The Engineering News-Record named Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, one of its “Top 25 Newsmakers” for 2019 for coordinating a successful industry-wide push to repeal a $7.6 billion rescission of federal-aid highway contract authority – a budget cut originally mandated by the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface […]

Fully autonomous cars, trucks, and buses that are able to operate across wide geographical areas without drivers, would “revolutionize ground transportation,” according to a new 34-page research brief issued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But deployment of fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) in significant numbers won’t occur for at least another 10 years, it said. [Above […]

Legislation introduced in the Senate on July 27 to provide $1 trillion worth of further COVID-19 relief funding is getting little traction ahead of the chamber’s August recess. Meanwhile, the House of Representations passed a package of six appropriations bill or “minibus” on July 31 by a vote of 217 to 197 that would provide […]

The Americans with Disabilities Act, known simply as the ADA, turned 30 years old on July 26 – a civil rights law that has profoundly affected how many state departments of transportation approach mobility issues. [Above photo by the Maryland Transit Administration.] As part of a virtual event celebrating the ADA’s 30th anniversary on July […]

A new report compiled by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) to help the Bureau of Transportation Statistics seeks to help improve that agency’s publication of revenue, expenditure, and other financial statistics relevant to transportation decision makers. [Above photo by Missouri DOT.] NAPA began work on this report in October 2019 and conducted a […]

The Federal Highway Administration issued $11.2 million in grants from the Fiscal Year 2019 Disadvantaged Business Enterprise/Supportive Services (DBE/SS) program to help eligible operations compete for federal highway contracts in 47 states, as well as the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. [Above photo by the Ohio DOT.] The agency noted that DBEs are defined […]

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials urged in a July 20 letter to Congressional leadership that state departments of transportation across the country need an “immediate infusion” of at least $37 billion to prevent disruptions to planned transportation projects, keep workers employed, and enable the nation’s mobility network to fully support economic […]

The California Department of Transportation and the University of California-Davis recently released two reports highlighting ways to prevent rare but often deadly collisions involving wrong way drivers; a type of crash scenario state departments of transportation across the country are trying to reduce. [Above photo by Caltrans.] The first report – Wrong Way Pilot Projects […]

The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality formally implemented a final rule on July 15 aimed at updating and modernizing National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA regulations. [Official White House photo above by Joyce N. Boghosian.] “The final rule will make the NEPA process more efficient and effective, ensure consideration of environmental impacts of major […]

The House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure advanced the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 or WRDA 2020 by voice vote on July 15. It could see a House floor vote next week. Also known as H.R. 7575, the WRDA 2020 bill authorizes construction of 34 projects studied and approved by the U.S. […]