Transit
Basics
Will Atlanta’s Transpo Referendum Overcome Early Voting Deficit?
It was fitting that yesterday, the eve of the Atlanta region's historic transportation vote, the Georgia NAACP filed a civil rights suit against the state Department of Transportation alleging discrimination in contracting. Meanwhile, the head of the DeKalb County NAACP has come out against the T-SPLOST tax proposal, saying it will hurt minority-owned businesses. He even took a shot at Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, a dogged supporter of the referendum, saying “certain blacks” had been duped into supporting the tax proposal.
July 31, 2012
Study: Access to Light Rail Can Reduce Obesity Risk — If You Use It
Living near transit can help you stay trim and healthy. That's the result of a study published last year in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. This study is a little old -- it was published in August 2011 -- but we just came across it in the Reconnecting America resource center and the results are too interesting not to share.
July 26, 2012
How State DOTs Got Congress to Grant Their Wish List
Bike and pedestrian funding got slashed. Federal assistance for transit operations was rejected. Even the performance measures – arguably the high point of the recently passed federal transportation bill – are too weak to be very meaningful. For Americans who want federal policy to support safe streets, sustainable transportation, and livable neighborhoods, there were few bright spots in the transportation bill Congress passed last month.
July 24, 2012
Transportation Investments and America’s Quality-of-Life Gap
For a while it didn't seem certain, but after a critical vote earlier this month, it looks like California's on track to build high-speed rail. And, I'll be the first to admit, California -- with two large, global metros just a few hundred miles apart -- is a great place for it.
July 20, 2012
How Does Your State Stack Up on Prioritizing Transit and Street Safety?
How's your state doing on bike and pedestrian investment? Transit? Bridge repair?
July 17, 2012
Atlanta’s Big Moment
There's a lot at stake for metro Atlanta on July 31. That day, voters will go to the polls to decide the fate of a proposed one percent sales tax that promises some $8 billion in transportation funding, to be split relatively evenly between transit and road projects over 10 counties. If it fails, experts warn, the only fundable transportation project going forward could be toll roads.
July 16, 2012
Cliff’s Notes on the Transit Changes in MAP-21
The FTA has put out a helpful guide [PDF] to the changes to public transit policy in MAP-21, the new transportation bill that takes effect October 1. Three cheers to the agency for making the changes easy to see with their tracked-changes format.
July 13, 2012
Brookings: Inadequate Transit and Sprawl Cut Off Workers From Jobs
If there’s a problem connecting workers with workplaces, it stands to reason that there’s a problem connecting workplaces with workers. A new report from the Brookings Institution has teased out the subtleties of this side of the transit/jobs equation.
July 11, 2012
Obama to Sign Transpo Bill Today at 4:55
The last thing the president will do during this hot, lazy recess week is to sign the transportation bill. He'll be surrounded by construction workers, as this bill was always as much about jobs as it was about setting policy, and by college students, since the bill was combined with a provision keeping student loan rates low. You can watch it live on C-SPAN.
July 6, 2012
Buck Up, Reformers: Despite the Hard Knocks, This Bill Is a Step Forward
David Burwell is the director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was also co-founder and CEO of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, and a founding co-chair and president of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a national transportation policy reform coalition.
July 5, 2012