Federal assistance to public transportation is provided primarily through the public transportation program administered by the Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The federal public transportation program was authorized from FY2016 through FY2020 as part of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the program as authorized by the FAST Act. Unless legislative action is taken, formula funding for the federal transit program could be decreased by approximately $1 billion in FY2020, roughly 12% from the amount authorized in the FAST Act as reported in chapter 2. Almost every conversation about surface transportation finance begins with a two-part question: What are the "needs" of the national transportation system, and how does the nation pay for them? Chapter 3 is aimed at discussing the "how to pay for them" question. The 116th Congress is expected to address surface transportation reauthorization, including consideration of how to deal with the persistent gap between projected HTF revenues and program costs as discussed in chapter 4 and 5. Chapter 6 begins by discussing FHWA assistance for the repair and reconstruction of highways and bridges damaged by disasters (such as the 2017 Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria) or catastrophic failures (such as the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge in Washington State in 2013). This is followed by a discussion of FTA's assistance program, established in 2012, which has provided assistance to public transportation systems on two occasions, once after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and again after the 2017 hurricanes. The focus of chapter 7 is how best to implement and finance a system of deterrence, protection, and response that effectively reduces the possibility and consequences of terrorist attacks without unduly interfering with travel, commerce, and civil liberties. The focus of chapter 8 is on truck freight and that portion of the rail and port industries that transports truck trailers and containers (intermodal freight). The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program provides long-term, low-interest loans and other types of credit assistance for the construction of surface transportation projects as reported in chapter 9. DOT opened the Build America Bureau in July 2016. Chapter 10 assesses, progress DOT made to establish the Bureau and carry out its responsibilities, the Bureau's process for evaluating applications, and whether the Bureau provided a clear rationale for decisions in that process. Chapter 11 examines the implications for federal transit policy of the current weakness and possible future changes in transit ridership. Chapter 12 discusses the extent to which information exists about future transit workforce needs and FTA assists with addressing current and future transit workforce needs.

An examination of the process of prioritizing private motorized transportation in Bengaluru, a rapidly growing megacity of the Global South. Automobiles and their associated infrastructures, deeply embedded in Western cities, have become a rapidly growing presence in the mega-cities of the Global South. Streets once crowded with pedestrians, pushcarts, vendors, and bicyclists are now choked with motor vehicles, many of them private automobiles. In this book, Govind Gopakumar examines this shift, analyzing the phenomenon of automobility in Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), a rapidly growing city of about ten million people in southern India. He finds that the advent of automobility in Bengaluru has privileged the mobility needs of the elite while marginalizing those of the rest of the population. Gopakumar connects Bengaluru's burgeoning automobility to the city's history and to the spatial, technological, and social interventions of a variety of urban actors. Automobility becomes a juggernaut, threatening to reorder the city to enhance automotive travel. He discusses the evolution of congestion and urban change in Bengaluru; the "regimes of congestion" that emerge to address the issue; an "infrastructurescape" that shapes the mobile behavior of all residents but is largely governed by the privileged; and the enfranchisement of an "automotive citizenship" (and the disenfranchisement of non-automobile-using publics). Gopakumar also finds that automobility in Bengaluru faces ongoing challenges from such diverse sources as waste flows, popular religiosity, and political leadership. These challenges, however, introduce messiness without upsetting automobility. He therefore calls for efforts to displace automobility that are grounded in reordering the mobility regime, relandscaping the city and its infrastructures, and reclaiming streets for other uses.

This book looks at one of the most serious types of highway accidentscollisions involving vehicles traveling the wrong way on high-speed divided highways. The goal of this investigative project is to identify relevant safety recommendations to prevent wrong-way collisions on such highways and access ramps. The investigations included in the book take a focused view of the driver and highway issues affecting wrong-way collisions. The book addresses the following safety issues concerning wrong-way driving: driver impairment, primarily from alcohol use, with consideration of older driver issues and possible drug involvement; the need to establish, through traffic control devices and highway design, distinctly different views for motorists approaching entrance and exit ramps; monitoring and intervention programs for wrong-way collisions; and in-vehicle driver support systems.

Policymakers at all levels of government are debating a wide range of options for addressing the nation's faltering economic conditions. One option that is once again receiving attention is accelerated investments in the nation's public infrastructure -- that is, highways, mass transit, airports, water supply and wastewater, and other facilities -- in order to create jobs while also promoting long-term economic growth. This book examines policy issues associated with using infrastructure as a mechanism to benefit economic recovery. Discussed are state-level driver data and the effect of look-back periods on recidivism prevalence; restraint use and minimum drinking age laws; electronic stability control; mobile device use while driving; the impact of fuel price increases on the aviation industry; aviation safety; and the assessment of potential mariner-training needs.

Almost all commercial service airports in the United States are owned by local and state governments, or by public entities such as airport authorities or multipurpose port authorities. In 1996, Congress established the Airport Privatization Pilot Program (APPP) to explore the prospect of privatising publicly owned airports and using private capital to improve and develop them. In addition to reducing demand for government funds, privatisation has been promoted as a way to make airports more efficient and financially viable. Privatisation refers to the shifting of governmental functions, responsibilities, and sometimes ownership, in whole or in part, to the private sector. With respect to airports, "privatisation" can take many forms up to and including the transfer of an entire airport to private operation and/or ownership. This book examines the issues and options for Congress with airport privatisation. It describes the experience with the APPP; examines the challenges airport owners and investors face to full airport privatisation; describes the potential effects of airport privatisation; and, discusses reasons why airport privatisation is more prevalent outside of the U.S. and stakeholder views on the APPP.

Speeding is defined as exceeding posted speed limits or driving too fast for conditions. This is a behaviour that some drivers engage in without recognising the risks or seriously considering the consequences. The most serious consequences of speeding are the fatalities and serious injuries that result from crashes. Over the last ten years, speeding has been consistently identified as a contributing factor in nearly one-third of all roadway fatalities nation-wide. Crashes involving speeding occur on all road types but are particularly prevalent on the local rural road system. This book provides information on how to develop a Speed Management Program that is tailored to meet the needs of local rural road practitioners. A Speed Management Program can be effective in lowering the number of speeding crashes and the resulting fatalities and serious injuries on local rural roads. Non-motorised modes of travel can also be expected along these roads. Non-motorised transportation is primarily comprised of biking, walking, equestrian, and horse-drawn vehicles but may also include other non-powered transportation devices. This book is also a guide to assist local rural road practitioners in making effective use of current practices and resources addressing non-motorised mobility and safety, thereby creating a more accommodating and viable transportation system for all road users.

Local road practitioners across the country play a critical role in addressing crash risks at the local level and may be able to identify the specific or unique conditions that contribute to crashes within their jurisdictions. The Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP) offers a foundation for consensus and focus. It defines key emphasis areas and strategies that impact local rural roads and provides a framework to accomplish safety enhancements at the local level. The LRSP helps communities take a proactive stance in reducing and preventing local road fatalities and injuries. This book guides the development of an LRSP. It provides information to local practitioners about identifying stakeholders and partnerships needed to build support, tools to analyse data, and resources to identify safety issues and select safety strategies.

This book examines the funding of roads and highways in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England and Wales, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Africa, and Sweden. It provides a description of the infrastructure in the jurisdiction, information on the ownership and responsibility of the roads, and taxes or other ways of collecting money to fund the nation's infrastructure. By revealing a multiplicity of approaches to the funding of road infrastructure, the report provides an opportunity to determine whether lessons can be learned from the experiences of other countries in funding roads and highways.

This book examines the competitiveness of Mexican and Canadian ports with U.S. West Coast ports; discusses the history and the theories of cargo diversion and of the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT); reviews ocean freight rates, transit times and rail charges; and examines other potential relevant factors influencing the movement of cargo.

Policymakers at all levels of government are debating a wide range of options for addressing the nation's faltering economic conditions. One option that is once again receiving attention is accelerated investments in the nation's public infrastructure - that is, highways, mass transit, airports, water supply and wastewater, and other facilities - in order to create jobs while also promoting long-term economic growth. This book discusses policy issues associated with using infrastructure as a mechanism to benefit economic recovery. Discussed are the Federal-Aid Highway Program (FAHP); surface transportation funding and programs under MAP-21; federal-aid highway assistance for disaster-damaged roads and bridges; earthquake risk and U.S. highway infrastructure; information on materials and practices for improving highway pavement performance; federal freight policy; Positive Train Control (PTC); Essential Air Service (EAS); the changing tide of U.S.-international container trade; and containerships that carry inventory for U.S. retailers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) provides about $40 billion to the states annually to build and maintain highways and bridges through the federal-aid highway program. This book describes the process and factors that could affect highway project time frames; examines state DOTs' views on the benefits and challenges of the provisions to expedite highway projects established in SAFETEA-LU and describes additional initiatives that state DOTs and FHWA have implemented to expedite the completion of highway projects.

Finding cost-effective options to mitigate recurrent and non-recurrent congestion on freeway facilities is one of the most significant challenges State and regional transportation organisations face. Several countries are implementing managed motorway concepts to move higher traffic volumes on their highways more efficiently without acquiring more land and constructing large-scale infrastructure projects. This book explores managed motorway concepts and traffic optimisation technologies being implemented in Europe and Singapore.

The federal government collect revenues from taxes paid by highway users, mostly from those levied on gasoline and diesel fuel, and credits them to the Highway Trust Fund. Those revenues and others are subsequently used for federal spending on highways and transit. In fiscal year 2010, the trust fund's revenues totalled about $35 billion. Some policymakers and transportation analysts have expressed interest in developing new sources of funding. This book analyses the effects of alternative approaches to funding highways and compares the effects of current fuel taxes and of possible new taxes on the number of miles highway users drive.

Since the early 1980s, the periodic debate over the reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs has been primarily about money and its distribution. In each of the five reauthorizations that took place during that period, the federal fuel taxes and other sources of revenue dedicated to the highway trust were reliably providing the various surface transportation programs with more money year after year. In 2009, this was not the case. For the first time in decades, driving declined significantly, with a concomitant decrease in fuel tax revenues. Going forward the program cannot count on new money from the familiar sources. The law authorising federal surface transportation programs expired at the end of 2009, but Congress has failed to enact a new authorisation. This book examines the surface transportation program reauthorization issues for the 112th Congress; funding and finance; the Donor-Donee State issue of funding equity and federalism issues in surface transportation policy.

This book examines greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels and trends from the transportation sector and analyses the full range of strategies available to reduce these emissions. These strategies include introducing low-carbon fuels, increasing vehicle fuel economy, improving transportation system efficiency, and reducing carbon-intensive travel activity. Policy options for implementing these strategies are also discussed, including an economy-wide price signal; efficiency standards; market incentives; transportation planning and funding programs and research and development.

Transportation infrastructure has a significant meaning for the economic growth, the mobility of labour, the opportunities for tendering transport services and the competitiveness of the economy as a whole. This book presents topical research in the study of transport policy, including the European Union (EU) policy on the sustainability of transport and policy goals; public transit service quality evaluation for a sustainable transportation system; urban structure and transport; policy and market-based mechanisms towards a green and sustainable transport and policies of railway interoperability.

The increasing use of cellular phones has served as a catalyst for growing interest in driver distraction in recent years. While the use of cellular phones poses a significant and increasing risk to roadway safety, studies show that it represents a relatively small proportion of a bigger distraction program. This book examines current knowledge on driver distraction to help state and local governments formulate effective policies, regulations and laws relating to this challenging issue.

Congress is considering legislation to strengthen federal regulation of auto safety, in response to hundreds of reported accidents, and more than 50 fatalities, that may be linked to sudden acceleration in certain makes of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Toyota, under pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has recalled more than 6 million autos in the United States, and for a time stopped production of certain new-model vehicles in an effort to address the problems, which is one of the largest such efforts in recent history. This book examines the problem of unintended or sudden acceleration of automobiles occurring during the past year and what mitigating challenges and procedures lay ahead for Congress and automakers.

Operator fatigue and sleep deprivation have been widely recognised as critical safety issues that cut across all modes in the transportation industry. However, there are a number of additional safety issues that plague drivers in a variety of vehicles. This book examines the safety issues that affect many types of transportation, such as improvements to drug testing programs in order to promote motor carrier safety, driver fatigue research, driver factors in fatal bus crashes and the role of driving-hours on driver fatigue. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

Public health is now considering road safety as a major factor to improve morbidity and mortality but the health community is poorly educated regarding this issue. The World Health Organization dedicated the 2004 World Health Day to road safety. Since then, various campaigns around the world have been launched to reduce the number of traffic accidents and death, and several projects we initiated to improve traffic safety. Sleepiness at the wheel is an important cause of traffic accidents. This book discusses the causes and consequences of driver sleepiness in a systematic manner. Experts in the field of traffic safety and sleep research have contributed to this book.

Every weekday in the United States more than 7 million people board a rail transit vehicle. Rail transit is considered one of the safest modes of transportation, but incidents such as the recent collision between two transit trains in Washington, DC, raise questions about the safety of rail transit and the government's role in ensuring its safety. This book examines the safety record of rail transit and the division of responsibilities for ensuring the safety of rail transit operations, with an emphasis on the role of the federal government. Discussed, herein, are the different types of rail transit systems and the condition of those systems, statistics on the safety record of rail transit operations, and the roles of federal, state, and local entities responsible for ensuring the safety of rail transit.

Over the last decade, Class I railroads have consolidated and, particularly in the past two years, have achieved high profitability. The present, mostly deregulated railway regime was designed during a period when railways were in financial peril. Some Members of Congress believe that the present, mostly deregulated regime needs to be revised to provide more balance for the interests of those rail customers who are served by only one railroad. A major point of contention is whether current railroad industry practices should be changed to provide these customers (referred to as "captive shippers") with more routing options. This book provides background on the current railroad regulatory regime and examines the major points of contention between railroads and their "captive customers."

Airlines have imposed a variety of fees on a range of optional services, such as checked and carry-on bags; meals; blankets; early boarding; and seat selection. According to airline officials, the fees are based on a combination of factors, including the cost of providing the service, competition, and consumer demand. The fees have supplemented airline revenues, providing at least $3 billion in 2009. However, information about the fees is not fully disclosed through all ticket distribution channels used by consumers, making it difficult for them to compare the total cost of flights offered by different carriers. This book addresses the nature and relationship to cost and disclosure of airline fees; the potential impact of such fees on the Airport and Airway Trust Fund; checked and mishandled baggage issues; and the process, if any, for refunding government-imposed taxes and fees when passengers do not use non-refundable tickets.

All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), which are off-road motorised vehicles, usually with four tires, a straddle seat for the operator, and handlebars for steering control, have become increasingly popular. All-Terrain Vehicles are mainly used for recreation, but are also used in occupations such as farming and policing. ATVs are also used as primary transportation in some remote communities, such as in parts of Alaska. However, ATV fatalities and injuries have increased over the last decade and are a matter of concern to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which overseas ATV safety. This book explores how ATVs are used, their crash statistics, and sales of adult-sized vehicles for children's use. Also discussed are the effects of ATVs on forested lands and grasslands and their impact on natural resources.

Growing demands on the transportation system and constraints on public resources have led to calls for more private sector involvement in the provision of highway and transit infrastructure through what are known as "public-private partnerships" (PPPs). A PPP, broadly defined, is any arrangement whereby the private sector assumes more responsibility than is traditional for infrastructure planning, financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance. This book describes the wide variety of public-private partnerships in highways and transit, but focuses on the two types of highway PPPs that are generating the most debate: the leasing by the public sector to the private sector of existing infrastructure; and the building, leasing, and owning of new infrastructure by private entities.