Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Freight Rail Traffic Hit 20-Year Lows in 2009
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From Warren Buffett’s acquisition of BNSF to the Obama administration’s high-speed rail initiative, the nation is abuzz with talk about a revival of freight trains as an energy-efficient alternative to trucks. (Photo: TSA) But amid the positive forecasts for freight, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) released data today that showed just how bad of […]
Pelosi: Gas Tax Hike Doesn’t Have Majority Support in Congress
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After touring the Detroit Auto Show yesterday with fellow lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took one question yesterday: Why are Democrats not pursuing a federal gas tax hike, given its potential to cut carbon emissions and its support from auto industry players aiming to stoke demand for efficient cars? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) […]
Should a Climate Bill Even Try to Fight Sprawl?
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The potential for a cap-and-trade climate bill to set aside significant amounts of money for reforming local land use and transportation planning is often touted by Democrats, environmental groups, and this particular Streetsblogger. Should the approach California used in SB 375 (being signed into law above) be applied to a congressional cap-and-trade climate bill? (Photo: […]
Congress, Associated Press, Argue Whether Stimulus Actually Stimulated Anything
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The Associated Press published a piece today that, after putting "economists and statisticians" to work on analyzing $21 billion in federal stimulus money for transportation, reached a volatile conclusion: (Photo: WBEZ) Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation, raising questions about Obama’s argument that more […]
Obama Administration Working on Its Own Six-Year Transportation Bill
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The annual powwow of thousands of transportation workers, planners, and wonks that’s known as the Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference kicked off in the capital yesterday with a candid admission from some senior U.S. DOT officials: reorienting American transport planning to accommodate the overlap with housing and environmental sustainability is proving pretty difficult. U.S. DOT […]
Does Transit-Oriented Development Work Even Without Transit?
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Yes, says urban planner Neil Payton. From his guest column today on Reconnecting America’s blog: Denver’s light rail, in the background, ended up increasing the value of nearby homes. (Photo: Denver Post) Either [local planners] view [transit access] as too distant a possibility to factor in or, ironically, they view rail transit as a means […]
The U.S. Transportation Financing Crisis: A Snapshot From the States
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Washington transportation policymaking can often resemble an unwieldy soup of anywhere between 50 and 535 local perspectives, as lawmakers from different states and districts vie for a fixed (or even shrinking) amount of federal funding. Congress isn’t eager to raise fuel taxes to pay for transportation — but what about the states? (Photo: Pop and […]
Report: The American Car Fleet Is Shrinking
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Could the nation be turning away from its decades-old yen for auto ownership? Americans got rid of more cars than they purchased in 2009, reversing a trend that saw total U.S. vehicles exceed the number of drivers more than 35 years ago, according to a report released today by the Earth Policy Institute (EPI). (Chart: […]
Biden’s Homage to AMTRAK
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The nation’s Amtrak rider-in-chief, Vice President Joseph Biden, has penned an op-ed for the rail network’s monthly magazine entitled "Why America Needs Trains." The Vice President and his wife share a tender moment — on the Acela. (Photo: NYT) Biden doesn’t get too political in the piece, eschewing calls for more Amtrak funding in favor […]
Environmental Reviews: Helpful (and Hurtful) to Many Ideologies
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Writing at the Heritage Foundation’s blog, Nick Loris says that the White House’s pending decision on whether to consider climate change in federal environmental reviews amounts to "more green tape." San Francisco’s newest bike lanes: made $1 million pricier by environmental reviews. (Photo: Streetsblog SF) Citing Republican senators’ concerns that existing National Environmental Policy Act […]
Transit Fare Inflation Hitting Health Insurance-Like Levels?
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That’s the implication buried in a roundup of dismal news from urban transit agencies that ran in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. After noting the overall ridership decreases tallied by APTA and the specter of punitive service cuts in many cities, the newspaper noted: Riders of Chicago’s El train, shown above, were spared fare hikes in […]
APTA: Economic Slump Hitting Transit Ridership…But Not in L.A.
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The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) got the mainstream media’s attention during the holiday season after reporting that the dismal economy had helped push transit ridership down by 3.8 percent during the first three-quarters of 2009, when compared with the previous year. Ridership on L.A.’s heavy rail system grew by nearly 6 percent during the […]