Government / Politics

In a segment The Daily Show calls "Shabby Road" (complete with photoshopped image of President Obama, Rep. John Boehner, Sen. Harry Reid, and Vice President Biden as the Beatles), Jon Stewart takes down Congress' inaction on the Highway Trust Fund.

July 18, 2014 - The Daily Show

By a vote of 367-55, the House passed Rep. Dave Camp's "pension smoothing" bill to provide ten months of funding for the deficit-plagued Highway Trust Fund through May. A long-term (five- or six-year) funding plan will be attempted then.

July 16, 2014 - Politico Morning Transportation

Helsinki, capital of Finland's, is working to create a "mobility on demand" system that integrates shared and public transit in a single payment network. The idea is that with such a system in place, residents would no longer need cars.

July 16, 2014 - Guardian Cities

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad supports the Keystone XL Pipeline, as do most Republican leaders. Then again, it doesn't go through his state. Not so for the newly proposed Bakken Pipeline that cuts across the heart of Iowa. No word on his position yet.

July 16, 2014 - The Des Moines Register

A new study by economists Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti claims to have found the cost, in economic growth, incurred by the high price of housing in expensive coastal cities. Hint: the word trillion is involved.

July 16, 2014 - Vox

Bipartisan governors faulted Congress for failing to find long-term funds for the Highway Trust Fund, but how do their state records match their rhetoric aimed at raising federal gas taxes? Planetizen looks at some of the governors cited in the WSJ.

July 15, 2014 - The Wall Street Journal

Although recent studies and controversies such as Agenda 21 make anti-urban politics seem like a right wing commodity, a new book details the implications of a long history of bi-partisan anti-urbanism.

July 15, 2014 - The Boston Globe

A small town in Kansas exposed itself to ridicule not so long ago with their crack-down on a Little Free Library. Their problem goes a good bit deeper than clunky enforcement.

July 14, 2014 - PlaceShakers

An editorial calls for a comprehensive plan to address Dallas' growing need to overhaul its streetlights—80 percent of which are now older than their recommended 25-year life span.

July 14, 2014 - Dallas News

Dynamic pricing is not the only route to increasing parking availability. Better management of disabled placards at metered spaces may be an easier and more effective strategy. Implemented on July 1, Portland's policy is showing dramatic results.

July 14, 2014 - AP (via KATU.Com)

In another example of Los Angeles slowly unraveling itself from prior legislation that hinder its transit goals, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that will allow light rail construction in the San Fernando Valley.

July 13, 2014 - Los Angeles Times

The U.S. Conference of Mayors signed a voluntary agreement to reduce carbon emissions in their respective cities, as they did ten years ago, but dropped the provision that they lobby Congress to pass a cap and trade bill to reduce emissions.

July 13, 2014 - Governing

Patch bills advanced in the Senate and the House on Thursday that would keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through May 2015—good news for state DOTs that will see reduced federal reimbursements on August 1 unless a funding bill is passed soon.

July 12, 2014 - Politico Morning Transportation

Opposition is stirring in industry and within the California legislature over the inclusion of oil refineries* in the cap and trade program come Jan. 1. Warning of a new tax on gas, opponents hope to delay the requirement for transportation fuels.

July 10, 2014 - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

A $10.7 billion funding plan to continue federal transportation spending at the current rate through May 2015 has been offered by Republicans in the House Ways and Means Committee. The General Funds transfer would be offset by "pension smoothing."

July 10, 2014 - Bloomberg News

A group that coined the term, "stack and pack" to deride density and its role in reducing carbon emissions lost in court when the judge rejected their argument that only technological improvements in cars and fuels were necessary to reduce emissions.

July 9, 2014 - San Francisco Chronicle

Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture Critic Inga Saffron writes of a possible political awakening among Millennials in Philadelphia in response to the old guard's efforts to stifle progressive parking and zoning decisions.

July 8, 2014 - Philadelphia Inquirer

Is Heritage Action in a state of denial? Keith Laing, The Hill's transportation reporter, reviews a recent blog from the powerful conservative group claiming that spending will decrease only 7% at most, thus no reason to increase taxes or spending.

July 5, 2014 - The Hill

In a huge victory for fracking opponents and a major blow to the shale gas drilling industry, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest, ruled on June 30 that municipalities can use zoning laws to enact fracking bans or moratoria.

July 4, 2014 - USA Today

U.S. Treasury Secretary Anthony Foxx warned State DOT officials in a July 1 letter that due to declining funds in the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund, he will implement a new reimbursement policy that may cause some states to halt projects.

July 3, 2014 - The Huffington Post