My friends and I walked to the streetcar terminus, certain of which trolley to board. An agent approached us to help; he didn't speak English, and we didn't speak Japanese.So, we reverted to the international language: We pointed to our destination on the map. Once he realized that the trolley we needed to take was boarding and about to depart, he began excitedly gesturing for us to board. We did, and the streetcar soon pulled away from the station....

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Congressman Jim Oberstar, the Democratic chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has released all 775 pages of his proposed transportation bill. Don't worry, we won't make you read the whole thing. We"ll digest it for you.  First the numbers you will be hearing more than most: Six years and $500 billion. That's how long the money will flow and how much the government wants to spend.....

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Green transportation advocates are pressing Congress to refuse any new spending that's not tied to reform of the existing system -- a call that influential senators in both parties ruled out today....

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Los Angeles' Orange Line busway will be extended north to Chatsworth by 2012, providing commuters further enhancements to an already popular transit alternative in the San Fernando Valley. The $215 million project will extend the bus rapid transit service from Canoga, near Warner Center, to a Metrolink commuter rail station four miles north in Chatsworth. At the other end of the existing line is the North Hollywood Metro station, where people can ride quickly downtown.....

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Cities from Suffern in Rockland County to Port Chester in Westchester County in New York will receive Transit-Oriented Development resources and training as part of a Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Corridor Project, including assistance from Reconnecting America. "The new initiative, a technical assistance program called “Transit-Oriented Development – Building Quality Communities around Transit,” is designed to provide municipalities with tools, resources and hands-on exposure to leading-edge land use and planning techniques to meet a broad range of community goals," the New York State Department of Transportation announced. The TOD program follows the state’s Lower Hudson Valley Smart Growth initiative with its aim to assist communities in planning for economic growth and development. The Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Corridor Project team has retained a consortium of renowned TOD experts to provide the training and other resources to the corridor communities. The…

The city is positioning itself for a post-recession boom through a mix of transportation-based planning and zoning decisions, a nationally known community planner said Monday.  Michael Freedman, a San Francisco-based urban designer, praised San Leandro's proposals for housing and retail developments around the downtown BART station, part of the city's transit-oriented development strategy, in a speech to 125 people at a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored forum.....
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There has been a lot of worthless chatter about what President Barack Obama should say about Iran's incipient "Green Revolution." Sorry, but Iranian reformers don't need our praise. They need the one thing we could do, without firing a shot, that would truly weaken the Iranian theocrats and force them to unshackle their people. What's that? End our addiction to the oil that funds Iran's Islamic dictatorship. Launching a real Green Revolution in America would be the best way to support the "Green Revolution" in Iran....

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CONNECTIVITY is key. The ability to make seamless connections from bus to train to subway makes public transit faster, more convenient and more appealing to potential riders....

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