Tuesday’s Headlines as the NCAA’s March Madness Ends

It’s another Biden day in our headlines:

• The U.S. typically spends four times as much on roads and bridges as transit, but President Biden’s infrastructure plan flips the script. (New York Times)
• The plan not only funds transit, but it focuses investment on communities that have historically been underserved. (Politico)
• In an issue that relates to transportation because zoning policies often tend to encourage sprawl and gentrification, Biden’s plan also offers incentives to cities to build more housing. (NBC News)
• The National Resource Defense Council says the plan will prioritize inequality and create jobs.
• The Brookings Institute likes its direct aid to cities and states.
• Senate Democrats could use reconciliation again to pass the infrastructure bill, or try to do as part of a bipartisan transportation bill. (Vox)
• One talking point that’s emerging among Republicans is that only 6 percent of the plan’s $1.9 trillion goes to roads and bridges — but that’s just the GOP trying to limit the definition of infrastructure. (Newsweek)
• West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is already causing trouble for the plan, threatening to withhold his crucial 50th vote if the bill raises corporate income taxes too high. (CNN)
• The Biden plan could fund Amtrak service to Phoenix 25 years after the last train left the station (Arizona Republic), as well as three round-trips per day between Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland (Ohio Capital Journal). Another new route could connect Biden’s hometown of Scranton to New York City (Citizens’ Voice).

In other news:

• A new GAO report found that commuter rail improves quality of life in non-urban areas. (Eno Center for Transportation)
• For many, access to transit also means access to healthy food. (Civil Eats)
• South Bend, where Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was once mayor, has a chance to be Indiana’s first transit-oriented community. (SB Tribune)
• A driver killed a 4-year-old in Washington, D.C., showing once again that its streets are not safe. (Greater Greater Washington)
• Two years after a driver killed a popular San Antonio bike-shop owner, his family is still fighting for safer streets. (Fox 29)
• A Florida Today columnist complains that jaywalkers make driving on A1A feel like “a deadly video game.” Well, how do you think the people crossing the road feel?