As of the noon hour here in Los Angeles, the members of Congress had not reached a budget deal — making the likelihood of a partial shutdown of the federal government on Saturday. Below is a letter sent by Federal Transit Administration chief Peter Rogoff to Metro and other transit [continue reading]
Even as partisan battles rage over the current year’s federal budget and budgets for the years beyond, members of the House of Representative Transportation and Infrastructure Committee met Tuesday tot discuss how best to fund transportation in the future. D.C. Streetsblog provided good coverage, noting that there was a lot [continue reading]
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) will be holding a series of Transportation Development Act (TDA) Article 8 Hearing Board Meetings for the use of TDA Article 8 funds in the North County and the City of Avalon. The TDA Article 8 funds are for those areas of [continue reading]
It’s been almost a year since our last open call for questions relating to TAP, and since then a few significant milestones have been reached. The most frequently asked question last year was, “Why isn’t there a cash purse available?” As regular readers know, cash purse – officially referred to [continue reading]
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) on Tuesday released his proposed “Path to Prosperity” [pdf] federal budget blueprint for the years 2012 to 2021. It cuts federal transportation spending by 31 percent, according to Transportation Weekly. In particular, the proposal seeks to reduce highway and transit spending and would decline to fund [continue reading]
Tim Cavanaugh at the Reason Foundation “hit & run” blog recently wrote a post asserting that since Metro decided to cut some bus service due to low ridership, the same should be done to Metro Rail. He suggested a cut of 48 percent to Metro Rail service. Among his reasons: [continue reading]
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — who also serves on the Metro Board of Directors — is in Washington D.C. today for a news conference to promote the America Fast Forward plan. As many Metro customers are aware, it takes time — often years and years of time — to [continue reading]
The Wall Street Journal has posted a provocative graphic showing the misery index for large cities around the U.S. The index was calculated using three factors: unemployment, an increase in gas prices and a change in home values. The least five miserable cities in order, according to the WSJ: Boston, [continue reading]
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Washington D.C. today to push the 30/10 Initiative, which is getting a new name for its national push: America Fast Forward. L.A. Times columnist Tim Rutten uses the occasion to praise the plan to use federal financing to accelerate the construction of Measure [continue reading]
In their meeting today, the Metro Board also took action on a three other items of interest: •(Item 21) The Board approved a report explaining that the 30/10 Initiative will be called America Fast Forward at a national level. The 30/10 Initiative was created to change federal laws so that [continue reading]
