The good news is that for the first time since 2005, the U.S. Congress came to an agreement on a long-term transportation bill. As noted a couple of weeks ago, your elected representatives in Washington were playing a hyper-partisan game of chicken with vital federal funding for surface transportation. Somehow amid the health care (and literal) meltdown at the end of last week in D.C. they got a bill passed and avoided the calamity of a funding freeze for basic transportation infrastructure projects across the country. According to some, though, the bad news is all in the passed bill. Yet again, road construction is trumping investment in public transit. Which is unfortunate for a variety of reasons, among them that it ignores the needs and wants of various rapidly-growing segments of the U.S. population: the 'Millenials' who prefer to drive less than their elders; Baby Boomers, who will begin turning over their driver's licenses in droves in the next couple of decades and need public transportation options; and finally the group with the fastest-growing population- minorities- who are most likely to need (and use) public transportation. It's a good thing some cities are taking matters into their own hands and proactively moving to solve their transportation problems themselves.
· Transportation Funding For Georgia [GPB]
· How the Transportation Bill Failed America [The Atlantic Cities]