Today’s Headlines

  • Purple toll lanes, overhead lane-use control signs, and more crosswalk time for pedestrians are all coming soon to a road near you, as the U.S. DOT makes its first update in six years to the nation’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (UPI)
  • Did one affordable-housing nonprofit in New York City really get $156 million in federal stimulus money? Not so much (NYT Blogs)
  • Building America’s Future, headed by Rendell, Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg, praises House jobs bill but calls for six-year "reformed" transportation bill and a National Infrastructure Bank (BAF Press)
  • New research shows that the benefits of smart growth go beyond saved fuel emissions (NRDC Blog)
  • Do wind turbines have a negative effect on community health? Nope, says a new study (NYT Blogs)
  • Improving transit’s environmental efficiency: It’s a necessary, if politically inconvenient, pursuit (The Transport Politic)
  • Hybrid buses come to Savannah, and new streetcars on their way to D.C. (Savannah Now, WaPo)
  • Washington state DOT is squeezing in 24 new road stimulus projects thanks to low construction bids (Seattle P-I)

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House Attack on Safe Streets Makes Transpo Bill Ever More Elusive

By Tanya Snyder |
We reported last week that the House had proposed allowing states to “opt out” of funding bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements in its counter-offer to the Senate during transportation bill negotiations. The House GOP essentially wants to reject the Cardin-Cochran amendment, which gave local governments control over half the “Additional Activities” funding set aside for […]

A Two-Year Transportation Bill? Some Say It’s a Better Deal

By Tanya Snyder |
Last week, we reported that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) had mused aloud at a committee hearing that perhaps a two-year transportation reauthorization was a better option in the current political and economic environment than a six-year bill. “We don’t have a lot of money here,” he said. And at the current rate, under a six-year […]