Bob Yaro appeared on the Fox Business News program, "Breakfast for
Money" and Bloomberg News to discuss the Obama Administration's upcoming
infrastructure spending plan. Watch the videos below.

December 15 - U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Congressman John Mica (R-FL) joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York City today to announce the Department of Transportation's request for proposals for high-speed rail investment in corridors across the United States. Citing the energy efficiency, convenience, and economic competitiveness benefits of high-speed rail, the political leaders lamented the slow progress of the U.S. in implementing modern high-speed rail technology.

The new high-speed rail initiative announced today by the U.S. DOT is a small program in  the recently enacted Rail Safety Act, signed into law by President Bush in October 2008. Much more significant is the authorization of approximately $13 billion for Amtrak and U.S. states for operating and capital costs related to intercity and high-speed rail. The focus of today's press conference, the issuance of a request for proposals for private investment in high-speed rail should result in an interesting preview of whether private investors consider rail a profit-making enterprise. At best, it should garner some new energy, ideas, and proposals for how to make this long overdue technology available in the U.S. At worst, it could distract from the urgent task at hand --bringing America's existing rail network up to a state of good repair and implementing dependable, regular, and more frequent intercity services in corridors around the U.S. 

New York Channel 4 reported on the new conference below.

A coalition of leading civic, business, environmental organizations and transportation officials convened by America 2050 released a statement today calling on the incoming Obama administration and the U.S. Congress to invest wisely in the proposed economic stimulus plan focused on infrastructure.

Responding to President-elect Obama's video address on December 6 announcing the "largest investment in infrastructure since the National Highway System," the group urged the President-elect to get this investment right with a five-step program: Fix, Phase, Green, Train and Count.

America 2050 Infrastructure Recommendations: Stimulus-Economic Recovery-Renewal

I.    FIX: To immediately create jobs and stimulate economic growth we need to "fix it first," that is, invest in the repair and maintenance of the country's deteriorated bridges, roads, public transit, passenger & freight rail, electric grids and other essential infrastructure components that have been neglected for decades. 

II.    PHASE: All the monies cannot be spent at once. While we must get a first group of "shovel ready" projects under construction as soon as possible, there are limits to the number of projects that can be initiated immediately. A series of phases should allow for the development of strategic projects, job training, and the building of capacity in construction, manufacturing, engineering and project management fields - all of which are essential to successfully carrying out the work.

III.    GREEN: Priority should be given to projects that foster energy independence, safeguard the environment, promote healthy & compact communities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

IV.    TRAIN: Investment in America's infrastructure will create hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs, both immediately and for decades to come. To ensure that these large-scale projects are completed quickly and successfully, we need to invest in job training programs that will provide our workforce with the required skills. And, equally important, the jobs should be accessible to the people in the communities most deeply affected by the current economic crisis.

V.    COUNT: Funding must be set aside to measure and analyze the results of these federal investments and their outcomes: job creation, cost-effectiveness, greenhouse gas reductions, increased energy efficiency, etc.

ACCOUNTABILITY - NEW OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

If America is to remain economically competitive, we cannot afford "business as usual" when it comes to infrastructure investments. Therefore, a new federal oversight committee is required to both streamline the investment process and also establish accountability.

We propose creating a National Recovery and Renewal Council, comprised of representatives from federal, state, and city agencies, as well as the private sector. The Council would report directly to the White House, charged with eliminating the red tape in implementing projects, as well as developing criteria and accountability measures that will guarantee that America meets its infrastructure goals, from energy independence to reduced carbon emissions to increased mobility.

Download the Statement here.

HOK Planning Group interviews Petra Todorovich, Director of America 2050, about a national infrastructure plan and implications for the design and development professions.

Read the article.

Blueprint America, a new year long initiative by PBS, will explore the topic of national infrastructure, with specific attention paid to transportation.  The goal of this project is to elevate awareness and initiate debate about America's neglected infrastructure.  The project will span multiple programming platforms on PBS that will include in depth reports on The News Hour With Jim Lehrer, NOW, and Worldfocus, as well as original prime time documentaries, and education and community outreach.  Blueprint America has also created a web presence that will be a repository for original video and audio content, a source for related news links, and serve a place for public comment and debate. Visit the Blueprint America Website Here.

America 2050 is featured in this week's The Economist in an article about America's growing infrastructure problems.

"America 2050", led by the RPA and a committee of scholars and civic leaders, has a ... scheme for "megaregions", or networks of metros. The federal government should do what it can to ensure that these areas, first of all, have the infrastructure they need to thrive.

This means, among other things, an enhanced federal role in projects that cross state borders, including not only the interstates but intermodal freight and high-speed rail. A better system for evaluating a project's benefit--within a broader strategy for economic development, for example--would help the public get more for its money. Metros would be given more incentives to reduce congestion and sprawl.

...

If America does not act, says Robert Yaro of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), a body that plans for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region, it will have the infrastructure of a third-world country within a few decades. Economic growth will be constricted, and the quality of life will be diminished.

Link to the article here.

In June, National Public Radio launched a new series titled America's Crumbling Infrastructure.   Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and Robert Fishman, planning historian and professor at the University of Michigan were interviewed.  Rodin suggested that the philanthropic world will bring together key stakeholders and fund new ideas to improve the nation's infrastructure.  Fishman discussed the impact national planning has had, and will have, dating as far back as our founding fathers in the growth and development of the nation.  The vision for the 21st century, according to Fishman, is sustainability - our ability to adjust to conditions in the future. 

Click here for Judith Rodin and Robert Fishman's interviews. 

 

June 29th: Armando Carbonell, Chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy was interviewed on NPR's new series, America's Crumbling Infrastructure.  Carbonell addressed the question: Are Megaregions the future of Transportation?  He replied that this country needs a national vision and an integrated strategy that is informed by regional differences.  Megaregions offer the right scale for making infrastructure investments, such as high-speed rail.  Carbonell also stated that higher energy prices and climate change will alter the lifestyle of the American public. 

Listen to Armando Carbonell's interview.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell was also interviewed on the series, and addressed the question: who will pay to fix our crumbling infrastructure?  Rendell, along with NYC Mayor Bloomberg and California Governor Schwarzenegger started the "Building America's Future" coalition, which aims to achieve an economically viable future by getting into the business of fixing our infrastructure.  We have a $1.6 trillion backlog to bring our existing infrastructure to a state of good repair.  The top priority is bridges, followed by clean and waste water management.  But to do this, emphasized Rendell, we need federal assistance and leadership.  Referring to our history of national planning, Rendell states that we can keep up the legacy of our founding fathers, but we just need the will to get things done, and the federal government to step up to the plate. 

Listen to Gov. Ed Rendell's interview.

 

Residents of metropolitan regions emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions per person than people who live in non-metro areas, according to a report written by the Brookings Institution and co-released today by Regional Plan Association and America 2050.

The academic researchers also found that regions with a more-compact geographic footprint and rail transit offer a more energy and carbon efficient lifestyle than more sprawling, automobile-dependent areas. 

The 100 largest metros emit only 56 percent of the U.S. transportation and residential carbon emissions while housing 65 percent of the nation's population and producing 76 percent of the nation's economic output.

The New York metropolitan region, including New York City, Northern New Jersey, and Long Island, has the smallest per capita transportation emissions in the country but ranks higher in carbon emissions from its residential buildings. The report underscores the tremendous benefit to the environment of the New York region's extensive public transit network and the need to continue to invest in these systems as the region faces the projected growth of 3 million additional residents by the year 2030.

Read the Brookings report.

Read the carbon profiles for the top 100 metropolitan regions in the United States.

Read the press release.