BAF IN THE NEWS
TPM: Ray LaHood: Obama Was Unable To Execute Bipartisan Approach
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ray-lahood-obama-not-bipartisan
Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman and transportation secretary under President Obama, does not believe the president followed through on his promise to push for bipartisanship.
The New York Times: Promised Bipartisanship, Obama Adviser Found Disappointment
WASHINGTON — When President Obama first won the White House, he recruited Ray LaHood, a Republican congressman, to join his cabinet. The appointment, Mr. Obama said, “reflects that bipartisan spirit” that would distinguish his presidency.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The Guardian: Viva la revolución: Mexico City cyclists fight for the right to ride in safety
Stand on Mexico City’s grand Paseo de la Reforma boulevard on a Sunday morning and you’ll hear gears whirring, bells ringing and the chatter of voices as 50,000 people cycle, scoot and skate along 35 miles of closed roads. Stop and listen on any other day of the week and all you’ll hear is the roar of 10 lanes of traffic.
NATIONAL NEWS
The Hill: Advocates push for more money in highway talks
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/259823-advocates-push-for-more-money-in-highway-talks
Transportation advocates are pushing lawmakers to boost the federal government's annual spending for infrastructure projects in upcoming House and Senate negotiations on a new highway bill, even if it results in a shorter road funding package.
City Observatory: A “helicopter drop” for the asphalt socialists
http://cityobservatory.org/a-helicopter-drop-for-the-asphalt-socialists/
The House of Representatives has hit on a clever new strategy for funding the bankrupt Highway Trust Fund: raid the Federal Reserve. Their plan calls for transferring nearly $60 billion from the profits earned on the Federal Reserve’s operations—basically fees paid by member banks—to bail out the Highway Trust Fund.
STATE NEWS
WOSU: Police Cracking Down On Jaywalkers, Drivers Not Yielding To Pedestrians
http://radio.wosu.org/post/police-cracking-down-jaywalkers-drivers-not-yielding-pedestrians#stream/0
Columbus Police will be on High Street during the next couple of weeks stopping jaywalkers and cracking down on drivers who don't stop for people crossing the street. We talked with one of Columbus Police's traffic accident investigators.
The Atlantic’s City Lab: California's DOT Admits That More Roads Mean More Traffic
Whenever a road project gets announced, the first thing officials talk about is how it’s going to reduce traffic. Just last month, for instance, the Connecticut DOT reported that it would be widening Interstates 95 and 84, a project that would result in major economic benefits from “easing congestion”.
ABC: Parking shortage in downtown Tampa could put a damper on future growth
TAMPA - In the pursuit of the rare and endangered downtown parking spot, sometimes you're the hunter, sometimes the meter enforcement officer hunts you.
The Atlantic’s City Lab: The 28 Transportation Fees Paid by Seattle Residents
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/11/the-28-transportation-fees-paid-by-seattle-residents/415248/
Everyone’s heard of the gas tax—and with Congress debating how to pay for a big highway bill, you’ll be hearing a lot more in the coming weeks—but it’s far from the only transportation fee that Americans pay on a regular basis. Others, such as local sales taxes and vehicle fees, tend to pile up for people living in a large metro area. Even if you cared to take a strict accounting of them all, you’d be hard-pressed to track down every last one.
POLTICO Morning Transportation
By Jennifer Scholtes | 11/12/2015 05:44 AM EDT
With help from Lauren Gardner
CHRIS MURPHY HOSTS COMMUTER THERAPY SESSION: Sen. Chris Murphy has invited his Nutmeg State constituents out to Hartford this morning to rant about their qualms with Connecticut's road and rail lines as part of his "Fed Up" campaign to cull transportation complaints. "The idea here is for commuters throughout Connecticut to share the nightmare of your commute - the challenges you face getting to and from work or school," he said in announcing the initiative last month. "I want to know what it means to you to have to spend another 15 minutes, half an hour, on the road - what it would mean to you to have that time back in your day, either at work or at home. We can do better." Murphy has already gathered a few hundred responses and sent them off to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. During today's commuter gripe-a-thon, the senator will be joined by his state's chief of public transportation and local business leaders.
IT'S THURSDAY: Good morning and thanks for tuning into POLITICO's Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
Reach out: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
"We moved as fast as we could, through the heat of the desert and the cruelty of that Buick's seat, just to keep on." (H/t Maggie Chan)
U.N. NATIONS CONSIDER PLANE-TRACKER AGREEMENT: Spurred by the still-mysterious disappearance last year of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, international leaders are working to make it easier to keep track of aircraft over oceans and other remote areas by broadening the use of radio spectrum for global flight tracking. Pro Technology's Nancy Scola explains that during a meeting this week of U.N. member nations, "representatives adopted a new allocation of spectrum that would allow for satellites - and not just terrestrial stations or other aircraft - to pick up airline data transmissions from airliners in remote areas."
McCAUL SEES INSIDER THREAT AS BIGGEST AVIATION VULNERABILITY: House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul - who's always up on the latest U.S. intelligence - says it still seems like the Russian airliner that crashed last week was taken down by a bomb planted by ISIL, even though some have questioned that theory since the terrorist organization didn't mention the attack during a new video that surfaced this week. "I, again, have a high degree of confidence this was an ISIS attack, getting a bomb on an airplane," he told CNN . The big question now, the chairman says, is how the explosive device made it onto the flight. "If this was in fact an insider threat - we can have the best vetting procedures from the screening technology standpoint, but if somebody can be compromised and corrupted from within or radicalized to put a piece of luggage in an aircraft ... that's a very hard thing to stop," McCaul said. "And that is the biggest vulnerability in the aviation sector that I see with respect to aircraft coming into the United States."
'New chapter in terrorism': McCaul gives TSA and DHS officials credit for trying to beef up vetting of airline and airport workers. But he also says the department needs to step up that screening even further. "I do believe that the secretary is cognizant of this," he said, "that the TSA administrator knows about this insider threat being probably one of the greatest vulnerabilities we have." It's not a stretch, he added, to imagine a scenario in which ISIL would try to put a bomb on a U.S.-bound flight. "Now that ISIS has demonstrated - if this is in fact the case - that they have this capability, that's a whole new chapter in terrorism," the chairman said. "There are thousands of airport workers and those who have access to the airplane."
'Secrecy and squabbling': The Wall Street Journal reports that "the Egyptian-led probe into what caused the crash of a Russian passenger plane is bogged down in secrecy and squabbling, causing concern among safety experts that key evidence is being compromised."
OUTSIDE STAKEHOLDERS THROW DOWN IN BUS VS. TRANSIT FIGHT: It's not just lawmakers who are speaking out in the battle over diverting money for mass transit in high-density areas to instead fund bus grants. Outsiders on both sides are now getting in on the dispute over the House-passed amendment that has become a big point of contention in the run-up to conference negotiations over a final multiyear highway and transit funding bill.
The advocates: Anja Graves, president of CHG Associates (a transportation and infrastructure lobbying group), says her clients are actually quite pleased with Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler's amendment to boost funding for buses and bus facilities by diverting money from the High Density States program. "Under MAP-21, funding for buses was cut by 57 percent," said Graves, who represents Utah Transit Authority, Reno Transportation Commission and several cities. "These funds currently go to only seven states. ... This change not only helps with restoring bus and bus facilities funding ... but also would help all 50 states instead of just a select few."
The opposition: On the other side of the fight, folks at the American Public Transportation Association say the hurt to the seven affected states would amount to about $1.6 billion over six years. "While the sponsors of this amendment are seeking to increase funding for bus and bus facilities' discretionary capital grants, they do it in a way that is inconsistent with APTA's authorization recommendations, and by using funds from another public transit program," Rob Healy, the group's vice president of government affairs, said in a written statement. "While APTA strongly supports increasing bus capital investment, we support increased bus investment through growth of the federal transit program."
BLUMENTHAL - ALWAYS ON OFFENSE: Never mind the federal holiday or the fact that the Senate is now out of session - Sen. Richard Blumenthal has got more to say about positive train control funding. Even though the senator already succeeded in getting a motion adopted on the floor this week that instructs transportation bill conferees to insist on inclusion of grant money to implement PTC, he fired off another angry statement, bashing the lower chamber's decision to go without that extra rail safety language. "It is unacceptable that any transportation measure will be devoid of provisions to prevent additional deaths," he said Wednesday. "It is outrageous that the House version of this critical legislation fails to provide railroads with necessary funds to install life-saving technology."
GERMANY BROADENS DIESEL EMISSIONS PROBE BEYOND VW: Germany's transportation department is now looking at other automakers besides Volkswagen in its investigation of diesel-engine vehicles that could be rigged to trick emissions tests. POLITICO's Brussels-based energy reporter Kalina Oroschakoff writes that the country is examining more than 50 models from companies like BMW, Mercedes, Opel, Ford, Fiat, Nissan, Peugeot and Renault.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
- Ex-Christie ally says Bridgegate evidence withheld, requests trial venue change. POLITICO Pro.
- Notorious subway joy-rider steals Greyhound bus. The Associated Press.
- Takata secures airline seatbelt deal as airbag woes continue. The Wall Street Journal.
- A city choking on cars hopes commuters will return to two wheels. The New York Times.
- Are electric bikes the wheels of the future or just the new Segways? The Washington Post.
- FAA says three planes hit by laser near Dallas. The Associated Press.
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 9 days. DOT appropriations run out in 32 days. FAA reauthorization expires in 141 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 361 days.
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THE DAY AHEAD:
All day - The Eno Center for Transportation holds a policy summit focusing on how technology changes the rules of the road. The event will be webcast. Renaissance Washington, 1143 New Hampshire Ave. NW.
All day - The National Association of Career Travel Agents wraps up its annual conference. Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa Keauhou Bay, 78-128 Ehukai St., Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
All day - Embry-Riddle hosts a conference on space traffic management, with keynote speeches by Rep. Jim Bridenstine, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Environment, as well as Kenneth Hodgkins, director of the State Department's Office of Space and Advanced Technology. The event will be webcast. 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, Fla.
8:30 a.m. - Sen. Chris Murphy joins Connecticut DOT Bureau Chief of Public Transportation Richard Andreski and local business leaders to talk to commuters about the state's roads and rail lines. The Society Room of Hartford, 31 Pratt St. #1, Hartford, Conn.
8:30 a.m. - Story Partners and Hogan Lovells host a panel on how drone technology outpaces policymaking. City Club of Washington, 555 13th St.
9 a.m. - The State Department holds a meeting to prepare for the upcoming council sessions of the International Maritime Organization. Coast Guard Headquarters, 2703 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, Room 5L18-01.
9 a.m. - The FAA holds a meeting of the RTCA Tactical Operations Committee. 1150 18th St. NW, Suite 910.
9 a.m. - PHMSA holds a meeting to discuss proposals in preparation for the upcoming session in Geneva of the U.N. subcommittee on transporting dangerous goods. 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, West Building.
Noon - The Coast Guard holds a meeting of the National Boating Safety Advisory Council. Ballroom of the Holiday Inn Arlington, 4610 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, Va.
3:15 p.m. - Rep. Ted Yoho visits the Balfour Beatty Rail office and warehouse facility for a tour and a discussion about public policy issues affecting the rail industry. 1845 Town Center Blvd., Suite 200, Fleming Island, Fla.
Did we miss an event? Let MT know at transpocalendar@politicopro.com.