Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about U.S. DOT

House Transpo Leaders and Obama DOT Run Off in Opposite Directions

By Elana Schor | Jun 24, 2009 | No Comments

The conflicted state of federal transportation policy-making was on vivid display today, as House lawmakers pressed ahead on a $500 billion bill that still lacks a funding source while the Obama administration scrambled to find $20 billion for a bailout of the highway trust fund. Members of the famously bipartisan House transportation committee lined up […]

LaHood Asks for 18-Month Extension of Four-Year-Old Transpo Law

By Elana Schor | Jun 17, 2009 | 5 Comments

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is asking Congress to extend the existing federal transportation law for 18 months, averting the coming insolvency of the nation’s highway trust fund while putting off broad-based transport reform for as long as the Bush administration did in the days surrounding the 2004 election. Photo: AP LaHood’s request comes at an […]

U.S. DOT Clocks High-Speed Rail at 110 MPH, Give or Take

By Elana Schor | Jun 17, 2009 | 19 Comments

The federal DOT has just released its guidance for states seeking a share of its $8 billion in high-speed rail funding — and tucked in the rules are standards that could prove crucial to the project’s success. Ray LaHood geeks out on French high-speed rail. Photo via The Overhead Wire The definition of high-speed rail […]

In the Works: Senate Bill to Promote Sustainable Development

By Elana Schor | Jun 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

In Washington politics, the term "kumbaya moment" is used to describe those rare occasions when self-interested stakeholders join hands to support a set of reforms. And today’s appearance before the Senate Banking Committee by the chiefs of three Cabinet departments — Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency — definitely qualified for […]

GOP-ers and Dems Agree: Feds Need to Get Their Transpo Act Together

By Elana Schor | Jun 9, 2009 | 8 Comments

Reports on federal transportation policy — like campaign fundraisers and lobbying groups — seem to proliferate in Washington, most of them drawing a few days’ worth of news coverage before fading from memory. (Remember the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission and the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission?) Former Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA), […]

Transit Planners to Congress: Please Figure Out How to Fund Us

By Elana Schor | Jun 4, 2009 | 3 Comments

To all but the most ardent transit wonks, the phrase "New Starts" sounds like a motivational tape sold on late-night TV. But those two words actually represent Washington’s predominant mechanism to pay for major transit expansions — everything from expanding an existing rail station to building a new bus line. Minnesota’s Hiawatha rail line is […]

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