Recent Streetsblog LA posts about DC Streetsblog

Want to lower taxes? Reduce pollution? Promote savings and investment, rather than borrowing and spending? Well, perhaps the US could take a page from British Columbia. This Canadian province recently upped the pricetag on its wildly successful carbon tax. And, boy, is it paying off. This $30 (up from $25) per ton tax on pollution […]

Something that escaped my attention until recently is the fact that MAP-21 is really only a 24-month transportation bill. Folded into the bill is an extension of SAFETEA-LU for another three months, until September 30 — the end of this fiscal year. The bill was signed into law last Friday and it expires September 30, […]

Just days after Congress passed a bill allowing states to spend funds supposedly designated for biking and walking on completely unrelated projects, transportation officials are already circling like vultures over that money. An AP story from Covington, Kentucky on Sunday quotes several transportation officials and executives parroting the GOP line that transportation enhancements funding, as that […]

Nearly every time a new road is built, traffic volume increases beyond the predictions of the traffic studies. And nearly every time, transportation planners are surprised. The explanation is a wonky little phenomenon called “induced demand.” Essentially, if you widen roads to reduce congestion, people who were avoiding the road because of congestion will find […]

In the highly polarized and antagonistic transportation bill negotiations, dragged out over the course of almost a year, there was one thing that Democrats and Republicans could agree on: vastly expanding the TIFIA loan program. The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program has, since 1998, provided federal credit assistance at favorable interest rates […]

National transportation reform groups released a collective groan yesterday, as the details of the two-year transportation bill agreement hashed out in committee were made available. While many acknowledged the bill could have been worse, it’s still something of a kick in the shins for anyone who cares about safer streets and smart transportation policy. Here’s […]