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The State of
the Nation's Intercity Rail
How Federal
Investment will Improve Travel Choice and Relieve
Traffic Congestion
A report released by STPP
argues that dedicated federal investment in the nation’s
rail infrastructure is critical to America’s mobility
and economic growth due to two critical trends: growth
in freight shipments and declining air service. Funding
intercity rail as part of TEA-21 renewal would benefit
freight and passenger mobility, potentially taking 15
million trucks per year off our highways and saving
drivers nearly $20 billion per year in time and fuel
costs by 2020.
To view the .pdf,
click here.
To view the press release,
click
here. |
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Setting the
Record Straight
Transit, Fixing Roads and Bridges Offer
Greatest Jobs Gains
A report released by
the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP),
Setting the Record Straight: Transit, Fixing Roads and
Bridges Offer Greatest Jobs Gains, found that
investments in road and bridge repair create 9 percent
more jobs per dollar than building new roads or bridges.
In addition, for public transportation, job creation
jumps to 19 percent more than the figure for new road
and bridge projects.
To view the .pdf,
click here.
To view the press release,
click
here.
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Protecting
Our National Treasures
Safeguarding
America’s Precious Natural, Cultural
and Historic Resources from Bulldozers
Laws that protect
national treasures are under attack in the current
Congress. The history of the laws, commonly known as
4(f), and the historic sites they have protected are
outlined.
To
view the .pdf, click
here.
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Reform of federal
transportation financing has led to an improvement in
the condition of the nation’s roadways, though the
nation’s street and road networks could have improved
even more had a stronger emphasis been placed on repair
and rehabilitation.
To view the .pdf, click
here.
To
view the slideshow, click
here.
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Despite
the gains that have been made in traffic safety programs
in the U.S. over the last several decades through a
crackdown on drunk driving, increased seatbelt usage,
and the more widespread use of airbags, traffic crashes
are still the leading cause of death for Americans
between the ages of 4 and 33.
The reauthorization of the nation’s surface
transportation funding bill, TEA-21 offers a significant
new opportunity to improve traffic safety and save
lives.
To
view the .pdf, click
here.
To view the slideshow, click
here.
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Nationwide,
over the ten years of the Congestion Mitigation and Air
Quality (CMAQ) program, only 81% of the apportioned
funds to the states have been obligated to CMAQ, a
program which overall receives less than 6 cents of
every TEA-21 dollar available to the states. Setting
aside California and New York (the biggest recipients),
the remaining 48 states and the District of Columbia had
an average obligation rate of only 77.7 percent.
To
view the .pdf, click
here.
To
view the slideshow, click
here.
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The bridge program provides
federal assistance to repair or replace aging bridge
infrastructure. Even though over 80,000 bridges are
still dangerously unsafe, bridge repair remains a low
priority in many states, and billions of dollars in
bridge program funding has been diverted to other uses.
To view the .pdf, click
here.
To
view the slideshow, click
here.
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Recent
reports from the Federal Highway Administration and the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials suggest that problems with transportation
project delays will not be solved by diluting
widely-supported environmental laws. Instead, the
studies indicate that project delivery can best be
“streamlined” by addressing intrinsic flaws in the
transportation planning process. The most effective
strategy to speed project delivery is one of the
fundamental principles of the very environmental
regulations under attack – involving stakeholders
early, often and substantively.
To view the .pdf file, click
here.
To view
the slideshow, click
here.
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The fifth installment in STPP's “Decoding
Transportation Policy & Practice” series explains the process that
allows states to under- and overfund federal programs. The newest
release explores the implications of the growing loophole on how states
are spending federal transportation dollars.
To view the .pdf file, click
here.
To
view the slideshow, click
here.
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National Census figures released last week show that Americans are
enduring longer commutes, and fewer of them are able to use transit,
walking, or other means to avoid the drive.
The average trip to work is up more than three minutes since 1990
to 25.5 minutes, and a higher portion of commuters are driving alone to
work. In this decoder, we analyze the new data and explore travel
behavior not covered by the Census.
To view the .pdf file, click
here. |
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The American love affair with
the car seems to be slowing down, as transit ridership outpaced the
growth in driving for the sixth year in a row. This new addition to the
“Decoding Transportation Policy & Practice” series explores the
upward trend in transit use first reported by STPP last month.
This
analysis of information from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) shows that
increased automobile use has failed to keep pace with population growth,
while transit trip-making reached its highest level in 40 years.
To view the .pdf file, click
here. |
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Highway interests often back
up their calls for more road-building by citing the statistic that
roadway capacity in the U.S. has grown by just 2 percent in the last ten
years. This new decoder explains why that figure greatly misrepresents
the capacity of our nation's surface transportation infrastructure.
To view the .pdf file, click
here.
To
view the slideshow, click
here.
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Our first issue examines the
complexities of Revenue Aligned Budget Authority, or RABA, and why this
means that federal transportation funding is projected to decline $9.1
billion next year.
To view the .pdf file, click
here.
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