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...problem: an aging, underfunded transit system struggling to safely ferry ever larger numbers of riders. "This does draw attention to the fact that we need to invest a lot more in our transit system," says Deron Lovass, the federal transportation director for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "Our highway system is world class, but we've neglected public transit along the same way." (See pictures of Washington...
Even as national public-transit ridership hits levels not seen since the 1950s - the decade when the new interstate-highway system began siphoning travelers off trains - federal funding has not risen in step, leaving the biggest systems struggling to pay for the very capital projects that could improve performance and safety. Meanwhile, the major U.S. cities that are most dependent on public transit - such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington - receive a progressively smaller percentage of the federal funding that is available. The combination of increased ridership - triggered at least in part by higher gas prices, which...
Traditionally there has been an imbalance at the heart of transportation funding: highways get billions, and public transit gets the scraps. But that may change. This week Minnesota Representative Jim Oberstar - the Democrat who runs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee - unveiled his $500 billion, six-year draft bill to overhaul the nation's transportation system. Though the bill is still nebulous, analysts say it's a considerably more transit-friendly bill than Congress has produced in the past, pouring $100 billion into public transit. New transportation bills are authorized only once every six years, and there's a real...
...Peru Riots in the Amazon Dozens were killed in Peru's Bagua province as police clashed with indigenous groups incensed by energy developments on their ancestral land. After months of protests, the riots erupted when policemen attempted to clear thousands of demonstrators from a highway. Peru's Congress has moved to suspend further developments...
...conservatives tend to disparage them (because the French use them). But while the U.S. probably can't re-create the charming ride from Paris to Lyon, it also can't keep treating rail like a loathsome relic. Since World War II, the U.S. has poured almost $2 trillion into highway and aviation systems, while passenger rail - like the wheezing federal Amtrak line - has received less than 3% of Washington's transportation dollars. Obama argues that the U.S. needs, economically and environmentally, a rail revival in order to relieve stressed auto and air infrastructure. That means emulating the long-established high...