NATIONAL NEWS
Switchboard: Job creation through smart land use & transportation
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/job_creation_through_smart_l...
The nation’s workforce has an important stake in smart, environmentally sound development and transportation. At a time when unemployment has reached disturbing levels, public policy should take advantage of the job-creation benefits of a robust agenda for smart, sustainable communities.
STATE NEWS
The Infrastructurist: The Reason Foundation’s Unreasonable Highway Report
http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/09/02/the-reason-foundations-unreas...
Today, the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, released its 19th Annual Highway Report. It takes an unusually sunny view on U.S. infrastructure as a whole, relying on data such as traffic fatalities in 2008 fell to their lowest levels since the 1960s (a decrease that is mostly explained by decreases in driving due to the recession), the percentage of congested urban Interstates fell below 50% for the first time since 2000 (also the recession), and 23.7% of U.S. bridges — the lowest percentage since 1984 — were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete (though this doesn’t mean much either — fewer obsolete bridges doesn’t mean more safe bridges).
The Huffington Post: In The Public Interest: More Jobs for the Same Money
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phineas-baxandall/iin-the-public-interesti...
…By looking at twenty governmental Metropolitan Planning Organizations and the projects listed in their Transportation Improvement Programs, the study found that shifting half of funds for highway projects to public transit would result in 36,000 additional annual jobs. For instance, in Atlanta such a shift to public transit would result in 23,000 additional full-time jobs during the life of their five-year transportation plan. In San Diego, the expected increase would total over 18,000 jobs.