NATIONAL NEWS

Bond Buyer: Waiting for Multi-Year Legislation
http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/119_251/outlook-2010-transportation-1005656-1.html
For cash-strapped state and local governments that have critical transportation infrastructure needs, but no money to pay for them, the coming year will be bittersweet.  Federal aid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and possibly another job-creation bill will provide some transportation funding relief to municipal bond issuers, and some high-profile grants are expected to be announced this winter.  But it probably will be another year before Congress takes up new multi-year authorization bills for the sector, sources said in recent interviews.  Governments and other muni bond issuers earlier this year began chasing ARRA funds after the new law was enacted in February, flooding the U.S. Department of Transportation and its various sub-agencies with applications for surface transportation and high-speed rail projects.

NY Times: A Trainspotter's Guide to the Future of the World
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/opinion/05iht-edkennedy.html
...I’m not just presenting food for thought for Americans; indeed, it is probably even more worthy of consideration by nations that are rapidly modernizing, such as Brazil, India, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and the others. In all these societies, the pressures for individual car ownership and mass air travel are becoming as intense as they already are in the United States, and it will be difficult for governments to resist, or control, them. But there is no harm in trying, and perhaps the best way to do so is for continual investment in attractive public transport, particularly in railways.  In which case, such nations will look not to America for the technologies and necessary administrative know-how to develop such public networks, but will turn instead to companies in Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea and, soon, probably China. (The $2.4 billion Wuhan station was designed by the French.) Perhaps the Obama administration, which seems to have a certain sense of these matters, will strive to make the United States more competitive in this field, as it once was, many generations ago. One cannot help thinking, however, that the American preference for clogged-up highways and airports will make the country look so old, so 20th-century-ish. So behind the times.

DC Streetsblog: Transit Fare Inflation Hitting Health Insurance-Like Levels?
http://dc.streetsblog.org/2010/01/05/transit-fare-inflation-hitting-health-insurance-like-levels/
...Heading into 2010, it's easy to see urban transit agencies falling into a vicious cycle driven by state budget woes verging on the apocalyptic (see California), local resistance to fare increases that disproportionately affect non-car-owning commuters, and federal inaction on much-needed transportation reform.

T4America: SGA analysis reveals transportation projects create the most jobs at the lowest cost
http://t4america.org/blog/2010/01/05/sga-analysis-reveals-transportation-projects-create-the-most-jobs-at-the-lowest-cost/
A new analysis of federal stimulus spending confirms what many of us have suspected for months: investment in public transportation gets more people to work, faster, in just about every sense.

STATE NEWS

GoErie.com: Feds should allow tolling of I-80
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100104/OPINION01/301049996/-1/opinion
... If tolls aren't imposed or a different revenue source identified, state funding of highways and transit will be cut 50 percent, from $900 million a year to $450 million -- by law -- in July. Such a thing would cripple the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's efforts to confront our infrastructure woes, which are immense, or even keep up with the maintenance of state roads and bridges.

Washington Post: Virginia Gov.-elect Robert McDonnell faces transportation crucible
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010403140.html
Here's a key question for Virginia Gov.-elect Robert F. McDonnell (R) as he prepares to take office next month: Will he stand by as the state's transportation funding collapses, or will he take affirmative steps to generate revenue?  The evidence from Mr. McDonnell's gubernatorial campaign does not compel much optimism. His transportation plan, which ruled out new taxes, relied on made-up numbers and wishful thinking to arrive at its promise of new funding. Moreover, the McDonnell team's preference for shrinking government does not inspire much hope that it will see transportation funding and the necessary administrative apparatus to support it as priorities.

STLToday.com: Transit-based development takes hold here
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/story/114246E3F194FE29862576A00000FAF4?OpenDocument
At one level, transit-oriented development seems like a no-brainer.  Clustering condos and office space and stores, all around a MetroLink stop. Getting people out of their cars and onto the trains. Creating dense new chunks of urbanism. "Smart growth" for the 21st century.  And in a few places around MetroLink's 37 stations, that has happened. There are a few office buildings where there otherwise might not be. New homes that sell better because they're close to rail.

Houston chronicle: Should Drivers be Taxed by the Mile?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6797142.html
Highway fund crunch has Texas ordering a study of that question.