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News from Transportation for America April 14, 2016

NEW RULE FOR MEASURING CONGESTION COMING FROM USDOT Will it just push communities to waste time & money trying to build their way out of it? Any day now, USDOT will release crucial new directions for how states and metro areas will be required to measure traffic congestion. Why does that matter? Because there’s a direct connection between how we decide to measure congestion and the resulting strategies for addressing it.  The new rule could push local communities to try in vain to build their way out of congestion, or mark a shift toward smarter approaches like investing in additional travel options, eliminating trips, reducing trip length, creating more affordable places to live close to jobs or more effectively managing travel demand.  We’re already laying the groundwork to push for a better measure if USDOT goes in the direction we suspect they will, but we won’t be able to do it alone. We’ll need cities, MPOs, transit agencies, the business community, state DOTs and advocates just like you to support our effort to ensure that the final congestion measure more fully accounts for all modes of transportation and doesn’t reinforce flawed 1950’s measures that are no longer appropriate for 21st century economies. READ MORE

recent news Georgia’s legislature enabled Atlanta to fund new transit & local projects The Georgia legislature successfully passed a pared-back bill to allow voters in the City of Atlanta to decide whether or not to raise new funds for expanded transit service throughout the city, in addition to other transportation investments. Read more. Rounding up other state efforts to improve transportation policy or raise new funding  With transportation funding and policy on the docket in scores of states, here’s a roundup of the progress being made in the states working to create more transparency, build more public trust in transportation spending, and even raise new money. Read more. Which communities passed the best Complete Streets policies in 2015? The Best Complete Streets Policies of 2015, released on Tuesday, highlights all of the Complete Streets policies passed across the country last year, spotlighting the 16 policies that scored as the best in the nation — including the first-ever perfect score. Read more. Did you miss our recent discussion on applying for the federal TIGER program?  If you missed our online discussion a few weeks ago about this year’s $500 million TIGER grant program and the new $800 million FASTLANE freight grant program, catch up here with the full presentation and audio. Read more.

SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR STATE POLICY CONFERENCE Join us in Sacramento on Nov 16-17 for the premier state transportation policy conference With Congress finally wrapping up their five-year transportation bill in late 2015, the focus is fully on states when it comes to policy and funding for transportation. Our second Capital Ideas conference focused on state transportation funding and policy is coming to Sacramento, CA this November 16-17, so mark your calendars, save the date and sign up here to be the first notified when registration opens. Our first Capital Ideas conference in Denver in 2014 “felt like the start of something big,” and we’re excited to bring it back this year. Our second Capital Ideas conference offers a detailed, interactive curriculum of best practices, campaign tactics, innovative policies, and peer-to-peer collaboration to help your initiative succeed — whether you are just beginning a funding campaign, fighting to advance smart policy changes, or defending a key legislative win. Sign up to be the first to get more information Articles we're talking about DC to offer incredibly cheap bikeshare memberships to lower-income residents — Greater Greater Washington System overload — The New Yorker  Uber and Lyft can patch holes in transit, but they can’t replace it — Nashville Business Journal  How to love your daily commute — The Guardian " From the Director's Desk We’re incredibly proud to welcome Lynn Peterson, the former head of the Washington State Department of Transportation, as our new senior transportation policy advisor at Smart Growth America. Our full announcement includes a detailed Q&A with her. Here’s a short excerpt with her thoughts on USDOT’s upcoming congestion performance measure. – Ed.  T4: How do the typical, crude roadway delay measures like the travel time index fail to capture a fuller picture of what’s actually happening with traffic congestion, especially in metro areas? Do those measures lead us to good solutions when we’re talking about maximizing benefits for minimal costs? Peterson: "A delay measure is good for analyzing a segment of roadway or intersection to get an idea of what a very specific type of user experiences at a certain time of day on a certain type of trip. But just one narrow measure like delay can never fully capture the complexity of the transportation system nor the complexity of the values in the community and state that need to be identified, acknowledged, measured and weighed to get to an appropriate set of solutions for an identified problem spot. "As I was taught in planning school, we have to learn to make decisions in the midst of multiple vague and competing goals. And we can’t do that without the most accurate information — not just a limited slice of data. "USDOT is on the right track with a shift to performance-based transportation decision-making, but it’s important that any congestion measure provide a picture of all modes and trip types and land uses to ensure that the resulting projects are the right size and will be lasting solutions for decades to come." Don’t miss the full Q&A here. Looking Back, Looking Ahead $20 million grant program to support smart transit-oriented development is open for business.  This small grant program is intended to help communities make the best use of land around transit lines and stops, efficiently locate jobs and housing near new transit stations, and boost ridership. The program is officially open for funding requests — read the official Notice of Funding Opportunity in the Federal Register and read this T4 post for more background on the program.  We're hiring an outreach director to manage a powerful national network consisting of local civic, business, elected and academic leaders. The successful candidate will assist with growing and executing the organization’s mission, as well as communicate with members, non-members and others in an outreach and relationship-building role. Learn how to apply.  Want to help produce this newsletter and write about many of the exciting things going on in communities across the country? Join our communications staff. Apply here. @T4America tweet of the week Fascinating findings in the data from the day DC's metro shut down for 24 hours. Bikeshare usage up big time. Apr 11, 2016 Follow us on twitter  Did you receive this message from a friend or coworker? Sign up here for news & updates from Transportation for America Transportation for America 1707 L Street NW #250 Washington, DC 20011 t4america.org You received this because the email address  is signed up with T4America. You can unsubscribe here. Any other issues? Email us at info@t4america.org