Transportation

Let’s stipulate, up front, that there’s plenty of blame to go all around on Katrina.

Two years ago this week, and ever since, a Republican president, a Democratic governor and a Democratic mayor have all seemed to be competing for the prize of "most incompetent." And also, let’s just say it and get it out of the way: During the hurricane and its aftermath, some of the people of New Orleans haven’t acquitted themselves very well, either.

But the real lesson of… more

So now they tell us that 73,764 American bridges last year were rated "structurally deficient" -- the same rating as the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed last week in Minneapolis.

That doesn’t mean all those bridges are deadly dangerous, but it does mean nobody really knows. One might think, after 7,000 years of civilization, that the governing class would have figured out how to keep bridges from killing its citizens, but evidently our betters have had other priorities.

In the meantime, a… more

The collapse of the Minnesota interstate bridge, coupled with the explosion of a steam tunnel in Manhattan, should arouse the country to the need for massive infrastructure investment -- and reform of the way it’s financed.

It’s a miracle that more people weren’t killed and injured in the two instances...

Urgent attention will be paid for a few weeks to America’s highway bridges -- 15 percent to 25 percent of which are believed to be structurally deficient -- because of the collapse… more

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach -- which together make up the nation's busiest harbor complex and one of the key engines of the Southern California economy -- are poised for an 18-Wheel Revolution. In April, they unveiled a plan to slash diesel pollution from the 16,000 trucks that haul goods to nearby rail yards and warehouses by 80 percent. And that's only the beginning.

The plan -- which still needs final approval -- also seeks… more

Luis Ceja’s orange Freightliner is rumbling down Ferry Street near the Port of Los Angeles, spewing diesel fumes.

As a tiny, plastic hula girl shimmies on the dashboard, Ceja starts fuming too -- about how hard his job is, about how little he earns and about the fact that he and his fellow truckers can’t bear the burden of improving the air quality here.

"I hate that my truck pollutes," he says. "But I don’t have the money to retrofit it or… more

You might think that holiday shoppers driving on the nation’s highways would have enough to worry about with bad weather and high gas prices. But unless there is a sudden about-face on the part of the Federal Highway Administration, Americans are about to receive an unwelcome gift that, unlike a wrong-color necktie or bad-fitting socks, could literally kill them.

The FHA, which oversees our nation’s highway system, is about to issue a regulation allowing 97-foot-long multi-truck monstrosities to roar up… more

Imagine that the transportation bond measure on Tuesday’s ballot, Proposition 1B, signifies a return to the golden era of California, when the state’s future was on the drawing board.

This is the dream the measure’s backers, including legislators, local officials and the coterie around Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, would like us to believe. In its endorsement of the proposition, one newspaper crowed that "for the first time in nearly 50 years, California is on the brink of building for the future."… more

Predictions of the demise of suburbia, choked to death by high gasoline prices, may be greatly exaggerated.

Conventional wisdom suggests that high prices at the pump mean less driving and, hence, the withering of far-flung suburbs, whose residents must drive to jobs, shopping and recreation.

For today's warriors in the fight against sprawl, there's a silver lining in this: The soaring price of gas evokes images of a nation retreating back to its urban past, with chastened suburbanites abandoning their… more

The emerging conventional wisdom about Dubai Ports World is that, after a disastrous debut for the proposed deal, President George W. Bush might yet get his way. Meanwhile, the debate should be educational for all Americans -- including Bush.

Last week, W. tried to defend the deal by arguing that the United Arab Emirates, which owns Ports World, deserves to be treated just like the United Kingdom, a laughably historical bit of political correctness. It was thus little surprise… more

George W. Bush is ready to fight for the Dubai-buying-U.S.-ports deal. But a growing bipartisan grouping, in regard to that fight, is saying, "Bring it on."

Defending the proposed sale, Bush said Tuesday, "I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a great British company."

OK, I will step up. Let's begin by noting that the United Kingdom and the… more