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Latest freight projections underline need for investment

The latest freight projections are in from our Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and they show that the number of freight tons moving on America’s transportation network is likely to grow by 40 percent in the next 3 decades while the value of freight will almost double, increasing by 92 percent.  This affirms the projections in our Beyond Traffic study and reinforces the need to boost our freight capacity and unleash the full power of our nation's economy.

Freight projection graph

Proposed budget helps move U.S. beyond traffic with Capital Investment Grants

One of America’s biggest transportation challenges over the next 30 years will be our growing population. With 70 Million more people being added by 2045, we’ll have more people moving between home and work, and more freight sharing our roads.

One of the best tools we have for combatting the resulting traffic congestion is the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program. Through its New Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity grants, the CIG program helps build subways, light rail, streetcars, and Bus Rapid Transit lines that move more people more efficiently while helping preserve clean air and improve quality of life. Just as importantly, those projects build real ladders of opportunity in communities across the country – bringing jobs, education, healthcare, and shopping within reach.

This year in President Obama’s proposed FY 2017 budget, we’re recommending 31 projects in 18 states to share in $3.5 billion that will help expand mobility, create jobs, and spur economic development...

BRT in Cleveland

More important than one groundhog's shadow? DOT's Smart City Challenge

If you're Punxsutawney Phil, whether you see your shadow today or not, you're going to be missing out. Because the sight to see in the first week of February 2016 --at least around DOT-- is not your shadow; it's the applications being submitted by mid-sized cities for our Smart City Challenge.

The Smart City Challenge applications could determine something far more important than the duration of this single winter, which is --let's face it-- already halfway over. They could show us how we can manage the transportation challenges we'll be facing in the next 30 years.

But first, they have to make their way to DOT...by February 4...

One approach to Smart Cities

Beyond Traffic forums seek to keep U.S. Megaregions moving

Today, we're taking our Beyond Traffic national conversation on the road.

All it takes is one traffic jam or one train delay.

When it works, most of us don't think about our transportation system. The kids get to school; you get to work or the store; you order something online, and it arrives within 2 days --sometimes even faster.

But when it doesn't work, when the stress points in our transportation networks are revealed --a bridge crumbles, a rail tunnel fails-- and those transportation stress points become stress points in our own lives, we suddenly realize how important it is to have safe, reliable options for getting from one place to another...

Secretary Foxx Sends Six-Year Transportation Bill to Congress

WASHINGTON – Over the past year, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has visited more than 100 communities and heard one common story – shared by all – about crumbling infrastructure and dwindling resources to fix it with. Today, Secretary Foxx sent to Congress his solution to this problem: a long-term transportation bill that provides funding growth and certainty so that state and local governments can get back in the business of building things again.

CTfastrak Opens with a Design to Speed Up Connecticut

Today, I was pleased to join federal, state, and local officials to celebrate the opening of a state-of-the-art transit system that provides Central Connecticut residents with rapid transport to jobs, schools, and community services. CTfastrak will carry passengers almost 10 miles, between the state’s capitol and surrounding suburbs, opening new connections and ladders of opportunity for both the car-less and those who wish to leave their cars behind. For some, CTfastrak will provide their first convenient access to a full-scale grocery store.

CTfastrak buses run in an exclusive lane, offering fast trips primarily because they won’t compete with cars. The system also features off-site fare collection, level boarding platforms, and even wifi.  The electric hybrid buses, which are 90 percent cleaner than standard buses, will work a lot like light rail, but on rubber tires. Outside the window, hikers, bikers, and joggers will enjoy a new multi-use trail.

I was thrilled to join Governor Dannel Malloy, U.S. Representatives John Larson and Elizabeth Esty, and other State and local officials, for the inaugural ride from Hartford to New Britain. Federal transportation sources, including FTA, contributed 80 percent toward the project’s $567 million price tag.

Mayors Urge Congress to Go Big on Transportation

It is not news to Fast Lane readers that – come May 31st – federal funding for transportation will expire, right at the start of construction season.

This crisis, our readers know, is not new, either. It’s six years – and 32-short term funding measures – in the making.

On top of that, for more than a decade now, federal transportation funding has been stuck at a level below what is needed to merely keep the transportation infrastructure we have in good shape.

Well, on Monday, I met with the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ (USCM) Cities of Opportunity Task Force: two dozen mayors who, like us, want to see real change happen in transportation.


From left: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Transportation Deputy Secretary Victor Mendez, and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh at a Cities of Opportunity Task Force meeting in Boston. Courtesy of U.S. Conference of Mayors/@usmayors.

Led by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the task force was asked by USCM President Kevin Johnson to find ways to reduce income inequality in America’s cities and metros. To do this, Johnson has said, requires building a “community and economy that works for everyone.” And to do that, we know, requires cities to invest in transportation systems that leave no one behind. 

In Our Nation’s Work Zones, Expect the Unexpected and Drive Carefully

Spring means warmer weather, orange cones and more highway workers on America’s roads. As construction season approaches, drivers nationwide should “Expect the Unexpected” – this year’s theme for National Work Zone Awareness Week. The victims of work zone crashes are typically drivers and their passengers, not highway workers, but all need to be kept safe during the construction and repair-heavy summer months.

I had the opportunity to speak to families affected by work zone crashes today at the National Work Zone Awareness Week kickoff in Arlington, Va. Though the number of work zone fatalities is decreasing, it was heart wrenching to acknowledge that, each year, we are still losing loved ones in work zone crashes.

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