Andrea Bernstein

The Hill is reporting that House Speaker John Boehner is making one last push to rally Republicans around his $260 billion transportation bill.

From the report:

Boehner bluntly warned lawmakers that if the House does not pass its own bill, it will be stuck with a two-year, $109 billion Senate bill, or “something that looks just like it,” according to a source in the room.

“You don’t like that? I don’t like it either. Why would any of us like it?” the Speaker told his members. “It means punting on the opportunity to pass an infrastructure bill that bears our stamp. It means giving up on the opportunity to make sure a bill is enacted that is responsibly paid for, that has full-scale reforms in it and, most importantly, that is linked to increased production of American energy.

“But right now, it’s the plan.”

More soon.

Sad news for those of us who've pounded the NY MTA for information over the last five years -- Jeremy Soffin, relatively newly married and the father of a newborn, will be leaving as the agency's chief spokesman.

Soffin's been there through several MTA chiefs, including Jay Walder, who left this October for a job in Hong Kong.

It's tough job answering for the nation's largest transit agency -- and of the few in the world that runs 24/7 -- and we certainly have asked our share of tough questions.

We wish him well.

A Queens NY driving school at the center of a fraud scandal is being suspended, and as a result, 174 people who used the school to obtain commercial drivers licenses must be retested.

From the press release:

"The school's owners, Ying Wai Phillip Ng and Pui Kuen Ng, who are married, were charged last week with conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with the operation of the driving school. The couple allegedly fraudulently assisted an undercover agent in passing a written commercial drivers' license permit test through the use of an elaborate system using a hidden camera and pager."

"The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has identified the commercial drivers' license holders who were customers of the N&Y driving school. The DMV is notifying them that they must be retested immediately or their licenses will be suspended. Failure to call the DMV by this Friday to schedule a retest will result in an immediate suspension of their commercial drivers' license."

Literally, in this week's New Yorker cover, Romney drives away with it, with Santorum in the doghouse.

Gas prices, the auto industry bail-out, domestic oil production...

This election is all about transportation.

Questions, anyone?

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised that a proposed new casino/convention center in Queens wouldn't cost anything to the NY MTA.  But at a Crain's Breakfast forum this week, an executive for the development firm set to build the complex seemed to carve out a loophole -- one caused by the borough's own transit needs.

Here's an exchange between Genting Sr. VP Christian Goode and moderator Greg David:

Q: Do you expect the organization would have to spend money on transportation infrastructures to improve access to the site?

A: What we warranted -- what we represented up front if there’s infrastructure that’s  needed we would work collectively.  I think the infrastructure needs have been identified for a long time for the area.  Our project would be just one more reason to do it.  I think from the city perspective, the state perspective, highways and stuff  -- I think there’s already a plan by the DOT, and so on and so forth,  that there’s a need for infrastructure upgrades.

What we represented is that, if we have express service from the MTA coming out we would fund the capital costs of that. Now other things I think are in discussion --

Some local elected officials brought up the Rockaway spur, the Rockaway express line that could be reconstituted -- probably most likely necessary to provide adequate mass transit to the residents of Queens in general.

When you compare Queens to Brooklyn to the Bronx, and certainly to Manhattan their access to mass transit is significantly less than the other boroughs whether there be express bus or train service.

I think there is a need our project would add to the need. We look forward working cooperatively and collaboratively to go through that process. How the finances work out its way to early to tell. I don’t know all the research and analysis has been done to see what could become and what that would cost .

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission is making your ride even more commercial -- beginning soon, your taxi receipt will have an advertisement, like this one.  

TLC Chairman David Yassky  says any ad revenue the industry makes could potentially keep prices down for customers.

“The credit card vendors would get the advertising revenue. The theory is that it holds down the fees they charge to taxi owners and holds down fare pressure,” Yassky explained.

But the drivers group Taxi Workers Alliance opposes having ads on the back of taxi receipts, since cabbies won’t share in the revenue. The group’s Executive Director Bhairavi Desai said drivers haven’t received a fare increase since 2004, yet they pay at least five percent for every credit card transaction.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics says passenger airlines employed 2.7 percent more workers in December 2011 than they did in December 2010, making it the 13th straight month of growth.

Here's the BTS release:

U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 2.7 percent more workers in December 2011 than they did in December 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today. This is the 13th consecutive month that full-time equivalent employee (FTE) levels for the scheduled passenger carriers have been higher than the same month of the previous year.  FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the December FTE total of 389,728 for the scheduled passenger carriers was 10,077 more than that of December 2010. These monthly increases reflect gradual improvement in the industry’s employment following declines that began in July 2008. Historic employment data can be found on the BTS web site.

Of the network airlines, only Delta Air Lines, which has been eliminating duplicate positions following its merger with Northwest Airlines, decreased employment from December 2010 to December 2011. Continental Airlines reported 14.5 percent more FTEs in December 2011 than in December 2010, the largest increase among the network carriers. US Airways followed Continental with a 2.9 percent increase. Network airlines operate a significant portion of flights using at least one hub where connections are made for flights to down-line destinations or spoke cities.

All seven low-cost carriers reported more FTEs in December 2011 than in December 2010, except for Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines, which reported a 1.2 percent decrease and a 4.9 percent decrease, respectively. The low-cost carriers with more reported FTEs are Virgin America Airlines, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways, AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines.

Among the 17 regional carriers, the six carriers reporting reduced employment levels compared to last year were Horizon Airlines, Republic Airlines, Comair, Mesaba Airlines, Mesa Airlines and Executive Airlines.

Scheduled passenger airline categories include network, low-cost, regional and other airlines.

On Wednesday, I'll be moderating a panel at the NYC Transit Museum on our documentary "Back of the Bus: Mass Transit, Race, and Inequality."  I'll be playing clips, showing slides, and chatting with Elena Conte of the Pratt Center, Anita Hairston of PolicyLink, and Cecil Corbin-Mark of WEACT about continuing issues surrounding race and mass transit in New York and around the nation. Come join the discussion!

In the typical definition of housing affordability, your rent or mortgage would be a third, or less, of your income.   And by that standard, some 76 percent of neighborhoods are affordable.  But when you add in transportation costs, the results are jarring:  fewer than a third of American neighborhoods -- just 28 percent -- are affordable.

Those results come by way of a new analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago -- and they're significantly worse than results CNT published a year ago -- which looked at older data, and a smaller sample size.  In the older study, 69 percent of homes were affordable, based on 2000 census data under the narrower definition, while 39 percent were affordable adding in transportation costs.

"It's very stark," said the CNT's Scott Bernstein, who spoke of traveling through the country and seeing "entire subdivisions that got built and were never occupied, or are empty because people moved out."

For the last five years, on average, Bernstein says 200,000 families moved in with another family.

And these figures don't take into account recent spikes in gas prices.

The data also show what a profound difference good transit makes to transportation costs.   In the New York-New Jersey region, the average transportation costs is $10,158 a year.  But in areas with good transit, that number plummets to $1985.  Areas with the least access to transit cost $19,003 a year.

In Houston, the range is $7958 on the low end, and $19181 on the high end.  In Orlando, it's $9203 and $17705.

And in San Francisco/Oakland, it's $5368 and $19709.

You can see a ranking of metro areas, by transportation costs, here.

President Obama (White House photo)

President Barack Obama all but danced on his opponents graves today, choosing the day the GOP battles it out in Michigan to address American autoworkers.  Those opponents -- both of whom opposed the auto bailout -- haven't made things better for themselves by citing the number cars they own (Romney--four, including two Cadillacs), his friends among Nascar owners (Romney) and how gas prices caused the recession (Santorum)

President Obama was particularly gleeful about all the money his new mileage standards will save -- $8000 "over time," he says.

After three decades of inaction, we’re gradually putting in place the toughest fuel economy standards in history for our cars and pickups.  That means the cars you build will average nearly 55 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade -- almost double what they get today.  (Applause.)  That means folks, every time they fill up, they're going to be saving money.  They'll have to fill up every two weeks instead of every week.  That saves the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time. That means we’ll cut our oil consumption by more than 2 million barrels a day.  That means we have to import less oil while we're selling more cars all around the world.

Here's the full transcript.

THE PRESIDENT:  How's it going, UAW?  (Applause.)  It is good to be with some autoworkers today!  (Applause.)  All right. Everybody have a seat, get comfortable.  Go ahead and get comfortable.  I'm going to talk for a little bit.  (Applause.) 

First of all, I want to say thank you to one of the finest leaders that we have in labor -- Bob King.  Give it up for Bob.  (Applause.)  I want to thank the International Executive Board and all of you for having me here today.  It is a great honor.  I brought along somebody who is proving to be one of the finest Secretaries of Transportation in our history -- Ray LaHood is in the house.  Give Ray a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  

It is always an honor to spend time with folks who represent the working men and women of America.  (Applause.)  It’s unions like yours that fought for jobs and opportunity for generations of American workers.  It’s unions like yours that helped build the arsenal of democracy that defeated fascism and won World War II.  It's unions like yours that forged the American middle class -- that great engine of prosperity, the greatest that the world has ever known.

So you guys helped to write the American story.  And today, you’re busy writing a proud new chapter.  You are reminding us that no matter how tough times get, Americans are tougher.  (Applause.)  No matter how many punches we take, we don’t give up.  We get up.  We fight back.  We move forward.  We come out the other side stronger than before.  That's what you've shown us.  (Applause.)  You're showing us what’s possible in America.  So I’m here to tell you one thing today:  You make me proud.  (Applause.)  You make me proud.

Take a minute and think about what you and the workers and the families that you represent have fought through.  A few years ago, nearly one in five autoworkers were handed a pink slip -- one in five.  Four hundred thousand jobs across this industry vanished the year before I took office.  And then as the financial crisis hit with its full force, America faced a hard and once unimaginable reality, that two of the Big 3 automakers  -- GM and Chrysler -- were on the brink of liquidation.

     The heartbeat of American manufacturing was flat-lining and we had to make a choice.  With the economy in complete free fall there were no private investors or companies out there willing to take a chance on the auto industry.  Nobody was lining up to give you guys loans.  Anyone in the financial sector can tell you that.

     So we could have kept giving billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars to automakers without demanding the real changes or accountability in return that were needed -- that was one option. But that wouldn’t have solved anything in the long term.  Sooner or later we would have run out of money.  We could have just kicked the problem down the road.  The other option was to do absolutely nothing and let these companies fail.  And you will recall there were some politicians who said we should do that.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Some even said we should "let Detroit go bankrupt."

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  You remember that?  (Applause.)  You know.  (Laughter.)  Think about what that choice would have meant for this country, if we had turned our backs on you, if America had thrown in the towel, if GM and Chrysler had gone under.  The suppliers, the distributors that get their business from these companies, they would have died off.  Then even Ford could have gone down as well.  Production shut down.  Factories shuttered.  Once-proud companies chopped up and sold off for scraps.  And all of you, the men and women who built these companies with your own hands, would have been hung out to dry.

     More than one million Americans across the country would have lost their jobs in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  In communities across the Midwest, it would have been another Great Depression.  And then think about all the people who depend on you.  Not just your families, but the schoolteachers, the small business owners, the server in the diner who knows your order, the bartender who’s waiting for you to get off.  (Laughter.)  That’s right.  (Applause.)  Their livelihoods were at stake as well. 

And you know what was else at stake?  How many of you who’ve worked the assembly line had a father or a grandfather or a mother who worked on that same line?  (Applause.)  How many of you have sons and daughters who said, you know, Mom, Dad, I'd like to work at the plant, too?  (Applause.) 

These jobs are worth more than just a paycheck.  They’re a source of pride.  They’re a ticket to a middle-class life that make it possible for you to own a home and raise kids and maybe send them -- yes -- to college.  (Applause.)  Give you a chance to retire with some dignity and some respect.  These companies are worth more than just the cars they build.  They’re a symbol of American innovation and know-how.  They're the source of our manufacturing might.  If that’s not worth fighting for, what's worth fighting for?  (Applause.)

So, no, we were not going to take a knee and do nothing.  We were not going to give up on your jobs and your families and your communities.  So in exchange for help, we demanded responsibility.  We said to the auto industry, you're going to have to truly change, not just pretend like you're changing.  And thanks to outstanding leadership like Bob King, we were able to get labor and management to settle their differences.  (Applause.) 

We got the industry to retool and restructure, and everybody involved made sacrifices.  Everybody had some skin in the game.  And it wasn’t popular.  And it wasn’t what I ran for President to do.  That wasn’t originally what I thought I was going to be doing as President.  (Laughter.)  But you know what, I did run to make the tough calls and do the right things -- no matter what the politics were.  (Applause.)

And I want you to know, you know why I knew this rescue would succeed? 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  How did you do it?  (Laughter.) 

THE PRESIDENT:  You want to know?  It wasn’t because of anything the government did.  It wasn’t just because of anything management did.  It was because I believed in you.  I placed my bet on the American worker.  (Applause.)  And I’ll make that bet any day of the week.  (Applause.) 

And now, three years later -- three years later, that bet is paying off -- not just paying off for you, it’s paying off for America.  Three years later, the American auto industry is back. (Applause.)  GM is back on top as the number-one automaker in the world  -- (applause) -- highest profits in its 100-year history. Chrysler is growing faster in America than any other car company. (Applause.)  Ford is investing billions in American plants, American factories -- plans to bring thousands of jobs back to America.  (Applause.) 

All told, the entire industry has added more than 200,000 new jobs over the past two and a half years -- 200,000 new jobs. And here’s the best part -- you’re not just building cars again; you’re building better cars.  (Applause.) 

After three decades of inaction, we’re gradually putting in place the toughest fuel economy standards in history for our cars and pickups.  That means the cars you build will average nearly 55 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade -- almost double what they get today.  (Applause.)  That means folks, every time they fill up, they're going to be saving money.  They'll have to fill up every two weeks instead of every week.  That saves the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time. That means we’ll cut our oil consumption by more than 2 million barrels a day.  That means we have to import less oil while we're selling more cars all around the world.  (Applause.) 

Thanks to the bipartisan trade agreement I signed into law  -- with you in mind, working with you -- there will soon be new cars in the streets of South Korea imported from Detroit and from Toledo and from Chicago.  (Applause.) 

And today -- I talked about this at the State of the Union, we are doing it today -- I am creating a Trade Enforcement Unit that will bring the full resources of the federal government to bear on investigations, and we're going to counter any unfair trading practices around the world, including by countries like China.  (Applause.)  America has the best workers in the world.  When the playing field is level, nobody will beat us.  And we're going to make sure that playing field is level.  (Applause.)

Because America always wins when the playing field is level. And because everyone came together and worked together, the most high-tech, fuel-efficient, good-looking cars in the world are once again designed and engineered and forged and built -- not in Europe, not in Asia -- right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

I’ve seen it myself.  I’ve seen it myself.  I've seen it at Chrysler’s Jefferson North Plant in Detroit, where a new shift of more than 1,000 workers came on two years ago, another 1,000 slated to come on next year.  I’ve seen it in my hometown at Ford’s Chicago Assembly -- (applause) -- where workers are building a new Explorer and selling it to dozens of countries around the world. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I'm buying one, too.

THE PRESIDENT:  There you go.  (Laughter.) 

I’ve seen it at GM’s Lordstown plant in Ohio -- (applause)  -- where workers got their jobs back to build the Chevy Cobalt, and at GM’s Hamtramck plant in Detroit -- (applause) -- where I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line -- even though Secret Service wouldn’t let me drive it.  (Laughter.) But I liked sitting in it.  (Laughter.)  It was nice.  I'll bet it drives real good.  (Laughter.)  And five years from now when I’m not President anymore, I’ll buy one and drive it myself.  (Applause.)  Yes, that's right.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  I know our bet was a good one because I had seen it pay off firsthand.  But here’s the thing.  You don't have to take my word for it.  Ask the Chrysler workers near Kokomo -- (applause) -- who were brought on to make sure the newest high-tech transmissions and fuel-efficient engines are made in America.  Or ask the GM workers in Spring Hill, Tennessee, whose jobs were saved from being sent abroad.  (Applause.)  Ask the Ford workers in Kansas City coming on to make the F-150 -- America’s best-selling truck, a more fuel-efficient truck.  (Applause.)  And you ask all the suppliers who are expanding and hiring, and the communities that rely on them, if America’s investment in you was a good bet.  They’ll tell you the right answer.  

And who knows, maybe the naysayers would finally come around and say that standing by America's workers was the right thing to do.  (Applause.)  Because, I've got to admit, it's been funny to watch some of these folks completely try to rewrite history now that you're back on your feet.  (Applause.)  The same folks who said, if we went forward with our plan to rescue Detroit, "you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye."  Now they're saying, we were right all along.  (Laughter.) 

Or you've got folks saying, well, the real problem is -- what we really disagreed with was the workers, they all made out like bandits -- that saving the auto industry was just about paying back the unions.  Really?  (Laughter.)  I mean, even by the standards of this town, that’s a load of you know what.  (Laughter.) 

About 700,000 retirees had to make sacrifices on their health care benefits that they had earned.  A lot of you saw hours reduced, or pay or wages scaled back.  You gave up some of your rights as workers.  Promises were made to you over the years that you gave up for the sake and survival of this industry -- its workers, their families.  You want to talk about sacrifice?  You made sacrifices.  (Applause.)  This wasn't an easy thing to do. 

Let me tell you, I keep on hearing these same folks talk about values all the time.  You want to talk about values?  Hard work -- that’s a value.  (Applause.)  Looking out for one another -- that’s a value.  The idea that we're all in it together, and I'm my brother's keeper and sister's keeper -- that’s a value.  (Applause.) 

They're out there talking about you like you're some special interest that needs to be beaten down.  Since when are hardworking men and women who are putting in a hard day's work every day -- since when are they special interests?  Since when is the idea that we look out for one another a bad thing? 

I remember my old friend, Ted Kennedy -- he used to say, what is it about working men and women they find so offensive?  (Laughter.)  This notion that we should have let the auto industry die, that we should pursue anti-worker policies in the hopes that unions like yours will buckle and unravel -– that’s part of that same old "you are on your own" philosophy that says we should just leave everybody to fend for themselves; let the most powerful do whatever they please.  They think the best way to boost the economy is to roll back the reforms we put into place to prevent another crisis, to let Wall Street write the rules again. 

They think the best way to help families afford health care is to roll back the reforms we passed that’s already lowering costs for millions of Americans.  (Applause.)  They want to go back to the days when insurance companies could deny your coverage or jack up your rates whenever and however they pleased. They think we should keep cutting taxes for those at the very top, for people like me, even though we don’t need it, just so they can keep paying lower tax rates than their secretaries. 

Well, let me tell you something.  Not to put too fine a point on it -- they’re wrong.  (Laughter.)  They are wrong.  (Applause.)  That’s the philosophy that got us into this mess.  We can’t afford to go back to it.  Not now. 

We’ve got a lot of work to do.  We’ve got a long way to go before everybody who wants a good job can get a good job.  We’ve got a long way to go before middle-class Americans fully regain that sense of security that’s been slipping away since long before this recession hit.  But you know what, we’ve got something to show -- all of you show what’s possible when we pull together.

Over the last two years, our businesses have added about 3.7 million new jobs.  Manufacturing is coming back for the first time since the 1990s.  Companies are bringing jobs back from overseas.  (Applause.)  The economy is getting stronger.  The recovery is speeding up.  Now is the time to keep our foot on the gas, not put on the brakes.  And I’m not going to settle

for a country where just a few do really well and everybody else is struggling to get by.  (Applause.) 

We’re fighting for an economy where everybody gets a fair shot, where everybody does their fair share, where everybody plays by the same set of rules.  We’re not going to go back to an economy that’s all about outsourcing and bad debt and phony profits.  We’re fighting for an economy that’s built to last, that’s built on things like education and energy and manufacturing.  Making things, not just buying things -- making things that the rest of the world wants to buy.  And restoring the values that made this country great:  hard work and fair play, the chance to make it if you really try, the responsibility to reach back and help somebody else make it, too -- not just you.  That’s who we are.  That’s what we believe in.   (Applause.)

     I was telling you I visited Chrysler’s Jefferson North Plant in Detroit about a year and a half ago.  Now, the day I visited, some of the employees had won the lottery.  Not kidding.  They had won the lottery.  Now, you might think that after that they’d all be kicking back and retiring.  (Laughter.)  And no one would fault them for that.  Building cars is tough work.  But that’s not what they did.  The guy who bought --

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  What did they do?

     THE PRESIDENT:  Funny you ask.  (Laughter.)  The guy who bought the winning ticket, he was a proud UAW member who worked on the line.  So he used some of his winnings to buy his wife the car that he builds because he’s really proud of his work.  (Applause.)  Then he bought brand new American flags for his hometown because he’s proud of his country.  (Applause.)  And he and the other winners are still clocking in at that plant today, because they’re proud of the part they and their coworkers play in America’s comeback.

See, that’s what America is about.  America is not just looking out for yourself.  It’s not just about greed.  It’s not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down.  When our assembly lines grind to a halt, we work together and we get them going again.  When somebody else falters, we try to give them a hand up, because we know we’re all in it together.

I got my start standing with working folks who’d lost their jobs, folks who had lost their hope because the steel plants had closed down.  I didn’t like the idea that they didn’t have anybody fighting for them.  The same reason I got into this business is the same reason I’m here today.  I’m driven by that same belief that everybody -- everybody -- should deserve a chance.  (Applause.) 

So I promise you this:  As long as you’ve got an ounce of fight left in you, I’ll have a ton of fight left in me.  (Applause.)  We’re going to keep on fighting to make our economy stronger; to put our friends and neighbors back to work faster; to give our children even more opportunity; to make sure that the United States of America remains the greatest nation on Earth.   (Applause.)

Thank you, UAW.  I love you.  God bless you.  God bless the work you do.  God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

                                                                         END          

A new plan for Prospect Park's loop drive will have more room for bikes and pedestrians and less room for cars.  It will be unveiled tonight at a meeting of the Prospect Park Alliance.

The park's current markings have long caused confusion.   While private cars are only allowed in the park during morning and evening rush hours -- a minority of the time -- the painted markings indicate where bikes and pedestrians are to go only when private cars are in the park.

As a result, the rest of the time -- most of the day, and on weekends and evenings, bike and pedestrian markings are unclear, and conflicts abound.  Cyclists wander into pedestrian lanes, fast cyclists overtake slower ones, and children, who tend to frequent the park during off-hours, have been known to wander into car lanes during the time when cars are in the park.

Last fall, two serious crashes left women with brain injuries.

Under the new plan, pedestrians and cyclists will get more room, and cars will have just one lane, down from two.  But that lane will be for cars 24/7 -- for parks and emergency vehicles during all hours.

Pedestrians -- and child cyclists, will use the lanes closest to the park interior, and cyclists will use the middle lanes.  There will be lanes designated for slower and faster cyclists. The outer lane will be for cars all the time.

The city DOT says reducing the number of  car lanes will add, at most, about 7 seconds to a through trip.

Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club Friday, Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney waxed about how happy he was to see Detroit-made cars. "I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. I used to have a dodge truck, so I used to have all three covered."

The only car President Barack Obama has driven recently was a Chevy Volt. As a Senator, he owned a Chrysler -- which a second-owner placed on eBay for $1 million --  then a Ford Escape Hybrid.

Hat tip to Buzzfeed.com for catching the clip.

 

Child crash test dummies (DOT photo)

It's kind of amazing that they didn't have them before -- but the National Highway Safety Administration now has child-sized crash dummies approximating the dimensions of an 8-12 year old.

In his blog,  DOT Chief Ray LaHood describes the dummies, known as the HIII-10c as "weighing 77.6 pounds and having a sitting height of 28 inches."

AP's Joan Lowy, and  Politico are reporting that House Republicans may back off their controversial support of a measure radically revamping the way transit is funded.

From the AP report:

—A Republican congressional aide says GOP leaders are considering significantly reducing the scope of a bill that was supposed to provide a long-term blueprint for federal transportation programs.

The aide says GOP leaders are weighing three key changes: reducing the duration of the bill to something less than its current 4 1/2 years, cutting annual transportation spending and postponing a controversial proposal to change the way mass transit programs are funded.

The aide asked not to be identified because any changes must still be discussed further among GOP committee chairmen and rank-and-file Republicans.

Seemingly enjoying the fact that neither Rick Santorum nor Mitt Romney supported the bailout of the auto industry, the Obama campaign is out with an ad rubbing it in. "When a million jobs were on the line...every Republican candidate turned their back," the ad says.

An NBC/Marist poll today shows a healthy  majority of Democrats and Independents support the bailout -- and a not insignificant number of Republicans do.

Michigan Republicans select a candidate next Tuesday -- but the real battleground for Obama is November, where Michigan will be a key swing state.

Michigan voted for Obama in 2008, but in 2010 elections went heavily Republican.

Conference bike. (photo: flickr/byronknoll)

On the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. there's a strange kind of meeting space: a seven person bicycle.

"Imagine one person facing forward and then the other six people around a circle," explains Google's Brendon Harrington. "And the way the bike is manufactured and constructed everyone can actually peddle each other all contributing to propel the bike forward. But since they’re facing each other, they can chat with each other, they can share ideas, they can have a team meeting if they’d like."

Pandora, in Oakland, organizes employee bike rides. Foursquare encourages employees to bike to meetings. Etsy's got an in-house bike mechanic.

That's pretty much the way it is in the tech sector these days: companies are in a race to outdo each other on bike-friendliness.

"Biking has become the mode of choice for the educated high-tech worker," says Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU. "The modern office today is not really jsut a work place. It's a play place.  If you go to Mozilla they have pool tables."

At Foursquare's new offices in SoHo, New York (conveniently located on a major East-West bike lane) -- there's a ping pong table and a dart board.

Biking is so-ingrained in the paradigm, that when I asked Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley whether he thought his brand new bike-rack would help attract talent, he didn't understand the question. "It was not an option to be in a building where people would have to leave their bikes outside," Crowley told me.

For him, and other tech CEO's, NOT having a place to store bikes in the office would be like building a suburban campus without a parking lot.

"We talk about Foursquare as being -- as creating software that helps people change the way they experience or use cities. I think bikes do the same thing."

For an audio version of this story, click here.

Here's Google's video on green transportation, with a cameo of the conference bike:

Now that we have your attention, we assure you, we're joking. Only in Portlandia do people move houses by bike.

Because, hey, it's faster -- "We can go through red lights. It's much faster."

And, for the movers, not really work at all. "This is like taking a lunch break. This is like, 'Oh We're touring Portland."

This was last week's episode - a new one's coming tonight.  Any bike jokes you'd like to add?

You can watch the sketch 15:43 in.

Speaking on the public radio show The Takeaway today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood seemed pretty happy about his administration's pay-for for the transportation  bill.

Asked if he supported using fossil fuel drilling fees to pay for transportation, as the House has suggested, LaHood said this (about 5:40  into the interview):

"What I support is what the President put out Monday -- paying for transportation using the highway trust fund, and taking the other half from the Iran Afganistan war fund.  The president has been criticized royally for three years  for not putting forth a pay-for, well he did it this year. (italics ours) He’s paying for making progress in transportation. He’s paying for innovation, he’s paying for safety programs. He’s paying for the enhancements  that people all over America want.

LaHood also said the administration remains committed to high speed rail. "We've spent $10 billion -- $10 billion. That's not chump change, that's real money. We have one of the strongest passenger rail programs in the history of transportation."

The proposed budget has about $50 billion for passenger rail over the next six years.

Listen to the full interview here.

(photo by Jesuspower via flickr)

More than 200 16- and 17-year old drivers died in the first half of 2011, the first increase after more than eight years of decline.

From the report by the Governors Highway Safety Association:

"The numbers of 16- and 17-year-old driver deaths in passenger vehicles in the United States were slightly higher for the first six months of 2011 than in the first six months of 2010, based on preliminary data supplied by all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Deaths of 16-year-olds increased from 80 to 93 (16 percent). Deaths of 17-year-olds increased from 110 to 118 (7 percent). Overall, 16-and-17-year-old drivers deaths increased from 190 to 211 (11 percent ). Twenty-three states had increases in deaths of 16- and 17-year-olds, 19 had decreases, and there was no change in 8 states plus the District of Columbia. Most of the changes were small.

If this trend continued in the second half of 2011, it will mark a reversal of longstanding yearly declines in teen driver deaths, especially among 16-year-olds....Deaths reached historic lows in 2010: 158 deaths of 16-year-old drivers compared with 508 in pre-GDL 1995; and 250 17-year-old driver deaths compared with 507 in 1995. These are much larger decreases than occurred in other age groups."

(Reporting by Janet Babin at WNYC, New York, Matthew Peddie at WMFE, Orlando, and Todd Zwillich at the Capitol in Washington, DC)

It has devolved to this.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair John Mica says the house transportation bill isn’t moving forward because there aren’t earmarks – “people aren’t being bought off for projects.” He’s telling Florida reporters that “bureaucrats in ivory towers in Washington,” just don’t understand Florida’s needs.

Congressman Bob Turner, a New York City Republican, says party leaders pressured him to support the bill as written – and that he won’t, unless transit provisions are restored.

And Speaker John Boehner says he’ll only amend the bill to bolster GOP support – from Republicans who say it costs too much.

Somehow, out of all of this, a bill is supposed to emerge.

The bill ran into trouble almost immediately by paying for transportation with fees from widespread oil and gas drilling, allowing for heavier trucks, and stripping out transit funding from the highway trust fund.

Opposition, fueled by an indignant Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, has mounted since the bill was first introduced. This week, Speaker Boehner tried twice to salvage the bill, first by splitting it in three, then by delaying a vote to drum up support.

But even Republicans are openly revolting.

New York Congressman Bob Turner (NY-09) said in a telephone interview his party pressured him to vote for the bill, but he wouldn't do it. "I think they might of thought that it would be very nice that I rolled over, but that didn't seem likely," he said.

"The [Transportation] Committee doesn't have a lot of metropolitan Congressman on it, so that might have been why it got a little off to begin with," said Turner.

Mica has another explanation.
“I would have had it done 6 months ago,” he told reporters in Washington Wednesday night. In the past - “most of the bills – the chairman, the ranking member, got so much discretionary money to give to earmarks. And then once they gave the earmark, you never heard another peep out of the members. Here we’re discussing actual policy and people aren’t being bought off for projects.”

In his district, Mica is piling on: “I don’t think that bureaucrats in ivory towers in Washington know what’s best for Florida, or for our communities," he told WMFE "so we’re trying to cut out some of the overheads and the coming on bended knees to Washington to plead for transportation dollars and send it directly back to the states.”
As for Boehner?

“We believe that we need to have fundamental change to get the government barriers out of the way to produce jobs, both in the energy area and in the infrastructure area. So we’re going to continue to move down that path.”
Translation: don’t expect him to remove the drilling or transit provisions. Do expect him to scale down the bill.

More, after the President’s day break.