U.S. DOT
Basics
A High-Speed Rail Reality Check for Texas
Despite data backing up the White House's assertion that politics played no role in high-speed rail decision-making, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) -- waging a re-election bid against a GOP primary challenger as well as the Democratic mayor of Houston -- wasn't shy about complaining after his state received less than one-hundredth of the $1.8 billion in rail stimulus it had requested.
February 3, 2010
Miami, Sacramento, Boston Transit Projects Still Seeking Federal Approval
Amid the good vibes yesterday over new federal funding agreements for transit projects in New York City, Oakland, Hartford, and other metro areas, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) also offered a spell of bad news to a few local proposals that are still working to meet the agency's standards for aid.
February 3, 2010
How Can Transit Backers Sway Conservatives? Oberstar Joins the Debate
In the years before partisan warfare became the norm in Washington, transportation tended to unite both ends of the ideological spectrum. Can rationality return to infrastructure policy debates that have become subsumed by culture clashes between cyclists and drivers, urbanists and suburbanites -- and, of course, Democrats and Republicans?
February 2, 2010
U.S. DOT Names the Transit Projects Set for Federal Funding
The Obama administration last night revealed the names of local transit projects getting recommendations for federal aid under the U.S. DOT's New and Small Starts programs, which are set to receive $1.8 billion during fiscal year 2011.
February 2, 2010
LaHood Talks Budget: “Very Bright” Future for Infrastructure Fund
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he sees "very bright" prospects for congressional approval of the Obama administration's $4 billion National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund, the new iteration of the long-discussed National Infrastructure Bank proposal.
February 1, 2010
White House Budget Includes $530M for Local Sustainability, $1B for HSR
The White House officially unveiled its $3.8 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2011 this morning, seeking $1 billion to continue its high-speed rail investment and $530 million for the transportation leg of the Obama administration's inter-agency push to promote sustainable planning on the local level.
February 1, 2010
Obama Taps High-Speed Rail Winners: Florida, California, Illinois and More
In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama hinted at what many in the transportation world have anticipated all week: Florida's emergence as a winner in the race for a share of the White House's $8 billion (and growing) high-speed rail fund.
January 28, 2010
One More Reason to Dig TIGER: Transit and Roads on the Same Footing
Being D.C.-bound, Streetsblog Capitol Hill could only watch with interest as the U.S. DOT kicked off a transportation "listening tour" this week with four senior lawmakers in Minnesota, which has become a transit hotspot of late with the imminent construction of a new light rail line.
January 27, 2010
In the White House’s High-Speed Rail Chase, a First Likely Winner: Florida
The prediction that Rep. John Mica (R-FL) backtracked on last month is starting to come true: President Obama is headed for Florida on Thursday, and the state is all but certain that he's coming with $2.6 billion in federal stimulus funding for a new high-speed rail link between Tampa and Orlando.
January 25, 2010
In Texas, One Newspaper Laments the Highway Lanes Not Built
The Transportation Enhancements program, which requires states to set aside 10 percent of their federal transport money for new bicycle and pedestrian facilities, among other projects, turns 19 years old this year. But you'd almost never know it after reading Saturday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in which the paper tallies -- with no shortage of alarm -- the federal money not being spent on new roads.
January 25, 2010