The TARC board has granted a stay of execution on some of the routes slated for cancellation. The best coverage of the cuts is at the KIPDA transportation blog.

TARC's cut will not be sufficient to reach financial balance. Thus the Metro Transit Trust Fund (MTTF) will dip down to $7.5 million dollars from its healthy level of $10 million dollars. The MTTF serves as a way to keep service on the streets in an emergency, and also as buffer cash for reimbursement projects ("if you build it we will pay...someday" as oppposed to "we will pay you then you build it").

While everyone awknolwedges this is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, I have to give credit for them having the guts to deficit spend. There's a strong argument that government shouldn't cut jobs during a recession, and we've had plenty of state and local job cuts already, just as the feds are pouring money into creating new jobs.

This is no game and there is an element of risk for the livelyhood of 60,000 TARC riders. So far TARC has not had the roller-coaster ride of severe service cuts experienced at many other transit agencies. (c.f. today's front page New York Times article on the MTA cuts). That's a possibility that Possibility City has avoided.

CART remains committed to creating a better federal funding structure for transit in the new authorization in 2010.

CART holds its business meeting of the year Friday the 31st of July, 6pm, at Clifton Center. Among the exciting activities:

• You can become a member of CART!
• Members can elect eachother to the Board of Directors!
• Hear CART's annual financial report!
• Learn about the Federal Transportation Authorization Process, and more about Transportation for America.
• and so much more!

This meeting is free and open to the public.

You can take the free TARC "trolley", or the 19, 31, or 15 - get off at Clifton Ave. There is also bike and car parking available.

Key Details are Missing, Significant Work Still Needed;

Transportation coalition prepares to work for changes in draft legislation to meet Kentucky's needs for the 21st Century.

Download the Press Release.

Wednesday is T4America's National Call in Day. The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 is in play, and will determine the transportation system we have to live with for the rest of our lives. If you support transit, walking, and bicycling there is much to like in the new bill, but the bill lacks a clear strategy for reforming our transportation system, something like this. Tell your Representative "No new transportation money without reform."

Let's light up the switchboards. Here are suggested comments for making the call. You probably want to know the name of your Represenatiative. Here's a handy map of KY and IN representatives - though if you're in Louisville it is probably John Yarmuth (3rd), and if you're in Southern Indiana it's probably Baron Hill (9th).

The bill that will shape the future of our transportation system for the next five years has now seen the light of day. As we pour over the bill, Transportation for America is asking all CART readers to send a letter of support to Congress. It is easy and only takes a few seconds.

Reactions from around the 'sphere:

• Streetsblog: The most common phrase in the bill may well be three innocuous words: "to be supplied."

More as they come in...

[Ed's Note: Copied & pasted from Steve Davis's article at Transportation for America.]

In the revolutionary transportation bill of 1991, Congress officially declared that Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System had been completed, signaling an end to one of the greatest national investments in history. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a new national vision to take it’s place, and our transportation system has been operating as a ship without a rudder since.

We’re in desperate need of an overarching strategy that determines when, how, and where transportation dollars are spent. As of now, we have no firm plan. No vision. No goal for what the billions in taxpayer dollars should accomplish. That can all change with the National Transportation Objectives Act of 2009 introduced last week by three members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Rush Holt (D-NJ), and Jay Inslee (D-WA).

These three Representatives made a great step towards a 21st Century transportation system by introducing this bill, but this legislation needs us to stand behind it to have a real impact. Let’s send a message to Congress loud and clear that this is the kind of vision the American people support.

HR 2724 sets 20-year goals for the federal transportation bill. They are goals we can really get behind:

1. Reduce per capita vehicle miles traveled by 16 percent.
2. Triple walking, biking, and public transportation usage.
3. Reduce transportation-generated carbon dioxide level by 40 percent.
4. Reduce delay per capita by 10 percent.
5. Increase proportion of freight transportation provided by railroad and intermodal services by 20 percent.
6. Achieve 0 percent population exposure to at-risk levels of air pollution.
7. Improve public safety and lower congestion costs by reducing traffic crashes by 50 percent.
8. Increase share of major highways, regional transit fleets and facilities, and bicycling/pedestrian infrastructure in good state of repair condition by 20 percent.
9. Reduce average household combined housing plus transportation costs by 25 percent, using 2000 as a base year.
10. Increase by 50 percent the number of essential destinations (work and non-work) accessible within 30 minutes by public transportation or 15 minutes by walking, for low-income, senior, and disabled populations.

UPDATE: CART and Bicycling for Louisville have both endorsed this bill, and are calling on Representive Yarmuth to endorse it.

UPDATE #2: T4America finally got off their duffs and posted on their website about this. They do a better job of explaining this than we do.

I became a board member of CART a year ago - a group with years of experience in various transportation issues.  My background, mainly in disability rights, touched on transportation accessibility, but this is so much bigger!  Now CART is undertaking a grassroots movement to influence the way we fund our transportation infrastructure for the next 6 years.  I'd better get educated. 

As I find sources of information that make sense to me, I'd like to share them with you. 

Why?  Transportation is the second biggest federal discretionary spending category — second only to defense spending.   Where and how we choose to invest in transportation will have deep impacts on our housing and job markets, public health, energy needs, climate, economic competitiveness, and nearly every other pressing issue facing our country today.

After reading this t4america blog article, talking about US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood's new direction, where the primary goals are now:

1. economic recovery
2. safety
3. livable and sustainable communities

Its worth noting that we're winning. Heck, we might even win this one in our lifetimes.

CLEAN TEA, an interesting new transportation bill, has been introduced in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del) said: “Today, we fund our transportation system through a gas tax, meaning we pay for roads and transit by burning gasoline. When people drive less, our transportation budgets dry up. This means states and localities that reduce oil use, lower greenhouse emissions and save their constituents money end up getting their budgets cut. But CLEAN TEA reverses this negative funding policy by sending money to states and localities based on how much they reduce emissions. Now, we in the Congress have the great opportunity to address many national problems at once – finding additional funding for transportation infrastructure, building money-saving transportation alternatives and lowering greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.”

They'd pay for the funds through a carbon tax.

Bipartisan, Bicameral sponsors include: Sens. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), Steven La Tourette (R-Ohio), Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).