As Congress considers legislation to avoid a shortfall of the Highway Trust Fund, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and 11 of his predecessors offered the following open letter to Congress. In addition to Secretary Foxx, Secretaries Ray LaHood, Mary Peters, Norman Mineta, Rodney Slater, Federico Peña, Samuel Skinner, Andrew Card, James Burnley, Elizabeth Dole, William Coleman and Alan Boyd all signed the letter. Their message: Congress’ work doesn’t end with the bill under consideration. Transportation in America still needs a much larger, longer-term investment.
View this complete Infra Blog post...The Infra Blog
Subtle Signs of Progress in the Urban Highway Debate
Thursday, July 24th, 2014
Last Friday, Streetsblog highlighted a project moving forward in Denver to widen, bury, and partially cap an elevated freeway that runs through the city, leaving neighborhoods divided and disinvested in a city that’s otherwise booming economically. It’s a sad story, especially given Denver’s tendency toward smart transportation and development policy, and becausebigger freeways don’t do much of anything to improve traffic in the long term. It’s also somewhat surprising, as other cities across the country (and the world) have seen aging urban freeways as an opportunity to heal the wounds of the past rather than doubling down on destructive development from a bygone era.
View this complete Infra Blog post...Making the Grade: The Six-Point Plan to Bring Our Infra Back
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014
America, a nation that was once the world’s model for public infrastructure development, has declined to near-failure. Our neglect has already led to thousands of crumbling roads, decaying bridges and drought-stricken regions. A concrete plan to get us back on track just couldn’t come soon enough. That’s exactly what Autodesk’s new report, Making the Grade, intends to do. The report represents the consensus of experts from over 45 public and private companies who participated in a roundtable discussion convened by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Making the Grade offers a strong case for increased awareness, prioritization, and investment across the country.
View this complete Infra Blog post...Interactive Map: Demolitions in Manhattan
Thursday, July 17th, 2014
In just a little over a decade Manhattan has seen hundreds of demolitions, from Wall Street to Inwood Heights. AddressReport’s interactive map plays an animation to visualize each and every demolition that took place since 2003.
View this complete Infra Blog post...States’ Transportation Revenue Initiatives Help to Compensate for an Absence of Congressional Action on Long-Term Funding
Tuesday, July 15th, 2014Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 25, No.
While transportation stakeholders and the Washington press corps focus on the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund and bemoan the fact that the House-Senate agreement to replenish the Trust Fund provides only short-term funding ($10.8 billion) through May 2015, they are ignoring developments outside the Beltway that go a long way toward compensating for an absence of congressional action on long-term funding. For in fact, individual states, far from sitting idly by, are responding to the fiscal uncertainties in Washington by stepping up and raising additional revenue to meet their transportation needs.
AASHTO’s “Nation at a Crossroads” Infographic Calls for Action
Thursday, July 10th, 2014
The infographic reveals a slew of alarming facts and predictions centering on the depletion of MAP-21 funding by Fall of 2014, which will lead to states being responsible for 100% of transportation funding. Did you know that, already, 45% of Americans don’t have access to transit? Did you know that 1 in 4 of our bridges is in need of significant repair? While states have come up with some viable funding mechanisms of their own, it’s clearly time for the Fed to step in and replenish this vital source of transportation funding.
View this complete Infra Blog post...Los Angeles Parking Meter Reform, Reasonable Edition
Tuesday, July 8th, 2014
The LA Times Editorial Board published a post this morning imploring city officials to come up with a more just system, so I’m throwing out a few ideas. My motivation here is two-fold. First, to find a solution that maintains high enough fees to discourage scofflaws because parking turnover is important to both consumers and businesses — $23 simply doesn’t meet that requirement. Second, to minimize the frustration of excessive fines resulting from the rare, honest mistake, and to reduce the confusion that leads to those mistakes. If you get three parking tickets a month, it’s you that needs to re-evaluate, not the city. Parking tickets have a place in a congested, highly urbanized city, but they must be perceived as fair if they’re to survive. Here are my recommendations:
View this complete Infra Blog post...Great American Infrastructure: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Friday, June 27th, 2014
What: The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the busiest airport in the world
Where: Ten miles south of Downtown Atlanta
When: ATL first opened its gates in 1925, after leasing property from an abandoned auto racetrack. The first international flight out of Atlanta took place in 1956, and flew to Montreal, Canada.
View this complete Infra Blog post...Reduce Speculation and Limit Gentrification: Penalize Absentee/Pied-à-Terre Owners
Friday, June 20th, 2014
While cities like Chicago, Austin, and Seattle can typically stave off drastic price increases by just building enough housing to meet demand, that’s not always possible for world cities because demand isn’t just local, or even national — it’s global, and in an era of growing inequality the demand for luxury investment properties and pieds-à-terre is vast. That demand is an obstacle to providing an adequate supply of affordable, middle-class housing, but it needn’t be. If harnessed appropriately, it could even be a strength.
View this complete Infra Blog post...Who Owns Your City?
Monday, June 16th, 2014
WhyDontWeOwnThis.com is an interactive map that shows you who owns the buildings in American cities. You won’t find small-town America’s ownership details online yet, but major cities from Los Angeles to Baltimore are represented, and more are on their way. Take a look at the map; you might be surprised to find out who really owns your city.
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