What Railroad Construction Industry Wants in Final Transportation Bill – Part 2
Here’s part two; we ran part one earlier this week. There are quite a few rail-related provisions for Senate-House negotiators to reconcile in the federal transportation bill. What does the railroad construction and maintenance industry think about those provisions? Negotiators now know, having received a letter from the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (“NRC“). [...]
What Safety Advocates Want in Final Transportation Bill – Part 2
A coalition of eight safety advocacy groups are requesting that Senate and House transportation bill negotiators exclude exemptions for drivers from the Federal motor carrier safety regulations. They write: “Simply put, exemptions from Federal motor carrier safety regulations can compromise safety, erode uniformity and weaken enforcement efforts.” The coalition may get a boost from this [...]
Politically Broad Coalition Advocates for Expanded Financing Options in Final Transportation Bill
A politically broad group of transportation organizations is urging Senate and House transportation bill negotiators to “expand the flexibility and capacity of states and localities to address their transportation infrastructure investment challenges.” In the face of declining federal, state and local revenues, public agencies need all the tools possible to fund projects needed to move [...]
What Commercial Vehicle Safety Advocates Want in Final Transportation Bill – Part 1
A coalition of eight commercial safety advocacy organizations has written to Senate and House negotiators urging adoption of a particular Senate proposal. The issue of Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBRs) for trucks has divided the trucking industry, as we wrote about recently in “Trucking Provision In Transportation Bill Divides Industry“. The coalitions notes that in 2010-2011 [...]
Is Transportation Bill Included in Obama’s Pre-election To-Do List for Congress?
President Obama recently presented Congress with a five-point “to do” legislative list to be accomplished before the election. Does it include enacting a transportation bill? Sadly for transportation stakeholders, no, despite the President talking about a transportation bill a fair amount in the recent month or so. Given the impact of a transportation bill on [...]
Stained Glass of Priest on Bike – Art+Transportation
Stained glass roundal of the Canon Walter Herbert Marcon on his bike in the St Peter & St Paul’s Church in Edgfield Norfolk. [Art+Transportation appears most Wednesdays (featuring bicycle-related art) and Fridays and features various media about aspects of transportation. See other stories in our series.]
Congress Reauthorizes Export-Import Bank, Will It Reauthorize Freight Transportation Funding?
Earlier today the Senate reauthorized the Export-Import Bank. The House had previously passed the bill, which now goes to the President for a signature into law. The bank provides critical financing for American exporters; it is reauthorized for three years and over that time can guarantee loans up to $140 billion in total (from today’s [...]
20 Associations Jointly Urge Quick Passage of Federal Transportation Bill
Twenty transportation industry associations have joined together to urge Congress to quickly negotiate and pass a final federal transportation bill. The associations represent the breadth of the industry from AASHTO (state DOTs), Labor, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Their primary message: On behalf of our respective organizations we urge you to quickly complete work [...]
What National Treasury Employees Union Wants OUT of Final Transportation Bill
There’s just one provision the Treasury Employees Union want excluded from the final federal transportation bill. The provision is not in the Senate or House bill, but the Union is “responding to reports that one or more of the conferees had raised” the idea. What the Union doesn’t want is any changes to federal pension [...]
What Governors Want in the Final Federal Transportation Bill (Part 2)
Yesterday we wrote about the National Governor’s Association (NGA) weighing in on the federal transportation bill. We covered the first two of four issues, and today we cover the final two. When 32 Republican and 22 Democratic Governors agree on what they want in a federal transportation bill, we should pay attention. You can bet [...]
What Railroad Construction Industry Wants in Final Transportation Bill (Part 1)
There are quite a few rail-related provisions for Senate-House negotiators to reconcile in the federal transportation bill proposals. What does the railroad construction and maintenance industry think about those provisions? Negotiators now know, having received a letter from the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (“NRC“). The Association represents more than 300 construction and supplier [...]
It Took an Act of Congress, but Four Cities Get Direct Flights to Reagan National Airport
Long distance flights into and out of Reagan are tightly restricted, mostly due to community concerns about noise and competitive issues with Dulles airport. It literally takes an act of Congress and approval from USDOT to add or change service between Reagan and cities farther than 1,250 miles from D.C. Only twenty new round-trip flights [...]
Video Summary of Transportation Bill Negotiations
If you missed the opening session of the transportation bill negotiations and want to see what happened, here are two resources. First is a really good summary video (about 2 1/2 minutes long) from AASHTO, the national association of State DOTs. Second is a link to video of the entire session (about 2 hours forty [...]
What Do Governors Want in the Final Federal Transportation Bill (Part 1)?
When 32 Republican and 22 Democratic Governors agree on what they want in a federal transportation bill, we should pay attention. You can bet Congress and the White House will. As you might imagine, getting governors of the 55 states, territories and commonwealths – members of the National Governors Association (NGA) – to agree on [...]
House, Senate Negotiators Discuss Federal Transportation Bill
House and Senate negotiators met last week in a largely perfunctory, ceremonial meeting to kick off talks about a new federal transportation bill. Still, there is much good news to report. The meeting consisted of Conference Committee members giving short speeches about the bill. Nearly all members repeated a commitment to producing a final bill [...]
Public Agencies, Companies among Newest Subscribers
Welcome and thanks to last week’s new subscribers from these organizations, and new followers on Twitter (@Transpo_Issues), bringing TID to 2087 followers. Note: Subscribers receive a Monday email containing information not published on the website. See our story “Are You Missing Out on the Federal Transportation News You Need?” for more information, or contact me [...]
Another State DOT Seeks Input to Develop Bike Routes
Another State DOT is reaching out to bicycle advocates and communities on how and where to create and connect bike routes. West Virginia DOT’s planning coordinator, Perry Keller, said “recommendations from West Virginia’s bicycling community are needed to help improve the state’s quality of life, boost tourism, encourage bicycle transportation, and improve the state’s bike-friendly [...]
Innovations – A “Pop-up” Complete Street Experiment in Cleveland
Complete Streets proponents in Cleveland came up with a unique method for giving residents and decision-makers a way to experience and test a complete street. It was a one-week “pop-up” or temporary complete street in downtown Cleveland. Tom Breckenridge of The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes that “A stretch of urban back road will become a [...]
Will BoltBus Steal Market Share from Amtrak Cascades and Horizon Air?
BoltBus, an intercity express bus company that is very popular in the Northeast, comes to Cascadia with the launching of a Seattle-Portland route beginning May 17. See our story “BoltBus to Compete with Amtrak, Horizon Air for Portland-Seattle Travelers” for more details. Are there clues from intercity bus service in other parts of the country [...]
Is Congress Soon to Become Even More Dysfunctional?
To paraphrase one of my favorite Frank Sinatra songs: “The Worst is Yet to Come” when contemplating the future of Congressional activity. At least that’s what Politico’s Charles Mahtesian and Jim VandeHei lay out in “Congress: It’s going to get worse.“ This could be very bad news for future federal transportation bills. Conservative Democrats and [...]
Public Agencies, International Agencies, Companies among New Subscribers
Welcome and thanks to last week’s new subscribers from these organizations, and new followers on Twitter (@Transpo_Issues), bringing TID to 2072 followers. Note: Subscribers receive a Monday email containing information not published on the website. See our story “Are You Missing Out on the Federal Transportation News You Need?” for more information, or contact me [...]
We’re Still Waiting for a Safe Intersection Mural – Art+Transportation
Fourteen-year-old Won Dowling painted this mural “on a forty-foot-wide side wall of a day care building. The mural culminated a six-year community campaign for a stoplight at a dangerous intersection, the site of many accidents. The New York City Department of Transportation finally installed four-way stop signs, an acceptable compromise. Having served its purpose, the [...]
Chinese Cars versus Bikes, Transportation Stats of the Week
Kunming, a city in China, has experienced tremendous growth and a “massive shift” to cars between 1995 and 2011: Car ownership went up from 20 cars per 1,000 people to 150 per 1,000 share of trips by automobile quadrupled, from about 6% to 23% transit trips increased from less than 5% to about 20% bike [...]
Higher Fuel Standards could Reduce Federal Transportation Funds by $57 Billion by 2022
In 2011, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly proposed a rule that would tighten corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for light-duty vehicles (including cars, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, minivans, and crossover utility vehicles) manufactured from 2017 through 2025. The higher fuel economy standards certainly will be good [...]
BoltBus to Compete with Amtrak, Horizon Air for Portland-Seattle Travelers
BoltBus, an intercity express bus company that is very popular in the Northeast, comes to Cascadia with the launching of a Seattle-Portland route beginning May 17. BoltBus and its many competitors (like MegaBus) are popular because of their express service, cheap tickets (10%-30% of an Amtrak ticket and usually cheaper than driving), free wireless access [...]
