Highways, Bridges and Roads

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." 

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday a "new transportation era" will begin next week with the implementation of the $105 billion transportation bill that was passed by lawmakers earlier this year.

LaHood said in a blog post on the Department of Transportation's website that the DOT was gearing up because many of the provisions in the new law, which became the first new road and transit spending approved by lawmakers since 2005 in June, are scheduled to take effect on Monday.

LaHood said the provisions that begin on Oct. 1 will "really change the transportation status quo."

"This Monday, October 1st, those changes go into effect, and we are working hard to make sure our state and local transportation partners are aware of the changes and are ready to join us in hitting the ground running," LaHood wrote.

A rare thing happened in the first Massachusetts Senate debate this week: a lawmaker running for reelection touted voting for the $105 billion transportation bill that was approved by Congress earlier this year. 

In a debate with Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) on Thursday night, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) cited the transportation bill as proof of his bipartisan nature. 

Not many other lawmakers have mentioned the transportation bill on the campaign trail this year. 

The measure, which was the first new road and transit spending measure passed by lawmakers since 2005, was part of what is widely thought of as the final burst of legislative activity before the November elections. But lawmakers have largely stayed quiet about it as campaigns cast each other as big government spenders. 

Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee questioned on Thursday the Department of Transportation's handling of bus and truck safety programs that were put in place in 2010.

The panel's Highway and Transit subcommittee held a hearing to examine the implementation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

Committee Chairman John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) said the program was created help the agency within the Department of Transportation to better keep track of data relating to safety violations by bus and trucking companies.

But Duncan said Thursday that the data has thus far not been very reliable.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is calling on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to reverse cuts in transportation funding she says takes road and transit spending below levels of the recently approved $105 billion highway bill. 

Boxer said a continuing resolution of the previous transportation bill, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which has been expired since 2009, would cut $500 million in transportation funding from the 2013 fiscal year because it does not include an adjustment for inflation that was accounted for in the larger transportation bill. 

Boxer said Boehner should honor the funding levels lawmakers agreed on when they passed the first multi-year transportation in seven years in June. 

"Congress made a commitment to the American people that we were going to invest in our nation’s infrastructure at a time when our economy needs it the most," Boxer wrote in a letter to Boehner. 

The platform expected to be approved by Democrats on Tuesday lauds President Obama for the auto industry bailout and for implementing a new gas mileage standard.

The platform also calls for a longer transportation funding plan than the two-year, $105 billion highway bill that was recently approved by Congress.

The more than 25,000-word platform is expected to be ratified when the Democratic Party convenes the first day of its convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday.

The Republican Party's platform, which was approved last week, took whacks at Amtrak and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but the Democratic platform focuses on the $80 billion that was loaned to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009, arguing the assistance saved the U.S. auto industry.

"President Obama and the Democrats boldly rescued America’s auto industry, saving more than one million jobs, preventing the collapse of the industry’s supply chain, and shoring up countless communities, while revitalizing the backbone of America’s manufacturing sector," the Democratic platform says.

Read more...

The America Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) said Thursday that higher gas mileage requirements for cars enacted this week by the Obama administration will make less fuel tax money available to pay for construction projects.

The Washington, D.C.-based ARBTA said the administration's proposal to require cars to get 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025 will cost the highway trust fund, which traditionally pays for a large portion of road and transit projects, $71 billion. The new emission rules were finalized by the departments of transportation and environmental protection earlier this week.

The federal gas tax, which has been 18.4 cents per gallon since the early 1990s, currently generates about $35 billion per year. The recently approved $105 billion highway bill spent more than $50 billion annually, which transportation advocates argue is barely enough to maintain the existing road and transit systems.