More from John Latta

John Latta is Editor-in-Chief of Better Roads magazine who has spent the last decade writing about roads, construction equipment, trucks and trucking, bridges, and Washington’s influence on all of the above. He is a former daily newspaperman who has pursued news in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.

Remember the Alamo Bridge in Washington

May 24, 2013

(Photo: modified from Cole Wagoner / Twitter) If a bridge falls in Washington State does anyone in Washington D.C. hear it? Yes, but for how long will its crash echo in their thoughts? There has been, historically, a relationship between a ...

The Internet, the public and project input

May 24, 2013

What is--or, better yet, what could be--happening to the solicitation of public input into transportation infrastructure projects? “The advent of the internet is making it easier than ever to solicit public input.” It’s a simple statement from an online resource for sustainable ...

Gas tax quiz

May 23, 2013

(Photo: Meghan Doyle/ Flickr) Pop quiz: What do you pay in federal fuel tax for every gallon of gas you buy? What percentage of the price of a gallon of gas comes from fuel taxes? No Googling! As the Institute on Taxation and ...

San Francisco-Oakland: Troubled bridge over water

May 22, 2013

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Photo: Markus Lueske / Flickr) Closing in on an end-of-summer opening, the $6.4 billion eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is getting set for its big day more with a whimper than a bang. Good point ...

From A Connecticut Train Crash

May 20, 2013

This is a story to be careful with. This, of course, comes from someone who is concerned that our infrastructure is in bad shape, even though it may appear superficially not to be. Take a look at the Connecticut commuter train ...

Florida’s Red Light Camera Game: G R E E N orange R E D

May 17, 2013

(Photo: Emily Saunders / Flickr) A lot of orange traffic lights in Florida don’t last as long as they used to. And that has stirred up a hornet’s nest. Are shorter orange light times just there to make money via red ...

Fifty cents on the dollar for Illinois roads

May 16, 2013

A road in Naperville, Illinois, undergoes construction in 2009. (Photo: Michael Kappel / Flickr) At a time when funding for roads and bridges--what there is of it--is squeezed to the maximum (a situation that isn’t likely to change any time ...

Where Interstate 20 crosses Interstate Bob

May 15, 2013

(Photo: Aijalyn Kohler / Flickr) Are we approaching an intersection, where Public Street and Private Road meet? And if we are, is that intersection a confusing place in need of significant upgrading if it is to benefit the traveling public? Yep. Public-private ...

Hello? [CRASH]

May 13, 2013

(Photo: Intel Free Press / Flickr) A new report argues that car crashes involving cell phones are significantly underreported. So what is the number? There’s no hard data to go on, but the correct number for cell phone involvement in all ...

A highway shapes D.C., and so can you

May 09, 2013

Fresh fish is sold on the Waterfront in Washington, D.C. (Photo: abrowntable / Flickr) Did a highway kill what could have been a thriving waterfront culture in Washington D.C.? The Atlantic Cities argues that it did and that the District’s Maine Avenue ...

Egg Money: Would online sales taxes save us from higher fuel taxes?

May 08, 2013

You wanna pay this way, or you wanna pay that way? The Senate has voted in favor of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would give each state the authority to compel online businesses to collect applicable taxes. The House has yet to ...

A Goldilocks Gadget: Calculate the “just right” number of parking spaces

May 07, 2013

How many parking spaces do you need in a given area? And what should it cost to use them? The answers were, apparently, largely the result of professional guestimates. Now comes a new gadget--that’s my strictly non-technical term--from King County, Washington, ...

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