The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has announced the recipients of the third round of TIGER grants. USDOT is awarding a total of $511 million to 46 innovative transportation projects in 33 states and Puerto Rico. The program was heavily oversubscribed, with only about 5% of the 848 applicants receiving awards. The total amount requested from all applicants was $14.29 billion. While road projects make up approximately half of the awards, a quarter of these ($64 million worth) are complete streets projects aimed at making the roads more accommodating to pedestrians, bicyclists, and other users. Transit projects constitude 29% of the awards, following by port (21%) and freight rail (10%) investments. Altogether, TIGER grants will fund ten different transportation modes. Communities large and small received awards. Thirty percent of the $511 million will go to projects in twenty rural communities.

There's been a lot of discussion recently on the issue of streetcars, light rail, and dedicated guideways.  Some focus heavily on the development side of building streetcars while many others have discussed the accessibility and service side, mentioning that a streetcar stuck in traffic is no better than any other transit mode.  While this discussion lives on in the United States, Europe has been quietly resurecting tram lines dedicated to getting people around the regions they support.  While many of the Eastern Block countries kept thier tramways, western nations such as France ripped many of them out after the war.