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Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category

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Interregional Travel: A New Perspective for Policy Making

Wednesday, January 13th, 2016
FIGURE 2-1 Factors contributing to increases in long-distance person miles of travel (PMT), 1977–1995. (Derived from Pisarski 2013.)

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD
This study reviews the demand for interregional travel in the United States and the uncertainties that arise in supplying transportation services and infrastructure to accommodate it. Consideration is given to relevant experience in other countries, especially in providing intercity passenger rail. A central finding is that appropriate analytical tools and up-to-date data on long-distance travel in the United States are lacking, which complicates decisions about how to invest in the country’s interregional corridors in ways that will serve future travelers most effectively and further other policy goals such as protecting the environment, enhancing safety, and curbing energy use.

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Posted in High Speed Rail, Highway, Infra Views, National, Policy

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Benefits and Impacts of U.S. Renewable Portfolio Standards

Tuesday, January 12th, 2016
Figure ES-1. Benefits and impacts of new RE used to meet 2013 RPS compliance

NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY (NREL)
State renewable portfolio standards (RPS) currently exist in 29 states and Washington, D.C. Most of these policies, enacted largely during the late 1990s and 2000s, will reach their terminal targets within the next decade. As states consider extending, eliminating, or otherwise revising existing RPS programs, or developing new ones, increasing attention is being paid to the costs, benefits, and other impacts of these policies.

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Infra Views, Policy, Sustainability

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FAST Act and Transportation Policies

Friday, January 8th, 2016

AMERICAN ACTION FORUM
Written by Emil H. Frankel
n its re-affirmation of a continuing federal role in surface transportation, FAST Act is an important statute. However, this legislation continues a trend toward a growing dependence on general funds for these programs and stagnation in the general level of federal funding for surface transportation. The inevitable result is a growing burden on states and localities to address the needs of an aging, deteriorating, and often-congested national surface transportation network.

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Posted in Funding, National, Policy, The Infra Blog

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FAST Act ushers new era for U.S. freight policy

Thursday, January 7th, 2016

BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
METROPOLITAN POLICY PROGRAM
With the recent passage of a new five-year, $305 billion surface transportation bill—Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act—Congress finally brokered a long-term agreement to address the nation’s infrastructure challenges. While the bill pumps needed spending into a range of highway, rail, and transit projects, albeit through some budgetary gimmicks, its most lasting achievement may center on freight.

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The Economic Effects of Immediately Opening Federal Lands to Oil, Gas, and Coal Leasing

Wednesday, January 6th, 2016
TABLE 1: ANNUAL IMPACT OF OPENING RESTRICTED FEDERAL LANDS TO OIL, GAS, AND COAL DEVELOPMENT ($ BILLIONS ANNUALLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED)

INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH
While headlines have reported declining oil, gas, and coal prices, those declines do not deter from the fact that U.S. energy resources are valuable to our domestic economic growth. The most recent government estimate of those benefits was a 2012 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study, produced at the request of the House Budget Committee, which analyzed federal lease revenues that could be expected to arise from a proposal to open federal lands and waters to oil, gas, and coal extraction.

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Posted in Competitiveness, Energy, Infra Views, National, Policy, Recovery

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ACEC Engineering Business Index – 4th Quarter 2015

Tuesday, January 5th, 2016
ACEinC Business Index

AMERICAN COUNCIL OF ENGINEERING COMPANIES
A big factor behind the jump in CEO sentiment was the passage of the five-year $305 billion surface transportation program. Twelve-month growth expectations for the Transportation market, which has languished for years due to the Federal Government’s failure to provide long-term funding, leaped from 58.4 to 70.1.

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Posted in Engineering Inc., Funding, Infra Views, National, Policy, Private Investment

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Ramping Up Mississippi’s Economy Through Transportation

Monday, January 4th, 2016
Posted Bridges in Mississippi

MISSISSIPPI ECONOMIC COUNCIL
BLUEPRINT MISSISSIPPI
Through extensive research, the Mississippi Economic Council’s Blueprint Mississippi Transportation Infrastructure Task Force has determined it is vital that Mississippi increase its investment in state and local transportation infrastructure. The Task Force understands that an investment in transportation is needed for the following reasons: increased vehicle fuel efficiency and inflation are shrinking the purchasing power of our current revenue; an expanding number of highways, roads, and bridges in poor or deficient condition is risking the safety of our drivers and handicapping businesses with a deteriorating system of receiving and delivering goods and products; and ignoring the problem now will only lead to exponentially greater costs for maintenance and rehabilitation in the future.

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Pedestrians and Cyclists: Cities, States, and DOTs Are Implementing Actions to Improve Safety

Friday, January 1st, 2016
Figure 1: Examples of Cyclist Road Markings and Facilities

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
Walking and biking are becoming increasingly popular modes of transportation: nearly a million more people reported walking or biking to work in 2013 than in 2005. While total traffic fatalities declined from 2004 through 2013 (the most recent year for which data are available), this was not matched by a similar decline in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. GAO was asked to review pedestrian and cyclist safety data and challenges in addressing this issue. This report examines: (1) trends in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities and injuries from 2004 through 2013 and characteristics of these fatalities and injuries; (2) safety initiatives selected states and cities have implemented and their views on challenges in addressing this issue; and (3) actions taken by DOT to help improve safety.

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Posted in Biking, Infra Views, Policy, Public Parks & Recreation, Urban Planning

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Rod Diridon, Sr., Emeritus Executive Director, Mineta Transportation Institute

Tuesday, December 29th, 2015
Rod Diridon on The Infra Blog

Rod Diridon, Sr., served as executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute from 1995, four years after the Institute’s creation, until 2014 when he moved to Emeritus status. Mr. Diridon has chaired more than 100 international, national, state and local programs, most related to transit and the environment.

“The minimum gas prices around the world are more than double, sometimes triple, the United States…Now the public in America wants a gas tax increase: the polls show it. The polls show that if the gas tax increase will be used for transportation and infrastructure improvements, then the public supports it sometimes as high as 80%…But the U.S. can’t do it because Congress doesn’t have the courage.”

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Posted in Funding, Guests on The Infra Blog, National, Policy, Tax, The Infra Blog

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Public Perception of Mileage-Based User Fees

Monday, December 28th, 2015
Figure 1: Support for MBUF by Polling Year. Note: Sample size = 28. Five questions on general support for MBUFs are excluded from this figure because the poll extended over multiple years or the information on the year the poll occurred was unavailable.

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD
In recent years, the real value of fuel tax revenues has declined significantly as a result of increasing vehicle fuel efficiency, failure to adjust tax rates to keep up with inflation, and fewer miles driven. This decline in the purchasing power of the revenues collected has led to ongoing funding challenges for transportation infrastructure and increased uncertainty about future funding options. The long term sustainability of motor fuel taxes has come into question, in view of increasing fuel efficiency and possible shifts to alternative fuel vehicles. Interest has grown in the potential of replacing the current fuel tax — assessed at the federal level and in many states as a flat fee per gallon — with new road usage charge assessed on all miles traveled. This method is often referred to as a mileage-based user fee (MBUF), road usage charge (RUC), vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fee, or per-mile tax.

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