Petra Todorovich is Director of America 2050, a national urban planning initiative to develop an infrastructure and growth strategy for the United States. She has written articles on transportation and infrastructure policy and is a frequent speaker on the topics of transportation policy, megaregions, and national planning. Prior to the launch of America 2050, Ms. Todorovich directed Regional Plan Association’s Region’s Core program and coordinated the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, a network of organizations that came together shortly after 9/11 to promote the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site and Lower Manhattan.
View this complete post...Archive for the ‘Highway’ Category
Guest on The Infra Blog: Petra Todorovich, Director, America 2050
Tuesday, March 9th, 20102010 Infrastructure Conference hosted by Iona College
Friday, February 26th, 2010On April 8th, Iona College in New Rochelle, New York will host an surface transportation infrastructure conference that will bring together top-level business and political leaders. The conference, titled “Confronting the Crisis:Solving Our Regional Transportation Infrastructure Issues” will focus on regional needs as well as practical solutions going forward.
Anyone who is interested in finding more [...]
The Route to Reform: Blueprint for a 21st Century Federal Transportation Program
Thursday, February 18th, 2010…America stands in desperate need of a new vision for our national transportation system. Just as the Interstate highway bill answered some of the most pressing mobility needs of the rapidly growing nation in the mid-20th century, a new federal surface transportation bill must answer the vastly different needs of America in the 21st century. The next transportation program must set about the urgent task of repairing and maintaining our existing transportation assets, building a more well-rounded transportation network, and making our current system work more efficiently and safely to create complete and healthy communities…
View this complete post...Healthy, Equitable Transportation Policy: Recommendations and Research
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010POLICYLINK
In St. Louis, MO, major cuts in bus service this spring left workers, students, disabled people, and elderly residents stranded and feeling bereft. Stuart and Dianne Falk, who are both in wheelchairs, told CNN they no longer would be able to get to the gym or the downtown theater company where they volunteer. “To be saddled, to be imprisoned, that is what it is going to feeling like,” Stuart Falk said…
FUTURE MOBILITY IN CALIFORNIA: The Condition, Use and Funding of California’s Roads, Bridges and Transit System
Thursday, January 21st, 2010California faces an estimated annual transportation funding shortfall of $10.9 billion to improve the state’s roads, bridges and public transportation systems. The state’s residents incur a significant cost as a result of roads and highways being congested, deteriorated or lacking some desirable safety features. A failure to eliminate or reduce the state’s transportation funding shortfall will likely increase these costs incurred by Californians…
View this complete post...Transportation, Small Towns, and Rural Communities
Thursday, January 14th, 2010TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA
Access to jobs, schools, shopping, and critical community services is vital for Americans living in small cities and towns, and rural communities. But all too often there aren’t options for getting around, forcing families to drive long distances on poorly maintained roads to reach everyday destinations. By failing to preserve our existing transportation network and harness the power of new technologies, we are leaving millions of Americans isolated from economic opportunity…
DETROIT: A CASE STUDY OF OUR TRANSIT PROBLEMS
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009Detroit is a “a grim symbol of America’s diminished status in the world,” according to PBS’ Blueprint America. The former car capital exemplifies our country’s need for more efficient, sustainable and reliable transportation paradigms. PBS will be broadcasting a 90-minute documentary in February that looks at the history of Detroit’s transportation identity, and the state of transportation in America, by setting Detroit’s “blighted urban landscape” against modern examples of success. Watch a preview of BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY below, or visit this PBS.org page to read more…
View this complete post...The ASCE Report Card: A Final Thought at the Close of 2009
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. The cumulative grade of D was the engineers’ independent, learned assessment of the nation’s infrastructure. At the start of this year, the engineers released the 2009 Report Card, and again, a grade of D was assigned.
Is this progress? Will 2010 present new opportunities that may be seized upon?
View this complete post...Transportation Adaptation to Global Climate Change
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER
Rising sea levels, greater weather variability, and more extreme weather events like hurricanes, permafrost thawing, and melting Arctic sea ice are just some of the important changes that will impact transportation networks and infrastructure. Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable. A large portion of the nation’s transportation infrastructure is in coastal zones: nearly half of the U.S. population lives within fifty miles of the coast, and many roads, rail lines, and airports were built at or near water’s edge to take advantage of available right-of-way and land. Increasingly intense storm activity and surges, exacerbated by rising sea levels, are putting an ever-increasing range of this coastal infrastructure at risk…
AASHTO Survey of the States: 9,500 Ready-to-Go Transportation Projects
Friday, December 11th, 2009AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS
“We need to keep the momentum going. The unemployment rate in the construction trades today
exceeds 18 percent. There is still a need to invest more in transportation projects if that’s what it
takes to create jobs and bring unemployment down. What the state DOTs have done over the past
eight months to put economic recovery dollars to work shows there is no better way to create jobs
and long-lasting benefits in every part of the country.”
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