It’s hard to know for sure how former House Speaker New Gingrich might handle transportation as President. Of his Republican rivals who’ve been governor you can easily paint portraits of the metro-friendly moderate or the big-thinking privatizer. But Gingrich has never overseen a department of transportation, never appointed a transportation commissioner, never signed off on…
Pop quiz: What national political figure, as one of his first acts as chief executive, created a new agency tasked with coordinating housing, transportation, and energy policy in the pursuit of “smart-growth” development? Hint: in his four years as leader, this politician championed a fix-it-first infrastructure strategy and awarded taxpayer-funded grants to communities dedicated to…
(Washington, DC WAMU) Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has announced a $940 million deal with private contractor Fluor-Transurban for the construction of High Occupancy Toll lanes on Interstate 95. The in-principle agreement was negotiated between Fluor-Transurban, VDOT Commissioner Greg Whirley, and Virginia’s new Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships (OTP3). The project is being financed and constructed…
(New York, NY – WNYC) Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano held a press conference in a Garden City bus garage to announce that Veolia Transportation, a private company, will assume operations of Long Island Bus from the NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority on January 1. On that day, the bus service’s name will be changed to…
Florida Governor Rick Scott wasted no time making hay of the formal increase in cost projections for high speed rail in California. “The news today out of California that High Speed Rail cost estimates have now tripled to the $100 billion range reinforces that Florida made the right decision earlier this year to protect taxpayers…
Using private companies to enforce “red-light” laws often gives those companies an incentive to raise money, rather than improve safety. That’s the conclusion of a new study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The study found the regular use of disincentives for things like lengthening the yellow light lights, which it says would improve…
For Texas Governor Rick Perry, Republican Primary debates have been a little rocky. So far he’s been made to answer for mandating an HPV vaccine, and for granting undocumented immigrants in-state tuition breaks. Equally vexing for Perry may be the Corridor question, which will require the same difficult maneuvering between the choices he made as…
It was only minutes after President Barack Obama delivered his jobs speech to a joint session of Congress last Thursday night that House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair John Mica (R-Fla) was dismissing outright one of the President’s main proposals. “I’m strongly opposed to any type of a new federal infrastructure bank,” Mica told Todd…
(Matt Dellinger – Transportation Nation) For the last month, while national news coverage has focused on the federal debt ceiling and the threat of a historic default, transportation watchers have been nervously contemplating the possible failure of the largest toll road privatization from the last decade. Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, a 50/50 consortium made up…
The Congressional Research Office says the current plan to privatize Amtrak violates a clause in the Fifth Amendment. Detroit’s Mayor and City Council are at odds over who will oversee that city’s light rail line. Toronto voted to remove a bike lane. NYC’s transit apps contest will be on today’s Brian Lehrer Show. And: happy Railroad Day!
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Transportation Nation is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, whose Transportation Initiative is promoting
equitable and sustainable development in communities across the country. More at rockfound.org.
