Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Robert Puentes

A Two-Year Transportation Bill? Some Say It’s a Better Deal

By Tanya Snyder | Apr 19, 2011 | 3 Comments

Last week, we reported that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) had mused aloud at a committee hearing that perhaps a two-year transportation reauthorization was a better option in the current political and economic environment than a six-year bill. “We don’t have a lot of money here,” he said. And at the current rate, under a six-year […]

Puppies and Peanut Butter: Brookings on State Transpo Mistakes

By Tanya Snyder | Feb 23, 2011 | No Comments

As transportation advocates adapt their messaging to a new, more conservative Congress, the language of fiscal conservatism has become the mother tongue of the movement. Smart Growth America and the Bipartisan Policy Center have recently used the fiscal responsibility argument to urge policymakers to invest more strategically, especially as infrastructure budgets shrink. Now the Brookings […]

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: The Last of the Streetsies 2010

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 5, 2011 | No Comments

We couldn’t put a bow on 2010 until we’d thanked those who contributed to the cause of sustainable transportation and smart growth last year and shaken our fist at those who’d done their darnedest for sprawl and highways. Check out our first two installments of national, state and local Streetsie winners. Here are our parting […]

Don’t Waste the Next Two Years: A Blueprint for Reform Under GOP Control

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 16, 2010 | No Comments

So longtime chair James Oberstar is gone from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the Republicans in charge now are unlikely to take up a transportation bill as expansive as the one he proposed last year. That doesn’t mean transportation advocates should take the next two years off. In “Moving Past Gridlock: A Proposal […]

Would an Infrastructure Bank Have the Power to Reform Transportation?

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 7, 2010 | 2 Comments

Our report yesterday on transportation financing may have left you with a few more questions. We started with a look at TIFIA, which provides credit assistance for infrastructure projects. Many observers see the program as limited by its position inside the DOT and its opaque decision-making process. But what about a National Infrastructure Bank, you ask? Transportation […]

Why Reformers Should Care How We Pay for Transportation

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 6, 2010 | 2 Comments

TIFIAs and TIGERs and NIBs — oh my! The alphabet soup of infrastructure funding mechanisms can be alienating even to committed transportation advocates. But with the power of the gas tax diminishing and elected officials refusing to raise it, other financing options are taking on increasing importance. If you’re interested in reforming our transportation system […]

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