration officials put the kibosh on plans to use stimulus money on a pedestrian footbridge to the New England Patriots football stadium (AP)
  • Do lists of "shovel-ready" projects translate into quick transportation job creation? Not in the Michigan town of Jackson (Citizen-Patriot)
  • How can the Obama administration make sure local (especially urban) governments get a voice in the state-centric economic recovery effort? General revenue sharing, not seen since Nixon’s era, may be the answer (TNR’s The Avenue)
  • Florida’s high-speed and commuter rail investment bill clears the state House but faces steep challenges in the state Senate (AP)
  • Dallas and San Diego win $14 million in federal money for intelligent transportation systems that aim to manage congestion and provide real-time transit data (DOT Press)
  • Massachusetts to use $23 million in stimulus money and $11 million in bond revenue to build new parking garage near transit station (AP)
  • Spokane, Washington, joins the list of cities considering a new streetcar system (AP)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Is the Stimulus Working For Cities? Not So Much, Mayors Say

By Elana Schor |
As the Obama administration today faced new criticism of its methods for tracking jobs created or saved by the $787 billion stimulus law, a bipartisan quartet of mayors was weighing in at the Brookings Institution about the recovery effort’s impact on their local economies. As budget cuts hit Florida’s Tri-Rail line, shown here, the state […]

New Stimulus Data: Road Funds 77% Under Contract, Transit at 74%

By Elana Schor |
As of the end of February, nearly $5.4 billion of transit stimulus money, or 74 percent, was under contract for projects in the 50 states and D.C., according to a Streetsblog Capitol Hill analysis of data released today by the House transportation committee. (Photo: DMI Blog) The success rate of transit stimulus spending was slightly […]

Barbour Breaks With AASHTO Chief on Stimulus’ Transportation Benefits

By Elana Schor |
Viewers of yesterday’s Fox News Sunday were treated to an interesting sight: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), whose name is increasingly in the mix for his party’s 2012 presidential nomination, distancing himself from the president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), Washington’s voice for state DOTs. Butch Brown, Mississippi’s DOT […]

Economic Hardship Standard in Stimulus Sparks Washington Ferry Flap

By Elana Schor |
The House transportation committee convened this morning to hash out the ongoing battle over federal policy-making, but Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) had a more local concern. How did Washington ferries manage to snag only 1 percent of stimulus aid? (Photo: city-data.com) Calling himself "an angry Norwegian," Larsen asked U.S. DOT undersecretary Roy Kienitz to explain […]

Tell Congress: Don’t Waste Money on Highway Expansion

By Ben Fried |
States should know better than to funnel more money into road expansion at the expense of maintenance. With President-elect Obama back in Washington, action is heating up again around the economic recovery package, which could total up to $850 billion over the next two years. As much as $100 billion may be at stake for […]