{"id":279384,"date":"2021-08-18T14:04:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcity.org\/daily\/entry\/infrastructure-bill-needs-fixing-critics-say"},"modified":"2021-08-18T14:04:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T14:04:00","slug":"infrastructure-bill-needs-fixing-critics-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/08\/18\/infrastructure-bill-needs-fixing-critics-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Infrastructure Bill Needs Fixing, Critics Say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
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Critics of the infrastructure bill say that it would lead to more roads and not enough public transit (Photo by Bala Maniymaran<\/a> \/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a>)<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

Welcome to \u201cThe Mobile City,\u201d our weekly roundup of noteworthy transportation developments.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\n

City Transportation Advocates Say Infrastructure Bill Tilts Too Much Towards Roads<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The bipartisan infrastructure bill now before the House is the product of months of negotiations between Democrats, many of whom represent urban districts, and Republicans, who these days skew rural. Advocates for transportation in cities are now saying that the bill the two sides agree on also skews too rural.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The top brass at the National Association of City Transportation Officials, Executive Director Corinne Kisner and Chair Janette Sadik-Khan, had this to say about it in a <\/span>statement<\/a> released Aug. 10:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cEven as the U.N.\u2019s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <\/span>warned<\/a> that our planet is heading toward an increasingly uninhabitable future, the infrastructure bill passed today by the Senate keeps our nation on an unsafe and unsustainable path. It continues to prioritize building the infrastructure that most contributes to the U.S.\u2019s worst-in-class safety record and extraordinarily high climate emissions: new highways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Kisner and Sadik-Khan called on the House to add a fix-it-first provision to the highway portion of the bill, strengthen performance measurements and up the amount spent on transit as key ways to \u201cfix what\u2019s painfully wrong with the bill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

On the Natural Resources Defense Council blog, Amanda Eaken, director of transportation at the <\/span>American Cities Climate Challenge<\/a>, took a similar tack in her essay \u201cHow Congress Can Get Cities Moving\u201d<\/a>, writing that Congress should raise the level of transit funding to match what\u2019s spent on highways and fund a transition to electric vehicles.<\/p>\n\n

Lack of support for electrification is also one of Yonah Freemark\u2019s chief criticisms of the bill. Freemark, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, <\/span>told The Hill<\/a> that while the $66 billion for intercity rail and the $39 billion for mass transit in the bill was \u201ca large amount, even compared to what advocates have been looking for,\u201d he went on to say that \u201cthe funding does not necessarily seem oriented toward addressing climate change.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cRail, especially electrified rail, is the most sustainable motorized transportation mode in terms of its carbon emissions,\u201d Freemark added. \u201cRail services also encourage compact, pedestrian-oriented development surrounding stations, which is also an effective counter to climate change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Rail Researchers Test a Metro on the Cheap<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

One way cities might be able to build electrified rail transit quickly and for less is being put through its paces on the historic East Broad Top Railroad in Pennsylvania right now.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

A Carnegie Mellon University news release <\/span>reposted on Railway Age<\/a> goes into detail on the test of the \u201cPop-Up Metro\u201d<\/a> being developed by Henry Posner III, chair of the Railroad Development Corporation<\/a> (RDC) and an adjunct history professor at CMU. The Pop-Up Metro is a two-car trainset built in Britain and modified by RDC subsidiary VivaRail to operate on battery power.<\/p>\n\n

The advantage of this technology, Posner said, is that it can be deployed on the cheap using existing rail lines. \u201cA lot of urban areas in this country have underutilized freight lines that could also support transit service,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople might not have considered these opportunities because it\u2019s been perceived as too expensive, too lengthy and too risky. With Pop-Up Metro, you can do that project quickly on a demonstration basis. You don\u2019t have to spend $100 million.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

RDC, which specializes in running short line freight and regional passenger railroads on what it calls \u201cemerging networks in emerging markets,\u201d is marketing Pop-Up Metro as a way for cities to test the waters on possible rail transit service without having to make a huge upfront investment in infrastructure. While the track record of using freight lines for mass transit is mixed, there have been some successes, such as San Diego\u2019s initial light metro line (<\/span>\u201cThe Mobile City,\u201d Aug. 3<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

Posner plans to demonstrate Pop-Up Metro soon to potential customers, including public transit systems considering adding rail service, existing systems looking to upgrade their rolling stock, and private developers who might want to incorporate rail transit into their projects.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Autonomous-Car Company to Test Second Vehicle in New York City<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Mobileye, an Intel subsidiary developing autonomous-vehicle technology, is preparing to put a second driverless car on the streets of New York City, arguing, essentially, if they can \u201cmake it there, they\u2019ll make it anywhere,\u201d Streetsblog NYC <\/span>reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The company made the announcement that it was doubling its fleet of AVs in New York as the city moved to require a special city permit for AV tests. Mobileye\u2019s one self-driving car has been roaming New York streets since June under a permit issued by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

At a briefing in July, Mobileye President and CEO Ammon Sashua informed an audience of potential investors that the company ultimately planned to expand its fleet to a total of seven cars. The company wants to test AV technology in New York, Sashua said, because it\u2019s such a difficult place for humans to drive in: \u201cIn New York City, we gain all the learning we want to gain [in] AV testing. It is really really challenging [to drive in New York], even for a human.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT), however, is concerned about what might happen to everyone else when the cars are tooling around town. It plans to implement a permit system that would require AV companies to certify that their cars will operate more safely than human drivers will, to submit a \u201csafety plan,\u201d to carry $5 million in insurance to indemnify the city against legal liabilities and to provide information on any collisions. NYC DOT will also require that the companies allow its staff to ride in the cars as a \u201cdemonstration of the autonomous vehicle technology.\u201d Companies that fail to obtain the permit will be fined $5,000 a day.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

In a presentation to AV tech enthusiasts that included a 45-minute video showing its car in action in New York, Sashua described what Mobileye wants to do in the city as \u201cbattle testing,\u201d saying that the company needed to be able to prove its cars could operate \u201cat scale\u201d in a place where driving was a challenge to begin with. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cIf you can conquer New York City, then it opens up very very big parts of the world to deploy this technology,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to battle test in difficult areas.\u201d But he added that the technology would have to take a back seat to human whims if it is to be accepted. \u201cNo one is going to heed my advice in New York, especially drivers,\u201d he said. \u201c[As tech developers], we need to manage with what we have. We are not going to change the DNA of New Yorkers. We need to drive safely within that DNA.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Know of a development that should be featured in this column? Send a Tweet with links to @MarketStEl using the hashtag #mobilecity.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Next City contributor Sandy Smith is the home and real estate editor at Philadelphia<\/em> magazine. Over the years, his work has appeared in Hidden City Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> and other local and regional publications. His interest in cities stretches back to his youth in Kansas City, and his career in journalism and media relations extends back that far as well.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n

This post was originally published on Next City<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tCritics of the infrastructure bill say that it would lead to more roads and not enough public transit (Photo by Bala Maniymaran \/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWelcome to \u201cThe Mobile City,\u201d our weekly roundup of not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1630,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1630"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279385,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279384\/revisions\/279385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}