Recent Streetsblog USA posts about State DOTs

Oregon Takes the Next Step in Moving Beyond the Gas Tax

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 3, 2012 | 15 Comments

Rep. Earl Blumenauer likes to say that Oregon was the first state to adopt a gas tax and it will be the first state to get rid of it. In 2006-2007, the state conducted a pilot study of alternative revenue collection methods, with an eye toward moving to a better system. This fall, they’ll do […]

How State DOTs Got Congress to Grant Their Wish List

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 24, 2012 | 1 Comment

Bike and pedestrian funding got slashed. Federal assistance for transit operations was rejected. Even the performance measures – arguably the high point of the recently passed federal transportation bill – are too weak to be very meaningful. For Americans who want federal policy to support safe streets, sustainable transportation, and livable neighborhoods, there were few […]

Smart Growth America: States May Pave Over Their Own Good Intentions

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 23, 2012 | No Comments

Last week, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign revealed how states prioritize spending: 20 percent for transit, 2 percent for bike/ped, 38.5 percent for maintenance, and about 22.5 percent for highway expansion. Looking just at those last two numbers, that breaks down to 71 percent more spending on repair than sprawl-inducing new lanes. But Smart Growth America cautions […]

How Does Your State Stack Up on Prioritizing Transit and Street Safety?

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 17, 2012 | 4 Comments

How’s your state doing on bike and pedestrian investment? Transit? Bridge repair? Congress just reauthorized the national law that funnels tens of billions of dollars each year to state departments of transportation, but tracking how these agencies spend all their federal money is notoriously difficult. A lack of uniformity in the way states report spending has […]

The Awful Truth About the Transpo Bill’s Bike/Ped Loophole

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 12, 2012 | 4 Comments

In the immediate, panicked moments after the MAP-21 conference report was released, I missed some of the nuances of just how bad a deal this bill is for bike policy. Three things stand out: States can use their Transportation Alternatives (TA) money on anything they want. Bike/ped programs are facing anywhere from a 33 percent […]

MassDOT Mistake: How Not to Rebuild Main Street

By John Massengale | Jul 10, 2012 | 9 Comments

This op-ed was written for the Berkshire Record, where it is being published in two parts, last week and this week. John Massengale is co-author of Street Design, The Art & Practice of Making Complete Streets (Wiley & Sons, 2013) and New York 1900, Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism, 1890-1915 (Rizzoli, 1983). He is an architect and urbanist in New […]

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