Recent Streetsblog USA posts about State DOTs

In Charleston, an Affordable, Effective Alternative to Highway Expansion

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 9, 2011 | 2 Comments

Roads like Charleston’s Savannah Highway are a common sight across America: a suburban arterial marked by high-speeds, dangerous pedestrian crossings and depressing aesthetics. A five-lane strip of asphalt surrounded by used car dealerships and motels, it’s heavy on parking and curb cuts, light on crosswalks and trees. Like many streets of this type, Savannah Highway […]

Charleston Highway Plan, Back From the Dead, May Finally Meet Its Maker

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 3, 2011 | 6 Comments

In the 1970s, engineers drew a horseshoe around Charleston, South Carolina — the planned route for Interstate 526, also known as the Mark Clark Expressway. The highway was to extend from Mt. Pleasant in the north to James Island in the south. It was to be a traditional highway bypass, the kind that were being […]

GAO: Transportation Spending an Investment With Uncertain Returns

By Ya-Ting Liu | Jan 25, 2011 | No Comments

Cross-posted from Mobilizing the Region, the official blog of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. A December study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that, well, there’s not much government accountability when it comes to how states spend federal transportation funds. Despite the existence of a federally mandated transportation planning process, the federal government offers no clear goals […]

State DOTs Make Deeper Bike-Ped Budget Cuts Than Expected

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 1, 2010 | 4 Comments

We reported recently that the federal government was demanding $2.2 billion back from state DOTs in rescissions — money that was already allocated to states that they were then asked to give back. Bike and pedestrian advocates were worried that states would disproportionately target active transportation projects for cuts, instead of carving into car-centric programs. They were […]

Street Safety Projects Threatened as States Give Transpo $ Back to Feds

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 18, 2010 | 7 Comments

It’s payback time again for state DOTs. The fine print on the jobs bill Congress just passed includes a $2.2 billion rescission from state transportation funding, and projects to make biking and walking safer are especially at risk of losing out. State DOTs have to return funding to the feds, and programs to improve biking […]