Browsing: Transportation

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters signed what is perhaps the most important order of the year today: the one that allows Santa to fly his sleigh in military air space on Christmas Eve. Dubbed “Santa Skylanes,” the expanded air space will help Santa — and commercial air traffic — navigate the nation’s busy airspace. Here is what Peters had to say about this important order: We know Santa Claus must adhere to a really tight schedule to get to every house on his list. Allowing him to use military airspace will ensure that crowded skies won’t mean empty stockings on Christmas…

An interesting bit of information from the Transportation Department: Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles in 2008 than in 2007. That’s the biggest decline in American history. (The news may come as a surprise to Washington-area residents — traffic hasn’t gotten any better around here!) It’s good news for the environment, but bad for the department, which depends largely on revenue from gas taxes to pay for highways and bridges. The Highway Trust Fund collected $3 billion less in 2008 than it did in 2007. And it underscores a key problem facing our transportation policy. Washington wants more fuel-efficient vehicles,…