Veep choice Ryan favors slashing transportation funding
Yonah Freemark writes in The Transport Politic that Mitt Romney running mate Paul Ryan’s record on transportation funding suggests he’d cut, cut, cut and that transit, bike/ped and the environment would suffer:
On transportation, Mr. Ryan voted against every piece of transportation legislation proposed by Democrats when they controlled the lower chamber between 2007 and early 2010, with the exception of a bill subsidizing the automobile industry to the tune of $14 billion in loans in December 2008. This record included a vote against moving $8 billion into the highway trust fund in July 2008 (the overall vote was 387 to 37), a bill that was necessary to keep transportation funding at existing levels of investment. Meanwhile, he voted for a failed amendment that would have significantly cut back funding for Amtrak and voted against a widely popular bill that would expand grants for public transportation projects. He did vote in favor of the most recent transportation bill extension.
... all Department of Transportation programs that are not user-fee funded (like TIGER, high-speed rail, and perhaps even transit capital funding) would be eliminated. And ground transportation spending would be limited to revenues from fuel taxes, which he would not increase. Overall, DOT outlays would decline from $95 billion overall in 2011 to a low of $66 billion in 2016, rising to only $72 billion by 2020. As House Republicans showed with H.R. 7, their proposed transportation bill that would have eliminated the mass transit account of the highway trust fund and eliminated aid for bike and pedestrian projects, they are willing to sacrifice non-automobile transportation programs in favor of establishing a “targeted and cohesive” policy, which in this case appears to mean roads-only.
The fact is that significantly improved transit systems in the nation’s cities will require increasing federal investment, and that simply will not happen if Mr. Ryan gets his way.
Let’s get in the slow lane with today’s road work items:
2 p.m. UPDATE: Brief traffic stoppages are possible at the intersection of Route 30 and Clinton Road in Findlay from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday during demolition of a building.
2:20 p.m. UPDATE: PennDOT announced that short-term lane closures on Braddock Avenue in the area of the Parkway East Edgewood-Swissvale interchange will continue from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through late October while work is done on Parkway East ramps and bridges.
Inspection of the bridge that carries Route 19 (Perrysville/Ivory Avenue) over the Parkway North will cause lane closures in both directions on the parkway from 9 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday between Perrysville (Exit 5) and McKnight-Evergreen roads (Exit 4).Camp Meeting Road at Magee Road in Franklin Park will have alternating one-way traffic at times from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays starting Wednesday through Aug. 22 while crews drill for core samples in preparation for a future bridge replacement project.
Inspection of the bridges that take the Parkway West over Montour Run and Cliff Mine roads (Exit 58) in Moon and North Fayette may cause lane closures from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday on the westbound bridge and Thursday on the eastbound side. Restrictions may also occur on Cliff Mine Road under the parkway.
The bridge that carries Route 51 over Montour Run in Moon and Robinson will remain closed through Friday morning during repairs that cannot be done with traffic on it. It was been closed since Aug. 3 between Lewis Avenue and Ewing Street, north of I-79.
An early reminder that stadium lots and garages will be closed to commuters on Thursday, when the Pirates play another 4:05 p.m. home game.
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