Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Government Organizations

There’s a Nod to Complete Streets in the House Transportation Bill

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 27, 2015 | No Comments

Let’s be clear: The House transportation bill would be a big step backward for federal transportation policy. But it does include some ideas worth cultivating, including a nod to the idea that road projects should take walking, biking, transit, and access for people with disabilities into account. The problem is that the provision has no muscle […]

House Transpo Bill Spells Trouble for Transit Projects Across America

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 23, 2015 | 6 Comments

A provision in the House GOP’s new transportation bill threatens to upend how transit agencies fund major capital projects, delaying or killing efforts to expand and maintain rail and bus networks. The Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act (STRR), released Tuesday and marked up in committee yesterday, would change funding rules for the three federal programs […]

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 […]

North Carolina Lawmakers Try to Sabotage Durham-Orange Light Rail

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 17, 2015 | 14 Comments

State lawmakers in North Carolina launched a sneak attack this week on plans for light rail between Durham and Orange County — and nobody’s sure exactly who’s behind it or why they did it. Leaders in Durham and Orange are counting on the state to deliver about 10 percent of the funding for the $1.5 billion, […]

House Dems: We Won’t Support a Transpo Bill That Cuts Bike/Ped Funding

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 15, 2015 | 1 Comment

House Democrats won’t stand for any cuts to federal funding for walking and biking infrastructure. That was the gist of a letter signed by every Democratic member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week. Groups aligned with the Koch brothers and their organization Americans for Prosperity have pushed to eliminate all federal funds for walking, biking, and […]

How America’s Staggering Traffic Death Rate Became Matter-of-Fact

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 14, 2015 | 41 Comments

How did more than 30,000 annual motor vehicle deaths become something that most Americans accept as normal? A new paper by Boston University professor Itai Vardi tries to answer that question. Vardi reviewed American attitudes toward the problem of traffic deaths, starting in the early era of automobile growth, when there was a great deal of “moral panic” about […]

Show More Stories