Grand plans for D.C.’s grand station

Posted on by Dustin

Washington, D.C., has grand plans for its grand transportation hub, Union Station. But will they get past financial and political hurdles? The Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein examines the plans and the obstacles in an extensive online piece.

Does America need its states?

Posted on by Dustin

The United States is naturally organized economically, culturally, and historically around cities and metro areas, yet politically it's organized into states. When 90% of the national economy is in urban areas, do states' anti-urban policies work to the detriment of the national and, ironically, state economies?

Why electric cars aren’t a silver bullet

Posted on by Dustin

The world seems to think that electric cars are the magical solution to all the woes caused by overdependence on personal automobiles. But, as Planetizen's Brent Toderian points out, that's just not true. (And I would posit that the same arguments can be made about looking at self-driving cars as a panacea.)

Obama administration submits transportation bill to Congress

Posted on by Dustin

The Obama administration has submitted a four-year transportation proposal to Congress which, among other things, improves the highway/transit funding split to 75/25, allocates nearly $5 billion annually for high-speed rail, and plugs the hole in the almost-out-of-money Highway Trust Fund.