Buses
Basics
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
Rubbing Elbows on a Crowded Bus in Alaska
It may look desolate, but business is picking up at the Fairbanks bus depot.
October 21, 2008
At Grand Central, Sen. Clinton Calls for Funding Mass Transit
Clinton was joined by (l-r) Larry Hanley, of the Amalgamated Transit Union, NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and MTA chief Elliot Sander
September 15, 2008
Going Back-to-School in the Age of the $4 Gallon
Today is the first day of class for New York City public school students, while other districts across the country have been in session for weeks. The Times reports that some are grappling with how to get kids to and from school in the face of $4-per-gallon gasoline.
September 2, 2008
Northern Virginia Locked In to Congested Roads
Suburbanites in northern Virginia are finding their streets more clogged with traffic than ever, and, as the Washington Post reported earlier this week, they aren't about to get bailed out by road-widening projects. Here's the crux of the problem, told from the Post reporter's decidedly windshield perspective:
May 9, 2008