Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about U.S. DOT

FHWA’s New Goal: Eliminating Pedestrian and Cyclist Deaths in America

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 15, 2016 | No Comments

The Federal Highway Administration wants to eliminate pedestrian and cyclist fatalities “in the next 20 to 30 years.” In a new strategic plan [PDF], the agency calls for reducing serious injuries and deaths 80 percent in the next 15 years, which would be an intermediate goal on the way to zero. FHWA also calls for boosting the share of […]

Engineers to U.S. DOT: Transportation Is About More Than Moving Cars

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 26, 2016 | No Comments

A trade group representing the transportation engineering profession thinks it’s high time for American policy makers to stop focusing so much on moving single-occupancy vehicles. U.S. DOT is currently deciding how it will assess the performance of state DOTs. Will it continue business as usual and equate success with moving huge numbers of cars? That’s […]

Stark Divisions Between Dems and GOP on Climate Impacts of Transportation

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 22, 2016 | No Comments

How polarized are the two political parties on key questions about transportation policy and climate change? As you can imagine, the answer is “very.” The senior Democrat and Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — California’s Barbara Boxer and Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe, respectively — each wrote an opinion this week for the Eno Center for […]

State DOTs to Feds: We Don’t Want to Reveal Our Impact on Climate Change

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 18, 2016 | No Comments

Every year state DOTs receive tens of billions of dollars in transportation funds from the federal government. By and large, they can do whatever they want with the money, which in most states means wasting enormous sums on pork-laden highway projects. Now that U.S. DOT might impose some measure of accountability on how states use these […]

Anthony Foxx to Local Officials: Transport Policy Should Tackle Segregation

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 16, 2016 | No Comments

Local transportation officials should actively work to reduce segregation and promote equal access to quality schools, three Cabinet members say in a “dear colleague” letter released last week [PDF]. The message from Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, HUD Secretary Julián Castro, and Education Secretary John King urges transportation, housing, and education officials at all levels of government to work together to ensure that people aren’t excluded from […]

Will U.S. DOT Get Serious About Climate Change? Here’s Cause for Optimism.

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 3, 2016 | No Comments

Last fall, national environmental advocates sat down with officials from U.S. DOT to talk about how federal transportation policy can address climate change. There is wild variation between state transportation departments when it comes to green transportation policy. Some of the more sophisticated agencies, like California’s and Oregon’s, are starting to factor greenhouse gas emissions into their transportation plans. Most […]

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