Transportation Funding

Freeway Construction

Needed: A Fresh Approach to Funding U.S. Infrastructure

Kenneth Orski, editor and publisher of Innovation NewsBriefs, examines how state governments are beginning to accept more responsibility for transportation funding.

February 11, 2015 - C. Kenneth Orski

Train Tracks

Transportation Funding: Tougher than a Rubik's Cube

There are plenty of opinions but no action on the issue of transportation funding in the United States. What will it take to move the country—and its states, regions, and localities—forward?

January 30, 2015 - Steven Polzin

A Guide to Department of Transportation Success

As communities are rethinking the dominant paradigms of the last 60 years of transportation planning, traditional funding mechanisms are coming up well short of needs. A new guidebook will help state DOTs sort it all out.

January 29, 2015 - Smart Growth for America

Op-Ed: Transportation Funding is Only One Part of a Fair Budget

A guest column on the Saporta Report offers a reminder of the many critical public needs that compete with transportation funding for state dollars.

January 27, 2015 - Saporta Report

Who Will End the Transportation Funding Insanity?

Charles Marohn starts off the year strong by throwing down the gauntlet on the perpetual transportation funding debate.

January 7, 2015 - Strong Towns

Energy Taxes Now Flowing to Texas Highway Fund

Thanks to voters, at least $1.2 billion in oil and gas taxes a year that would normally have been directed to the state's Rainy Day Fund is diverted to the highway fund, where it will be used to improve the state's crumbling road infrastructure.

November 12, 2014 - Newsradio 1200 WOAI

 Decatur Marta station

Majority of Americans Favor Funding for Transit Over Funding for Roads

In a poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post, Americans were found to prefer allocating transportation funding towards transit expansion rather than road widening.

October 26, 2014 - Streetsblog USA

Houston's downtown skyline

The New Traffic Forecast: Modest Growth, then Decline

Clark Williams-Derry shares news of what he calls "far and away the most responsible official traffic forecast I’ve seen from any government agency, ever."

October 21, 2014 - Sightline Daily

Growing Opposition to Toll Road Plans in North Texas

North Texans aren't happy with a planned network of toll roads, claiming that they're taxed and tolled enough already. A series of public hearings is intended to spread more information about the growing network of toll roads.

August 25, 2014 - Dallas News

BART Announcement

BART secures $760 Million for 10-mile Extension to San Jose, California

On Wednesday, officials celebrated the final fiscal installment of the $2.3 billion 10-mile BART extension planned to open in 2018.

August 22, 2014 - San Jose Mercury

Toll Road Truck

The Dawn of the Toll Era in Dallas

Some are calling it a political crisis, but no matter the cause of the trend, toll roads are about soon to be a ubiquitous fact of life in North Texas.

June 14, 2014 - Dallas Morning News

Tolls vs. Taxes: Wisconsinites Choose Their Preference

All taxes are not equally disliked—some are more tolerated than others. Jack Craver of The Cap Times examines an academic poll and speaks with policy makers and one advocate about the least objectionable options to pay for roads in Wisconsin.

June 10, 2014 - The Cap Times

'Structurally Deficient' Bridges on the Decline—Can States Continue the Trend?

All but nine states have decreased the number of "structurally deficient" bridges since the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse. That improvement, however, is far from permanent. Can the federal government and states maintain their progress?

June 7, 2014 - Governing

St. Louis Transportation Wish List: Bike Paths, Streetcars, Sidewalks

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay released a wish list of projects that could be funded by a proposed sales tax to fund transportation projects.

June 3, 2014 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

New TxDOT Head Will Focus on Traffic Safety, Alternative Modes

The Texas Transportation Commission's choice to run the Texas Department of Transportation is a former Marine Corps lieutenant general with a progressive take on the state's transportation challenges.

May 22, 2014 - Dallas Morning News

A Transportation Redline that Obama is Required to Keep

If Congress can't agree how to fund the Highway Trust Fund shortfall, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx warned state DOTs that he will be unable to reimburse them for funds already spent. The redline is the $4 billion mark projected to come July.

May 11, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal - Politics and Policy

Grow America Transportation Bill Would Open the Door to Tolling on Interstates

Although its unclear just how much influence the Department of Transportation's surface transportation authorization bill, called GROW AMERICA, will have (if any at all), the bill makes apparent a sea change with regard to tolling of the interstates.

May 1, 2014 - Washington Post

Secretary Foxx Talks Funding (and Possibly Tolling)

A recent article by Yonah Freemark details the policy agenda of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, the former mayor of Charlotte and successor of well-regarded Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood.

April 26, 2014 - Metropolitan Planning Council - The Connector

Seeking Funding: Light Rail Route from Miami to Miami Beach

Local officials agree that a light rail system from Miami to Miami Beach would work, and they have embarked on a partnership to win the funding to commence a study of a potential $532 million route.

April 4, 2014 - Miami Herald

Philadelphia Sending More Money to Street Repair

Following a long winter, the Philadelphia Streets Department is on pace to break records for pothole repair, but that won’t be the only improvement paid for by a proposed 33 percent increase in funding to the Streets Department.

March 18, 2014 - PlanPhilly

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