Sometime in the not too distant future, John wakes up in suburban Chicago on a Saturday morning and heads to a White Sox game...in Detroit. Join him on a 300 mile journey to Detroit's Comerica Park as he experiences the transportation options of the future: a neighborhood electric car share program, smart phone ticketing, high-speed rail, and connecting light rail. This clip is brought to you by America 2050 as part of its "A Better Tomorrow" project to visualize America's future communities and transportation systems.
Infrastructure
Rebuilding and Renewing AmericaAmerica 2050 has launched a "Rebuilding and Renewing America" campaign in response to the serious challenges of repairing the nation's deteriorating, inadequate infrastructure systems and building capacity for sustainable population and economic growth in the future.
We are calling on the federal government to develop a National Infrastructure Investment Plan that identifies investments in integrated systems of roads, rails, and ports, electricity transmission and the "smart grid," broadband communications, and water infrastructure to help America compete in the global economy and transition our fossil-fuel dependent economy to a low-carbon future.
In the absence of federal action, America 2050's national committee of civic, business, and community leaders are beginning to develop the components of the National Infrastructure Investment Plan and recommendations to reform outdated and ineffective federal transportation, energy and water policies.
From 2008-2009, America 2050 is hosting a series of megaregion forums around the country to build support for a national infrastructure investment plan and indentify key infrastructure priorities in the 11 megaregions around the country.
Our goal for shaping the infrastructure investment plan is to promote a "triple bottom line" strategy for infrastructure development in the United States. This concept refers to using environmental sustainability and social equity measures as the other important "bottom lines" to consider in weighing investment decisions in addition to financial return on investment. This is a cross-cutting theme for all our discussions and activities.
Coupled with the articulation of guiding principles and criteria for federal investment, such as the triple bottom line, the national infrastructure investment plan will shape the different pieces of legislation, providing the bold and compelling vision that is currently needed to catalyze change.
Recent Entries
The National Journal Transportation Experts Blog moderator Lisa Caruso asked this week, "Is Obama Spending the High-Speed Rail Money Wisely? Read America 2050 Director Petra Todorovich's response here, along with other responses from a panel of transportation policy analysts and professionals.
America 2050 is planning a Community Sourcing Competition to visualize the future of America's communities and transportation systems. A "Slidecast" of our concept is provided below with audio narration. You can also download this proposal (2 Mb)
to learn more about the effort.
America 2050 hailed this week's high-speed rail announcement as the first step toward a sustained federal commitment to build a national high-speed rail network. But the skeptics at Fox Business had another take. Watch the clip.
(New York, NY) President Obama's expected announcement in Tampa tomorrow of proposed high-speed rail investments is a critical step toward implementing the long-term infrastructure vision our nation needs to pull itself out of the Great Recession and position itself for long-term competitive growth. America has gone from zero to sixty on high-speed rail in less than a year, joining virtually every other industrialized nation in making high-speed rail the backbone of a national infrastructure system. We applaud the Obama Administration's vision in supporting this energy efficient, modern form of transportation and look forward to learning which corridors will be selected.
No matter which corridors receive the preliminary federal grants tomorrow, we offer the following principles for consideration as the program moves forward and expands:
The Administration should demonstrate early success by focusing on corridors with strong ridership demand and the lowest barriers to implementation. Our research indicates that the corridors with the greatest prospects for ridership demand are those that:
No matter which corridors receive the preliminary federal grants tomorrow, we offer the following principles for consideration as the program moves forward and expands:
The Administration should demonstrate early success by focusing on corridors with strong ridership demand and the lowest barriers to implementation. Our research indicates that the corridors with the greatest prospects for ridership demand are those that:
Continue reading Statement on President Obama's High-Speed Rail Announcement.
The House narrowly passed a bill yesterday (217-212) aimed at jump starting the American economy by providing $50B for infrastructure projects, $50 B to help states retain public service employees and more than $60B for the extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance.Much of the new infrastructure spending will be directed to transportation projects. The bill includes $37.3B in new transportation spending, including $27.5B for roads and $8.4B for transit. The bill also awards $800M to Amtrak for fleet modernization. The Senate is not expected to take up similar legislation until early in the New Year.
On Sunday the Senate voted 57 to 32 to approve the omnibus spending bill, which included $2.5 billion for high-speed rail. The spending bill, which already passed the House, will go next to the President's desk for signature.
While the bill's $2.5 billion is less than the $4 billion for high-speed rail approved by the House in an earlier version of the spending bill this year, it exceeds the President's request for high-speed rail in his draft budget ($5 billion over 5 years). With this appropriation Congress has indicated their strong support for the nation's high-speed rail program.
The bill also included a small ray of hope for the Northeast Corridor, which has been excluded from applying for significant grants in the FRA's high-speed rail program because it lacks an up-to-date corridor-wide Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The spending bill includes $50 million for planning grants to states (with an 80/20 federal-state split). That $50 million is being eyed by states in the Northeast to fund their work on the Programmatic EIS in cooperation with the FRA and Amtrak in order to hasten the corridor's eligibility for funding in the FRA's High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program.
While the bill's $2.5 billion is less than the $4 billion for high-speed rail approved by the House in an earlier version of the spending bill this year, it exceeds the President's request for high-speed rail in his draft budget ($5 billion over 5 years). With this appropriation Congress has indicated their strong support for the nation's high-speed rail program.
The bill also included a small ray of hope for the Northeast Corridor, which has been excluded from applying for significant grants in the FRA's high-speed rail program because it lacks an up-to-date corridor-wide Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The spending bill includes $50 million for planning grants to states (with an 80/20 federal-state split). That $50 million is being eyed by states in the Northeast to fund their work on the Programmatic EIS in cooperation with the FRA and Amtrak in order to hasten the corridor's eligibility for funding in the FRA's High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program.
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