Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, NJ (photo by incendiarymind via flickr)

Ray LaHood’s gloomy prognosis for a long-term surface transportation bill has set off a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill…(Washington Post)

…and improved his outlook, at least for the Senate bill. (Politico)

Question to Ron Paul in Thursday’s Florida Republican presidential debate: Are you fit enough to be president?  Answer: “I’m willing to challenge any of these gentlemen up here to a 25-mile bike ride any time of the day in the heat of Texas.“  (Video; YouTube)

New York State legislators are frustrated by the State DOT’s lack of information on funding major infrastructure projects. (Poughkeepsie Journal)

…which worries some: just where is this $15 billion going to come from? (AP via Wall Street Journal)

Hoboken and Jersey City may collaborate on a bike share system. (Jersey Journal)

If the United States wants to continue to be the major player in the global economy, it needs an efficient, robust aviation system. (Marketplace)

Concerns over transportation continue to plague the London Olympics, which are just six months away. (Washington Post)

When it comes to buying cars, women do their homework — and they generally get better deals than men. (NPR)

NY MTA head: subway stations need more entrances. (New York Daily News)

Ford Motor Co. reported $20.2 billion in net income for 2011 Friday — its best year since 199. (Detroit News)

What’s so bad about a little public (sticker) shame — especially if it helps deter illegal parking? (New York Times)

The Texas Transportation Commission approved raising the speed limit to 75 mph on about 1,500 miles of interstate highways in the state. (American Statesman, KUHF)

Alaska Airlines has ended its 30-year practice of giving passengers prayer cards with their meals. (USA Travel)

A Los Angeles Times columnist says that the MTA, in eliminating bus lines, is making the wrong decision at the wrong time. Says he in the accompanying video (below): “We are cutting back at exactly the time we should be throwing a lot of resources into expanding public transportation.”

The Toronto Star feels similarly about that city’s transit plan. “Transit City has become a transit pity,” they write of Mayor Rob Ford’s commuter rail expansion, saying it “will take longer to build, deliver less service, and leave Toronto in search of an extra $4.2 billion.”

Skanska AB, the construction giant working on some of New York’s largest public works projects (including the Fulton Street Transit Center), will pay a $19.6 million settlement after being investigated for circumventing rules designed to encourage the hiring of minority- and women-owned businesses. (Wall Street Journal)

A decision about contested bike lanes in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood is expected in April. Last November, the city installed about a quarter-mile of a bike path on Charlestown’s Main Street, then removed the lanes a short time later after neighborhood complaints. (Boston Globe)

U.S. sales of cars and trucks are expected to rise at a double-digit rate in March (AP via Detroit Free Press). Meanwhile, Toyota USA today announced higher sticker prices for nearly every 2011 model the company sells here. (USA Today)

A new report says that Texas will be facing a $170 billion gap between the amount of money that needs to be invested in transportation to keep commutes from getting worse and the amount of money the state expects to bring in from federal freeway funds, the gasoline tax and vehicle registration fees between 2011 and 2035. (Houston Chronicle)

President Obama signed a bill that funds the Federal Aviation Administration re-authorization bill through May. Meanwhile, a battle is brewing over some controversial pieces of the longer measure. (The Hill)

In Bethesda, Maryland, you can now use your cellphone to pay the parking meter. (WAMU)

Look up! Above your head is an invisible billion-bug highway. (NPR)

Top Transportation Nation stories we’re following: Houston is contemplating natural gas-powered buses. NY Congressman — and bike lane cipher — Anthony Weiner kills at the Correspondents Dinner (sample line: “Vote for Weiner–he’ll be frank.“) We have the latest in the inter-city bus investigations. And: the K train rides again — if only on the subway’s roll sign.

TAG has around 50 members so far. Most are business leaders in the Houston region: engineers, attorneys, contractors, property managers, etc. Wayne Klotz helped start the group. He’s been a civil engineer in Houston for more than thirty years. He says with money for road and transit projects drying up, lawmakers need to come up with other solutions to the region’s transportation problems. “We’ve got all these things floating around but no ability to pay for them,” says Klotz. “And if there is no way to pay for them they won’t get built.”

Houston’s population is swelling, notes Klotz, “so as more and more people come the only thing that happens is congestion gets worse, air quality gets worse, and the quality of life declines. That’s just a given.”

Klotz says TAG is pro-roads and pro-transit, but will primarily be focusing on highway improvements during the current legislative session. The Texas Legislature is considering bills that would raise more money for transportation projects, including one that would increase the gas tax (which was hasn’t been raised since 1991) and another that would bump up the cost of vehicle registration. Klotz says the former has little chance of passing in the tax-averse House. “Nobody believes that this legislature is going to go increase taxes, and so we need to find to new sources of revenue,” he says.

The new advocacy group wants lawmakers to at least index the state’s (20 cents a gallon) gas tax to adjust for inflation. He also backs raising the vehicle registration fee. In addition, TAG would like to see the legislature pass a local-option transportation bill, which would give Houston voters the ability to approve a local tax that would pay for specific projects in the area, like resurfacing a road. It’s the same concept as Houston’s drainage fee proposition, which voters passed last year. “What we’re asking the state to do is to allow the Houston region to address the transportation problems,” says Klotz. “If they can’t find ways to fund it then at least give us the opportunity to work with our elected officials here to handle our own issues.”

Klotz says TAG is getting ready to deliver its message to state lawmakers who represent the Houston region. But with a $15-27 billion dollar budget deficit to deal with, will they listen?

You can listen to a story about this here.

Despite the falling rate of traffic fatalities across the state, more than a third of Texans who participated in the  survey say they don’t feel any safer. Just twenty percent of respondents reported feeling more safe then they did five years ago. Quinn Brackett, a senior research scientist with TTI, says more than half of the people surveyed believe aggressive driving is on the rise. But even more — over eighty percent — say talking or texting on cell phones is worse than it was five years ago. The results didn’t surprise Brackett. He says people know that cell phone use “interferes with safety while driving.”

The participants’ concern with distracted driving is reflected in their answers to another question: “Are you in favor of or opposed to a law against any type of cell phone use while driving?” Supporters of a ban outnumbered opponents by a margin of two to one. Texas of course has no state-wide ban, but lawmakers are expected to file several bills seeking to prohibit or limit cell phone use while driving when the 2011 Texas Legislative session starts in January.

The ban is just one of many initiatives the majority of  respondents  say they would back. They also favor of sobriety check-points, ignition interlock devices for DWI offenders, requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets, and red light cameras — which are still a hot button issue here in Houston.

Listen to the story over at KUHF News.

Texas got $5.6 million out of that last round of rail funding to study a possible line from Oklahoma City to South Texas. The grant isn’t much considering it was just one quarter of one percent of the total funding doled out to states. But the recent approval of the Texas Rail Plan, may help the state’s chances of getting a bigger slice of funding in the future. The plan passed unanimously, but it’s only a start.

Listen to the full KUHF story on this:

Karen Amacker, spokesperson with the Texas Department of Transportation, admits the rail plan is a more of a broad vision for the state, rather than one that identifies specific route configurations. “We’re not talking about the sort of things like drawing a line on a map to show where you can expect to see for example passenger rail service provided in the future,” she said.

Instead, the 750 page document establishes a number of over-arching priorities for both freight and passenger rail. They include reducing road congestion, improving air quality, promoting economic growth, and creating efficient transportation for the movement of both people and freight.

But as nebulous as the plan may be, Amacker says just having one means the state is closer to establishing a common set of goals for the future of its rail system. Still, if Texas wants to compete for more federal funding it will have to do even more homework. Amacker says there are a number of studies that have to be done, “in order to determine the best location — where we’re getting the best value for our dollar.”

Amacker says TxDOT will be carrying out a state-wide ridership study in the coming months. The study will examine city pairs to see which have the greatest ridership potential, such as Houston to Dallas and Dallas to Austin. But they aren’t just looking at major cities; the study will also consider lines from Lubbock to Amarillo and Temple to Houston. Completing this study and others like it will improve the state’s chances of winning money for planning.

Robert Eckels, chairman of an advocacy group that promotes high speed rail, wants the studies done so the private sector will jump on board.  ”These systems are very expensive,” he argues,  ”They’re very capital intensive.” And Eckels points out that it’s not just the construction of the rail lines that costs a lot of money, but also the upkeep and operation of the system. “I think that’s why it’s important to do the studies to get it right,” he says, “so that we can, to the greatest extent possible, have it pay for itself and attract that private investment.”

flickr: kalebdf

(Houston, TX – Wendy Siegle, KUHF NewsLab) Frankly, driving around Houston can be a nightmare. Resistance to mass transit infrastructure has taken its toll, and earlier this year Forbes ranked the petro-metro as the eighth worst place to commute. In more recent news, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) went even further in measuring extreme gridlock this week by ranking the state’s most congested roadways.

For the thousands of Houstonians who sluggishly commute along Interstate 45 each day, they don’t need TxDOT to tell them they’ve got a pretty crappy deal. But commuters may feel relieved that their chock-a-block freeway is finally getting the recognition it deserves. According to TxDOT’s list, the stretch of I-45 from Beltway 8 North to Loop 610 reigns victorious at number one. State officials say the total annual hours of delay comes to 4,507,059; that’s 484,630 hours per mile. TxDOT even worked out the annual cost of the delay – a whopping $98.03 million.

But I-45, you’re not alone. Five of the top ten most backed up roadways in Texas are located in Houston’s home county, Harris. Nine made the top 20. Pardon the hackneyed phrase, but Houston, we most definitely have a problem.

But hard data don’t lie, and it appears fewer people are actually dying in car accidents after all. The number has been steadily decreasing over the years, and in 2009, there was an 11 percent decline in crash fatalities from the year before. Eleven percent is significant, considering the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) puts the year-on-year decrease in Texas from 2007 to 2008 at a mere two percent.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), 3,089 people died on Texas highways last year; that’s 388 less than in 2008.  TxDOT’s Kelli Petras says the drop in fatalities took the agency by surprise. “We are very fortunate to have received this low number. We’ve been trying really hard to get our fatality numbers down,” she said.

Drivers across the state have been good, it seems. They’re driving more safely and heeding seatbelt laws. But it’s more than just changes in driving behavior. TxDOT says the reduction is also the result of number of safety projects aimed at making Texas highways safer for drivers. TxDOT has allocated $1.2 billion from the Texas Safety Bond Program since 2005 for projects specifically designed to shrink the number of crashes on its roadways.

Petras points out that things like widening roads, adding left turn lanes, and putting up concrete barriers helps curb the number of severe accidents . Wider lanes means drivers have more room for error; creating left turn lanes means traffic won’t pile up when a car is waiting to cross traffic and installing barriers means vehicles are less likely to veer off into oncoming traffic. “If we continue to do things to our highways that make them safer then hopefully we’ll be able to decrease the 3,000 to 2,000 next year, and eventually get to zero fatalities,” Petras said.

This reduction in fatalities isn’t unique to Texas. In its preliminary crash data for 2009, NHTSA estimates that 33,963 deaths were caused by crashes in 2009, down 8.9 percent from 2008. Still, Texas transportation authorities can celebrate that the Lone Star state’s decrease is higher than the national average.

Of course 3,000 traffic fatalities in a year is still a staggering number – that’s more than eight deaths per day. And despite the dwindling number of fatalities over the years, Texas ranks high in crash-related deaths. The state had 17% more traffic fatalities per 100 million miles traveled than California and 40% more than New York, according to 2007 NHTSA data.

The magical self-feeding road beast did its thing for fifty years, but now, as transportation writer Yonah Freemark laid out last week, it’s become a much more complicated mechanism. Dollars have been siphoned off for transit, while extra money has poured in from the general fund. Since 2005, according to a Government Accountability Office report, the vast majority of states have taken more from the HTF than their citizens have put in.

There are those that want to return to simpler times, when gas taxes were road taxes and a man knew that when he filled up his tank he was covering the cost of his highway (supposedly). Last week, the libertarian Reason Foundation put out a report called Restoring Faith in the Highway Trust Fund that complains that “the federal gas tax has become a general-purpose public works tax instead of a true highway user fee.” The HTF should be given back its virtue, they argue.

That’s not likely to happen—at least not without a political power shift. The Congress and the Obama Administration have been clear in their emphasis on “rebalancing” the federal transportation system with greater emphasis (and spending) on high-speed rail, mass transit, and other “livability” projects like bike lanes and pedestrian paths. These priorities don’t jive well with the notion of a single-mode cookie jar like the Highway Trust Fund.

So as the transportation reauthorization debate comes to a head  — sometime between this fall and the end of this decade — the conversation about how to spend infrastructure money will have to be matched by a conversation about how to harvest infrastructure money. Raising the gas tax, they say, is still politically impossible, and we’re not technologically equipped (and we might be too paranoid) for a mileage tax, which could put a transponder in your trunk.

So will we toll new capacity? Lease existing toll roads? Will we tax oil profits, as Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell has suggested? Should we tax speculation on oil prices, an idea that Congressman Peter Defazio has put forth? Or could we even harvest the property-tax increment from increased real estate values around new transit stations, as is being contemplated in Texas and elsewhere? And should fairness (or law) dictate that any of these revenue sources be spent exclusively on one category of infrastructure, if exclusively on infrastructure at all?

Just like the elusive post-oil automobile, the future of transportation funding might require some experimentation. For the near future at least, it might look less like a perpetual motion wheel and more like … a series of tubes.

We’ll explore some of these revenue ideas in more depth in future posts. Anyone with a bright idea, please share it in the comment section to the left.

Matt Dellinger, a weekly contributor to Transportation Nation, is the author of Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway. You can follow him on Twitter.