Phoenix, Arizona went by way of New York City by rolling out a bike sharing program of their own called The Grid. This is a near copy of New York City’s bike share program called Citi Bikes. Yesterday, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton added to the city’s mass transit system. Who knew the city in the desert known for its sprawl would be promoting bikes as a form of transit? New York City’s commissioner of transportation joined Phoenix Mayor Stanton at the October, 2013 unveiling. She hit 2 points driving infrastructure today: Cities and States are on their own. People are demanding smarter ways of paying for infrastructure and wanting projects and payments to be exacting. Two quotes from the event:
“We can’t rely on the federal government. If we want to advance our city, we have to be more self-reliant. We can’t design a big project and then go to Washington and hope they’ll pick up 80 percent of the tab like maybe we did in the past. The old relationship between cities and the federal government has broken down.” Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton
“If you can show the business community the economic development impacts, if you can show the public, you’re going to be in a much stronger position if you’ve got the data behind you. Local measures pass as long as the revenues are dedicated in the lockbox to a specific purpose. The public is totally fine with supporting something if they know they’re gonna get X for it. But you can’t just be like, ‘I want transportation improvements.’ It has to be very specific.” Transportation Commissioner, New York City Janette Sadik-Khan
Source: http://arizona.newszap.com/northvalley/126911-114/stanton-transportation-projects-cant-wait-on-federal-aid
Dan McNichol is a number-one bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. His published books, articles, thought-leadership papers and speaking events focus on mega construction projects in the United States and The Peoples Republic of China.
McNichol recently contributed to a front page story in The New York Times titled, “Trump-Sized Idea for a New President: Build Stuff”. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) / Boston Chapter named McNichol as one of nation’s outstanding journalists in 2014 and again in 2003. McNichol contributes to worldwide media outlets including: The New York Times, Engineering News Record (ENR), ABC World News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) network, China Central Television (CCTV), TV Tokyo, MSNBC and PBS’s The NewsHour, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, History Channel. McNichol is a frequent voice on National Public Radio (NPR).
ENR Magazine recently tapped McNichol as the magazine’s national correspondent for a cross country tour. McNichol and Aileen Cho, ENR’s senior transportation editor, drove in a 1949 Hudson Commodore with the tagline, “America’s infrastructure is as old, rusty and energy defunct as our original Detroit lead-sled.” The journalists wrote ENR print and online cover stories about the nation’s ailing infrastructure.
A former White House appointee, McNichol served the President on US policy issues surrounding transportation and infrastructure between 1991-1993. McNichol has worked in official capacities on the nation’s largest infrastructure projects: California High Speed Rail (2017), San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Replacement (2013) and The Big Dig, a.k.a. The Central Artery / Third Harbor Tunnel Project (2000).
