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• In general news: Following the House’s lead, the Senate passed a $7 billion measure to bail out the nearly-broke Highway Trust Fund. Obama is expected to sign it. (WaPo)
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• From Canada, a study finds that a high speed link between Edmonton and Calgary costing of $3+ billion would produce more than $30 billion in economic benefits. Predicted: The average home would increase in value by $450 in both cities. (Edmonton Sun)
• A transportation spend bill passed earlier this week in the House provides $4 billion for HSR–the Senate was feeling less bountiful though: their version provides only $1.2 billion. (Streetsblog DC)
• Improving the rail link between New Haven and Springfield, Mass., is a key part of the New England governors’ rail plan. CT Senator Chris Dodd, head of the Banking Committee, thinks there’s a “solid chance” this project will get funded with stimulus bucks. We’d bet on it. (Courant)
• Oregon’s governor is hopeful that a project to upgrade train service between Portland and Eugene will see some stimulus love. The state asked for $2 billion to upgrade tracks and crossings, allowing trains to top out at 110 mph. (Oregonian)
• Doubters corner: Let’s try “overhauling our antique public transportation system” before spending “untold billions” on this wacky HSR thing, says a Chicago columnist. He would particularly like quicker trips between Evanston and Comiskey Park. (Chicago Trib)
• “Ohio would be a prime example of a state that would benefit from” HSR, says Obama. “You could link a whole bunch of cities there. The same is true between states, linking Chicago to Detroit to Cleveland.” Well, we know what he means anyway… (Gannett)

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• A big story about white roofs as a way to save energy and potentially delay climate change–a drum we’ve been beating here for months–lands on page A1 of the NY Times. “Roof makers are racing to develop” reflective products and cash in an expected boom as suburban homes lighten up. (NYT)
• A bill introduced in the Senate yesterday would take away 25% of highway funding for any state that doesn’t outlaw texting while driving. This is in the wake of a study showing that texting drivers are 23 times more likely to have an accident. wtf lol. (WaPo)
• Utah officials are pitching a fit because transit might get 22% of funding instead of 18% in the next transportation bill–even though there will be a whole lot more road money this time anyway. Oh, and Utah is also building 70 miles of new rail projects. Shut up, Utah. (SLC Tribune)
• A company is indicted on charges of falsifying the strength test results for concrete used in various high-profile public works project in the NYC area. However, rest easy because the defendants’ lawyer insists all concrete was “safe” and “wonderful.” (Newsday)
• People in 1909 were smart! Or maybe really stupid! They thought they were running out of fossil fuels and that the answer was to build lots of windmills and run our society on wind power. Ha, imagine. (FT Energy Source)
• After years of planning with a top architecture firm, US Customs recently put up a 21-foot tall yellow sign at a remote border crossing. It read simply “United States.” Just weeks later DHS is tearing it down because they’re weird and crazy and are afraid it will attract Ontario terrorists (a.k.a. “Ontarrorists”) (NYT - Pic via)
• In other doomed signage news: A highway sign in Wisconsin misspells every word except “exit.” If you ever happen to be driving along “Buisness” route 51, give it a look. (Wausau Daily Herald)

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• Transportation is responsible for a third of US CO2 emissions. A new report argues that we can halve that figure by 2050 by pursuing smart infrastructure investment and land use policies and being more aggressive in road tolling. (”Moving Cooler” and Greenwire)
• A Tennessee county with 25% unemployment is taking a page from the New Deal playbook: using stimulus money to subsidize job creation at private employers ranging from hotels to milkshake shacks. It’s working. “The impact has been enormous, all across the county.” (NYT)
• The House will take up a $5 billion patch for the nearly-broke Highway Trust Fund, the big national kitty for everyone’s gas taxes. The figure is much smaller than the Senate and administration have discussed, and there may be fireworks down the road — heh. (AP and Streetsblog DC)
• Atlanta was the first US city to start building housing projects. Now the local government is tearing them all down, which will make Atlanta the first big US city to have no projects at all. (AP and The Takeaway)
• With the airline industry in flux, many airport authorities are re-thinking the terminal — doing away with traditional ticket counters and adding free WiFi and more shopping. The biggest change will be invisible though: finally getting the new national air traffic control system running will ease congestion. (MSNBC)
• Cash for Clunkers is raising some questions. So how about “Kalashnikovs for Clunkers”? A Missouri car dealer whose motto is “God, Guns, Guts and American Pick-Up Trucks” will give you a voucher for an AK-47 if you buy a new truck. A “good” AK costs about $450 these days, FYI. (Streetsblog and HuffPo)
• In Oregon pols are taking credit for creating 3,200 jobs with a $176 million state stimulus — but on average those “jobs” last just 35 hours. An AP analysis finds the measure created only 215 lasting jobs. (NPR)

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• Why did oil prices shoot up to $150 last year? A while back, US regulators ruled it was mostly supply and demand, not speculation. Now… they’ve changed their mind. It was speculation after all! (WSJ)
• Eight Midwestern governors signed off on a high speed rail plan that would connect a dozen cities in the region, from Ohio to Iowa and Michigan to Missouri. One estimate has the project costing $10 billion over a 10 to 20 year timeframe. (CSM)
• Last month, more than 49,000 infrastructure-related jobs were “created or sustained” with stimulus money, according to a House report. In May, the figure was 21,000. As of the end of june, 5,000 projects have been put out to bid and 142 completed. (Reuters)
• The Senate is debating a $34 billion energy and water bill. It includes $5 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers for civil works — but since the agency has a $60 billion project backlog, it doesn’t allow any new ones. But pork-hungry politicians might change that. (Greenwire)
• Edward Glaeser, a Harvard professor and skeptic about high speed rail investment, has started a new series on the subject at the Economix blog. Obama’s vision of HSR has “powerful magic,” he says, but the debate must start with reliable estimates.
• From the same ‘hood: The Freakonomics blog–usually quite good–went off the rails last week with a post about the climatic (non-)benefits of HSR. CAHSR blog reponds. And Transport Politic gets to the bottom line: we need a rail system powered by clean electricity.
• NYC’s 19,000 miles of roads would stretch nearly around the world. But even as city road crews filled 300,000 potholes last year, they are having trouble keeping up with the required repairs on Gotham’s streets. (NYT)
• Unknown vandals in Amsterdam have started throwing Smart Cars–those snazzy and ultra-efficient urban automobiles that resemble golf carts–into the city’s canals. No reason, apparently, except that they’re there and they’re lightweight. (BuzzFeed)

Photo mock-up stolen from Murdoch’s The Sun

• Total energy consumption in the US grew in 2008. From a global warming perspective that might sound like bad news, but the use of coal and petroleum actually fell, while renewables and nuclear power expanded. (Green Sheet)
• OK, maybe I meant government policies should be a carrot rather than a stick to get people out of their cars, says Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Referring to May episode that spawned a famous George Will column, LaHood says that he wants “lure” people out of their autos, not “coerce” them. (CNS)
• Jim Oberstar is greatly outnumbered, but he’s still gamin’: As an attempt to foil the Senate and the White House in their push for an 18-month interim transportation bill, the House transpo honcho will introduce a $3 billion short-term patch for the nearly broke Highway Trust Fund. (Roll Call)
• 340 engineers at VIA, “Canada’s Amtrak,” went on strike last week, essentially shutting down the rail system. There wasn’t a rental car to be had in the entire city of Montreal. VIA says the strike could end in massive layoffs. (GOOD and Toronto Star)
• Being a polite urban cyclist has its own rewards. The powerlessness of being on a bike can be a huge frustration — but one might also see it as “the special joy of city cycling.” Imagine yourself relying on the skills of a diplomat rather than a warrior. (Guardian)
• The Tappan Zee bridge is the “quintessential 21st century planning dilemma.” The 50-year old structure has outlasted its design life — but the politics of replacing it (with a price tag of $16 billion) are hellaciously complicated. (NYT)
• You know intellectually that bridges flex, but have you seen watched it happen? The video at top shows the Manhattan Bridge, a span is used by subway trains as well as cars, bouncing all over the place. The trains in particular create a lot of motion. (Gawker)

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• The House is voting today on a spending bill that includes $4 billion for high speed rail. Tom Latham, a Republican from Iowa, wants to strip $3 billion of the HSR money and spend it on roads. Predictably, we think that idea sucks. (Greenwire)
• Commercial construction fell 71 percent in June. The bad news: That’s a hell of a big drop. The good news: A construction economist says things will improve in coming months, based on the bid calendar. (Wash Biz Journal)
• Monday we learned the Second Ave subway will be delayed till 2016. Or maybe even 2017. Now the federal government has weighed in and says it might be 2018. At this rate, we’ll be talking 2100 by fall… (Second Ave Sagas and AMNY)
• What’s the difference between a traffic circle and roundabout? Tom Vanderbilt explains. He also makes the case for why roundabouts are a better option than our standard “square” intersections in many cases, despite being vaguely Euro. (Slate)
• Do you know your fire hydrants? When a rapscallion opens one on a hot summer day, that’s 1,000 gallons per minute going to waste. Three hours of watery fun cost the city $1000. Also, check out the titter-worthy diagram of a hydrant’s parts–e.g. “gland stud” and “stuffing box.” (Urban Omnibus)
• In Houston a man was using a legless mannequin as a passenger to sneak into HOV lanes. He got busted after a car crash but protested that he was just “transporting” the fake person. Police confiscated it anyway. (Houston Chronicle)
• In Shanghai a 13-story building just kind of… tipped over. And now it’s 13-stories long instead of high. Who says China has shoddy building standards? Photos after the jump. (Gizmodo)

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• Last month’s tragic crash on the DC Metro was caused by a failure of the train control system. Now it seems like those failures are rather common — they’ve been documented on 4 separate lines lately. (WaPo)
• New Yorkers, who have been hearing about the Second Ave subway since the JFK administration, will now get to savor the suspense for a while longer, as the MTA is pushing back the completion date for phase one to late 2016 (or summer 2017). But what’s a year or two among friends? (NYT and Second Ave Sagas)
• The Cincinnati Metro is facing a $20 million deficit–commuter numbers have dropped as unemployment has risen–and is planning to slash services and jobs and possibly increase fares. (Cincy Inquirer)
• A leading figure in the California High Speed Rail project blasts the SF Examiner (not infrequently described as the worst newspaper in America) for the incredibly stupid assertion that it’s a “pork” project. Then the editors put a stupid headline on his piece. (SF Examiner)
• The cute little town of Tiburon, California, situated in the rich hippie mecca of Marin County, plans to photograph and record the license plate of everyone who passes through. Just for their records–in case you decide to go on a crime spree or something. Not that there’s actually much crime in Tiburon… (AP)
• “Most of us think of water and wastewater infrastructure as consisting of big pipes”–well, yes! But maybe it’s time to start thinking more broadly. Rain gardens and urban forests are “infrastructure” too: planners need to “think about the way water moves through plants, as opposed to [just] gutters and drains.” (Roll Call)
• Seattle’s new light rail system opened up over the weekend. 45,000 customers took a free ride on the 14-mile link and offered a broadly positive assessment. One of the more notable early riders? Jeff “The Dude” Dowd, the real-life model for the lead character in the Big Lebowski. (Seattle Times, AP)

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• Officials at the Dept of Transportation were well aware that when drivers use a cell phone (of any sort) they are as dangerous as drunks. But they buried the facts to avoid “antagonizing” Congress and to preserve billions in agency funding. (NYT)
• From the dept. of “Wow!”: Obesity falls 10% for ever $1 increase in the price of gasoline. Then again, considering even a dime in new gas tax is judged to be “politically impossible” these days, maybe we’ll just stay fat. (Forbes)
• The Senate passes a $27 billion bill to bail out the Highway Trust Fund, which is set to run out of money later this summer. The measure includes $5 billion for transit program. What will the House do? Unclear, sayeth the 8 ball. (Streetsblog DC)
• China is planning to implement a national smart grid by 2020. And since the government owns 100% of the transmission capacity, it can just give the say so. Plus, this factoid: “China has a lot of electricity meters.” (Forbes)
• One of the planks Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin ran on four years ago was fixing the city’s wretched sewer system. Now, leaving office, she’s declared victory. It cost billions, but at least she got to take a field trip down into the sewer. (Fox)
• Internet data centers are weirdly opaque facilities. Companies like Google won’t even reveal how many they have. We do know, however, that Apple is spending $1 billion to build a big one in the tiny N.C. town of Maiden. (Hickory Record)
• The “dismal and ubiquitous” sidewalk sheds that announce construction projects are like NYC’s own downmarket version of street arcades. It’s nice that they save us from falling hammers — but why do they stay up for a decade or more? (WSJ)
• Think your commute was bad? Yesterday there was a 259 car pile-up on Germany’s A2 autobahn between Berlin and Hanover. A small army of emergency responders descended to attend to the dozens of injured motorists. Video after the jump. (ITN)

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