We’ve just launched our shiny new transportation-policy blog network, and we’re pretty darn excited. You can find out why by clicking here.

Streetsblog Network (http://usa.streetsblog.org) brings together more than 100 blogs from 31 states — and counting. Its purpose is twofold: to create a place where people who blog on smart growth, livable streets and sustainable transportation issues can come together and learn from each other. And to provide a clearinghouse for information related to the transportation bill, or "TEA," that directs the spending of hundreds of billions of federal dollars. The next such bill is set to come up for reauthorization in 2009.

Federal transportation policy has long been a Beltway insider’s game, one where the highway lobby held most of the cards. This time, a coalition of organizations called Transportation for America has come together with the aim of taking the next TEA bill in a different direction.

We’ll be using the Streetsblog Network site to give readers and bloggers opportunities for action on the TEA bill, information about upcoming committee hearings — pretty much all the news on this legislation that we can get our hands on.

Think of it as a community that gets things done.