{"id":279228052,"date":"2013-11-06T19:20:52","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T19:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=279228052"},"modified":"2013-11-06T19:20:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T19:20:52","slug":"state-dots-brazenly-request-a-blank-check-to-build-more-highways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=279228052","title":{"rendered":"State DOTs Brazenly Request a Blank Check to Build More Highways"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Tanya Snyder, Streets Blog<br \/>\nThis is a money and power grab.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing and very AASHTO.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nAASHTO\u2019s recommendations boil down to one thing: less local control and more power at the state level. They want to wrest control over transit funds from transit agencies. They want more \u201cflexibility\u201d on every front. They want less distribution of funds to officials at the city or regional level \u2014 a move Lovaas calls \u201cregressive\u201d since \u201cmore and more people, businesses and jobs are becoming centralized in metro areas.\u201d<br \/>\nMAP-21\u2019s one real achievement, a provision allowing some degree of local control over funds for biking and walking, gets targeted in AASHTO\u2019s wish list. AASHTO complains that states aren\u2019t eligible for this relatively tiny pot of money, and demand to get their hands in the cookie jar that\u2019s closed to them.<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s more, Lovaas noted, AASHTO boldly resists any form of accountability. The association insists that no additional performance measures be implemented until the new ones from MAP-21 can be amply tested out. And yet they want to go full throttle with their agenda to accelerate \u201cproject delivery\u201d \u2014 basically making an end run around environmental and community scrutiny.<br \/>\nIndeed, AASHTO is positively allergic to performance measures. They want to make sure states aren\u2019t required to fix infrastructure that\u2019s in the worst condition first, though they don\u2019t explain why any other approach would make any sense. Over and over again, they affirm their \u201csteadfast opposition\u201d to \u201cusing performance measures as the basis for apportioning or allocating federal funds among the States\u201d \u2014 in other words, having any mechanism whatsoever to ensure that they don\u2019t spend billions of dollars on wasteful projects.<br \/>\nAbove all, AASHTO says over and over that \u201cthe implementation of MAP 21 [and any subsequent bill] should avoid any unnecessary administrative burdens or unnecessary restrictions on State flexibility.\u201d Translation: Hand over a blank check. Nowhere does AASHTO say how it intends to improve the transportation system,<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/dc.streetsblog.org\/2013\/10\/30\/state-dots-boldly-request-a-blank-check-to-build-more-highways\/\">https:\/\/dc.streetsblog.org\/2013\/10\/30\/state-dots-boldly-request-a-blank-check-to-build-more-highways\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Tanya Snyder, Streets Blog This is a money and power grab.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing and very AASHTO.\u201d &#8230; AASHTO\u2019s recommendations boil down to one thing: less local control and more power at the state level. They want to wrest control over transit funds from transit agencies. They want more \u201cflexibility\u201d on every front. They &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=279228052\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;State DOTs Brazenly Request a Blank Check to Build More Highways&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279228052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279228052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279228052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279228052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279228052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279228052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279228052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}