TRB’s 101st Annual Meeting
Simon Adams and Ed Kussy participated in the Transportation Research Board’s 101st Annual Meeting on January 11, 2022, in Washington, DC.
Simon spoke on the “Joint Development in Transit Orientated Projects” panel, during which he discussed the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s development of two housing projects located at Caltrain stations (Tamien and Blossom Hill). These projects have been developed as a joint venture between the public agency and a private party developer partnership. Simon explored the life cycle of the transaction and the legal documents associated with the joint venture.
Ed served as a panelist for the presentation “Mileage Based User Fees” to explore the legal and policy implications of implementing mileage-based user fees, including such matters as privacy, equity, data use and ownership and enforcement.
Following the first panel discussion, Ed then moderated the next session, “Environmental and Transportation Initiatives in the Biden Administration.” Since the Biden administration has designated environmental reform as a key initiative and has both implemented and proposed many policy and legal changes, the panelists discussed those that have a direct impact on federal surface transportation programs. Such areas included greenhouse gas emissions, implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, protection of cultural resources and many others. They also considered how these initiatives interact with the administration’s ambitious infrastructure proposals.