This Act defines personal vehicle sharing as the use of a private passenger motor vehicle by people other than the vehicle’s registered owner in connection with a personal vehicle sharing program. It defines a personal vehicle sharing program as a legal entity qualified to do business in the state that is engaged in the business of facilitating the sharing of private passenger motor vehicles for noncommercial use by people within the state.

Finance at the state and federal levels and alternatives to the gas tax are two major topics in the transportation discussion. In addition, as high-speed rail is put on the backburner elsewhere, the dream is still alive in California. This session focused on how infrastruture investment can impact the road construction industry and a company like UPS. Speakers also discussed what California has planned in high-speed rail and what it could mean for the rest of the country.

Absent a consensus on how to address an ever-widening gap between state revenues available to spend on transportation infrastructure and how much it actually costs to maintain and improve it, a number of states in 2011 turned to specially appointed task forces and commissions for answers. Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington were among the states with panels to issue recommendations. This brief examines their processes and findings, how their funding recommendations have fared politically and the chances for future success.

The economic forecast was anything but rosy when the Car Allowance Rebate System—otherwise known as Cash for Clunkers—kicked off in July 2009.

Unemployment had reached 9.4 percent. Both Chrysler and GM had filed for bankruptcy. Things were not looking good for the economy in general or automakers specifically. That’s where Cash for Clunkers came in.

Georgia could learn lessons from Virginia as it asks voters to increase their taxes to fund transportation projects. Virginia meanwhile continues to pin its future on tolling and public-private partnerships. I also have transportation funding news of note from eight other states.

I spoke yesterday with the Vice Chair of the Missouri House Transportation Committee, Rep. Thomas Long (R), who called to fill me in on the state of transportation funding in the Show Me State. Missouri was one of the states that I included in my “13 States to Watch in 2012” at the beginning of the year based on a 2011 comment by a Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) official that the department was “exploring the possibility of doubling the state gas tax over 10 years to help pay for the widening of I-70 between St. Louis and Kansas City.” In our conversation, Long made it clear that such a scenario was never in play in the Missouri legislature this session. Lawmakers did consider bills to have voter referenda on lowering the state gas tax while raising the diesel tax and adding a sales tax dedicated to road funding. A plan to toll I-70 was also considered.

As they age, seniors face many transportation challenges. There are numerous ways state governments can help meet these challenges both for seniors who are still behind the wheel and for those who are no longer able to drive. They include policies to make road and pedestrian infrastructure safer, improve access to public transportation and better coordinate limited transportation resources.

As states anxiously await the outcome of a House-Senate conference committee on federal surface transportation authorization legislation, the Miller Center, a nonpartisan institute based at the University of Virginia, is just out with a new report entitled “Are We There Yet? Selling America on Transportation.” It’s the distillation of a conference that I wrote about last fall (see my blog post here). The report outlines a communications strategy that conference participants said is needed this year to convince the American people and their elected representatives of the need for investment in transportation.