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Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category

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Beyond Traffic 2045: Trends And Choices

Thursday, February 5th, 2015
How We Move - Figure 1

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
In the race to build world-class transportation, America once set the pace. We used to have a big lead…But our lead has slipped away. We are behind…And it is not just that our infrastructure is showing its age—our country, in many ways, has outgrown it. If you drive a car, you now spend, on average, the equivalent of five vacation days every year sitting in traffic. If you drive a truck, highway congestion has made you an expert at navigating bumpy side roads—and you are not alone. Every year, trucks are losing $27 billion on wasted time and fuel.

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Posted in Aging Infrastructure, Infra Views, National, Policy, Smart Growth

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Mobile Infrastructure Is the Key to Telemedicine and Global Healthcare

Wednesday, February 4th, 2015
Mobile Medicine

Mobile connectivity—even with all the new, multi-media capabilities being added to it—is still basically about simple, direct communication. Healthcare in the U.S. is marrying technology, professional philosophy, and government programs to reach the same basic goal of improved communication. Because of this, healthcare infrastructure need not rely exclusively on the spread on high-speed access to ensure quality care access.

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Posted in Broadband, Equity, Global, Guest Post, National, Policy, Technology, Telecommunications, The Infra Blog

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2015 Strategic Directions: Smart Utility Report

Monday, February 2nd, 2015
Figure 1 What do you see as the primary driver of smart city initiatives in your region?

BLACK & VEATCH
Now more than ever, the increasing use of technology offers utility operators greater understanding of their networks and how customers consume power, water, natural gas and data. Forecasting historically required large teams to examine past operations and create an operations snapshot, often long in the past. Now, predictive analytics, or Adaptive Planning, is redefining how complex systems can be managed through rapid analysis of real-time information.

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Posted in Energy, Infra Views, National, Policy, Smart Growth, Technology, Telecommunications

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Needed: A Fresh Approach to Funding America’s Infrastructure

Monday, February 2nd, 2015

Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 2
With the prospect of a gasoline tax increase pretty much ruled out both by the White House and the Republican House leadership, and with various proposals for funding transportation through corporate tax reform meeting with skepticism from leading Republican lawmakers and thus facing an uncertain future (not to mention their unlikely passage before the current transportation measure expires at the end of May) perhaps the time has come to reconsider the way we fund transportation. Maybe we should abandon our 50-year old reliance on the gasoline tax and the Highway Trust Fund as the sole source of federal revenue and consider additional ways of paying for transportation infrastructure.

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Posted in Bipartisan, Funding, Guest Post, Innovation Newsbriefs, Policy, The Infra Blog

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Infrastructure & the 2015 State of the Union Address

Thursday, January 22nd, 2015

The message was clear in President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address: we need to put aside our differences and work together to build a comprehensive, long-term plan that will create jobs and restore our ailing infrastructure systems.

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Posted in Aging Infrastructure, Jobs, National, Policy, The Infra Blog

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Federal Highway Administration: Making Walking & Biking Safer

Friday, January 16th, 2015

See how FHWA and its partners collaborate to make biking and walking safer, affordable, more accessible, and an integral part of livable communities. To learn more about how FHWA works, visit http://www.fhwa.dot.gov

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Posted in Biking, National, Policy, Show Us Your Infra, Urban Planning

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The Gas Tax and Some Fresh Thoughts on How to Pay For Transportation

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 1
With gasoline prices at a five year low, isn’t this the perfect time to raise the federal gas tax? A growing chorus of voices including several infuential Republican Senators — John Thune (R-SD), Bob Corker (R-TN) Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT)—seem to think so. So does the Washington Post and the New York Times. “Now is the best time Washington has seen in years to raise the federal gas tax,” a Post editorial said. “A modest increase in the gas tax would hardly be noticeable to most Americans,” echoed the New York Times…President Obama isn’t so sure.

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The Innovative DOT: Focus Area 1 – Revenue Sources

Tuesday, January 13th, 2015
NRDC - The Innovative DOT - Focus Area 1

The era when fuel taxes alone could cover robust highway construction and maintenance programs is over. Even then, non-highway modes often struggled for support. Funding transportation out of general revenue is problematic, both be-cause it is subject to changing budget priorities and because it underprices transportation, creating excess demand. State departments of transportation (DOTs) need new sources of dedicated revenues, preferably tied to user fees in cases where excess demand—which is both economically and environmentally costly—can be curtailed through the market-style discipline that such fees impose. User fees may also appeal to stakeholders’ sense of fairness, making them more politically palatable than “subsidies” from general tax revenues.

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Posted in Funding, Infra Views, National, Policy, Private Investment, Smart Growth

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February 4-5, Panama City: 3rd Annual Central American & Caribbean Capital Projects & Infrastructure Summit

Thursday, January 8th, 2015
Central American & Caribbean Capital Projects & Infrastructure Summit 2015

The 3rd Annual Central American & Caribbean Capital Projects & Infrastructure Summit will unite the regions gathering the largest project developers, concessionaires, construction companies, operators, investors and government leaders to discuss opportunities about a wide variety of sectors including: roads & highway networks, canals and ports, airports, railways, mining infrastructure, telecom infrastructure, oil and gas, real state, mass transportation systems, water sanitation and sewage and technology.

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Posted in Global, Policy, Private Investment, The Infra Blog

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Growing Local Economies through Equitable Transit-Oriented Development

Wednesday, January 7th, 2015
Housing + Transportation Costs as a Percentage of 80% AMI

CENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY
OPEN COMMUNITIES
TRANSIT DEFINES THE VIBRANCY OF DOWNTOWNS IN CHICAGO’S NORTHERN SUBURBS. Metra and CTA stations, and the development they support, help commuters get to jobs and run errands on their way home, all with little or no driving. Residents come together in these downtown station areas to eat, drink, socialize, borrow library books, shop, and see their neighbors. These activity centers are the brand, lifeblood, and drivers of economic development in these communities.

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Posted in Equity, Infra Views, Local, Policy, Public Transportation, Transit, Urban Planning

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