MORE DOUGH FOR ROADS AND TRANSIT

For work last year, I ran some numbers on the gap between what our region is forecasted to bring in for transportation over the next 25 years and what it really needs. To summarize, the answer is - a lot. And though I tend to be a fiscal conservative, I believe in the economic and political case for increased transportation infrastructure funding, especially on the public transit side.

So I was heartened to learn of this coalition of three politicians I'm fond of - Bloomy, Ahnold, and Fast Eddie - to lobby for more federal spending on infrastructure: "Bloomberg, Schwarzenegger and Rendell Announce Funding Coalition." (See also on Bloomy's website: "Mayor Bloomberg Joins Governors Rendell And Schwarzenegger To Create "Building America's Future" - A Non-Partisan Coalition For Federal Infrastructure Investment.")

Thankfully, the focus of the rhetoric isn't posturing about Katrina or the Minneapolis bridge collapse, but rather the aim to increase American competitiveness in an increasingly global economy. Being a transit lover, I would also add the moral, environmental, and societal imperative we have to figure out how to move millions and millions of people without having to fire up 4000-pound, pollution-belching steel boxes for every single trip.