The latest transportation news from The Texas Tribune.
Only one private company in the state has the power to condemn and take land for a toll road. Following public backlash over its proposed road near Dallas, state Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, wants to take that power away. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/06/12/I30-Traffic.jpg)
The Texas Department of Transportation has spent about $10.6 million in education costs since 2002, nearly half what state agencies have spent in total on tuition reimbursements and other educational programs. Check out our breakdown. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DSC_0419.jpg)
Entrepreneur Elon Musk said Thursday that Texas is in the driver's seat for a test track for a transportation system known as the Hyperloop. He also said that a SpaceX facility wouldn't have been built in Texas without economic incentives. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/01/15/7C2A0629.jpg)
Here's video of Tribune CEO and Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith's Thursday interview of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the 10th annual Texas Transportation Forum. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/0410_MuskElon385cucms.jpg)
If fans of Dr Pepper and the Fort Worth Zoo don't get it in gear, their chance to buy specialty license plates might soon be gone. The Houston Rockets are hanging by a thread. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/01/12/Four_Plates_Under_200_copy.jpg)
For this week's playlist of the news, we’re using our reporters' own predictions for 2015. Kicking things off: “The Best Is Yet To Come,” by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, backed up by the Count Basie Orchestra. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/01/02/The_Best_Is_Yet_To_Come_copy.jpg)
There's no doubt that Gov. Rick Perry has left his mark on the state’s approach to funding roads. Aman Batheja writes that under Perry's leadership, Texas has been the country’s most aggressive supporter of tolling and private-sector investment in transportation. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/12/19/_0000_perrylegacy-share_transpo.png_1.jpg)
Thirty years is a lot to attribute to mere luck. Like Rick Perry or not, his considerable political skills have sustained him throughout his career in state politics. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/09/21/xxTribFest_Perry382.jpg)
At our 12/11 conversation, incoming Texas Senators Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, and Van Taylor, R-Plano, talked about the need for and possible sources of greater transportation funding. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/TTEventsSenators187.jpg)
Lawmakers on Thursday chose $7 billion as an appropriate minimum balance for the Rainy Day Fund in a meeting that took just a few minutes but will have far-reaching consequences. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PiggyBankBudget.jpg)
Gov.-elect Greg Abbott wants to add $4 billion each year to build and maintain Texas roads, nearly closing the annual budget shortfall at the Texas Department of Transportation. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/12/08/AbbottTraffic-1.jpg)
A rule change will allow the Texas Department of Transportation to move more quickly in lowering speed limits on particularly dangerous roads in the state's drilling regions in West and South Texas. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/10/29/TT-Shale-Accidents-002.jpg)
With the support of 80 percent of Texas voters, Proposition 1 is expected to add billions to the state highway fund without raising taxes or fees. For lawmakers, state officials and local stakeholders, now the real work begins. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2013/07/30/Money-On-The-Horizon.jpg)
The challenges the oil and gas boom present for communities across South and West Texas are immense. Revisit our 15-part multimedia series to see how surging energy production is changing lives and fortunes across Texas. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/10/28/TT-Shale-leadart-landingpage.png)
A private company's plan to spend billions of dollars to develop a bullet train connecting Dallas and Houston has drawn strong support from the two cities. But reaction from communities along the 240-mile route has been mixed. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/11/20/TexTrib-Train-022.jpg)
The Texas Association of Business' 2015 agenda calls for the Legislature to end diversions of state gas taxes from road funding and to dedicate half of motor vehicle sales taxes to road construction and maintenance. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/010709_hammon_bill_2.jpg)
Two months ahead of the first day of the 84th legislative session, eager lawmakers on Monday filed bills addressing issues including guns, texting while driving, health, transportation and much more. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/04/25/capitolbuilding9.jpg)
Using oil and gas tax money for transportation — instead of sending all of that money to the state's Rainy Day Fund — appears to be just fine with the state's voters, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/10/25/UT-TT-Polls-102214.004.jpg)
The Texas Department of Transportation has ended its controversial program aimed at converting some badly damaged paved roads to gravel, more than a year after the launch of the initiative drew national attention to the agency's budget troubles. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2013/08/21/BeforeAfter_1.jpg)
Full video of my 10/23 TribLive conversation with state Rep. Travis Clardy, R-Nacogdoches, and state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Nichols-Clardy.jpg)