Government Organizations
Basics
Sustainability Busts Out of Its Cubicle, Permeates DOT, HUD, and EPA
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities has had a rough couple of years. The program got zeroed out of the 2012 budget, and the 2013 budget is just a carbon copy of 2012. But they’re looking to make a comeback.
May 3, 2013
A Golden Opportunity for Congress to Avoid the Transportation “Fiscal Cliff”
MAP-21 expires in a year and five months. When it does, if lawmakers haven’t already found a solution to the “transportation fiscal cliff,” they’ll have to do one of three things, according to a report issued last week by the Congressional Budget Office [PDF]:
May 1, 2013
Meet Your Next Transportation Secretary
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx just accepted President Obama’s nomination to be the next transportation secretary.
April 29, 2013
Congress Indulges in Crazy Talk About De-Funding Transit and Taxing Bikes
The House is a dangerous place these days. You want to have a fruitful conversation about how to solve the transportation funding crisis and you end up ruminating about whether to tax bikes.
April 26, 2013
TIGER’s Love Affair With Freight — And Bikes
This article is the second of a two-part series about how U.S. DOT's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program -- TIGER, a discretionary grant program that got its start under the Recovery Act in 2009 -- has made transportation planning more strategic, based on a benefit-cost analysis and national goals. Read the first part here, about Republicans' empty charges of political bias.
April 26, 2013
In Colorado, a Big Legal Victory for Active Transportation Funding
Believe it or not, in many U.S. states one of the biggest obstacles to active transportation is in the constitution.
April 25, 2013
Pretty Please: U.S. DOT Asks Carmakers to Limit Onboard Distractions
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's signature issue has been distracted driving. He's spent the last four years amplifying the heartbreaking voices of those who have suffered the consequences of this highly dangerous habit. The stories of the needless loss of so many people, especially children and teens, are tragic.
April 25, 2013
How TIGER Transformed Transportation Planning — And Lived to Tell About It
When the buzz about a new, stimulus-funded, discretionary transportation grant program started to circulate in 2009, some environmentalists opposed it. They worried it would be a slush fund for the Federal Highway Administration, used to build unnecessary roads that would aggravate sprawl and pollution. But insiders knew that wasn’t how the new Obama administration would be handling things.
April 25, 2013
How Amtrak Can Provide World-Class Service on the Northeast Corridor
Yesterday was a tough day to try to get attention for a Senate hearing on the future of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. After all, at least one senator had gotten a poisonous letter and everyone on Capitol Hill was on high alert. What’s more, the Amtrak hearing coincided with the vote on gun control, one of the most dramatic and high-stakes votes in the body so far this session.
April 18, 2013