Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Top 20 Metro Areas Get 28% of Road Stimulus, 61% of Transit Stimulus
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Click here to see how stim funds break down by state and metro region. Cities are getting a disproportionately small share of the road money given out by the White House’s stimulus plan, but the nation’s top 20 metro areas are doing better when it comes to transit — taking in 61 percent of the […]
Boxer Delays Senate Climate Bill Until September
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This was supposed to be a big week for action on climate change in the Senate — but it’s ending with Republicans rubbing their hands in glee as the Environment and Public Works Committee delays its unveiling of legislation on carbon emissions. Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: AP) As Reuters reports this […]
Congestion Study Sparks Clever Headlines, But Little Transit Talk
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(Photo: TTI Urban Mobility Report) The latest edition of the Texas Transportation Institute’s influential urban mobility report was released yesterday, prompting a flurry of media coverage focused largely on a faux-ironic theme that would do Alanis Morrissette proud — the bad economy is giving us less traffic! The TTI found a one-hour drop in the […]
Lawmakers Aim to Bring ‘Sustainable Communities’ From Talk to Action
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When three agencies in President Obama’s Cabinet — DOT, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency — banded together to promote "sustainable communities," the initiative sounded promising but somewhat lacking in concrete ideas. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) attached his green housing legislation to the recently passed House climate bill. (Photo: AP) Enter a […]
Senate Starts Climate Push With Nods to Jobs, Energy and Transportation
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Total U.S. emissions in 2007. (Chart: FHWA) The Senate is taking its first public steps toward combating climate change — and while the U.S. DOT was absent from this morning’s hearing, the chiefs of the Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency reminded lawmakers that transportation must play a key role in any emissions reduction plan. […]
New Report on Roads Uses Old Assumptions
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A new report on the costs of aging roads [PDF] has gotten a lot of attention over the past week, with both Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the Washington Post touting its conclusion on the danger of "deficient roadways." On its face, the report sounds like an argument for prioritizing road repair and modernization over […]
Obama Administration’s Transportation Goals: Read Them Here
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When the Obama administration proposed an 18-month delay in drafting the next federal transportation bill, U.S. DOT chief Ray LaHood called for Congress to include "critical reforms" alongside the extension of the existing law. But details on those reforms have been kept under wraps — until now. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, with his boss at […]
Cities See Population Gains — But What About Political Power?
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The Census Bureau has just released new data showing a resurgence of the nation’s cities, with New York leading the way and Chicago reversing five years of population decline. The number of New Yorkers grew by an estimated 53,000 this year. Will they get more power in Congress? (Photo: lukegeorgeson via flickr) The urban growth […]
Report: States Used $6.6B in Stimulus Cash on New Roads, Not Repair
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Today is the deadline for state DOTs to allocate at least half of the transportation money they received under the economic stimulus law, and Smart Growth America marked the occasion with a study of what types of projects are getting that cash. North Carolina spent $5.7 million in stimulus cash repaving I-540, pictured above, along […]
The Wall Street Tax Shelter That Crashed Your Local Transit Agency
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The scene of Monday’s Metro crash in D.C., where the local transit agency still has 15 outstanding "SILO" tax deals. (Photo: AP) The D.C. Metro accident that killed nine riders this week has renewed calls for rail safety upgrades and reminders that car travel remains far riskier than transit. But the crash is also shedding […]
Boxer and Inhofe Agree: Transportation Policy Reform Can Wait
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Green transportation advocates are pressing Congress to refuse any new spending that’s not tied to reform of the existing system — a call that influential senators in both parties ruled out today. Photo: CNN Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) joined Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK), the panel’s ranking GOPer, in endorsing […]
House Transpo Leaders and Obama DOT Run Off in Opposite Directions
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The conflicted state of federal transportation policy-making was on vivid display today, as House lawmakers pressed ahead on a $500 billion bill that still lacks a funding source while the Obama administration scrambled to find $20 billion for a bailout of the highway trust fund. Members of the famously bipartisan House transportation committee lined up […]