Infrastructure in the News: May 7, 2015
BAF IN THE NEWS
Nation Swell: The Road to Infrastructure Improvements Starts with This App
http://nationswell.com/im-stuck-app-tracks-traffic-jams-delays/#ixzz3ZSdWThU2
Thanks to the team at Building America’s Future (BAF), a bipartisan coalition advocating investment in the country’s infrastructure, there’s now an app for that: I’m Stuck.
Fleet Owner: Promoting all women in the trucking industry
http://fleetowner.com/fleet-management/promoting-all-women-trucking-industry
The overall purpose of the organization is to increase the percentage of women working in the trucking industry to utilize unrealized potential. As former US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said, “After all – regardless of gender – everyone uses our transportation systems, and those systems will serve us more effectively when they are planned, designed, engineered and built by the professionals who represent all of us.”
NATIONAL NEWS
New York Times: Transportation Emerges as Crucial to Escaping Poverty
James Baker was pedaling to work along a slick, snow-covered road in Frederick County, Md., when a traffic light changed abruptly. He braked and skidded to the ground, unhurt but making a mess of his clothes before a long day of work and school.
Next City: How Cities Can Design for Aging Baby Boomers
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/cities-must-adapt-to-aging-populations-study-finds
When cities make an effort to accommodate “aging in place,” they typically end up with designs that benefit younger residents too.
STATE NEWS
Dallas Morning News: Commission OK’s Bank of America Plaza’s giant new parking garage in downtown Dallas
On Friday we sneak-peeked the ginormous 15-story, 1,500-car parking garage the German owners of Bank of America Plaza plan on building next to another humongous parking garage in downtown Dallas. Three days later, the city’s Landmark Commission gave it the green light: After an hour-long discussion Monday evening, most concerning the structure’s towering height, only one commissioner voted against it despite city staff and a task force’s recommendations to deny.
New York Times: In a Car-Obsessed City, Learning to Love Mass Transit
LOS ANGELES — For the estimated 6.6 million people who visit here each year for business purposes, a good mass transit system could mean less frustration and fewer hours spent in the city’s legendary freeway jams.
Curbed: 50 Miles of New Atlanta Streetcar Lines Billed as 'Priority'
For those who didn't realize that Atlanta is the land of fantasies, refined plans for the next phases of an expanded streetcar network were revealed last month at a"Citywide Conversation" hosted by the Beltline. New drawings showed a rainbow's worth of routes, all tweaked from the initial proposals released before the current streetcar loop was built. The plans call for 50 miles of streetcar service, mostly contained within the ring created by the future Beltline. In addition to one line running around the Beltline, three lines traverse the city east-to-west and two run north-south. At the moment, the only priority line that breaks outside the Beltline would be one running along Peachtree from Lenox Square to Fort McPherson, emphasizing the need to bolster service in the inner-city. However pie-in-the-sky the plans may be, here are the six proposed lines, and a few suggestions for what they should be called ...
City Lab: Southwest Airlines Hasn't Decided Whether or Not to Oppose Texas High-Speed Rail
As the privately funded Texas high-speed rail plan to connect Houston and Dallas attracts its share of opponents, one of the looming questions is whether or not Southwest Airlines will join the fray. It wouldn't be the first time.
Detroit News: Officials say Prop 1's loss means roads will get worse
Detroit area road officials said Wednesday Proposal 1's crushing defeat Tuesday doesn't change the dire need for millions of dollars more in aid to repair roads and bridges.
MLive: It's time for lawmakers to fix Michigan's roads
There are many lessons Michigan's legislators and Gov. Rick Snyder could take from the resounding rebuke voters gave Proposal 1.
MLive: Michigan voters made 'road kill' of Proposal 1, which failed in historic fashion
http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/05/michigan_voters_made_road_kill.html
LANSING, MI — Michigan voters spoke loud and clear on Tuesday night, according to many, but what exactly they said depends on who you ask.
KHOU: Michigan voters reject road tax plan
http://www.khou.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/06/michigan-proposal-1-road-tax-plan/70876502/
LANSING, Mich. — Proposal 1, likely one of the most complicated and confusing questions ever placed on a Michigan ballot, was soundly rejected Tuesday as many voters expressed anger at lawmakers and state government for failing to come up with a better solution to the sorry state of the roads.
AP: US officials, Metro-North agree on safety equipment loan
HARTFORD, Conn. — Federal transportation officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency have agreed on a nearly $1 billion federal loan to install technology that could slow trains when necessary on the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Railroad.
Skift: Denver’s Airport Has Become the U.S. Airport By Which All Others Are Measured
Denver International Airportposted lower borrowing costs than most of its peers last year while generating higher returns, although it operates in a state with the 22nd-largest population.
POLITICO MORNING TRANSPORTATION
By Jennifer Scholtes | 5/7/15 5:43 AM EST
With help from Heather Caygle.
CALLING ON PRIVATE-SECTOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT: Sen. Michael Bennet headlines the Bipartisan Policy Center’s launch this morning of its Executive Council on Infrastructure, an initiative aimed at encouraging private-sector investment in the nation’s transportation infrastructure. The group plans to hold several public and private meetings over the next year to come up with recommendations for getting the private sector to invest in infrastructure. “The business community has both an interest and obligation to identify ways to overcome the barriers keeping billions of dollars of private capital on the sidelines,” Douglas Peterson, McGraw Hill Financial’s CEO, said in a written statement this week. Watch the event live at 9:30 a.m.: http://bit.ly/1KjV3XY.
EPW LEADERS HAMMER OUT MULTI-YEAR TRANSPO PLAN: Chairman Jim Inhofe says he and ranking member Barbara Boxer are working hard on a bill that would re-up transportation policy and funding for five or six years. They talked Wednesday morning and have agreed to “start immediately” on the legislation, working on it over “the next couple of weeks,” Inhofe said. More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1H0tsLa.
End-of-July tide-over: The chairman also says his plan to temporarily extend transportation policy until the end of July could give the leaders enough time to finalize their long-term reauthorization, run it by the Finance Committee and get House leaders onboard. But Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch says it is unlikely the senators will be able to round up the requisite support in the House for their long-term proposal, making an extension through year’s end the way to go. “We’re not going to get it without tax increases, and I don’t think that’s going to be acceptable to the House,” Hatch said Wednesday. “So it’s nice to talk about it, but the reality is it’s going to be pretty hard to do.”
‘Very fluid’: Those two temporary extension plans — through the end of July or through the end of the year — are still the main proposals being floated among senators. And Sen. John Thune said Thursday that consensus hasn’t settled yet in one direction or the other. “At this point it's still very fluid,” Thune said. “I'm for getting a long-term bill as long as we can so we're not doing these continual and perpetual extensions. But I'm not sure at this point what the best way to achieve that is. … I don't think we have a clear path yet."
IT’S THURSDAY: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
Gracias, American Society of Travel Agents, for publishing your list of the top 20 strangest things clients have asked travel agents over the past year. MT’s favorite is probably: “Can you book two rooms in different parts of the resort — one for me and my wife, and the other for my girlfriend?” Or maybe: “Does the crew actually sleep onboard the cruise ship?”
Reach out: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.
“I wish I could find a soul to steal. I could be the engine, you could be the wheel.” http://bit.ly/1qnNebw
NORTH DAKOTA DERAILMENT INFLAMES CONGRESSIONAL IRE: Lawmakers who have already been criticizing the DOT’s new crude-by-rail regulations have only been emboldened in their demands after the latest fiery derailment in North Dakota. Following the disaster, eight Senate Democrats wrote to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Wednesday calling on him to issue an emergency order requiring oil shippers to provide detailed information on those rail shipments to first responders, shifting “the onus for information sharing onto the railroads and not communities.” That letter: http://politico.pro/1EiEGGx.
Positive Train Control: The DOT posted its final thoughts Wednesday for its new tank car rules, stating that Positive Train Control would not have prevented the accidents the department reviewed in creating the rule. Our Kathryn A. Wolfe explains that “the rule stops short of suggesting that PTC won’t prevent future oil train derailments, and recounts that FRA’s 2010 PTC rule suggests some 44 accidents per year — including those not related to overspeed derailments — could be prevented by PTC. But it notes that there is ‘little, if any, overlap between the prevention measures in the PHMSA rule and the accidents that PTC will prevent.’” http://politico.pro/1coEzn5. DOT’s final analysis: http://1.usa.gov/1EYzQ63.
Volatility legislation: The House’s top Democratic appropriator, Rep. Nita M. Lowey, outlined a bill this week that would immediately ban interstate rail shipment of crude oil with a Reid Vapor Pressure volatility level above 8.5 pounds per square inch and call on the Obama administration to set a national limit on the volatility of oil shipped by rail. More on that: http://1.usa.gov/1GPie9F.
BROOKINGS DEBUTS INFRASTRUCTURE IDEAS: Brookings is set to release a new paper this morning on financing transportation infrastructure, offering four short-term proposals and three long-term plans for building up infrastructure and finding the cash to do it. In the report, The Hamilton Project will recommend restoring the Build America Bonds program, overhauling the gas tax, expanding the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act from $1 billion to $10 billion annually, and calling on the Army Corps of Engineers to carry out high-priority projects funded by the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund’s surplus. The think tank will bring transportation experts together to talk about the report on Monday: http://bit.ly/1z1TNIH.
FRA RAIL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM WRITES BIGGEST CHECK IN HISTORY: Although New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo already jumped the gun on this one nearly two weeks ago: The FRA announced this week that it is, in fact, delivering its largest railroad improvement loan in history to the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The agency is chipping in nearly $967.1 million to help develop Positive Train Control on the Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road. The nearly $1 billion is a big deal for the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program, which has provided 34 loans over the past six years, totaling about $2.7 billion. Details from FRA: http://1.usa.gov/1QoluQf.
REPUBLICAN POLICY COMMITTEE DEEMS FUNDING ‘LESS URGENT’ THAN AUTHORITY: The Senate Republican Policy Committee posted an issue update this week on the state of the Highway Trust Fund, seemingly pushing lawmakers to consider a clean transportation policy extension this month, instead of trying to delve into funding issues in the time between now and the May 31 authority expiration. “While questions remain on how much money to put into the fund and how to raise that money, those questions are less urgent,” the committee advises. “The Department of Transportation has said that it will be able to provide funding through late July or early August.” Check it out: http://1.usa.gov/1F6YH9Z.
OUTSIDE GROUPS WEIGH IN ON EXTENSION PLANS: TTD, the transportation arm of the AFL-CIO, has come out in support of Inhofe’s July policy patch idea. “Congress should pass a clean, short-term extension through July and then get to work on a robust long-term bill that expands investments and job creation and is paid for with a sustainable revenue stream,” TTD President Ed Wytkind said in a statement Wednesday. Wytkind’s endorsement comes one day after Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Janet Kavinoky told reporters she thinks her organization will also back the mid-summer plan. The AFL-CIO and Chamber are often on opposite sides of an issue but have been in lockstep when it comes to transportation funding, including both groups endorsing a gas tax hike.
Year-end patch opposition: The Transportation Construction Coalition sent a letter to House and Senate leaders Wednesday refuting claims by some lawmakers that a year-end extension is needed to ensure certainty for the summer construction season. “We want to clarify that the duration of the next extension will have little impact on the 2015 construction season,” the group wrote. “When Congress chose last summer to again temporarily patch the Highway Trust Fund and extend the authorization of the programs for eight months, it guaranteed a disruption of this construction season. It has already occurred.” TCC, which represents a variety of alphabet-soup groups including ARTBA, AGC and ASCE, said the next patch should be “of limited duration” and have explicit timelines for the tax-writing committees to act.
Reality check: The TCC letter also included a nice reality check about the patch Congress enacted last summer, which was supposed to be the bridge to a multi-year bill: “The simple fact is Congress has had nearly 10 months and all the necessary information to finalize ‘a long-term solution to the Highway Trust Fund’ and yet we are right back to the same scenario, with the same rhetoric, and, potentially, the same ‘solution’ as took place last July.” Read the letter: http://politico.pro/1FQ0qix.
Teamsters takes sides: The Teamsters issued a statement Wednesday in support of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s threat to block trade legislation from moving forward before a transportation reauthorization bill. “Sen. Reid knows what America’s priorities should be," Teamsters President James Hoffa said. "This Congress needs to figure out how to properly fund the nation’s transportation network in the next few weeks, and shouldn’t be wasting its time on a fast-track bill that has no set deadline.” Pro’s Brian Mahoney brings it: http://politico.pro/1QosJb8.
‘LINE-OF-SIGHT’ ON THE MIND: The FAA signaled this week that it might let people fly drones out of sight in rural or “isolated” areas. The announcement comes as part of a new initiative to “explore the next steps” in drone operations, the agency is taking on in partnership with CNN, which will focus on newsgathering activities; PrecisionHawk, which will look at crop monitoring; and BNSF, which will look at command and control issues. http://politico.pro/1IPWf7l.
B4UFLY app: The agency also showcased a new smartphone app to help model aircraft and drone operators figure out where it’s safe and legal to fly. The B4UFLY app is scheduled for release to about 1,000 beta testers later this summer. The rundown: http://1.usa.gov/1IiixzE.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
— Investigators say Germanwings co-pilot appeared to rehearse crash. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1Ih0fx7
— U.S. airports are better, but not best. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1H0z9J3
— Southwest Airlines hasn't decided whether or not to oppose Texas high-speed rail. CityLab: http://bit.ly/1dOLFlg
— Tesla's new battery doesn't work that well with solar. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1F5VuHr
— How an app destroyed their streets: Readers count the Waze. LA Times: http://lat.ms/1ERswId
— Gas prices or economy, experts disagree on what drives U.S. demand. Reuters: http://reut.rs/1IQbcq7
— Woman known for trying to sneak on planes jailed in Chicago. AP: http://yhoo.it/1Pq7147
— Scared of self-driving cars? They’re a lot closer than you think. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1IisUU3
THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 24 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 146 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 552 days.
THE DAY AHEAD:
All day — The AUVSI conference wraps up in Atlanta: http://bit.ly/1aW6ZmU. Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd. NW.
11:50 a.m. — DOT’s chief data officer, Daniel Morgan, speaks at a FedScoop event on data innovation: http://bit.ly/1c3XDqy. 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
9 a.m. — The FAA’s Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics holds another meeting on portable electronic devices. 1150 18th St. NW.
10:30 a.m. — The Bipartisan Policy Center launches its Executive Council on Infrastructure, a group of business executives looking for ways to encourage private investment in the nation’s critical infrastructure. 1225 I St., NW Suite 1000. http://bit.ly/1KjV3XY
POLITICO Pro Transportation Whiteboard: Transportation coalition pushes back on year-end extension idea
5/6/15 4:16 PM EDT
The Transportation Construction Coalition sent a letter to House and Senate leaders today refuting claims by some lawmakers that a year-end extension is needed to ensure certainty for the summer construction season.
“We want to clarify that the duration of the next extension will have little impact on the 2015 construction season,” the group wrote to House and Senate leadership. “When Congress chose last summer to again temporarily patch the Highway Trust Fund and extend the authorization of the programs for eight months, it guaranteed a disruption of this construction season. It has already occurred.”
The coalition’s letter debunks statements made by House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster and other lawmakers that a longer extension is needed to ensure funding certainty for construction groups during the busy summer season.
TCC, which represents a variety of alphabet-soup transportation groups including ARTBA, AGC and ASCE, said the next patch should be “of limited duration” and have explicit timelines for the tax-writing committees and Congress to act.
The letter also included a reality check about the patch Congress enacted last summer, which was supposed to be the bridge to a multi-year bill: “The simple fact is Congress has had nearly 10 months and all the necessary information to finalize ‘a long-term solution to the Highway Trust Fund’ and yet we are right back to the same scenario, with the same rhetoric, and, potentially, the same ‘solution’ as took place last July.”
— Heather Caygle
To view online:
https://www.politicopro.com/go/?wbid=53085