Andrea Bernstein

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood doesn't think there's much chance Congress will pass a surface transportation spending bill this year.

The bill is on its way to being three years late -- it was supposed to be reauthorized in September, 2009.

"Given the politics, the number of days that remain, the differences between what the Senate and House are looking at -- I think its very unlikely we will have a surface transportation bill during this year of Congress," LaHood told a gathering of transportation professionals at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting.

"When you look at the number of days that Congress will be in session -- it is limited.  Given the political atmosphere that is around us now with presidential politics and every member of Congress seeking reelection in November that obviously will play into what happens."

LaHood told reporters after the panel that another big obstacle is the differences between the two-year Senate bill and the five-year House bill, which as of yet has no "pay-fors." "I think the difference between a two-year bill and a five-year bill is a pretty big gulf to overcome particually given the number of legilsative days," LaHood said.

But his remarks seemed to take his own top aides by surprise.

"I didn't hear him say we're not going to have a reauthorization bill this year," said Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff, who was in the audience and left with Secretary LaHood.. "I'm an optimist, the real way we are going to put people to work the fastest and make progress on all these policies, is by getting a reauthorization bill as soon as possible."

LaHood's comments came at a panel of transportation secretaries going back to Alan Boyd, who was Lyndon B. Johnson's transportation secretary.  The moderator asked the secretaries if they were optimistic or pessimistic about the future of transportation funding.

“I’m hopeful but I’m very concerned," said Boyd, who went first, "because it seems to me looking and listening as I do now from my vantage point in Seattle so many of my fellow Americans want to have good roads, good bridges, but they don’t want to pay for it, they want somebody else to pay for it. There is this sense to me  around the country: no new taxes.  The world keeps changing and if America is going to be the leader it says it is and wants to be its got to improve its infrastructure. "

(LaHood did express optimism about the future of high speed rail -- that story here.)

Ray LaHood, speaking earlier this year (photo by thisisbossi via Flickr)

The U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, still wants to connect 80 percent of Americans to high speed rail by 2036.  That's the goal that President Barack Obama laid out in last year's state of the union.  But since then, the governors of Florida and Ohio followed Wisconsin's governor in halting their states' projects, and congress made no new allocations of high speed rail funds going forward.

The President made no reference to high speed rail in his 2012 State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Even so, LaHood told reporters after an appearance at the Transportation Research Board Wednesday: "High speed rail is a priority for President Obama and it’s a priority for the administration,  and we’re going to continue to make progress. We’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve allocated over $10 billion. That’s a pretty good leap in a three year period."

LaHood pointed out that the DOT had allocated nearly $1 billion to the Northeast corridor, "which is what members of Congress have been clamoring for." (That would refer to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair John Mica, who poo-pooed initial administration allocations for high speed rail that gave little to Amtrak's Northeast corridor.)

Asked if he still was working on connecting 80 percent of Americans to high speed rail in under a quarter century, he said, "that's our goal."

(LaHood also expressed doubt on the chances of a surface transportation bill passing congress this year -- article here. )

Here are his full remarks:

"We’ve made ten billion dollars worth of investments. We’re going to continue our efforts to implement high speed rail.

We’re going to continue our efforts with our partners.  We have great partners all over the country. W e have a great partner in Michigan in the governor.  e have a great partner in California in the governor we have great parters in the Midwest whether it be Michigan Illinois, Missouri.  We have great partners on the Northeast corridor.

If you look at the money we’ve invested over the last 18 months -- almost a billion dollars in Amtrak on the Northeast corridor  -- which is what members of Congress have been clamoring for.  We listened to them and we made those investments.

High speed rail is a priority for President Obama and it’s a priority for the administration,  and we’re going to continue to make progress. We’ve made a lot of progress.

Three years ago there was not one penny spent for high speed inter-city rail. We’ve allocated over 10 billion. That’s a pretty good leap in a three year period."

Does he still want to connect 80 percent of Americans to high speed rail by 2036?

"That's our goal."

Nancy Shevell has for ten years been a New York MTA Board member and, since early this month, Paul McCartney's fiancee. (Photo: NY MTA)

(New York, NY -- Brian Zumhagen, WNYC) Nancy Shevell has stepped down from the MTA board, where she had served since 2001. Shevell, who gained prominence when she married former Beatle Paul McCartney last October, is also an executive with her family's trucking company, and a Republican party fundraiser.

"In my 30-year professional career, this has been the absolute highlight for me, being able to serve on this board," Shevell told the board in her final meeting today.

In her farewell comments before the panel this morning, she also had kind words for Joe Lhota, who was running his first board meeting as MTA chairman. Lhota also announced the departure of Pat Foye, who resigned from his seat on the MTA board when he was appointed as executive director of the Port Authority.

The departures create two new openings for Governor Andrew Cuomo to fill.

Two nods to transportation in the State of the Union; to the auto industry, and cutting red tape.

Nothing like last year's SOTU, where the president promised to connect 80 percent of Americans to high speed rail by 2036 and to put a million electric vehicles on the roads.

For an analysis of all of Obama's speeches on infrastructure and transpo, click here.

Here are the relevant passages:

"On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse.  Some even said we should let it die.  With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen.  In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility.  We got workers and automakers to settle their differences.  We got the industry to retool and restructure.  Today, General Motors is back on top as the world’s number one automaker.  Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company.  Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories.  And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs.   

"We bet on American workers.  We bet on American ingenuity.  And tonight, the American auto industry is back."

And this:

"Building this new energy future should be just one part of a broader agenda to repair America’s infrastructure. So much of America needs to be rebuilt. We’ve got crumbling roads and bridges. A power grid that wastes too much energy. An incomplete high-speed broadband network that prevents a small business owner in rural America from selling her products all over the world.

"During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. After World War II, we connected our States with a system of highways. Democratic and Republican administrations invested in great projects that benefited everybody, from the workers who built them to the businesses that still use them today.

"In the next few weeks, I will sign an Executive Order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects. But you need to fund these projects. Take the money we’re no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home."

(image courtesy of the Office of the Mayor, Medellin)

San Francisco and Medellin, Colombia, are this year's winners of the Sustainable Transport Award by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

Both were singled out not only for transport, but for embracing social media as a way to reach out to citizens.

The ITDP award has become a coveted badge of honor for transportation directors, both in the U.S. and internationally.  Its awards ceremony now draws a large cadre of major city transportation directors, as well as international mayors and federal transportation officials.

Last year's award stirred something of an international incident when the Mayor of Tehran, a political foe of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was denied a visa to travel to Washington, DC to attend the ceremony.

The honor is seen as particularly important for Medellin, which is mostly known in the U.S. for its eponymous drug cartel. Medellin was singled out for launching a bike share and a bus rapid transit system, and integrating them with its existing cable car and metro networks.

TN recently wrote about Medellin's mega-escalator, which links one of its poorest neighborhoods with its city center.  Rafael Nanclares, Medellin's Transport Minister, told TN the escalators would make it easier for residents to get to school and work. A major goal of the escalator is to connect Comuna 13 with the economic center of the city–both literally and figuratively. “It’s a way to give presence to people who don’t have a presence,” he said.

San Francisco was recognized for its SFPark dynamic parking program, which uses data from sensors embedded in the pavement to track parking demand in real time at meters around the city, and prices each block accordingly: meters in more congested areas are more expensive, while those on emptier streets are cheaper.

"We have research that shows that 30 percent of the traffic on our streets is people looking for parking. That's not just traffic congestion -- that also slows down our transit system -- it's pollution, it's unproductive time, it's frustration, occasionally road rage, " SF Transportation Director Edward Reiskin said at a panel at the Transportation Research Board conference in Washington, DC.

"We want to eliminate that and use the data to understand where the the demand for parking is and set prices accordingly, so we can better price the valuable public space we make available for people to use in their cars."

MTA Snow Removal Train (MTA photo)

The MTA had one of the lowest moments in weather history during the blizzard of 2010, when buses were stranded and passengers stuck on snow-bound trains for hours. But there's been no opportunity to test out lessons learned this winter.

In advance of the first biggish storm of the season in NYC, a predicted 2-6 inches, the MTA is showing off its snow-removal equipment this time around. The MTA says it will run normal service Saturday, but advices customers to check its mta.info website for updates. All track work and repair is suspended during the storm.

MTA snow removal brush (mta photo)

UPDATED WITH STATE DEPARTMENT RELEASE:

From the White House:

Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline

Earlier today, I received the Secretary of State’s recommendation on the pending application for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department’s report, I agree.

This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people. I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my Administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil. Under my Administration, domestic oil and natural gas production is up, while imports of foreign oil are down. In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security –including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico – even as we set higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and invest in alternatives like biofuels and natural gas. And we will do so in a way that benefits American workers and businesses without risking the health and safety of the American people and the environment.

And here's the release by the state department:

NY Governor Cuomo

Governor Cuomo briefly addressed the issue of mass transit out to his new favorite project, a massive convention center by near JFK Airport in Queens to be built by the Malaysian firm Genting, which is already operating a racino there. Speaking Wednesday in Yonkers, he didn't say much--but let it drop that the MTA "is working on additional transit applications" to the site.

No word yet from the MTA on what that might be. Transit advocates have expressed concern about the cost of such a project for an essentially broke agency -- and about the inconvenience to regular riders if, say, an express service gets prioritized. In a brief statement earlier this month, Genting said it would pay for transit, but didn't offer details.

Here's the transcript:

Reporter: Are you concerned about the transit extension for the convention center? Is there going to be enough service and is that going to be a problem?

Cuomo: The convention center would be where Aqueduct Racetrack is now, it’s very close to JFK airport,  so it’s a place that is accessible and can be more accessible.

The reason I’m excited about it is it is a $4 billion private investment.  It costs the taxpayers of this state nothing. Government doesn’t build.  I don’t have to touch a shovel.

It would built by a private company, it’s financed by a private company, the state grants the company more racino rights. They would expand a racino, they would also build a convention center. We need the convention center.

It would be roughly three and a half times the size of the Javits Center currently and it would allow us to reuse the Javits center on the West Side because we wouldn’t now need the Javits as the convention center any longer. From my point of view it’s a win-win.

And at a time when government doesn’t have any money but wants to generate jobs, it’s a perfect solution.

Reporter: It’s not in any easy spot to get to by mass transit.

Cuomo: The MTA is working on additional transit applications.

Reporter: Are you optimistic they will reach a deal with the TW?

Cuomo: I’m leaving that up to the TWU and Joe Lhota.  I am optimistic Joe Lhota is the right man to handle the situation.

NPR's got the roundup of news stories on the pipeline's demise:

Several news outlets are reporting that the Obama administration will reject TransCanada's proposal to run an oil pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border.

The Washington Post reports the administration will make it official later today and will allow TransCanada to reapply once it has a proposal to reroute the pipeline to avoid the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills of Nebraska.

As we've reported, the Keystone XL pipeline has become a rallying point for environmentalists. The president first sought to put off a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections, but he agreed to make a decision by Feb. 21 as part of the payroll tax cut negotiations.

Full post here.

The Alamo (image courtesy of San Antonio Missions National Historic Park)

Seems to be grant day for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The feds are handing out $40.8 million for 58 projects giving better transit access to national parks.

Among the grantees are the City of San Antonio, which gets $324,000 to expand bike share to connect the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park to the Alamo.

There's also $340,000 to the town of Santa Claus, Indiana, to design a bike and pedestrian trail connecting the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, local schools, and the town of Santa Claus.

The grants are part of the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program, which is described in a press release as "administered by the FTA in partnership with the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service, the program funds capital and planning expenses for alternative transportation systems, such as shuttle buses and bicycle trails, in national parks and public lands. The goals of the program are to conserve natural, historical and cultural resources, and reduce congestion and pollution."

For a full list of grantees, including Marin County, New York City, and Alaska, click here.

UPDATED Well, the numbers are out, and the Governor is proposing the New York MTA get $251 million to plug what its losing from the payroll tax the Governor cut last year.

However, while there are no cuts, the MTA's budget remains flat, even as ridership is increasing.  Which means, the authority still has a $35 million budget gap to close, as it announced in December.

(Full analysis of the budget here.)

The $251 million is somewhat less than the $310 million the MTA will lose as a result of the MTA payroll tax cut, although the state argued in a conference call with transit activists today that that's actually not less than the MTA needs, because the tax cut doesn't go into effect until April 1, three months after the MTA's budget did.

[Confusingly, in the text accompanying the budget numbers, the state says it will give $190 million more to the MTA than it did from the general fund last year, which "includes $250 million to the MTA."  Waiting for an explanation on that one to from the governor's office. If past is prologue, that may take some time to sort out.]

There's also $770 million for capital construction aid (as the MTA has outlined in its capital plan.)

Both Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers' campaign and Kate Slevin of Tri-State Transportation Commission seemed to feel they'd dodged a bullet in the FY 2013 budget.

Even Transportation Alternatives had generally kind, if wary, words:
“Today’s budget treats transit riders with respect and is a step in the right direction for New York,” said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “We need the governor to treat public transit as a priority, not an afterthought. "

The governor is also proposing $1.16 billion to start off his "New York Works" infrastructure bank for "bridges, roads, and major infrastructure projects,"  with most of that money ($917 million) coming from the federal government.

The budget also includes $9.7 million to improve Amtrak rail service.

And: if you live in Broad Channel or the Rockaways, the state will reimburse you for your tolls, if  Governor Cuomo has his way.

This is from the U.S. DOT:

U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood Announces $77 Million in Transportation Research and Education Grants
 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today $77 million in grants to 22 University Transportation Centers (UTCs) to advance research and education programs that address critical transportation challenges facing our nation. The UTCs, which are located throughout the United States, conduct research that directly supports the priorities of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the participating universities are a critical part of our national transportation strategy. 

“Transportation matters in everyone’s daily life. These research centers will help us solve the transportation challenges we face today and those that we know lay ahead of us,” said Secretary LaHood.  

DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), which administers the UTC program, used a competitive selection process to select ten University Transportation Centers (UTCs), two Transit-Focused UTCs, and ten Regional UTCs. The centers will advance U.S. transportation technology and expertise in research, education, and technology transfer. Each one of the selected UTCs will receive a $3.5 million grant which they must match with funds from non-federal sources. The 22 UTCs selected are all consortia, involving a total of 121 different universities.  

“We are excited about the proposals these consortia put forward. They have the potential to advance basic and applied transportation research today and ensure a robust pipeline of professionals for the transportation workforce of tomorrow,” said RITA Acting Administrator Greg Winfree. “It is absolutely crucial that we continue to invest in research, which has the added benefit of attracting and developing the high level of professionals needed for innovation and expertise in transportation.” 

UTCs work with regional, state and local transportation agencies to help find solutions to challenges that directly impact their communities and affect the efficiency of the nation’s transportation system. UTC projects are peer-reviewed and the results of their work are shared with the national transportation community to encourage greater progress through collaboration. The selected universities will research a wide range of transportation-related issues including shared rail corridors, innovations in multimodal freight and infrastructure, bridge inspection methods, and reducing roadway fatalities and injuries. 

A list of grant recipients is available here. Find out more about the UTC program. 

From the the White House:

Today, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a pilot project aimed at expediting the environmental reviews for high-speed passenger rail service in the Northeast Corridor through an innovative and more efficient process.

Through this pilot project, CEQ and DOT will work with stakeholders to identify efficiencies to speed the environmental review process that will inform selection of service types and station locations for high-speed rail in the Northeast Corridor.  The pilot will engage Federal, state and local governments and the public in the environmental review process earlier to set benchmarks that maintain rigorous environmental protections and save time and costs by avoiding conflicts and delays in the later steps of rail-project development.

"The Northeast Corridor is the busiest rail corridor in the U.S.,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  “Our planned improvements will lead to more jobs, a stronger rail system and a stronger economy.  By bringing all involved parties to the table earlier in the process, we will do the job better and finish it sooner.”  

“The National Environmental Policy Act provides essential protections for American communities and the natural resources our economy depends on,” said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality.  “This pilot project will ensure a collaborative environmental review process for quicker, better-informed decisions for the Northeast Corridor high speed rail project.”

To promote transparency and public input, DOT will post and track project timelines and progress on the Federal Infrastructure Projects Dashboard at www.performance.gov, which launched in November 2011 to track high impact, job-creating infrastructure projects for expedited review.   

 The Transportation Rapid Response Team, a Federal interagency group also launched in November 2011 to speed Federal reviews of transportation projects, will help coordinate the high-speed rail planning process to ensure quick resolution of any interagency conflicts.  

The Northeast Corridor high-speed rail planning project is the fourth project selected by CEQ under its National Environmental Policy Act Pilot program, which focuses on identifying and promoting more efficient ways to do effective environmental reviews that can be replicated.  CEQ will use efficiencies identified for the high-speed rail project to develop best practices for environmental reviews across the Federal Government.

 To learn more about CEQ’s NEPA Pilot Program, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/nepa.

Capital Bike Share in Washington D.C.

Virginia Tech has just released a study of casual users of Washington, DC's bike share system, and the numbers on African American usage are startlingly low.

The study, based on 400  surveys of those who buy either 24-hour or 5-day passes, shows that just 5 percent of such users are "black/African American."

Caucasians represent 78 percent of casual users.

That contrasts starkly with the population of the District, which is 50 percent black,  and 34 percent white.

(Hispanic use is also low, but the Hispanic population of DC is only 9 percent.)

Ralph Buehler, the VT Assistant Professor who oversaw the study, cautioned that their sample only looked at casual users.  "Many of those users are tourists," Buehler said. "It's not surprising that would be more heavily white than the population of DC."

But Capital Bikeshare's own numbers for annual membership look even worse.  According to CaBi data from 2010, cited in the report, just two percent of annual members are black.

Chris Holben, DC's Bikesharing Project Manager, tells us more recent data shows an increase.  African American participation doubled by the end of 2011 -- but it's still only at four percent.

Ralph Buehler ran the numbers for us, and as it happens, participation in bike share is lower than general cycling rates for African Americans. According to the American Community survey, 12 percent of the population is African American, and 11 percent of the people who bike to work are African American.

Holben says DDOT is working to address the problem. One barrier to entry, he says, is the need to have a credit card to join the system. DDOT is participating in a "Bank on DC" program to get bank cards to the "unbanked," a population that typically tends to be more black than the general population. DC is running a promotion to offer discount Capital Bikeshare  memberships ($50 instead of $75) with the bank cards, and is looking into ways to create a monthly payment plan to make it even easier to join.

Holben also suggests that geography may play a role. The heavily African American neighborhood of Anacostia is separated from the rest of DC by a long bridge, it's more hilly than other parts of DC, and highways  further serve to cut off bike access.

Buehler adds: "There is a relative lack of bicycle infrastructure in the neighborhoods East of the Anacostia River (in Wards 8 and 7; the neighborhood of Anacostia is actually only a small part of that area).  Moreover population density is lower there than in downtown"

DDOT says it plans more outreach in African American neighborhoods as the weather warms up.

But the question remains: why do so few African Americans use DC's bike share?

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) (photo courtesy Senator Gillibrand)

Nothing startling here, but U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand gave her most extensive remarks that I'm aware of on a national infrastructure bank today.

"This is a basic public private partnership that cuts government spending as it takes pressure off state and local government and pressure off our property taxes to do some of these long-term, large-scale infrastructure projects," Gillibrand to the Association for a Better New York breakfast.

Following is a full transcript of her remarks on infrastructure:

Another very common sense idea that I think would be so important for NewYork is a national infrastructure bank.  Now this is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea ,it is just a good idea.

As we know in ny our roads, bridges, highways, sewers, and ports desperately need investment. Many are crumbing before our eyes. Fixing these is not just an economic issue about how do we create jobs now or in the future, it’s also an issue of public safety.

A national infrastructure bank will allow for direct private equity investment into these long term large scale infrastructure projects.  It will be a vehicle for investment for  pension funds, life insurance companies, for  private equity, and the trillions of dollars that is sitting on the sidelines of our economy today.  It’s a vehicle whereby we can invest in traditional and new infrastructure.

We could do high speed rail, we could do rural broadband, we could do health care IT,  we could do a new electric grid.

All of these investments create long term growth opportunities. Instead of being run at the whim of politicians who come and go, a national infrastructure bank would be run by a non partisan board of directors, similar to the Federal Reserve  -- experts serving terms well beyond a campaign cycle.

It would be like having a capital budget just like states and businesses do -- not an operating budget run through the appropriations process.

So the idea could really make a difference.

When you look at history infrastructure has not been a Democratic idea or a Republican idea  -- really is a non partisan idea. For example Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the national highway system and President Ronald Reagan who increased the investment while he was president to maintain it.

This is a basic Public Private Partnership that cuts government spending as it takes pressure off state and local government and pressure off our property taxes to do some of these long-term, large-scale infrastructure projects.

When you reduce the government’s role in spending you can take the politics out of the process so that many of these projects can move forward.

Mayor Michael Blooomberg, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (NYC Mayor's office photo, 12/29/11)

SCROLL DOWN FOR TRULY FUNNY VIDEO OF MAYOR "RIDING" TO THE STATE OF THE CITY
In his state of the city address today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised to add more protected bike lanes and touted the city's planned summer launch of North America's largest bike share program.  He also promised to step up traffic enforcement.

The Mayor started off with highly-produced video (at the bottom of the post) nodding to several of his signature initiatives from last year, including creating a plan to allow hailing of livery cabs outside of Manhattan. The video also featured a cameo of Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan riding a  bike in a bike line, as Bloomberg admonishes Wolfson to "stay in the bike line."

The Mayor has faced withering criticism and even a lawsuit -- since dismissed -- over protected bike lanes, particularly one along Prospect Park, in Brooklyn.

“Now, I realize the debate over bike lanes has sometimes been hot and heavy," the Mayor said in his address, delivered in a Bronx High School and largely focusing on education.

"But the reality is more and more New Yorkers are biking, and the more bike lanes we put in, the fewer deaths and serious injuries we have on our streets."

He continued:

“This year, we’ll take steps to enforce the law requiring every delivery rider to have proper safety equipment and clothing that identifies the name of the business. At the same time, we’ll launch the largest bike share program of any city in the country. Those bikes will create another option for getting around town faster and easier, and so will new Select Bus Service in Brooklyn, which we’ll launch in partnership with MTA Chairman Joe Lhota."

The Mayor, whose NYPD has also faced criticism over lax traffic enforcement,  also promised more vigilance.

“We’ll also make our city smarter and safer by deploying Traffic Enforcement Agents to safety hot spots at key intersections, doubling the number of 20 mile-per-hour zones for schools.

The Mayor also name-checked the proposal to start a "select bus service" in Brooklyn, with off-board payment and priority lanes.

Building America's Future, the pro-infrastructure spending group chaired by Ed Rendell, Michael Bloomberg, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, can't stop campaigning.

After spending $250,000 to buy ads in New Hampshire, the group is spending $75,000 - maybe more -- to inject the issue into the South Carolina campaign.

There was some talk of infrastructure spending in the Granite State, though not much, and the issue didn't make its way into any debates.

But hope springs eternal.  Maybe the issue will come up in one of the two  South Carolina debates, which will be on January 16th and the 19th.

(Romney already discussed the issue in SC, here. )

You can read up on Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney's transportation records here.

Yep, Staten Island, your bus will come. And now, you can know when. The MTA is today launching real-time bus information for the entire borough. Users can find out where their bus is -- actually, not theoretically.

Which means you can linger in a shop, or not bother to leave your house on a cold morning, until you know the bus is truly about to arrive at your stop.

Though the MTA has been running a pilot on the B63 from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to downtown, this will be the first system rolled out on a borough-wide basis.

Knowing this information, the American Public Transportation Association says, can be a key factor in convincing travelers to use public transportation rather than personal vehicles.

There are a few ways to get the info. You can go to the MTA's website, mta.info/bustime, and click on a map which shows you where all the buses are. (The MTA says the Staten Island service will go live around noon on Wednesday.) Or you can text from your phone (smart, or not) and ask the system to find you.

That's an improvement from what users on the B63 pilot have faced. B63 riders have had to text a unique code, and will get information on how many stops (or miles) away the bus is. That means users have had to memorize codes, or got through a cumbersome system of looking up the codes online.

The information is based on GPS, and in Brooklyn, at least, has proved to be uncannily accurate.

The MTA is launching real-time bus information on Wednesday for the entire borough of Staten Island. 

Joseph Lhota, on his second official day as chair and CEO of the MTA (photo by Stephen Nessen/WNYC)

When Jay Walder took office in 2009, he made no bones about his priorities: installing countdown clocks, Oyster cards, and bettering bus service. But the new CEO, Joseph Lhota, confirmed Monday by the New York Senate, seems to have a less lofty goal: getting the public not to hate on the nation’s largest transit agency.

Yes, he wants to improve efficiencies; yes he wants more and better communication with customers; yes, he’ll strenuously defend the expenditure of taxpayer funds on the transit agency. “There’s not a transit agency in the country that burdens their riders with solely paying for the system,” Lhota says, echoing remarks he made at yesterday’s hearing.

But at the end of the day, Lhota says, “I’m finding a lot of people don’t have a whole lot of respect for the MTA."

He sat down Tuesday with WNYC’s Jim O’Grady to talk about the MTA’s image problem, why there won’t be more bus service anytime soon, and why he’s encouraged by a move by the Transport Workers Union to extend the contract deadline beyond Sunday night.

[TWU President] “John Samuelsen and I have tried to do everything to create a relationship with each other.  We’re open and honest with each other,” Lhota said.

A transcript of the interview follows.

O’Grady: Under your predecessor, Jay Walder, a set of his main accomplishments were innovations like the countdown clock and real time information for riders. What innovations do you have in mind?

Lhota: I think you’re going to see a continuation of more information, more communications with all of our customers, our riders.  The ability to tell them how soon a train is coming or how soon a bus is coming is a very important thing. I’m going to spend an enormous amount of time on increasing the efficiency of the MTA and also changing what most people think of the MTA.

I’m finding a lot of people don’t have a whole lot of respect for the MTA. It's an organization that allows eight and a half million people to travel to and from work every day and to travel home every day and to school, to dates on Saturday night. I want people to understand how important the MTA is to their lives. At the end of the day I’d like them to feel good -- or feel better -- about the MTA.

O’Grady: Do you have any ideas in the technology realm?

Lhota: In the technology world there are an enormous amount of innovations.  We started a contest for apps, so we can provide data to people who develop apps for iPhones and smartphones. The best thing to do for technology is not for a government agency determine what to do, but to harness the power of young people who seem to have a much better understanding, a much better grasp of technology.

O’Grady: What ideas do you have for funding the MTA?

Lhota: Some of the senators yesterday said they wanted to find a way to end any taxpayer funding for the MTA. And I reminded them in 1968 when the legislature back then with then Governor Rockefeller --they created the MTA with the intent that the burden of the transit system would not be solely on the rider, that it would be more broad-based, that there would be tax revenues.  The concept of totally eliminating tax funding for the MTA would be inconsistent with how it was created. There’s not a transit agency in the country that burdens their riders with solely paying for the system.

O’Grady: Where’s that money going to come from?

Lhota: I don’t know where the money is going to come from but I’ll work with the state legislature and I’ll work with leaders across the state. The question of revenues right now not isolated to the MTA -- all government agencies are under pressure. The current condition of our economy is really providing the lack of revenues.

I’ll work with Albany, with City Hall and the federal government, on new and better fund sources.

O’Grady: Jay Walder said in Hong Kong that New York’s transit system was underfunded and under developed.

Lhota: I heard Jay’s comments. They were taken out of context. Jay was comparing the brand new system in Hong Kong to a hundred plus year-old system here in New York. It’s really tough to compare something that is brand new with something that has being operated for over 100 years. The comparison is not apt.

O’Grady: There was a close vote on [the MTA] board about restoring bus service. People are always clamoring for connecting underserved areas like, say, Red Hook to Williamsburg as one example.  Would you consider restoring or adding bus service anywhere in New York?

Lhota : When we get the finances under control. Our budget is currently very fragile [and] we have a lot of risky assumptions in our budget. We have to constantly evaluate where should we have our routes, where should we change service, where should we increase it, where should we decrease it. We need to do that based on the demographics of what’s going on, but until we get our financial house in order we will not be seeing restorations.

O’Grady: Getting your financial house in order -- where does the consolidation play into that? Are there savings to be had from consolidation?

Lhota: There are some savings to be had -- and dealing with what people unfortunately pejoratively call the bloat -- with the MTA.  Where do we have too many lawyers, where do we have too many accountants,  where do we have too many paper pushers? That will provide some help but not substantially all, we need to find ways to do what we do with the resources we have.

O’Grady: Just give me your general impression of how its going with the Transport Workers Union.

Lhota:  Negotiations are ongoing, they’ve been constructive, they’ve been very helpful. John Samuelsen and I have tried to do everything to create a relationship with each other. We’re open and honest with each other. We tell him things that we like.  I tell him things I don’t like and there are no repercussions from it. The negotiations are ongoing but will remain behind closed doors.

O’Grady: Are you going to hit the deadline?

Lhota: We’re going to do everything we can to hit the deadline. The executive committee of the TWU has already extended the deadline by saying if they don’t have a contract by that date they’re willing to extend it out. That was a very encouraging sign by the leaders of the TWU, so the pressure we normally have on us is not there. That being said, we’re going to do everything we can to have it resolved by midnight next Sunday night.