Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Transportation Policy

AFL-CIO Flexing Its Muscle for Senate Transit Operating Aid Bill

By Elana Schor | Jun 2, 2010 | No Comments

The AFL-CIO, a formidable lobbying force in Washington, is throwing its weight behind a Senate bill offered last week that would authorize $2 billion in emergency funding for transit agencies forced to hike fares or cut service in lean budgetary times. Rev. Jesse Jackson, second from left, has joined transit workers’ unions in their Save […]

Transit Industry and State DOTs Agree: Senate Climate Bill Needs ‘Rewrite’

By Elana Schor | May 19, 2010 | No Comments

The transit industry’s leading D.C. lobbying outlet today joined the umbrella group for state DOTs and two major construction groups to protest the Senate climate bill’s failure to set aside all of the revenue from its proposed new fuel fees for infrastructure projects — specifically, to the cash-strapped highway trust fund that is generally split, […]

Former U.S. DOT Chief on Worst-Case Scenario: Four Years of Extensions

By Elana Schor | Apr 19, 2010 | No Comments

To a certain extent, hope springs eternal in federal transportation circles. Even as state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations operate under the latest in a series of extensions of the 2005 law that governs road, transit, and bike-ped spending, few are willing to envision a future in which new legislation doesn’t pass by next year. […]

Transport Contractors Urge White House to Revamp Enviro Review Rules

By Elana Schor | Apr 12, 2010 | No Comments

The trade group representing private-sector transportation contractors is urging the Obama administration to change the way environmental reviews are conducted for infrastructure projects, proposing to favor "categorical exclusions" (CEs) from federal review rules over the lengthier process of measuring the environmental impact of construction work. Environmental reviews added an estimated $1 million to the cost […]

What Happened to the Proposed “Transportation Tax” on Wall Street?

By Elana Schor | Apr 5, 2010 | No Comments

For several weeks last fall, as members of the House infrastructure committee pushed for passage of a new six-year federal transportation bill as a strategy to rouse the economy from recession, a proposal to pay for the legislation with a small tax on oil futures trades attracted a healthy crop of Democratic cosponsors and some […]

Feds Begin Redefining ‘Affordable Housing’ to Include Transport Costs

By Elana Schor | Mar 24, 2010 | No Comments

Comparing the transportation savings in dense versus dispersed neighborhoods for a dozen U.S. metro areas. (Chart: CNT) The process of expanding the federal government’s definition of "affordable housing," a stated goal of the Obama administration’s sustainable communities effort, began in earnest yesterday with the introduction of a new index that integrates transportation prices into the […]

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