Lawmakers on Tuesday took their first crack at a bill designed to ban texting while driving, including reviewing statistics suggesting that bans in other states have not reduced accidents and are difficult to enforce.
Transportation
Reporting on roads, transit, infrastructure, and policy shaping travel and mobility across the state, from The Texas Tribune.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom begins a gripping series on mental health and criminal justice, Hamilton and White on the Senate’s defense of UT-Austin, Murphy’s interactive look at public school test scores, Ramshaw finds the governor digging in on the Medicaid expansion, Rocha and Dehn visit a weapons maker with Ted Cruz, M. Smith explores another angle on unpopular standardized testing, Batheja on a car that drives right past state laws, Aguilar reports on the other immigration problem, Aaronson on a break in the race for a cancer cure: The best of our best for the week of February 18-22, 2012.
Posted in
Transportation
Self-Driving Car is Miles Ahead of Texas Laws
A Google self-driving car drove itself around Austin and across Texas over the last week. State laws don’t yet appear to address the futuristic technology.
Posted in
Transportation
Group Launches PR Effort for Transportation Needs
A new advocacy group is hoping to get lawmakers and the public as worked up about transportation funding this session as they are about water.
Posted in
Public Education
Straus on Priorities; More Campaign Woes for Dewhurst
The speaker of the House dampens expectations for vouchers, tax breaks and transportation without ruling any of those things out. And the lieutenant governor unpeels another layer of problems he says arose from a campaign manager’s embezzling.
Posted in
Transportation
DPS Centers Aim to Keep Customer Traffic Flowing
Texas Department of Public Safety driver’s license offices have a reputation for long lines and exhausting wait times for customers. But new mega centers are drastically cutting the wait time for license renewals and replacements.
Posted in
Economy
Perry Calls for More Funds for I-69 Project
A planned interstate highway stretching from South Texas to Michigan remains decades away, but Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that lawmakers should find more money for the project and ones like it.
Posted in
State Government
TxDOT Tells Lawmakers Funding Crisis Around the Corner
The Texas Department of Transportation is two years away from a severe drop in funding unless lawmakers find more cash, agency officials said at a budget hearing Monday.
Posted in
Transportation
TxDOT Considers Outsourcing IT
The Texas Department of Transportation is taking proposals for privatizing its information technology system, part of a larger movement by the agency toward outsourcing many of its functions.
Posted in
Public Education
Pitts and Williams Say School Funding Debate Can Wait
Ongoing school finance litigation will likely prevent the Legislature from discussing education funding issues this session, two Republican budget leaders said at a TribLive event Thursday.