Today’s Headlines

  • USDOT to Congress: We Need a ‘Gargantuan Large’ Investment in Transportation (WaPo)
  • More States Crack Down on Driving While Texting (USAToday)
  • Critics of Seattle’s Car Tab Fee Want to Use Funds for Bridge Repairs, New Bus Lines (Seattle Times)
  • Chicago Set to Speed Up Transit and Freight Trains With New Track (Transport Politic)
  • Michigan Amtrak Trains Hit Record Ridership, State Plans for HSR (Detroit Free Press)
  • As Federal Funds Dry Up, California Forced to Rewrite HSR Business Model (WSJ)
  • Atlanta’s Regional Transit Plans Diluted By Politics Before Referendum (AJC)
  • Fort Collins Proactive in Reducing Bike-Car Collisions, Mounts Bike Racks on Ambulances (Coloradan)
  • Durbin: House Transportation Bill Would Cut Amtrak By 60%, ‘Seriously Hurt Illinois’ (Sun Times)
  • Calgary, Canada Hits Commuter Transit Goal 13 Years Ahead of Goal (CalgaryHerald)
  • Yglesias: War, Healthcare, Low Taxes Explain Underinvestment in Transportation (ThinkProgress)
  • Business Warns America Must Invest in Infrastructure To Remain Competitive (Politico)
  • Chinese Man Rides Bicycle He Made Out of Popsicle Sticks (Cyclicious)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

High-Speed Rail: Do We Have the Will?

By Tanya Snyder |
Tomorrow morning, I’m getting on a train from Washington, DC to New York. It’s going to take me almost three-and-a-half hours to get there. Sure, I could pay more for an Acela and get there in less than three hours. But why can’t it take 90 minutes? Yesterday, Amtrak unveiled a plan [PDF] to build […]

Today’s Headlines

By Ben Goldman |
The National Bike Summit Starts Today in Washington President Obama Looks to Urban Rail Transit to Burnish Transportation Legacy (The Hill) Delaware’s Tom Carper to Lead Key Transportation Panel in U.S. Senate (WaPo) Alliance for Biking and Walking Announces “Navigating MAP-21” Workshop Dates for 2014 Seattle’s Bell Street Park Doing Everything a City Street Should (Pedestrian […]

In Defense of High-Speed Rail

By Sarah Goodyear |
Today on the Streetsblog Network, we’ve got a post from Yonah Freemark at The Transport Politic on the importance of funding both intercity and intracity rail, despite limits on the amount of money available. Freemark takes on the argument that investment in transportation within cities should trump the construction of more efficient rail connections between […]

Passenger Rail Isn’t Just for “Rail Buffs”

By Sarah Goodyear |
I just returned from an overnight train trip on Amtrak a couple of days ago, riding the Crescent from Meridian, Mississippi, into Penn Station, after completing the southbound trip a week earlier. It’s a route I’ve traveled before, one of dozens of long-distance hauls I’ve made on Amtrak over the last 20 or so years. […]

TIGER V a Shot in the Arm for Livable Streets in Cities and Small Towns

By Tanya Snyder |
Out of 585 applications, U.S. DOT has chosen 52 transportation projects in 37 states to receive TIGER awards totaling $474 million. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program was originally an element of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package. Although it hasn’t been reauthorized and many Republicans claim to hate it, funding somehow keeps being appropriated for […]