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Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category

DRIVEN APART: How Sprawl Is Lengthening Our Commutes and Why Misleading Mobility Measures Are Making Things Worse

Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Charlotte vs. Chicago

CEOs for Cities
The secret to reducing the amount of time Americans spend in peak hour traffic has more to do with how we build our cities than how we build our roads. While peak hour travel is a perennial headache for many Americans — peak hour travel times average 200 hours a year in large metropolitan areas — some cities have managed to achieve shorter travel times and actually reduce the peak hour travel times. The key is that some metropolitan areas have land use patterns and transportation systems that enable their residents to take shorter trips and minimize the burden of peak hour travel.

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Relationships Between Streetcars and the Built Environment

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
Streetcar Cover

TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM
In the past 20 years, numerous cities have planned and implemented new rail transit systems. This movement has coincided with other urban regeneration trends, bringing new life to urban centers and advancing strategies to manage growth that promote more efficient patterns of development. Various forms of heavy rail, light rail, and streetcar systems have been built, many with robust ridership and popularity, owing to a rediscovery of this form of transportation, as well as concerns about growing traffic congestion, volatile fuel prices, and climate change.

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More Projects and Paychecks: Transportation’s Summary of Recovery

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
Transportation Construction Jobs Funded by ARRA—Breakdown by Mode

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
The transportation investment in stimulus is working—and in every state across the nation. More than $40 billion in highway and transit projects have been approved and are moving forward—almost $30 billion are under contract on 16,761 different projects. More than 63,000 direct on-project jobs have been created or sustained in August as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and states have already paid out $3.2 billion in payroll.

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Guest on the Infra Blog: Richard Ravitch, New York State Lieutenant Governor

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
NYC Transit Ravitch Report

Richard Ravitch serves as Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York. He was appointed by Governor David A. Paterson on July 8, 2009. Prior to his appointment, Lieutenant Governor Ravitch was a Partner in the law firm Ravitch, Rice & Co. and served as Chairman of the Commission on MTA Financing, which Governor Paterson formed to examine financing options for the MTA. In 1979, Lieutenant Governor Ravitch was appointed Chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), overseeing the operation of the New York City subways and buses, the Long Island Railroad and MetroNorth commuter lines, and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. For his work at the MTA, Lieutenant Governor Ravitch was awarded the American Public Transit Association’s Individual of the Year Award in 1982. Lieutenant Governor Ravitch is a graduate of Columbia College and received an LLB from Yale University School of Law.

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More Transit = More Jobs: The Impact of Increasing Funding for Public Transit

Monday, September 27th, 2010
Transit Spending as a Percent of Total TIP Spending

TRANSPORTATION EQUITY NETWORK
Research has consistently shown that spending on transit creates more jobs than spending on highways. Estimates of job generation include the workers who construct the infrastructure and operate transit, as well as the jobs created by suppliers to the construction industry and by the increased spending of workers in the local economy. Transportation spending also has indirect effects on job creation by increasing the efficiency of the transportation system and improving business productivity.

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Looking Past the November Midterm Elections

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

In a guest commentary, Richard G. Little, Director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at the University of Southern California, offers his own reflections on how the reality of constrained resources and greater spending discipline in the next Congress might affect our future transportation policy.

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September 24th: New York State Transportation Summit

Thursday, September 16th, 2010
Transportation Summit

The New York Transportation Summit, 2010 & Beyond will gather leaders from public agencies and private industry to discuss upcoming major infrastructure and development initiatives as well as explore partnership models that will take New York into a new transportation era.

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The Toll From Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America’s Dirtiest Energy Source

Thursday, September 16th, 2010
Coal Mortality Rates

CLEAN AIR TASK FORCE
Among all industrial sources of air pollution, none poses greater risks to human health and the environment than coal-fired power plants. Emissions from coalfired power plants contribute to global warming, ozone smog, acid rain, regional haze, and—perhaps most consequential of all from a public health standpoint — fine particle pollution.

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Climate Change and Bicycling: How bicycling advocates can help craft comprehensive Climate Action Plans

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
screen-shot-2010-09-14-at-123431-pm

LEAGUE OF AMERICAN BICYCLISTS
Bicycling advocates can help shape Climate Action Plans to include pro‐bicycling policies. Using case studies and examples from existing plans, this report examines: 1. how pro‐bicycling policies have been written into the Climate Action Plans of states, cities, and universities, 2. examples of plans that include bicycling, 3. how bicycling advocates can best support these efforts, and 4. how to ensure that governments follow through on the promises made in their plans.

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Breaking the Impasse

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Writing in last week’s Innovation NewsBrief we wondered if the intent behind the White House September 6 proposal to invest an extra $50 billion in transportation infrastructure was primarily a political gesture — to give the economy a short-term pre-election boost — or whether it was a belated but genuine change of heart about the need to act, and act convincingly, on a multi-year surface transportation program. In conversations we held during the past week, we sensed that the transportation community, including senior officials of U.S. DOT, would clearly prefer the $50 billion to be part of a long-term reauthorization effort.

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