Thursday’s Headlines Are Under Construction

Photo: Macomb Politics
Photo: Macomb Politics
  • States will have broad discretion on projects to fund with federal infrastructure money, and there’s no guarantee they’ll spend it equitably. (Vox)
  • The flood of road money in the infrastructure bill means that highway fund “donor states” will no longer exist. Every state will get more for roads than it pays in gas taxes. (Eno Center for Transportation)
  • Railway Age lays out in detail what’s in the infrastructure bill for passenger rail.
  • The infrastructure bill will provide $2 billion to improve accessibility at the 20 percent of transit stations that aren’t ADA compliant. (CBS News)
  • Twenty-five major cities worldwide have pledged to go carbon-neutral by doing things like banning cars from streets and building more bike lanes. (BBC)
  • CNBC proclaimed that self-driving cars are already here, an idea thoroughly refuted by Jalopnik.
  • Uber has brought back its carpool service under a new name (The Verge)
  • The Federal Highway Administration approved plans for a new interstate that will eventually connect Phoenix and Las Vegas. (Phoenix New Times)
  • Seattle is installing cameras to catch drivers who block intersections and bus lanes. (MyNorthwest)
  • Kansas City is planning a new transit line that might have bus rapid transit and streetcar components. (KMBC)
  • Speeding is a huge problem in Baltimore. The city says it’s prioritizing safety but doesn’t have enough funding. (WBAL)
  • Crashes were down but traffic deaths rose in North Carolina last year. (WBTV)
  • Boise’s urban renewal agency is buying a parking lot and turning it into a park. (Idaho Statesman)
  • Bloomington completed its first two-way protected bike lane. (Indiana Public Media)
  • Can you get Smogville to net-zero emissions without being thrown out of the mayor’s office in this City Lab game?

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Today’s Headlines

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D.C. Metro crash casts a grim light on insufficient federal support for transit (Time) LaHood: Looming highway trust fund bankruptcy will leave states in crisis … (WSJ) … but the administration is proud of how quickly it’s allocated highway money (AP) Rep. John Mica (R-FL) talks up the need for infrastructure investment (PBS) DeFazio suggests […]

Sen. Wyden Proposes TRIP Bonds to Fund Transportation

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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is sort of the bond guy around the Senate. He’s a big fan of bonds as a way to raise money for infrastructure projects without much federal cost. Now he’s introduced a bill to create Transportation and Regional Infrastructure Project bonds. They’re different from Build America Bonds in several significant ways. […]

Senator Pat Toomey Fights to Spare America From Safe Streets

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You know the Senate is close to passing transportation legislation when someone introduces a hare-brained amendment to ban bike and pedestrian programs. Sen. Ron Wyden, as promised, yesterday introduced a bill to extend MAP-21 and the Highway Trust Fund’s authority by three months. It also transfers some money from the general fund into the HTF to keep […]

Today’s Headlines

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Boxer: Senate considering breaking up its jobs bill into several pieces, with an infrastructure provision that would bail out the highway trust fund for this year (Dow Jones) Conservative Rep. Don Young (R-AK), architect of the 2005 federal transportation bill, admits that Alaska’s plans for a gas tax suspension would endanger its financial support from […]