I guess since you could build an entire nation of bicycle and pedestrian facilities with only several billion dollars, its probably just WAY too cost effective to get the economy going again. (Sarcasm)

Trust me. I hear where people are coming from. Luckily NJ TRANSIT has got the Access to the Regions Core (ARC) tunnel ready to go, so hopefully that will get some much needed federal dollars; some of which could even replace monies already put on the table by our dead broke state. Also NJ TRANSIT has got quite a few other great rail projects in the wings so hopefully they too will get some serious attention and brought to the fore.

The reference to the border and beyond was merely a jab at our federal spending on homeland security and defense…it had nothing to do with transportation. The 90% federal match you mention was already discussed in my prior comment as the “double standard.” I’ll try not to use as much blanket language; point taken.

Your claim that the federal government gives “the states the benefit of the doubt on what transportation mode they want to actually invest in” is totally false. Although states are responsible for proposing projects, the federal government is extremely interested in transportation mode. Interstate highway projects can get a 90% match (e.g., states pay only a tenth), which is extremely rare for public transit or rail projects anywhere in the country. If, as you suggest, the federal government is “more interested in designing their allocations for things like whatever we do on the border and beyond”, why is most federal transportation spending made nowhere near a border?

http://change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy_agenda/

Strengthen Core Infrastructure: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will make strengthening our transportation systems, including our roads and bridges, a top priority. As part of this effort, Obama and Biden will create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. These projects will directly and indirectly create up to two million new jobs per year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.

Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities: Our communities will better serve all of their residents if we are able to leave our cars to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives. As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account.

… so… is he sticking to this or not?

All: It is foolish to criticize Obama for talking about roads and bridges as a short-term response to the current economic emergency. As I have said before, economic stimulus funding has to be spent on projects that are ready to go, where all the planning has been done and they can hire contractors as soon as they get the money. Almost all the ready-to-go projects are roads, very few are rail or other alternatives.

That is the inevitable short-term response, but let’s see what he does when it is time to reauthorize federal transportation spending and he has to propose a long-term policy.

Minimum of 13.5 million per year according to someone I heard on Bloomberg Radio. 12 million is not enough.

Guess what — it may not even be possible to get bicycles next year. Bicycles come from China. A freeze in the letter of credit market is hurting trade. Maybe we can get China to stimulate bicycles.

We are going to print-up $35 billion to bail out the auto industry. That is enough to give every tax payer a $300 bicycle. After doing that, do you really think that Washington is going to turn around and ask consumers to not buy cars and get on our bikes or take the bus? We used to be citizens and now we are consumers, things have been going down hill ever since.