Infrastructure

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.

The platform approved by Republicans on Tuesday calls for the elimination of funding for Amtrak passenger rail service, private airport security screening and stopping the use of money earmarked for highway construction for other purposes.

The more than 30,000-word document was approved on the first full day of the 2012 GOP convention in Tampa, Fla. It includes many provisions that were pushed by Republicans in the House during recent negotiations over the new $105 billion transportation bill that was approved by lawmakers in June.

Among them are reducing environmental regulations to expedite construction projects and using more money that is earmarked for transportation for road and highway projects, rather than other forms of transportation such as public transit or bicycling and pedestrian programs.

President Obama is criticizing the transportation policies of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan in a radio ad targeting congestion-weary Northern Virginia.

The ad, which is being aired in the suburbs just south of Washington, D.C., accuses Romney and Ryan of not understanding the traffic situation in Northern Virginia, a vote-rich and Democratic-leaning sector of the hotly contested swing state.

"And now we go to Kathy K. in the traffic center," a faux news reporter says in the commercial.

"Thanks, Clint. As usual, traffic in Northern Virginia is backed up again, with long delays on 66 and 395,” the traffic reporter responds.

The first "reporter" then asks, "Could things get any worse?" and the traffic correspondent responds, “Actually, traffic and our roads could get worse with the Ryan/Romney budget plan. 

The administration announced it would spend the money as part of its "We can't wait" initiative.

Transportation supporters are somewhat relieved Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) won a member-versus-member primary that his opponent tried to turn into a referendum of road and transit funding.

But Mica is going to be term-limited out of his post as House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman in the next Congress, meaning any victory in his win over freshman Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) is likely to be purely symbolic for the transportation industry. 

"From a policy perspective, I really don't think it matters because Mica isn't going to be T&I Chairman [in the next Congress]," Joshua Schank, president of the nonpartisan Eno Center for Transportation, said in an interview with The Hill.

"I understand it was looked at as sort of a referendum on whether conservatives would support someone who played a role in passing these bills, [but] if someone who is chair of a committee passes a bill out of that committee, and that becomes a bad thing to do, that's a bad thing for our democracy," Schank said.    

A Washington, D.C.-based smart growth advocacy group said Thursday that transportation supporters can rebound from a recent defeat in Atlanta with upcoming transit funding elections in other places.

Smart Growth America spokesman Tom Madrecki said in an email to supporters that the defeat of a proposed Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST) in Atlanta was disappointing to transportation supporters everywhere.

But he also said that there is another vote upcoming in Memphis that was just as important.

"When voters in Atlanta rejected a ballot measure last week that would have funded a better-connected metro transit system, they weren’t just rejecting a one-cent sales tax," Madrecki wrote in an email to supporters. "They were also rejecting a piece of infrastructure that would have strengthened their whole region, bolstering economic development and bringing together networks of people and businesses.

A Washington, D.C.-based transportation group said Tuesday that a vote in Atlanta to reject an $8-billion tax to fund road and transit projects is not a "bellwether" for the nation.

A widely-publicized proposal to increase sales taxes in Atlanta by one cent via a Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST) was voted down last week in a closely watched election. The measure was defeated by an almost 2-to-1 margin, losing 63 to 37 percent.

But Transportation for America (T4A) Communications Director David Goldberg said in a post on the T4A's website that the election was not representative of the rest of the country's opinions of road and transit projects. 

"[I]s it a bellwether for transportation votes in other states and metros? The short answer, most likely, is 'no,' " Goldberg wrote.

The rejection of an $8 billion transportation tax in Atlanta last week could negatively impact the city's credit rating, according to a report from a key financial rating agency.

Moody’s Investors Service said the defeat of a proposed a one-cent state sales tax increase via a Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST) was a "credit negative" for the city of Atlanta, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday. 

"The Atlanta region needs major upgrades to its dated and limited transit system and congested roadways to maintain its long-term position as an influential economic center," the agency said. "The region will now be challenged to fund such projects on a local or state level, as the region had not formulated a specific contingency plan for identified projects if voters rejected the tax." 

New guidelines limiting the hours oil field truckers can drive will slow a booming industry, House members argue.  

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Sales of imported automobile brands are on the rise again.

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin (D) has weighed in on the defeat of a proposed transportation sales tax there.

Automobile manufacturer Dodge will not be testing cars cars for NASCAR races in 2013.

The C train in New York City has been rated the worst subway line in the city.