Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Federal Funding

The Best and Worst of the New 5-Year Transportation Bill

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 3, 2015 | No Comments

Smart people are wading through the 1,300-page transportation bill that came out of conference committee earlier this week, and we’re starting to get a clearer sense of how it will change federal transportation policy for the next five years. The House voted to pass the bill by an overwhelming margin just moments ago, and President Obama has already […]

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5-Year, $300 Billion “FAST Act” Will Extend Transpo Policy Status Quo to 2020

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 2, 2015 | No Comments

They’ve done it. Representatives from the House and Senate have emerged from conference committee with a five-year transportation bill, which is expected to be quickly approved and become first “long-term” bill in more than a decade. The discouragingly-named “FAST Act” is 1,300 pages long, and everyone with a stake in the legislation is still having their policy wonks […]

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The Highs and Lows of Hillary’s Bland Infrastructure Plan

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 1, 2015 | No Comments

We’re getting some insight into what White House transportation policy would look like in a Hillary Clinton administration, following the Democratic frontrunner’s release of a 5-year, $275 billion infrastructure plan yesterday. It’s not exactly a visionary plan, but despite its blandness it’s still likely to be DOA if Republicans retain control of Congress as expected. Clinton’s “briefing” calls for $275 […]

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It’s Time to Stop Pretending That Roads Pay for Themselves

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 25, 2015 | No Comments

If nothing else, the current round of federal transportation legislating should end the myth that highways are a uniquely self-sufficient form of infrastructure paid for by “user fees,” a.k.a. gas taxes and tolls. With all the general tax revenue that goes toward roads in America, car infrastructure has benefited from hefty subsidies for many years. […]

Let This RPA Vid Explain Why We Need More Rail Tubes Under the Hudson

By Brad Aaron | Oct 29, 2015 | No Comments

The Regional Plan Association produced a nice explainer video on why the region needs to build more rail capacity under the Hudson River, the risks facing the existing train tubes, and what will happen if one of them has to be taken offline for repairs before another tunnel gets built. The situation with the tunnels has heightened urgency because New […]

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3 White Elephants That Help Explain America’s Infrastructure Crisis

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 30, 2015 | No Comments

A new report by the Center for American Progress zeros in on an under-appreciated culprit in America’s much ballyhooed infrastructure crisis: All the money we waste on useless roads. CAP highlights three “white elephant projects” that illustrate how billions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds are squandered thanks to a lack of accountability in the transportation funding process. “States receive federal […]

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