Buses
Basics
Bus vs. Rail: Transit’s Quiet Culture Clash?
The question of running buses or building rail has preoccupied transit planners in many an American town, with Maryland's Montgomery County being the latest locality to choose between trains and bus rapid transit (BRT), which tends to be the less expensive option.
December 14, 2009
Wins For Washington (State): Transport Bill Resolves Two Local Debates
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.
December 14, 2009
In New Orleans, LaHood Unveils $280M in Streetcar and Bus Grants
During a visit to New Orleans, where city planners are seeking nearly $100 million in federal stimulus money for three new streetcar lines, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced plans to award $280 million in grants for streetcar and bus networks.
December 1, 2009
How Bus Transit Can Help the Auto Industry
When Vice President Joe Biden visited Minnesota's New Flyer bus company to tout the economic stimulus law's $8.4 billion investment in transit, hopes were high for a boom in cleaner-burning vehicle production -- which made for some bad press when the nationwide transit funding crunch forced New Flyer to lay off 13 percent of its workers.
October 26, 2009
Feds Could Soon End Pro-Transit Privatization Rule — in One State Only
The transportation spending bill passed by the Senate on Thursday includes a provision that rolls back a Bush-era pro-privatization rule which blocks local transit agencies from providing bus service to special events -- think state fairs and NFL football games. But there's a catch: the rule is only reversed in the home state of the senator who controls the U.S. DOT's annual budget.
September 21, 2009
D-Day Approaches for Detroit Transit Riders
As the recession squeezes the pocketbooks of the nation's cities, Detroit has become an unfortunate symbol of urban decline -- so much so that Time Warner recently bought a house there for reporters to use while covering the locals' struggle for financial survival.
September 8, 2009
Feds Still Forcing Transit Agencies to Bow to Private Charter Buses
Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported yesterday that the U.S. DOT would end a Bush-era mandate to reward new transit projects for using private contractors -- but a similar pro-privatization rule for bus service remains in effect, preventing local transit agencies from competing with private charter companies.
September 3, 2009
Is the Obama Administration Poised to Push Transit?
While President Barack Obama promoted wind power and cap-and-trade legislation, VP Joe Biden spent Earth Day talking up transit. Public radio's "The Takeaway" reports that Biden held a presser at a bus maintenance facility in Landover, Maryland, to tout a $300 million investment in hybrid buses and other municipal vehicles as part of the federal stimulus package. Said Biden:
April 24, 2009
San Francisco Mayor to NYC: “Eat Your Heart Out.”
At a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom asserted the project will be "so much more extraordinary than Grand Central Station."
December 11, 2008
