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Gridlock: Why Panic is Overrated When Talking Transpo

Yesterday was the great debate and committee markup session for the House Transportation Bill. As expected, it was all about the posturing about priorities.

Those priorities, per the chief supporters, were highways. A provision revealed in markup yesterday showed that dedicated funding for transit would also disappear.

An amendment to restore enhancements and Safe Routes to Schools failed [...]

Tuesday Transpo Bill Update!

Yeah, up the defcon level and shake your panic maker. Today’s the day the proposed Transpo Bill gets published.

Turns out it may be even worse than previously rumored.

A few points:

Transportation Enhancements become optional.
Safe Routes to Schools gets axed.
Eliminated bike/ped coordinators in state DOTs — while presumably, they could still be funded at the state level,it wouldn’t [...]

A New Transportation Bill? Panic, Round 8,377,201

Next Thursday, February 2, the House Transportation Committee is expected to vote on the “American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act.” Note the propaganda-friendly naming. This is, in fact, intended to be the long-awaited multi-year transportation bill.

As usual, we are being asked to PANIC about it and contact appropriate representatives. The League is asking us to contact [...]

A Bike Route on Snelling Avenue?

Shouts out to @reubencollins on ze Twitter for tweeting this article about people looking to have the resurfacing project on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul include bike lanes.

This is a reasonably good article, with some gaps. The main gap is really surrounding the concept of Complete Streets, and I’m not strictly certain that’s on the author [...]

Senate Committee to Consider ‘Complete Streets’ Language Wednesday

This Wednesday, December 13, 2011, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will consider an amendment offered by Alaska Senator Mark Begichto provide safe and adequate accommodations for all users in all federally-funded street projects.  The Amendment is S. 1950, “safety for motorized and nonmotorized users.”

You may recognize this language as a phrasing much like [...]

MinnesotaGO Releases Draft Vision; Schedules Hearing

MnDOT, via the MinnesotaGO project, has been working on a draft vision for transportation over the next 50 years in Minnesota. Following the state-wide MinnesotaGO public meetings for the project, they have now released the draft statement for the vision.

Draft Vision – MinnesotaGO (PDF)

Now that the vision has been drafted, MnDOT has invited participants in the [...]