Michelle Obama visited "Sesame Street" last fall as part of her push to fight childhood obesity. Photo: Daily News

Mrs. Obama appeared with six Cabinet members, the Surgeon General, and several lawmakers and mayors to mark the president's official creation of a new Task Force on Childhood Obesity. As part of the first lady's new effort, the White House plans to expand the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, while setting up a Safe and Healthy Schools Fund during hte next reauthorization of federal elementary education law.

In her remarks to the press this afternoon, Mrs. Obama paid particular attention to the lifestyle shifts that have led many kids to a more sedentary routine -- and helped contribute to obesity rates of 17 percent for children and teens, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. (The same study found that one of every three U.S. kids are oversight.)

The first lady said:

In my home, we weren't rich. The foods we ate weren't fancy. But there was always a vegetable on the plate. And we managed to lead a pretty healthy life.

Many kids today aren't so fortunate. Urban sprawl and fears about safety often mean the only walking they do is out their front door to a bus or a car. Cuts in recess and gym mean a lot less running around during the school day, and lunchtime may mean a school lunch heavy on calories and fat. For many kids, those afternoons spent riding bikes and playing ball until dusk have been replaced by afternoons inside with TV, the Internet, and video games.

Yesterday we highlighted a Bob Mionske column that eloquently lays out inherent biases common in U.S. traffic codes and proposes measures we can take to start correcting them. One of them is strict liability, which generally assigns responsibility for a collision to the operator of the vehicle likely to do the most damage (just as motorists are expected to look out for cyclists, cyclists must look out for pedestrians).

This video, via Copenhagenize, explains. Says narrator Hans Voerknecht:

We say in the Netherlands: Car drivers should be aware of the situation, that they are in the machine that could kill, and that they should behave responsibly.

As reader Mitch alluded to yesterday, strict liability is primarily a civil law concept. But its value in establishing a culture of equity on the roads, as Mionske writes, is hard to dispute.

In [a] sense, the law is helping Dutch drivers to see cyclists. "Reasonable human beings in other countries see the cyclist," [SF Bicycle Coalition's] Andy Thornley notes. "How can we help drivers here to look harder?" Through laws that send the right signals when drivers fail in their duties to others.

Now that the Obama administration has awarded $8 billion in high-speed rail grants to more than two dozen states, with $2.5 billion more coming soon, why not keep thinking big when it comes to bullet-train expansion?

That's the ethos of a new report released today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) calling for a New Deal-like public works juggernaut that would eventually connect all major cities located within 100 and 500 miles of each other. For a look at how such a system would remake the American rail map, check out the image above.

"The first step in building the network is to set a national goal with an ambitious time frame, just like we did for the Interstate Highway System or getting to the moon," U.S. PIRG senior analyst Phineas Baxandall wrote in a blog post unveiling the report. "We can link all our major cities by 2050, if we set our minds to it."

Given the political wrangling over the deficit that continues to paralyze Washington, however, it's worth asking how an ambitious rail program would be funded. The U.S. PIRG answers that question in several ways: First, the group calls for a dedicated revenue stream for inter-city passenger rail in the next long-term transportation bill, with local investments matched by the federal government in the same 80:20 ratio that highway plans receive.

"By financing transportation projects equitably," the report's authors write, "states will be able to make rational transportation decisions based on the needs of their residents, rather than on the chances of securing a lucrative federal match."

Secondly, the U.S. PIRG aims to put government support for Amtrak -- often derided by conservatives for its reliance on federal subsidies that also benefit road projects -- in perspective. When evaluated as a share of U.S. GDP, government investment of passenger rail looks stunningly low compared with other industrialized nations. The imbalance is visible in the chart below:

(Chart: U.S. PIRG)

From the U.S. PIRG report:

To begin to dig out of that hole, the federal government should invest steadily increasing levels of funding in passenger rail. We probably cannot hope to match the $300 billion China will be investing in its high-speed rail system between now and 2020, but we should endeavor to match the level of investment provided by other industrialized nations, as a share of GDP, in their rail networks.

The group does not address the lingering debate over whether all planned U.S. inter-city rail projects can truly be called "high-speed" given that many would achieve maximum speeds little better than 110 miles per hour. Still, its vision of finishing the job begun by the White House this year is likely to fire up rail advocates and give helpful new tools to local planners.

Perhaps the "Mobility Tax" should be renamed in honor of Lew Fidler and Carl Kruger.

Despite the fact that the MTA's commuter rail lines, which keep suburban roads from turning into parking lots, are already more heavily subsidized than the subway, we are poised to enact a policy that will lessen the burden on the suburbs and hit the core of the region's economy the hardest.

Are bridge tolls or congestion pricing an option right now? The window to prevent this particular transit catastrophe by putting a price on wasteful driving probably isn't open any longer -- the revenue stream couldn't start flowing fast enough to balance the MTA's books. And the fact is, the same State Senate crew who killed bridge tolls last spring is still in power, and we're nine months closer to election day.

So think of the New York City payroll tax hike, if it comes to pass, as a testament to the obstinacy of Carl Kruger, Pedro Espada, Ruben Diaz, Sr., and the disgraced Hiram Monserrate -- as well as their GOP counterparts like Marty Golden and Andrew Lanza who sat idly by and did nothing to help the Ravitch plan last year.

Nine months after these NYC-based State Senators killed bridge tolls and nearly two years after members of the city's Assembly delegation stopped congestion pricing in its tracks, we now face the distinct possibility that NYC businesses will end up shouldering more than three times the payroll tax rate as suburban businesses. Think back to all the city politicians you've heard float make-believe proposals about reinstating the commuter tax or making only non-NYC motorists pay bridge tolls. This new tax on New York City -- on their constituents -- is their handiwork too.

Just think what he could accomplish if he put his mind to it. (Photo: Network Musings)

The moral of the story for Vinay is that people want to help, want to do the right thing, want to improve society. They just don't have the confidence to act and take the first step. They can't figure out the first step; they think the process will be complicated and difficult. They think no one will follow. They expect government to be the enabler.

Just do it, says Vinay. Think globally. His most pressing issues were environment, sanitation, and health -- intractable issues for the common Indian. Act individually. Vinay isn't going to wait for government. He believes individuals can work together to help themselves. His budding idea will include a website and hope to spur Indian youth to take action on issues that affect their daily lives.

Many people in India are making those individual efforts. In the nation's most populous city, Mumbai, they've organized a Car-Free Day for February 21st. It's the first such effort in Mumbai, which suffers from some of the world's most chronically congested traffic conditions.

And in the small town of Ferezopur, on the India-Pakistan border, temporary street closures for a festival inspired a few individuals to push for a permanent car-free zone. Local merchants were skeptical at first, but have been happy with the results, and the zone may eventually expand.

These are just a couple of examples of how, even in a nation of 1.17 billion people, individuals can take responsibility and drive progress -- if they just choose to act rather than wait for someone else to take the lead.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Myrtle Avenue today. The service road on the left is slated to become a pedestrian plaza. Image: Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, via Flickr

Although DOT and the Department of Design and Construction will ultimately select their own design team, local partners like the Myrtle Avenue BID were invited to hold "visioning workshops" for their sites. Rather than selecting a final design for the project, Friday night's event was intended to generate ideas and gauge public interest in different uses, with attendees writing their thoughts on clipboards and post-it notes.

The "New Wave" design featured an eye-catching centerpiece in its cantilevered awning, ecologically-minded materials like permeable pavement, and a sunken amphitheater for performances -- ideas that seemed to align well with the elements that participants asked for.

The New Wave design, by Jonathan Joseph, Gregór Nemitz-Ziadie and Lee Norsworthy. Image: Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, via Flickr.

Aaron Follett's bus shelter. Image: Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership via Flickr.

Christopher Peli offered perhaps the most fantastic vision of Myrtle Avenue. Calling his project "a movement against suburban planning techniques," he proposed a "dramatic overhead canopy" across the entire plaza which would light up section by section as pedestrians walked beneath:

Christopher Peli's design. Image: Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership via Flickr.

Michael Blaise Backer, the BID's director, said he saw three major themes emerge from the designs and the public feedback: public art, environmental sustainability, and spaces for unplanned performances. Those broader themes will now be communicated to DOT as guidelines for its design process. According to Backer, the city should announce an official design team for the plaza in about two months. 

"We will bring Republicans to the table," Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) said last week. (Photo: Cleveland.com)

Republicans in the House mounted a surprisingly vocal opposition to the first short-term extension in September, suggesting more resistance to come when Democrats in both chambers attempt to agree -- sometime before February 28 -- on legislation giving another planning reprieve to local transportation officials.

Even calls for a new extension by the road and business lobbies, reliable campaign donors to Democrats and Republicans alike, have fallen on deaf ears as lawmakers brace for a midterm election season dominated by anti-incumbent sentiment. Politico noted today that the GOP is preparing to oppose a $20 billion-plus infusion of taxpayer money to the highway trust fund, citing "concern about rising deficits."

That politically motivated foot-dragging is in some ways a nod to the extent and complexity of Washington's transportation financing problem. Rescuing the highway trust fund again may be a bitter pill to swallow, but with congressional leaders unwilling to look at a gas tax increase -- and no certainty that such a hike would even get the job done as Americans drive less in more fuel-efficient cars -- lawmakers have little to lose by extending the highway-centric 2005 transportation bill again this month, effectively hitting the snooze button on infrastructure policy.

Still, not every Republican is opposed to making the hard choices necessary to raise revenue for a new transportation bill. That was the message that Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) delivered to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood during a recent House Appropriations Committee hearing. As LaTourette told his former GOP colleague (emphasis mine):

[E]ven though I have the greatest respect for you and the president ... kicking this can down the road to March 2011 is irresponsible. This has to be worked out. This isn't a problem that you're all of a sudden some light bulb's going to go on after listening for 18 months. We knew it when we passed [the 2005 federal transport law], we knew we were going to have this problem [with financing].

And I'm telling you, as I told Mr. Oberstar, we will bring Republicans to the table. I get that the Democrats are scared because of some of the election results, they don't want to have a tax increase on top of the other things that are going on around here. But the fact of the matter is, it's time for leadership on this issue, and it is irresponsible, in my opinion, to not deal with this.

LaTourette added that LaHood may be under pressure of his own not to put the White House on record in favor of a new tax increase -- even one that might help break the transportation financing logjam. "Early in your tenure," LaTourette told LaHood, "[you] made some observations about [the prospects for a] vehicle miles traveled [tax]. I got the feeling you were summoned down to the White House pretty quickly after that, and you stopped talking about things like that. But it's got to be done."

Could LaTourette's confidence translate into GOP support for new taxes to help pay for the next long-term transportation bill? A tax increase of some kind is likely the only chance Congress will have to close the $140 billion-plus gap between estimated gas tax revenues and the six-year legislation envisioned by the House transportation committee.

But Republicans won't have to consider coming "to the table," in LaTourette's words, if Democrats stay silent on the issue before the midterm elections. And LaHood's preferred extension timetable of spring 2011 still may be too early for gun-shy lawmakers to sit down and solve the government's transportation funding problem.

"March of 2011 will be a new Congress," Rep. Tom Latham (IA), the senior Republican among House transportation appropriators, told LaHood . "Lord knows what's going to happen. That really kicks it, probably, another year down the road."

It usually takes a more serious degree of negligence (for example, drunk driving or excessive speed) for a driver to injure or kill another driver. And when that happens, prosecutors can use that more serious degree of negligence to bring the offender to justice. But when the offending driver has been merely inattentive -- "I didn't see him" is the most common excuse drivers make after hitting a cyclist -- or has otherwise failed to exercise due care, the choices most often available to police and prosecutors are to do nothing, or to charge the driver with a minor offense that does not reflect the harm the driver actually caused.

Of course we see this play out almost daily in New York. As of this writing, in 2010 alone we know of 13 pedestrian and cyclist fatality cases in which the driver was reportedly charged with no wrongdoing. Inadequate laws combined with an apparent necessity or eagerness to close cases means that even when a driver is "brought to justice," his or her punishment often amounts to a cruel joke.

"The basic problem we face," writes Mionske, "is that in most states there are appropriate penalties for drivers who commit minor offenses like failure to yield, and there are appropriate penalties for drivers who commit the most egregious offenses, like killing somebody while driving drunk. But there's no middle ground -- no appropriate penalties for those who kill through carelessness, and no justice for those who were killed because somebody else shirked their duty to exercise due care."

Unlike in other countries, says Mionske, where the onus of safety is placed on the operator of the heavier vehicle, the "invisible" cyclist or pedestrian defense creates an easy excuse for American drivers not to exercise due care. As with drunk driving in decades past, the problem will require a combination of cultural upheaval and (often subsequent) political will. Mionske points to vulnerable user regulations -- like New York's Hayley and Diego's Law, pending in the current legislative session -- as an important step because they fill this void in the justice system.

The first phase of Minneapolis's bike-share system will consist of about 1,000 bikes at 75 kiosks. Image: Nice Ride Minnesota.

The multi-city horse race is fun to track, but Nice Ride director Bill Dossett downplayed the competition. "My view is that if all of us weren't doing this, then none of us would be," he said.

As each of these cities figures out how to make bike-share work, one of the interesting things to watch is how they get people excited about the idea of public bikes. For Nice Ride, the name of the game is public health and economic development. The project has attracted a broad range of support, with major chunks of funding coming courtesy of health insurer BlueCross BlueShield and contributions from local businesses.

A $1.75 million federal grant will cover much of the initial cost, with $1 million from BlueCross providing most of the remainder. "BlueCross BlueShield is all about fighting obesity right now," said Dossett. "They're interested in anything that encourages physical activity."

Small businesses in Minneapolis's downtown retail area are bullish on bike-share, he added, "because it's an economic development tool. It gets people to come out to lunch from office towers a mile away."

Subscriptions ($60 per year, $5 per day) will cover 80 percent of the cost of running Nice Ride, with contributions from local businesses -- who can pay to sponsor individual bike-share kiosks -- taking care of the rest. Other bike-share systems, including Washington's SmartBike and Paris's Velib, rely heavily on contracts with major outdoor advertising firms, which have proven problematic on more than one occasion.

After Nice Ride's first season, which runs through November (the kiosks will be removed during the winter), Dossett hopes to expand beyond the downtown core and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. "Our plan is to expand into new neighborhoods through partnerships with local businesses," he said. "We hope to be doing those kind of constantly."

The cul-de-sac's glory days may be past. (Photo: piermario via Flickr)

Early last year the state of Virginia became the first state to severely limit cul-de-sacs from future development.  Similar actions have been taken in Portland Oregon, Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina.  What they are beginning to realize is that the cul-de-sac street grid uses land inefficiently, discourages walking and biking, and causes an almost complete dependence on driving, with attendant pollution and energy use. Furthermore, town officials are beginning to realize that unconnected streets cost more money to provide services to and force traffic onto increasingly crowded arterial roads, which then, in many cases, need to be widened (more tax money)...

With municipal and state budgets at the breaking point, why aren't CT officials looking at land use patterns and their accompanying expenditures and begin the process of growing smarter? I don't know about you, but I am willing to live without the cul-de-sac if it would save me some tax money. 

More from around the network: Beat Bike Blog has a great little item about an older gentleman who rides his bike in Hartford, Connecticut:

In this bike's owner, we have personified the nullification of every excuse anyone has ever given for not riding. You think you're too old? Unless you are well into your 70's or older, this man has you beat. Too cold? Temps were in the low 20s this particular afternoon. Are you too tired, too sore, too out of shape? I invite you to check out the custom cane mount. This man walks with a cane, hooks it on to the rack and frame of his heavy single-speed bike and rides on.

And Tucson Bike Lawyer has the story of a good Samaritan who chased down a drunk driver after she hit and dragged a bicyclist -- and took her keys away from her so she couldn't flee the scene. 

Wednesday: The East Coast Greenway is missing a critical link through the Meadowlands. Catch NJTransit's 190 bus and come support a connection at a public hearing in Secaucus. 6 p.m.

Also Wednesday: Manhattan Community Board 3 hears a presentation on the DOT/MTA proposal for Select Bus Service along the M15 route, and discusses a red light camera at Houston Street and Avenue A. 6:30 p.m.

Thursday: Plugging cars in at the curb? NYC DOT's Bruce Schaller moderates a panel discussion on the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Is it compatible with cities? 6 p.m.

Mayor Bloomberg is expected to announce his verdict on Times Square's new pedestrian spaces very soon. Will the changes be permanent? This morning Bloomberg told radio host John Gambling that we'll find out sometime next week. In the meantime, it seems like the media has decided to fixate on rumors that Midtown traffic speeds may not have increased across the board, without paying much attention to the tremendous difference this project has made for hundreds of thousands of pedestrians every day.

It's been eight months since this part of Broadway went car-free, and maybe it's hard to recall just how bad Times Square used to be for everyone walking around. To really appreciate what we have today, you've got to take a trip back in time to see the crowded, dangerous mess that used to fester at the crossroads of the world. Naturally, the moment calls for a Streetfilms retrospective.

Karen Schmeer. Photo: Garret Savage

• Pedestrian Karen Schmeer, 39, Killed on Upper West Side by Driver Fleeing Police; 1 Charged With Murder; DA Cy Vance Opens Query Into Crash (Streetsblog 1, 2)
• Bayside, Queens: Unidentified Pedestrian, Three Months Pregnant, Killed Jan. 12 on Union Turnpike; No Charges; Former Boss Wants Safer Street (YourNabe)
  

Injuries, Arrests and Property Damage

• Gothamist Newsmap: Unidentified Pedestrian Struck on Ocean Parkway
  
• YourNabe Brooklyn Blotter: Driver Charged With Reckless Endangerment for Buzzing Cop
  
• Brooklyn Heights: FedEx Driver Smashes Into Building, "Clips" Pedestrian (Bklyn Eagle, YourNabe)
• Morris Park, Bronx: Thief Takes Idling NYPD SUV for a Spin (News)
• Kew Gardens Hills: Cab Driver Caught After Hit and Run (Post [Blotter])
• More Post Blotter: Insurance Fire, DWIs in Staten Island, Queens
  
• Brooklyn: 61-Year-Old Charged With DWI After Belt Pkwy Crash (YourNabe)

Frank Justich, the beloved sanitation worker run down while on duty last week, was honored by the city, but the truck driver who killed him has not been charged. Photo: News

• No Charges From DA Vance for Howard Safir Hit-and-Run (Streetsblog, News, City Room)
• Killer Gets No More Than Seven Years for 1997 Houston Hit-and-Run, Fleeing Country (Streetsblog)
  
• Six Month Max for Speeding SI Teen Who Ran Light, Killed Man Waiting for Bus (Streetsblog)
  
• Friends, Family and Co-Workers Mourn Fallen Sanitation Worker Frank Justich (News, YourNabe)
• NYPD Says It's Cracking Down on Hylan Blvd. Drivers Following Death of Daniel Kelley (Advance)
  
• NYC and Miami Cyclists Ride in Solidarity Sunday for Slain Christophe Le Canne (Transit Miami)
• Laurel, MS: Civil Suit Begins in 2001 Death of Mets Prospect Brian Cole (News)

Photo: AP/Post

• Two Staten Islanders Dead in VA, PA DUI Crashes (Advance)
  
• Cherry Hill, NJ: Small Plane Makes Emergency Landing on Jersey Turnpike (News)
• East Brunswick, NJ: Driver Flips SUV on Turnpike; Post Has a Laugh
  
• Northampton, LI: Driver Runs Stop Sign, Hit by Transit Bus; 1 Dead, Several Hurt (WINS)
  
• Vowing to Reduce Collisions, SFPD Chief Initiates Review of Bike-Ped Policies (Streetsblog SF)
• Los Angeles: Man Found Guilty of Murder Two in Rage-Induced Pedestrian Death (LAT)
• Lowell, MA: Truck Driver Crashes Into House After Choking on Fast Food (News)
• Actor Justin Mentell Killed in One-Vehicle Crash in Wisconsin (AP)
• Less Than a Year Later, DWI Killer Donte Stallworth Free to Resume Life as NFL Star (AP)
  

Other News

• Daily News Issues Half-Serious Call for More Life-Saving Traffic Cams (Streetsblog) 
  
• Elmhurst Ped Summit: Docs, Not NYPD, Doing the Detective Work on Injury Data (Queens Chron)
• TLC Starts Enforcing Zero Tolerance Policy on Distracted Cabbies (Post)
• Truckers' Share of LIE Crashes Has Almost Doubled Since 2002 (WINS)
  
• Feds Investigating Prius Brake Failures (NYT)
  
• Insurers Say "Softer" Car Bumpers Too Expensive to Fix After They Hit People (T'Hugger)
• Texting Laws Tough to Enforce in Places Where It's Legal to Talk and Drive (SJR)

* Deaths reported or discovered this week
** Based on latest available reports

Fewer cars means more walking and healthier kids. Image: jeweledlion via Flickr.

Could reducing traffic near children's homes help America combat its obesity epidemic? A new study conducted by UC Berkeley professor Michael Jerrett strongly suggests the answer is yes.

Obesity rates are steadily increasing -- more than one-fifth of New Yorkers are now obese, and even that figure is well below the national average. With obesity strongly linked to dangerous diseases like diabetes and asthma, a great deal of research has gone into uncovering the factors at work.

The quality of the built environment matters tremendously. Everything from mixed-use development to street connectivity to park access has been shown to affect physical activity, Jerrett notes, thus affecting obesity rates.

The new research, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, makes a crucial addition to what we know already. Jerrett shows that not only does the built environment matter, but traffic volumes matter too. His team's long-term study tracked children from across Southern California, starting from ages 9-10 and continuing through high school. Controlling for a wide variety of factors, they compared the children's body mass indexes (BMI) to the density of traffic near their homes.

Children living within 150 meters of high-traffic areas were found to have, on average, BMIs five percent higher than those living near low-traffic areas. Only the immediate surroundings seem to matter: Traffic levels within 300 or 500 meters didn't affect BMI.

The researchers put forward two explanations for why high traffic contributes to obesity. The first is that real or perceived danger from cars reduces walking and biking. The other is that too much traffic contributes to high asthma rates, which make physical activity more difficult and less frequent.

James Sallis, director of the Active Living Research Program at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which commissioned the study, says Jerrett's research stands out because it tracked a large sample of kids for a long period of time, giving it strong scientific value. "This actually points to some solutions," he added, noting that not every study commissioned by the program has such clear implications for policy.

Just last week, New York City released its Active Design Guidelines, bringing together the city's transportation and city planning departments with the health department. Jerrett's report suggests that policies that help reduce traffic -- like congestion pricing, performance parking, and off-street parking reform -- should be a necessary component of the effort to fight obesity and improve New Yorkers' health.

Meanwhile, the DA's office has found no evidence that former NYPD Commissioner Howard Safir broke any laws during a January 8 incident involving a pedestrian on the Upper East Side, the spokesperson said.

"Our office conducted a further factual inquiry, which we often do," the spokesperson told Streetsblog. "We did not find any evidence of a crime, and therefore the inquiry is closed."

From what Streetsblog has been able to ascertain, there was no proof of injury to Joanne Valarezo, the 30-year-old pregnant Bronx woman who said Safir bumped her with his SUV and, after she confronted him, drove away. Though police reported that Safir did indeed back into Valarezo and leave the scene, Safir later said he was unaware he hit anyone as he maneuvered his double-parked Escalade on Third Avenue between 80th and 81st Streets. The DA's office decided not to pursue the inquiry further since details of the incident hinged on conflicting stories.

It's a complicated question, and we suggest that you go and read his very thoughtful post in full. Here's a taste:

Too many roads to nowhere. (Photo: Peter Zarria via Flickr)

Among urban and rural areas, who subsidizes whom?

It's methodologically difficult to measure net taxation, but the studies that have been done suggest that, contrary to the belief of some, urban areas are big time net tax donors. For example, a recent Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute study found that Indiana's urban and suburban counties generally subsidize rural ones...

Exhibit A is transportation. Two-thirds of Americans live in large metro areas, yet less than half the federal transportation stimulus funds are going to the top 100 metro areas. Missouri is spending half its stimulus money on 89 small counties that account for only a quarter of the state's population. In Ohio, the state cancelled plans to spend $100 million in stimulus funds on the crumbling Cleveland Inner Belt bridge in order to divert them to paying for a $150 million bypass around Nelsonville -- a town of only 5,000 people. This is part of a plan to construct a four-lane divided highway into sparsely populated southeast Ohio as part of a “build it and they will come” economic development plan. Mecklenburg County, NC, the state's largest and home to Charlotte, received only $7.8 million out of the first $423 million in projects in that state. The Atlantic Monthly described this as a contest between a “mayor's stimulus” and a “governor's stimulus” -- and the governor won.

State after state has rural “roads to nowhere.” Without any legitimate economic development strategy on offer for depressed rural areas and small industrial cities, salvation is said to lie in access to four lane highways. The logic is that until every county in America is crisscrossed with these things, somehow residents are deprived of their due. This plays well to rural resentment, allowing people who are by nature proud believers in self-reliance and dismissive of welfare to claim instead that they've been cheated out of their “fair share” of transportation money...

Regardless, a lack of transportation investment is crippling our cities, many of which have congested, crumbling roads and shaky bridges... [G]overnance reform at the state level is critical to bring transportation funding allocations in line with real population and economic development measures. That's not to say that rural areas should get no funding. There are many areas where legitimate state funding is warranted, such as replacing substandard bridges or correcting roads with dangerous geometry. But that doesn't mean states should spend huge amounts of money on large rural expansion projects of dubious value that rob urban areas of the funds needed for projects with genuine transportation merit and real economic development potential.

More from around the network: Westside Bikeside has problems with a plan to use federal funds for a $30 million bike path along the beach in Los Angeles. Biking in LA sees it another way. And Bike Delaware News has an open letter asking Rep. Mike Castle to support the Active Community Transportation Act.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (Photo: LV City Life)

Harry Reid (D-NV), the upper chamber's majority leader, told reporters that he was "hopeful" a bipartisan jobs bill could be ready for public view within the next day or two, followed by a first vote on Monday. "If not," he added, "[Democrats] will lay one down ourselves."

The Obama administration has called for the Senate to add more funding for TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery), the stimulus law's $1.5 billion merit-based grant program, to its jobs plan. Reid indicated on Tuesday that his party was receptive to more TIGER aid.

Another infrastructure-centric provision attracting broad interest is an extension of Build America Bonds (BABs), which allow local governments to finance transportation projects more easily by offering a 35 percent federal subsidy. New York City's transit authority is one of many local agencies turning to BABs to make debt offerings more attractive to private investors.

Finally, the politically tricky status of the highway trust fund remains on Congress' plate, with the House and Senate still at odds over how to keep it funded nearly five months after the first expiration of the nation's 2005 federal transportation law.

Reid said earlier this week that a one-year extension of the trust fund likely would be added to the Senate's jobs bill. But with Senate Democrats aiming to coax Republicans on board by breaking up their economic-recovery agenda into smaller pieces, it remains to be seen whether the trust fund, BABs, or TIGER will make it into the legislation set for votes on Monday.

Also left unanswered is how much, if any, spending the Senate would direct at ready-to-go transportation projects. An initial jobs-bill outline circulated last week suggested that $14 billion for roads and $7.5 billion for transit could make it into the legislation, but Democrats offered no hint of whether those numbers were still in the mix.

The office of Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who has taken the lead on the infrastructure elements of her party's jobs program, did not immediately return a request for clarification of the timing for transportation spending.

If Senate Democrats were sure of anything this morning, however, it was the need for speedy consideration of the yet-to-emerge jobs provisions. "Let's put these on the floor and move on them with a sense of urgency," Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said.

Illustrating the pitfalls of the Democratic hopefulness that the still-to-come jobs plan could win GOP support is the following quote, which Politico attributes to a spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY):

I watched the Democrat leadership's press conference just now and what I learned is that there will be a vote Monday on 'a bill.' But that they don’t know what’s in the bill or how many jobs they expect it to 'save or create,' or when anyone beyond the Beltway will see it, or how much it will cost. They did have a nice sign, though, and a pretty handout, so they obviously gave this some thought.