Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Federal Highway Administration

Why Federal Efforts to Link Transportation to Climate Change Matter

By Tony Dutzik | Apr 26, 2016 | 8 Comments

Cross posted from the Frontier Group. Twenty-five years ago this spring, I was a fresh-faced undergrad at Penn State enrolled in a course on existential threats to civilization, including climate change. We knew then (and yes, with a reasonable degree of certainty we did know) that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were […]

U.S. DOT Blows Chance to Reform the City-Killing, Planet-Broiling Status Quo

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 19, 2016 | 19 Comments

The Obama administration purportedly wants to use the lever of transportation policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx recently said he’d like to reverse the damage highways caused in urban neighborhoods, but you’d never know that by looking at U.S. DOT’s latest policy prescription. U.S. DOT has drafted new rules requiring state DOTs to track their […]

The Feds Want to Reform the Cult of “Level of Service”

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 28, 2016 | 22 Comments

“What you measure is what you get,” the saying goes. That’s certainly true for transportation policy. And for a very long time one metric has reigned supreme on American streets: “Level of Service,” a system that assigns letter grades based on motorist delay. Roughly speaking, a street with free-flowing traffic gets an A while one where […]

Tell FHWA You Want Safer Designs for City Streets

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 17, 2015 | No Comments

Earlier this fall, the Federal Highway Administration proposed a major policy change: Instead of requiring roads that receive federal funding to be designed like highways, the agency would change its standards to allow greater flexibility. The implications for urban streets were huge — with less red tape, cities would have a much easier time implementing safer designs for walking […]

Feds Propose Major Rule Changes to Eliminate Barriers to Safer Streets

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 8, 2015 | 22 Comments

Applying highway design standards to city streets has been a disaster for urban neighborhoods. The same things that make highways safer for driving at 65 mph — wide lanes, “clear zones” running alongside the road that have no trees or other “obstacles” — make surface streets dangerous and dreadful for walking, killing street life. The one-size-fits-all approach to […]

Feds to Traffic Engineers: Use Our Money to Build Protected Bike Lanes

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 24, 2015 | 30 Comments

The Federal Highway Administration wants to clear the air: Yes, state and local transportation agencies should use federal money to construct high-quality biking and walking infrastructure. State and local DOTs deploy an array of excuses to avoid building designs like protected bike lanes. “It’s not in the manual” is a favorite. So is “the feds won’t fund that.” Whether […]

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