Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about U.S. DOT

U.S. DOT Blows Chance to Reform the City-Killing, Planet-Broiling Status Quo

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 19, 2016 | No Comments

The Obama administration purportedly wants to use the lever of transportation policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx recently said he’d like to reverse the damage highways caused in urban neighborhoods, but you’d never know that by looking at U.S. DOT’s latest policy prescription. U.S. DOT has drafted new rules requiring state DOTs to track their […]

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U.S. DOT Wants States to Disclose Climate Impact of Transportation Projects

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 18, 2016 | No Comments

The Obama administration wants state DOTs to report on the climate impact of their transportation policies, reports Michael Grunwald at Politico, and the road lobby is dead set against it. As part of the implementation of the MAP-21 federal transportation bill, U.S. DOT officials are preparing a new rule that would require states to set goals […]

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Anthony Foxx Wants to Repair the Damage Done By Urban Highways

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 30, 2016 | No Comments

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is offering a surprisingly honest appraisal of America’s history of road construction this week, with a high-profile speaking tour that focuses on the damage that highways caused in black urban neighborhoods. Growing up in Charlotte, Foxx’s own street was walled in by highways, he recalled in a speech today at the Center for American Progress. Building big, grade-separated roads through […]

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Finally, a Little Accountability for State DOTs on Bike and Pedestrian Safety

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 15, 2016 | No Comments

In a win for bike and pedestrian safety, the Federal Highway Administration announced yesterday that it will require state transportation agencies to do something they have never had to do before: set goals to reduce bike and pedestrian fatalities, and track progress toward attaining those goals. The news is part of FHWA’s roll-out of several “performance measures” […]

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The Feds Want to Reform the Cult of “Level of Service”

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 28, 2016 | No Comments

“What you measure is what you get,” the saying goes. That’s certainly true for transportation policy. And for a very long time one metric has reigned supreme on American streets: “Level of Service,” a system that assigns letter grades based on motorist delay. Roughly speaking, a street with free-flowing traffic gets an A while one where […]

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The Feds Aren’t Crowing About the Record Amount of Driving in America

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 26, 2016 | No Comments

Gas is as cheap as ever, and cumulatively, Americans are driving a record amount. Newly released U.S. DOT data shows that through the end of November, Americans drove a cumulative 2.88 trillion miles last year, well above the same period in 2014, indicating that 2015 will set a new national record for driving mileage. Adjusting for population growth, driving […]

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