Breaking News! Following weeks of negotiations, and as a mind-boggling heat wave settled on the Pacific Northwest, President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of ten Senators stepped out of a closed-door meeting at the White House to announce they’d made a deal. There will be infrastructure! $579 billion worth of it, in fact. The biggest federal investment in infrastructure in more than a hundred years and, according to President Biden, the 21st century equivalent to our historic investments in the Interstate Highway System and the transcontinental railroad. But if you’re a tad skeptical about what this deal might mean for The War on Cars, you have good reason. Federal transportation investments have not been kind to Americans who wish to live untethered from an automobile. And in U.S. political discourse, “infrastructure” has typically been shorthand for “car stuff.” But could this moment be different? Here to help us understand the big infrastructure package and the arcane world of federal transportation policy is Beth Osborne, executive director of Transportation for America. Warning: This episode includes a brief audio clip of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

***This episode was sponsored in part by our friends at Cleverhood. For 20% off of stylish, functional rain gear designed specifically for walking and biking enter coupon code WARONCARS at checkout.***

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SHOW NOTES:

Episode 62: It’s Finally Infrastructure Week, April 3, 2021. (The War on Cars)

Learn more about Transportation for America here.

Follow Beth Osborne on Twitter.

President Biden Announces Support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (WhiteHouse.gov)

What’s in the White House, Senate bipartisan infrastructure package (Washington Post)

As Feds Debate Transportation Pay-Fors, Don’t Forget What We’re Buying (Streetsblog USA)

Biden’s infrastructure deal proves bipartisanship can’t deliver (Vox)

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This episode was edited by Ali Lemer and produced by Aaron Naparstek. Our music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D.

Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1.

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