John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Common perceptions about growth and development in Huntington, WV, are harming the city’s long term finances and limiting future opportunities for its residents. The city’s traditional downtown and surrounding core neighborhoods are solid assets that can, once again, be the strength of a prosperous Huntington.
-Strong Towns On YouTube
INFRA STORIES YOU SHOULDN’T MISS!
-Portland Apartment Complexes Embrace Cyclists
-A Bump in the Track for Acela
-Chicago’s Ashland BRT Proposal Get Mixed Reviews
-Silver Line Closed Until Undisclosed Construction End Date
Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 25, No. 1
As we enter the new year (celebrating our 25th year of publication), and as the deadline for reauthorization of the surface transportation program draws closer, those who want the new bill to sharply increase federal spending for transportation face a vexing reality. The Highway Trust Fund, a vital source of support for the federal surface transportation program for over half a century, no longer can keep up with the nation’s growing transportation needs. A combination of more fuel-efficient cars, rising CAFE standards and consumer embrace of hybrid vehicles has kept gas tax revenue stagnant, throwing the Trust Fund out of balance with the rising demand for transportation funds. A possible decline in per capita travel could cause the future imbalance to grow even larger.
TAX FOUNDATION
The lion’s share of transportation funding should come from user fees (amounts a user pays directly for a service the user receives, such as tolls) and user taxes (amounts a user pays, based on usage, for transportation, such as fuel and motor vehicle license taxes).[2] When road funding comes from a mix of tolls and gasoline taxes, the people that use the roads bear a sizeable portion of the cost. By contrast, funding transportation out of general revenue makes roads “free,” and consequently, overused or congested—often the precise problem transportation spending programs are meant to solve.
Thanks to oceanographer Greg Johnson, you don’t have to read all 2,000 pages of this recent IPCC report to get up to speed on climate change. Outlining the full scope of climate change, from history and causes to possible solutions, Johnson’s 19 hand-painted watercolor images and haiku convey the spirit of the IPCC report in full color without the dense jargon and statistics.
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MINNESOTA GO
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is directly charged with constructing, operating, maintaining, and managing this system, which is 74 percent of the State’s capital assets. The Minnesota 20-Year State Highway Investment Plan (MnSHIP) is MnDOT’s vehicle for deciding and communicating capital investment priorities for the system for the next 20 years. MnSHIP is a fiscally constrained plan, meaning its planned expenditures must align with expected revenues, which total $18 billion. Meanwhile, the projected transportation needs on the state highway system total $30 billion.
Transportation Issues Daily
As we, like Congress, begin our “recess,” we decided to offer some early predictions about 2014 federal transportation issues. It’s not an exhaustive list, and these may not be the most important five issues, but it’s a place to start.
NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Solving urban challenges has become the key to addressing global challenges. New York City has been a leader in creating new models for sustainable urban development in recent years, most visibly with the transformation of the city’s streets into more efficient and welcoming spaces that better accommodate all users. In tandem with these planning and engineering efforts, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) has developed a robust set of metrics to evaluate the outcomes of its projects with respect to the agency’s policy goals, both in the service of continually improving project designs and because the public increasingly expects such data-driven decision-making from government.
CALIFORNIA NATURAL RESOURCES AGENCY
The Safeguarding California Plan provides policy guidance for state decision makers, and is part of continuing efforts to reduce impacts and prepare for climate risks. This plan, which updates the 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy, highlights climate risks in nine sectors in California, discusses progress to date, and makes realistic sector-specific recommendations.
Mayor Parker is Houston’s 61st mayor and one of only two women to hold the City’s highest elected office. As the City’s chief executive officer, she is responsible for all aspects of the general management of the City and for enforcement of all laws and ordinances…In addition to her duties as mayor, Parker is a member of President Obama’s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, serves as a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary’s Advisory Council and on the boards of the Texas Environmental Research Consortium and Houston Galveston Area Council.
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