Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about U.S. DOT

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 […]

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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 […]

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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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House Panel Calls on U.S. DOT to Measure Access to Economic Opportunity

By Angie Schmitt | May 27, 2016 | No Comments

A bill working its way through Congress may prompt federal officials to get a better handle on how transportation projects help or hinder access to jobs, education, and health care. The legislation, which passed out of a House Committee this week, calls for U.S. DOT to measure “the degree to which the transportation system, including public transportation, provides multimodal […]

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It Just Got Easier for Cities to Design Walkable, Bikeable Streets

By Angie Schmitt | May 13, 2016 | No Comments

We probably haven’t seen the last of engineers who insist on designing local streets like surface highways. But at least now they can’t claim their hands are tied by federal regulations. Last week, the Federal Highway Administration struck 11 of the 13 design rules for “national highways” — a 230,000-mile network of roads that includes many urban streets. The rule change eliminates […]

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U.S. DOT Wants to Show America How to Heal Divides Left By Urban Highways

By Angie Schmitt | May 5, 2016 | No Comments

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened up earlier this spring in a refreshingly personal speech about how highway construction in American cities isolated many neighborhoods — especially black neighborhoods — and cut people off from economic opportunity. Now U.S. DOT is following up with an effort to demonstrate how those wrongs can be righted. Yesterday the agency announced the Every Place […]

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