Infrastructure

As we've noted numerous times, the Highway Trust Fund will become insolvent around the end of the fiscal year - Sept. 30, just when MAP-21, the transportation authorization bill, expires. We were wrong. The new HTF "ticker" explains the bad news.

February 20, 2014 - Politico Morning Transportation

A new report called “Sustaining Prosperity: A Long Term Vision for the New Orleans Region,” authored by Joel Kotkin, celebrates the rebirth of New Orleans and sets a five point plan for ensuring New Orleans’ long-term prosperity.

February 19, 2014 - New Geography

More than 80 communities adopted complete streets policies in 2013, bringing the national total to 610 jurisdictions with such policies. The National Complete Streets Coalition examined the newest programs for the best examples.

February 19, 2014 - Smart Growth America

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was signed into law on February 17, 2009, less than a month into President Obama's first term. The Council of Economic Advisers recently presented its final quarterly report on ARRA's impacts.

February 18, 2014 - WhiteHouse.gov

In terms of land area, San Francisco’s a small city. Yet if current policies persist, the city will build 92,000 parking spots for residents by 2040, on just 49 square miles of land.

February 17, 2014 - SF Streetsblog

A recent guerrilla campaign designed to ease train-to-train transfer on the New York subway displeased both the MTA and regular commuters.

February 17, 2014 - Next City

Remember the $8.7 billion Hudson River rail tunnel project that Chris Christie canceled in 2010 shortly after becoming governor? N.J. legislators investigating the September lane shut-down on the George Washington Bridge are now connecting the dots.

February 16, 2014 - WNYC: Transportation Nation

A side-by side-comparison of several cities’ snow routes reveals the inherent logic (or lack thereof) of their transportation infrastructure.

February 15, 2014 - Atlantic Cities

The state of Illinois is actively pushing two highway projects that might fail to pencil-out for users and for state taxpayers.

February 15, 2014 - Chi.Streetsblog

President Obama is in California today to pitch a $1 billion “resilience fund” to help communities dealing with the weather impacts of climate change—including the state’s current drought.

February 14, 2014 - The Hill

A valentine to ten cities around the world that are quietly creating urban paradigms to admire and emulate.

February 14, 2014 - Future Cities

Seattle’s massive highway tunneling project delays while solutions are sought for the mechanical error that brought the project’s massive drilling machine, Bertha, to a halt. Some are starting to examine life after Bertha.

February 14, 2014 - Seattle Transit Blog

At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting on Feb. 12, leaders from big labor, big business, AASHTO, and AMTRAK testified to the importance of keeping the Highway Trust Fund solvent. The first two specified increasing the gas tax.

February 14, 2014 - The Hill

With jaywalking enforcement policies recently making news in New York City and Los Angeles, more of the media is pushing back on long-held assumptions about who rules the road. Here’s a primer on how jaywalking became a crime.

February 12, 2014 - BBC News Magazine

The Congress for the New Urbanism releases a Top 10 list highlighting the worst, most ready-to-be-junked urban freeways. New Orleans, Syracuse, and Detroit make the list. Boulevards are a viable and much-needed alternative, says CNU.

February 12, 2014 - Congress for the New Urbanism

The mayor of Aurora has lofty ambitions for a new “Main Street” along its forthcoming 10-mile light rail route, but will the market deliver, especially with the rise of real estate prices?

February 12, 2014 - The Denver Post

The eastern span of the Bay Bridge has had cost overruns, delays, scandal, and lukewarm architecture reviews, but the latest bad news is cause for concern—the bridge is leaking into structural elements and officials aren’t sure why or what it means.

February 12, 2014 - SF Gate

A newly released series of animated GIFs provides a powerful visualization of how paltry even the most robust transit systems in the world look to those with special needs.

February 11, 2014 - Mappable

The Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened to vehicle traffic over the weekend. The 1,500-foot cable-stayed span across the Mississippi River is touted as a traffic relief infrastructure.

February 10, 2014 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Planners in the city of San Francisco have a proposed a $1.4 million study to examine the possibility of removing part of Interstate 280 in the city and convert a rail yard would yield 37 acres of prime urban real estate.

February 9, 2014 - SF Gate