Recent Streetsblog USA posts about State DOTs

Why Are State DOTs So Afraid of Accountability?

By Deron Lovaas | Sep 13, 2013 | 7 Comments

Deron Lovaas is the federal transportation policy director for NRDC. A version of this article appeared on his blog this morning. In this era of constrained resources, the country must move toward performance-based management and accountability for results in all sectors — including transportation. It’s a Culture of Consequences, in the words of the RAND […]

Birmingham to Widen Downtown Highway While Other Cities Tear ‘Em Down

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 18, 2013 | 5 Comments

Downtown freeways are unmitigated disasters for cities. They ruin the development potential of central city neighborhoods and create dead zones that divide downtown areas. That’s why Milwaukee, San Francisco, New Orleans, Niagara Falls, Oklahoma City, New Haven and Syracuse have either torn them down or are seriously considering it. But Birmingham, Alabama, is on track to […]

The State of State Transit Funding

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 20, 2013 | 1 Comment

States increased their transit spending more than 5 percent between 2007 and 2011, reaching $13.9 billion annually, according to a recent report from the Association of American State Highway and Transportation Officials. But that increase was concentrated in just a handful of states. Almost all of the elevated transit spending — 92 percent — is attributable to five […]

Cleveland Revisits 1960s With Urban Renewal-Style “Opportunity Corridor”

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 5, 2013 | 33 Comments

Cleveland’s business leaders want you to know that “The Opportunity Corridor” — a new road they want to jam through the city’s southeast side — definitely isn’t a highway. From the beginning, project proponents have been careful to refer to this $350 million, three-mile traffic-mover as a “boulevard.” And they also want you to faithfully […]

Wisconsin Using Inflated Traffic Projections to Justify Highway Projects

By Angie Schmitt | May 28, 2013 | 12 Comments

In the 1990s, Wisconsin proposed a bypass for the town of Burlington (population 10,000). The $118 million project was sold as a way to reduce traffic in the center of the city, which includes the junction of four state highways. The 11-mile highway opened in 2010. But traffic never lived up to the projections WisDOT […]

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