Studies & Reports
Basics
Mileage-Based Fees or Bust: New Report Says “No More Excuses”
The shortcomings of the current gas tax are well-known. The federal rate (18.4 cents/gallon) has not been raised in nearly twenty years and is not tied to inflation, yet it remains the primary source of funds for federal transportation spending. The problem is exacerbated by improving vehicle fuel economy. And as electric cars roll off the assembly line in greater numbers and become the vehicle of choice for more drivers, relying on the gas tax as the primary source of transportation funding makes even less sense.
May 3, 2012
Let the Debate Begin: NYC, SF Snag Top Spots in First Transit Score Rankings
Today, Walk Score -- developer of the popular method for evaluating neighborhood walkability (and filling out NCAA tournament brackets) -- announced its first ranking of cities by Transit Score, a measure of the "usefulness" of a city's transit system. On a 100-point scale, New York and San Francisco took the top two spots with scores of 81 and 80 respectively, while Boston (74), Washington D.C. (69), and Philadelphia (68) round out the top five (see the full rankings).
April 26, 2012
Five Ex-Secretaries Map Out a Communications Strategy For Transportation
If 80 percent of the American people agree that federal infrastructure investment will create jobs, and two-thirds say better infrastructure is important, why is the call for a robust transportation bill being made in whispers? And why is Congress already two and a half years late in producing one?
April 24, 2012
How Local Transportation Decisions Can Put Public Health Front and Center
Transportation projects often have profound consequences for public health, whether negative (in the case of fossil fuel-burning highway expansions) or positive (in the case of calorie-burning bike-friendly, walkable streets). So why don't cities and states always consider health impacts when evaluating a transportation project or policy?
April 4, 2012
APTA: How to Talk to a Detractor of High-Speed Rail
Stop me if you’ve heard these before:
January 12, 2012
$1,060: The Cost of Decrepit Infrastructure for Your Family Last Year
Five months' groceries for a family of four. A year's worth of textbooks for a college student. One thousand sixty dollars: That's how much inadequate infrastructure spending cost the average American family last year, according to a new report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, "Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Surface Transportation Infrastructure." And it's only projected to get worse.
July 27, 2011
The Public Interest and Private-Sector Involvement in High-Speed Rail
The issue of privatization of public infrastructure was polarizing enough before the recent House proposal to take the Northeast Corridor away from Amtrak and turn it over to private firms. The privatization plan has its champions, who say it's the only way to save high-speed rail, and its detractors, who call it a death knell for even the rail service we currently have.
July 20, 2011
Study: Building Roads to Cure Congestion Is an Exercise in Futility
We hear it all the time: The road lobby insists that the only way to reduce mind-numbing traffic congestion on the roads they built is to build new roads. Federal funding gives huge blank checks to state DOTs, which tend to prioritize road building over transit, bridge maintenance or anything else. But mounting evidence suggests that building new roads won't do anything to alleviate congestion.
May 31, 2011
ITDP: American Bus Rapid Transit Can Catch Up to the Rest of the World
Attempts by U.S. cities to build Bus Rapid Transit systems tend to get stymied by a Catch-22: Most Americans have no experience riding great BRT, so mustering the political will to build full-fledged systems -- and reallocate the necessary street space from cars to buses -- is often fiendishly difficult. The results -- incremental bus improvements sold to the public as BRT -- are too watered down to showcase the full extent to which bus-based systems can attract riders and get people to switch from driving to transit.
May 26, 2011
Poll: Voters From All Walks Support Transportation Improvements, Reform
Don't be fooled by the high-pitched rhetoric in Washington. The vast majority of Americans are united, at least when it comes to the topic of transportation.
February 17, 2011