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This joint report by The Reason Foundation, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and Transportation for America, introduces sevens transportation tools that can help improve our nation’s transportation system at taxpayer-friendly costs.

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From The Brookings Institution

Public transit is a critical part of the economic and social fabric of metropolitan areas. Nearly 30 million trips are made every day using public transit. Almost all of these trips occur in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, which account for over 95 percent of all transit passenger miles traveled. People take transit for any number of reasons, but one of the most common is to get to work.

However, when it comes to the question of how effectively transit connects people and jobs within and across these metropolitan areas, strikingly little is known. With governments at all levels considering deep budget cuts, it is increasingly important to understand not just the location and frequency of transit service, but ultimately how well transit aligns with where people work and live. To better understand these issues, the Metropolitan Policy Program developed a comprehensive database that provides the first comparable, detailed look at transit coverage and connectivity across and within the nation’s major metro areas.

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States spent an estimated $131 billion on transportation in fiscal year 2010, but many cannot answer critical questions abot what returns this investment is generating, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States and the Rockefeller Foundation. The study comes at a time when some members of Congress are proposing that the next surface transportation authorization act, the law that governs the largest federal funding streams for states’ transportation systems, more closely tie dollars to performance.

The report, Measuring Transportation Investments: The Road to Results, found considerable differences among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in linking transportation systems to six key goals particularly important to states’ economic well-being and taxpayers’ quality of life: safety, jobs and commerce, mobility, access, environmental stewardship and infrastructure preservation.

The BlueGreen Alliance and the Economic Policy Institute released a new report, Rebuilding Green: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Green Economy.  The report details how the Recovery Act's green investments committed through the end of 2010 created or saved nearly 1 million jobs. It provides evidence that the Recovery Act succeeded in responding to the nation's economic crisis and that green investments create jobs while laying a foundation for the development of a 21st century green economy in the United States.

Get the report here...