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.
Megaregions
As metropolitan regions continued to expand throughout the second half of the 20th century their boundaries began to blur, creating a new scale of geography now known as the megaregion. Interlocking economic systems, shared natural resources and ecosystems, and common transportation systems link these population centers together. As continued population growth and low density settlement patterns place increasing pressure on these systems, there is greater impetus to coordinate policy at this expanded scale.
Continue reading Megaregions.
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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.
America 2050 Director Petra Todorovich discusses how the New York region may fare in a jobs bill being considered by President Obama and Congress and the importance of fully funding the New York MTA's five-year capital plan.
Reprinted from the Northeast-Midwest Institute
by Fritz Ohrenschall, Research Associate, Northeast-Midwest Institute
The Administration's "Stimulus Bill" - the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - provides $8 billion for high speed rail. Unfortunately, the Northeast Rail Corridor faces major hurdles in receiving any of this money because the Federal Railroad Administration has yet to document, as required by law, the environmental impacts of revamping the corridor.
Recovery Act rail funding is allocated in two tracks. Track 1 funds individual projects on a rail line. Track 2 funds corridor-wide projects that will reduce trip times on that line. Construction of corridor-wide enhancement on the Northeast Corridor would fall under Track 2 and will require that the Federal Railroad Administration prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement documenting the effects of such enhancements in order to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. This document must be very comprehensive and it remains to be seen whether it can be completed before the statutory deadline for Recovery Act monies to be spent.
Recognizing that Recovery Act funding is critical to the nation's busiest rail corridor, the states along the corridor, as well as the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility have requested that FRA expedite the impact statement and have volunteered to help with it. Currently it is unclear whether the FRA can meet this challenge.
Download "Challenges to Northeast Corridor ARRA Funding."
by Fritz Ohrenschall, Research Associate, Northeast-Midwest Institute
The Administration's "Stimulus Bill" - the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - provides $8 billion for high speed rail. Unfortunately, the Northeast Rail Corridor faces major hurdles in receiving any of this money because the Federal Railroad Administration has yet to document, as required by law, the environmental impacts of revamping the corridor.
Recovery Act rail funding is allocated in two tracks. Track 1 funds individual projects on a rail line. Track 2 funds corridor-wide projects that will reduce trip times on that line. Construction of corridor-wide enhancement on the Northeast Corridor would fall under Track 2 and will require that the Federal Railroad Administration prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement documenting the effects of such enhancements in order to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. This document must be very comprehensive and it remains to be seen whether it can be completed before the statutory deadline for Recovery Act monies to be spent.
Recognizing that Recovery Act funding is critical to the nation's busiest rail corridor, the states along the corridor, as well as the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility have requested that FRA expedite the impact statement and have volunteered to help with it. Currently it is unclear whether the FRA can meet this challenge.
Download "Challenges to Northeast Corridor ARRA Funding."
As a follow-up to last August's Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion Summit, the megaregion's mayors, led by Atlanta's Shirley Franklin and Charlotte's Pat McCrory, recently gathered in Greenville, South Carolina to formalize their new organization, now called "The Piedmont Alliance for Quality Growth - Mayors, Business, Academia."
The Alliance was formed out of the recognition that city leaders will better tackle increasing challenges related to rapid population growth and the need for infrastructure if they work as a unit, rather than independently. Mayor Franklin also expressed her understanding of the megaregion's place in the global economy, stating, "I used to think of the Atlanta metro region as my sphere. But now I know - I'm in a megaregion which will increasingly influence the ability of America to prosper."
Two examples of the challenges facing the regions of Piedmont include making public transit more reliable and widely available; and employing more ecologically responsible land use practices.
To read Neal Peirce's column about this exciting new collaboration, click here.
Mayor Pat McCrory of Charlotte, North Carolina provides a compelling description of why megaregions are important.
Since 2007, America 2050 has held megaregion forums in seven of America's eleven megaregions nation-wide. There forums were held as part of a "Rebuilding and Renewing America" campaign, which aimed to build support for the infrastructure investments we need to guide America toward a sustainable and prosperous future. The forums aimed to achieve three goals:
Download the Summary of Megaregion Forums.
Download a PowerPoint about the Forums.
- Build support around the country for an ambitious national infrastructure plan in the areas of transportation, energy, and water.
- Identify and prioritize the key infrastructure priorities in the megaregions, which can act as building blocks to a national plan.
- Create megaregion coalitions to support these megaregion priorities and begin coordinating with each other.
Download the Summary of Megaregion Forums.
Download a PowerPoint about the Forums.
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