Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Transportation Policy

Transport Contractors Urge White House to Revamp Enviro Review Rules

By Elana Schor | Apr 12, 2010 | No Comments

The trade group representing private-sector transportation contractors is urging the Obama administration to change the way environmental reviews are conducted for infrastructure projects, proposing to favor "categorical exclusions" (CEs) from federal review rules over the lengthier process of measuring the environmental impact of construction work. Environmental reviews added an estimated $1 million to the cost […]

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What Happened to the Proposed “Transportation Tax” on Wall Street?

By Elana Schor | Apr 5, 2010 | No Comments

For several weeks last fall, as members of the House infrastructure committee pushed for passage of a new six-year federal transportation bill as a strategy to rouse the economy from recession, a proposal to pay for the legislation with a small tax on oil futures trades attracted a healthy crop of Democratic cosponsors and some […]

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Feds Begin Redefining ‘Affordable Housing’ to Include Transport Costs

By Elana Schor | Mar 24, 2010 | No Comments

Comparing the transportation savings in dense versus dispersed neighborhoods for a dozen U.S. metro areas. (Chart: CNT) The process of expanding the federal government’s definition of "affordable housing," a stated goal of the Obama administration’s sustainable communities effort, began in earnest yesterday with the introduction of a new index that integrates transportation prices into the […]

Bipartisan Senate Jobs Bill Has Highway Trust Fund Rescue, But No TIGER

By Elana Schor | Feb 11, 2010 | 1 Comment

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and his panel’s senior Republican, Chuck Grassley (IA), today offered a job-creation proposal designed to garner enough GOP votes to overcome an anticipated filibuster. Senate Finance Committee chief Max Baucus, at left, with GOP ally Chuck Grassley at right. (Photo: Baucus Press) The measure’s transportation provisions align with […]

Oakland’s Stimulus Flap: A Shot Across the Bow for Transport Equity?

By Elana Schor | Jan 27, 2010 | 9 Comments

The Obama administration’s warning that the Bay Area has jeopardized federal stimulus funding for its Oakland Airport Connector project — a story Streetsblog San Francisco has been following for months — could have national consequences for other urban transit proposals that risk harming low-income riders, civil rights and transit advocates predicted yesterday. The proposed Oakland […]

How Would Mr. Spock Design U.S. Transportation Policy?

By Ben Fried | Jan 26, 2010 | 3 Comments

If U.S. transportation policy was a species from "Star Trek," you’d have to go with the Tribble: lacking any discernible purpose except to reproduce the same form with suffocating regularity. The result is a transportation network marked by car-dependence, exorbitant gas consumption, and high rates of crash-related injuries and death. Would logical transportation policies have […]

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