Today’s Headlines

By Elana Schor
Jan 11, 2010

New joblessness figures are raising pressure on the White House for job-creation action, with Oberstar still pressing more infrastructure funding as a solution (WSJ)

Illinois area lawmakers pitching a rail tourism corridor (Tribune)

Is America headed for a canal trolley-boat comeback? (TNR’s The Vine)

In Washington D.C., every locality wants to play host to Northrup Grumman’s new headquarters, and the offered goodies are flying fast and furious (WaPo)

Franken pushes for local Minnesota highway project to get stimulus money (Repub-Eagle)

Auto industry strutting its stuff this week at annual Detroit auto show, with congressional leaders in tow … (UPI)

… while Ford’s CEO unveils his solution to distracted driving: a device that reads tweets aloud to drivers (Caller.com)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Bi-partisan Senate Bill Would Give Locals More Say Over Transpo Spending

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 22, 2014

When it comes to transportation funding, cities and towns occupy the bottom of the totem pole. The vast majority of federal transportation money goes to states, to the exclusion of local governments. That means state DOTs get tens of billions to spend on highways each year, while mayors and local agencies have to scrounge for […]

A Bipartisan Policy Breakthrough That Could Save Local Economies

By Beth Osborne | Jun 9, 2014

Beth Osborne was deputy assistant secretary for policy, and then acting assistant secretary, at the U.S. Department of Transportation from 2009 until March, when she joined Transportation for America. Members of Congress love to talk about local control. And with good reason: American voters tell pollsters over and over again that they trust the elected […]

Wins For Washington (State): Transport Bill Resolves Two Local Debates

By Elana Schor | Dec 14, 2009

Tucked into the transportation spending bill that Congress approved over the weekend are two wins for Washington state’s senior senator, Patty Murray (D), who chairs the upper chamber’s transport budget-writing panel. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) (Photo: Seattle Times) Murray’s first victory deals with Bush-era rules for charter buses that barred local transit agencies from providing […]

Coming Soon to Popular Transport Stimulus Programs: Local Funding

By Elana Schor | Apr 7, 2010

Two of the most popular transportation programs in the Obama administration’s stimulus law, the $1.5 billion in competitive grants known as TIGER and the $8 billion high-speed rail initiative, had an added feature that made them even more attractive to cities and states: the federal funding awards would not require a local match. Amtrak’s Empire […]

Talking Headways: Mapping Out Local Transportation Advocacy and Reform

By Jeff Wood | Feb 17, 2015

Mariia Zimmerman of MZ Strategies joins me to chat about her new report on local advocacy for transportation reform called Transportation Transformation. Mariia, former deputy director for the Office of Sustainable Communities at HUD as well as former chief of staff to Congressman Earl Blumenauer, spent a year probing the local transportation advocacy landscape to […]

Wider Highways Mean More Congested Local Streets

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 11, 2013

If there’s a highway expansion debate raging in your community right now, here’s a new item to add to the “con” column. Shane Phillips at Network blog Better Institutions raises the point that when wider highways induce more driving, that’s going to dump more traffic on local streets: The problem here is obvious: unless 100% […]