John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Without a doubt 2013 has been a banner year for bike share in the United States with large systems implemented in New York City (Citibike) & Chicago (Divvy) and many others debuting (or expanding their size) in cites big and small. In fact, Citibike now boasts over 10 million bike miles travelled and is inching closer to 100,000 members!
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INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORTATION & DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Bike-share has taken many forms over the course of its development, from free bikes left for a community to use at will to more technologically advanced and secure systems. In every iteration, the essence of bike-share remains simple: anyone can pick up a bike in one place and return it to another, making point-to-point, human-powered transportation feasible.
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
By Shelagh Whitley
Fossil fuel subsidies undermine international efforts to avert dangerous climate change and represent a drain on national budgets. They also fail in one of their core objectives: to benefit the poorest. Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies would create a win-win scenario. It would eliminate the perverse incentives that drive up carbon emissions, create price signals for investment in a low-carbon transition and reduce pressure on public finances.
KACHAN & CO
The global economy is undergoing a fundamental change. Companies are under increasing pressure to produce and consume more efficiently. This pressure is creating innovation and, above all, opportunity in cleantech.
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
The Panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation conducted hearings, held roundtable discussions, and traveled
to key freight corridors across the United States to gain insight into the current state of freight transportation and
how improving freight transportation can strengthen the economy. The Panel identified many challenges and
impediments to the efficient and safe movement of goods into, out of, and through the United States.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
The U.S. offshore wind industry is transitioning from early development to demonstration of commercial viability. While there are no commercial-scale projects in operation or in the construction phase, there are eleven U.S. projects in advanced development, defined as having either been awarded a lease, conducted baseline or geophysical studies, or obtained a power purchase agreement (PPA). There are panels or task forces in place in at least 13 states to engage stakeholders to identify constraints and sites for offshore wind. U.S. policymakers are beginning to follow the examples in Europe that have proven successful in stimulating offshore wind technological advancement, project deployment, and job creation.
BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
One of the lessons from the Great Recession is the need to grow and support the tradable sectors, typically manufacturing and high-end services, of our metropolitan economies. But to drive these tradable sectors, metropolitan areas need physical access to markets. Metropolitan freight connectivity enables this access and the ensuing modern global value chains. Without it, trade cannot occur.
This video highlights how the trading of goods is the lifeblood of metropolitan economies. The Metro Freight research series by the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings assesses goods trade at the metropolitan scale. It uses a unique and comprehensive database to capture all the goods moving in and out of U.S. metropolitan areas, both domestically and beyond. The reports in the series will describe which goods move between metropolitan areas, how they move via different modes of transportation, and uncover the specific trading relationships between U.S. metropolitan areas as well as their global counterparts.
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“There’s just no credible reason for not investing in manufacturing for infrastructure materials and supply chain items…Public policy has got to be in the right direction this way.”
“We need to make sure we protect the steel industry we have, and also build it for the future of the infrastructure projects – not for one bridge but multiple bridges, transit, and also any type of construction of infrastructure.”
“We need to build things in this country to have a successful economy…If we’re going to really rebuild this country we need to help the economy in this country by using US domestic products in the supply chain.”
INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY
A growing number of American cities are promoting transit-oriented development1 (TOD) in order to combat congestion and other problems associated with sprawling, car-dominated suburban growth. Many are planning rail-based mass transit investments like light rail transit (LRT) and streetcars, hoping they will stimulate transit-oriented development, but are finding the costs to be crippling. Increasingly, cities in the US, finding themselves short of funds, are wondering whether BRT, a lower cost mass transit solution initially developed in Latin America and a relatively new form of mass transit in the US, could also be used here to leverage transit-oriented development investments.
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