Stim-Funded Highways to Nowhere

The Obama administration has warned that misuse of stimulus funds will lower a state’s chances of receiving federal help in the future. Today on the Streetsblog Network, however, The Infrastructurist has identified seven road projects in six states (Kentucky has two) that it calls "the most ridiculous new roads being built with stimulus money." In Texas, for example:

grand_parkway_east_300x186.jpgPhoto via Infrastructurist

Houston, it seems, wants to be like Beijing. With six ring roads, the Chinese government has made it clear it doesn’t mind letting sprawl continue without limits around its capital. Houston’s Grand Parkway, at 184 miles in length and a projected cost of $5.1 billion, will be the city’s fourth outer loop.

The next stretch of the road to be built, funded by $181 million of stimulus money, would be a 14-mile corridor running through the traces of Texas’ famous — and now almost completely destroyed — Katy Prairie, as well as a number of other uninhabited areas, including a swath of Lake Houston State Park.

Other, similarly egregious projects are planned for North Carolina, Indiana, New Hampshire and Maryland.

In more encouraging news, Milwaukee Rising reports on a state effort to outlaw dooring, Matthew Yglesias talks about how congestion pricing would benefit low-income Californians, and Bike Portland follows up on Transpo Secretary Ray LaHood’s positive comments at last week’s National Bike Summit.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

STREETSBLOG USA

The Problem With “Infrastructurism”

|
Have you ever heard someone say that building a new transit line will increase ridership by so many thousands of riders? Jarrett Walker at Human Transit calls folks who subscribe to that idea “infrastructurists,” and he says it’s a mistake to attribute too much importance to physical infrastructure. In the end, it’s service — which can […]

Today’s Headlines

|
Brodsky Claims Moving Half a Million Students Costs the MTA Next to Nothing. Wrong. (GG, SAS) De Blasio Directs Straphanger Ire Toward Albany (NY1) DOT Tables Plan for One-Way Conversions in Flushing, as Arrival of Traffic Magnet Looms (Your Nabe) State DOT Has Four Options for a New Kosciuszko Bridge, and They All Add Three […]

Obama Falls Prey to Ribbon-Cutting Syndrome

|
Obama greets construction workers at a DC photo op. Photo: AFP via Infrastructurist. At a press event in DC yesterday, President Obama touted the two thousandth transportation project to receive federal stimulus funds. I’m speculating a bit here, but the White House probably had some discretion when choosing which item to highlight for this milestone. […]

A Proposal: Stimulus for Passenger Rail in Montana

|
Today on the Streetsblog Network, we turn to member blog Trains for America, which looks at the idea of using  stimulus funds to bring rail-equipment manufacturing — and expanded passenger rail service — to the state of Montana: Photo by Katie via Flickr. [N]ew rail passenger equipment is coming to America and it should be […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Wisconsin Gov Candidate Threatens Rail Extension

|
Plans to expand Amtrak service from Milwaukee to Madison, Wisconsin are facing organized opposition from a political candidate with his eye on the state’s highest office. The state of Wisconsin has been awarded $810 million in stimulus funds to extend the Hiawatha line, which runs between Chicago and Milwaukee, about 80 miles to the state’s […]

Obama’s Stimulus: Too Much Emphasis on Roads and Bridges?

|
There’s a lot of reaction from members of the the Streetsblog Network to President-elect Obama’s address this weekend. Some transit advocates, like The Transport Politic, are putting a positive spin on it, and Ryan Avent at The Bellows says, "it’s really amazing to see the wave of public intellectual criticism [for] Obama’s potential stimulus plan." […]