Elana Schor
Recent Posts
What’s Wrong With America’s Ambivalence About Crumbling Infrastructure?
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In today’s New York Times, Bob Herbert celebrates the cause of infrastructure maintenance — a less exciting proposition for politicians than cutting the ribbon at new transportation projects, but in many ways more vital to economic growth. A crumbling bridge support in Colorado. (Photo: Pure Thinking) After talking to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), an […]
White House: Transit Inflation Outstripping Private Transportation
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The White House’s annual economic report, in addition to its endorsement of inter-city rail and transit spending, also sheds more light on transit inflation, which is often reported anecdotally in the many cities struggling with fare hikes but rarely put in statistical terms by economists. (Photo: UPI) In the appendices of its report, the president’s […]
White House Economic Report Touts TIGER, High-Speed Rail, Transit
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The White House Council of Economic Advisers’ first annual report under President Obama made headlines today for its gloomy job-creation outlook, but tucked inside its 462 pages is a tangible reflection of a changed outlook on transportation policy under the new administration. Top White House economic adviser Christina Romer, at right, holds up yesterday’s report. […]
Bipartisan Senate Jobs Bill Has Highway Trust Fund Rescue But No TIGER
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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and his panel’s senior Republican, Chuck Grassley (IA), today offered a job-creation proposal designed to garner enough GOP votes to overcome an anticipated filibuster. Senate Finance Committee chief Max Baucus (D-MT), at left, with GOP ally Chuck Grassley (IA) at right. (Photo: Baucus Press) The measure’s transportation provisions […]
D.C., VA, MD to Apply for Federal Aid as Snow Eats Into Transport Budgets
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The scene in D.C. this week. (Photo: thisisbossi via Flickr) Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are set to apply for federal disaster aid to offset the costs of cleanup from this month’s record-breaking mid-Atlantic blizzards, according to the Washington Post reports today. But the so-called Snowpocalypse could dent more than just worker productivity — already […]
AASHTO Stimulus Report Omits Jobs Data Comparing Transit With Roads
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The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the trade group representing state DOTs in Washington, yesterday unveiled a website and report billed as a one-year "progress report" on the White House’s $34.3 billion in formula-based transportation stimulus spending. (Photo: WBEZ) AASHTO’s report, citing data furnished to Congress, noted that 77 percent of […]
The Gas Tax Versus a VMT Tax: Is ‘All of the Above’ an Option?
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(Chart: Oregon DOT) The prospect of an eventual move away from the gas tax and towards a fee on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) has sparked consternation from some well-known bloggers this week, with Matt Yglesias asserting that "a VMT [tax] has no advantages whatsoever over higher gasoline taxes" and Andrew Samwick suggesting that declining fuel […]
First Lady Launches Childhood Obesity Push With Nod to Biking & Walking
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First Lady Michelle Obama took to the mikes this afternoon to kick off a national campaign to combat childhood obesity, emphasizing new initiatives to promote biking and walking alongside a strong focus on healthier food options in schools. The first lady visited "Sesame Street" last fall as part of her push to fight childhood obesity. […]
New Report Maps a High-Speed Rail Link For Every Major U.S. City
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(Image: U.S. PIRG) Now that the Obama administration has awarded $8 billion in high-speed rail grants to more than two dozen states, with $2.5 billion more coming soon, why not keep thinking big when it comes to bullet-train expansion? That’s the ethos of a new report released today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group […]
Report: White House Budget Office Helped Weaken EPA Pollution Rule
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Pensacola, Florida. Springfield, Missouri. Fort Wayne, Indiana. All three of those metropolitan areas have populations between 350,000 and 500,000, and all three would have been required to install nitrogen dioxide monitoring stations near major roadways under a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule cracking down on the pollutant. Cass Sunstein, chief of the White House […]
EPA and HUD Make Big Investments in Sustainable Development
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are making significant progress on their joint effort, with the U.S. DOT, to connect cleaner transportation options with affordable housing and denser urban development. A future commuter rail station along Boston’s Fairmount Line, one of five areas selected for EPA sustainable […]
A Vow to ‘Bring Republicans to the Table’ for a New Transport Bill
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Despite Senate Democratic efforts to move quickly on a new jobs bill that includes infrastructure investment and takes steps towards solving the nation’s transportation financing dilemma, Congress has just two more weeks of work until time runs out on the latest short-term extension of the five-year-old law governing federal transport policy. "We will bring Republicans […]