Highways, Bridges and Roads

The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) is launching a campaign to increase the acceptance among lawmakers of tolling as a transportation funding mechanism.

The campaign, called "Moving America Forward," is intended to extol the viability of tolling as lawmakers search for potential new sources of revenue for road and transit projects as traditional gas tax revenue dwindles.

The 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax has historically been used to pay for transportation projects. However, the gas tax currently generates about $35 billion per year, which is only $20 billion less annually than the $105 billion transportation bill that was appropriated by lawmakers last year.

The Washington, D.C.-based IBTTA said it was time to consider other sources of transportation revenue, like tolling. 

“We’re launching this campaign to ensure that tolling is a key part of the discussions in Congress and elsewhere around the country on how to fund America’s transportation system,” IBTTA Executive Director Patrick Jones said in a statement. “IBTTA’s Moving America Forward public awareness campaign will make the case for the tolling industry’s permanent seat at the table when future transportation funding options are being considered.” 

Blumenauer's bill is a response to dwindling highway funds, which he says threaten highway projects. 

Incoming House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said Wednesday that he sees the potential for compromise on legislation involving Amtrak funding.

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol hours after formally being elected chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Shuster adopted a less confrontational tone regarding Amtrak than has marked the panel's tenor under Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.). 

Mica pushed hard in 2011 to privatize Amtrak service in the Northeast, which is its most profitable corridor. Shuster supported the effort, which was fiercely opposed by Democrats.  

But the long-time Pennsylvania lawmaker said Wednesday that there was potential to find "common ground" on Amtrak funding next year.

President Obama's reelection is likely to ensure efforts to privatize Amtrak service and cut transportation funding will be unsuccessful. 

Unsuccessful Republican nominee Mitt Romney had repeatedly pledged to eliminate government funding for Amtrak, and GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget would have limited transportation funding to revenues generated by the federal gas tax.

"I think Amtrak is safe and surface transportation levels are safe," Joshua Schank, president of the nonpartisan Eno Center for Transportation, said in an assessment of the election. 

"I'd be very surprised to see the president and a Democratic Senate accept a cut" to transportation funding, Schank continued. 

New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D) and Robert Menendez (D) thanked the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Monday for sending buses to help alleviate their state’s transportation problems caused by Hurricane Sandy.

“Getting our transportation system back up and running is a critical part of New Jersey's recovery from Superstorm Sandy,” Lautenberg said in a statement Monday. “The buses being dispatched to New Jersey by the federal government will add much needed capacity so that residents can go to work, reach their families, buy groceries, and resume their daily lives.”

The DOT has contracted with private operators to provide 200 buses to New Jersey, 70 of which were supposed to arrive Monday. The rest will come later this week.

Democratic senators from New York and New Jersey are praising the federal government on Thursday for increasing disaster funding to clean up the devastation from Hurricane Sandy -- but are also demanding more.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has declared a "transportation emergency" during his state's recovery from Hurricane Sandy.

Cuomo has announced that New York City's subway will not charge fares on Thursday and Friday as the system resumes limited service after suffering severe flood damage during Sandy.

Separately, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) has announced a three-passenger limit on driving across bridges that lead into hard-hit Manhattan.

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) said Monday that he would continue to work for passage of federal legislation aimed at limiting increases in bridge and tunnel tolls after New York's transit authority proposed raising tolls on the Varrazano bridge from $13 to $15.

"Tolls and taxes should not be the go-to solution for every debt-stricken government authority. Just as every working family or business must learn to live within a budget, so should the MTA," he said, referring to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

JetBlue Airlines is offering supporters of whichever candidate loses the November presidential election a chance to leave the country.

Ardent supporters of both parties have threatened to leave the country if their preferred presidential candidate loses since probably the beginning of national campaigns.

But low-fare air carrier JetBlue is offering its passengers the chance to actually do it.

The airline launched a contest called "Election Protection 2012" in which participants predict the winner of the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney and are entered to win a free flight to Mexico, South America or the Caribbean islands if they end up being wrong. 

As much as $10 billion of the $105 billion transportation spending bill that took effect this week will end up being spent in the wrong place, a liberal group's analysis found Tuesday.

The Washington, D.C-based Center for American Progress said that the spending formulas of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) bill focused too heavily on equity among states, to the detriment of need.

"In response to the ‘bridge to nowhere,’ Congress eliminated the overt earmarks in the highway bill, but as this report shows, politics still trump the need for a large portion of this highway authorization bill,” CAP senior fellow Donna Cooper said in a statement about the report, titled "Highway Robbery."