Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Government Organizations

Will U.S. DOT Get Serious About Climate Change? Here’s Cause for Optimism.

By Angie Schmitt | | 2 Comments
Last fall, national environmental advocates sat down with officials from U.S. DOT to talk about how federal transportation policy can address climate change. There is wild variation between state transportation departments when it comes to green transportation policy. Some of the more sophisticated agencies, like California’s and Oregon’s, are starting to factor greenhouse gas emissions into their transportation plans. Most […]

House Panel Calls on U.S. DOT to Measure Access to Economic Opportunity

By Angie Schmitt | | 1 Comment
A bill working its way through Congress may prompt federal officials to get a better handle on how transportation projects help or hinder access to jobs, education, and health care. The legislation, which passed out of a House Committee this week, calls for U.S. DOT to measure “the degree to which the transportation system, including public transportation, provides multimodal […]

It Just Got Easier for Cities to Design Walkable, Bikeable Streets

By Angie Schmitt | | 6 Comments
We probably haven’t seen the last of engineers who insist on designing local streets like surface highways. But at least now they can’t claim their hands are tied by federal regulations. Last week, the Federal Highway Administration struck 11 of the 13 design rules for “national highways” — a 230,000-mile network of roads that includes many urban streets. The rule change eliminates […]

U.S. DOT Wants to Show America How to Heal Divides Left By Urban Highways

By Angie Schmitt | | 35 Comments
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx opened up earlier this spring in a refreshingly personal speech about how highway construction in American cities isolated many neighborhoods — especially black neighborhoods — and cut people off from economic opportunity. Now U.S. DOT is following up with an effort to demonstrate how those wrongs can be righted. Yesterday the agency announced the Every Place […]

After Big Push From Mayors, TIGER in Line For Slight Funding Boost

By Angie Schmitt | | 2 Comments
There’s good news out of the Senate committee responsible for doling out transportation funds. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee okayed a small increase in TIGER funding, according to Stephen Lee Davis at Transportation for America. TIGER is the program that allows local governments to compete directly for transportation funds, circumventing state DOTs, and helps get a […]
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