A year ago President Obama announced his plans for high speed rail lines and other cutting edge transportation for the nation. But after many defeats in Congress, including the de-funding of high-speed rail, the President’s transportation initiative suddenly seems less futuristic and more focused on rebuilding the old highways of the past. 

The Senate is set to vote on a new part of President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill which includes funding for programs to help build roads, bridges and other public works programs. The bill is likely to fail, but that has not stopped the president from continuing to campaign for its passage. Andrea Bernstein, director of the Transportation Nation project and senior correspondent for WNYC, looks at why President Obama continues to push for infrastructure despite it looking like a losing cause.

How people move on planet Earth affects everything about the quality of their lives. Humans have always thought of motion collective or otherwise as extensions of their individual physical bodies. Transportation involves people and machines interacting intimately. Think of it as putting on and taking off a "car suit" to drive, or a much larger "airplane suit" to fly. Thinking of transportation in this sense, how humans conduct their day-to-day lives seems much less efficient.

In Washington, a 12-member "super committee" of legislators is haggling over spending cuts and generating tax revenues. Confidence in Congress to get the job done on our stumbling economy is at an all-time low. But America's strength has always been about the democratic discussion of big ideas. In a free society, one person can change the world with creative problem solving. So we want to hear more from you: what are your big ideas for solving the economy?

This evening, at 7 p.m. (PST), a ten-mile stretch of Los Angeles’s Interstate 405 — the nation’s busiest stretch of road — will close down until Monday morning. Bracing for the worst, Los Angelans are labeling the temporary shutdown "Carmageddon." But is it really an apocalyptic nightmare in the making? Or a virtual snow day to celebrate?

President Obama emphasized nation building in his speech last week, announcing his plans for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. We have been asking Takeaway listeners: how would you like to see the government spend all of the money once spent on wars, here at home?  

Many of you would like to see improvements in energy and a shift away from foreign oil dependence. President Obama suggested requiring all cars and light trucks to run at 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025. Is this feasible?

As memorial day approaches, Americans are topping off their gas tanks and getting ready for a long weekend away from home. But with gas prices creeping up across the country, American travel patterns are beginning to shift accordingly. For just over a week now, The Takeaway has been asking listeners to text us the price at their local pump. We’ve collated the information on an interactive map. In this conversation we discuss some of our findings with Andrea Bernstein, Director of the Transportation Nation project and senior correspondent for our flagship station WNYC.

Joe Guyon of Rock Hill, South Carolina says he's bundling his errands and eating locally. A listener in Augusta, GA says he "cuts off his car when I idle." Joe Manrique of North Palm Beach, Florida, says "since my daily commute is approximately 170 miles round trip, I try to walk as much as possible from my office to appointments." A contributor from Flushing New York says "I do my errands on the way home, no matter how tired I am."

Others have started carpooling, gone from being a two-car family to a one-car family, changed over from gasoline to waste vegetable oil fuel, or made sure they bundled errands, rather than driving on multiple shopping trips.

Or they are biking, working from home, going out less, or taking public transit.

Those are some of the findings of our survey (see map, just below) of gas prices and how they affect behavior. And these results are bolstered by a number of  broader gauges of consumer behavior.

Would you let someone you didn't know borrow your car? New car-sharing programs are letting people do just that. Companies like RelayRides.com let people in urban areas like San Francisco, Portland and Cambridge, Mass. rent out their own cars for an hourly fee.

We talk to one reporter who took car-sharing for a test drive: Casey Miner, at KALW 91.7FM in San Francisco and one of our partners in the Transportation Nation project.

As we reported last week, Florida Governor Rick Scott has rejected $2.4 billion of federal money allocated for the construction of a high-speed rail project in his state. Florida’s proposed high-speed rail line would have been a marquee project for the president, who has made it his administration’s goal to provide high speed rail access to 80 percent of Americans in the next twenty years. Unsurprisingly, this is costing the governor political points on the both the left and the right. Joining us now for a view from the legislature is Republican State Senator Paula Dockery. She was an early supporter of Gov. Rick Scott, but is disappointed with his rejection of the high-speed rail stimulus package.

Many pinpoint the start of the Civil Rights movement in the United States to Rosa Parks, refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, back in 1955. Over half-a-century later, African-American and Latino communities are still struggling with unequal transit systems.

Transportation infrastructure is key to any country's economic success; Afghanistan is no exception. While the U.S. has made significant headway in helping Afghan officials develop roads, bridges and public transportation, Col. Ted Hodgson says much more can and should be done. Col. Hodgson works for the logistics directorate at U.S. Central Command. He joins us to discuss what progress has been made in building Afghanistan's infrastructure and the local impact of infrastructure projects.

The bombs found in UPS and FedEx packages last week have raised the issue of security screening for international cargo carriers. Since August 1st, 2010, all cargo loaded onto passenger planes in the U.S. is subject  to mandatory screening, but that isn't the case in many other countries. Only some of the packages traveling on cargo-only flights, on the other hand, are generally screened. Should UPS, FedEx and other shippers be doing more to safeguard air transport?

You've been sending photos and audio from your morning commute with the new Takeaway iPhone app. Hear some of the voices behind the pictures. 

Check out the slideshow and add your own image.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's expected announcement of billions of dollars in federal grants for high speed rail today is beginning on a sour note. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced yesterday that he is stopping construction of an $8.4 billion Hudson River rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York. Citing billions of dollars of expected cost overruns, Christie says his "decision is final." This comes after LaHood made a personal appeal to Christie, and negotiations between the Obama and Christie administrations.

With Republicans running against President Obama's stimulus, an issue that's resonated with voters, LaHood's announcement comes at a questionable time. There will be events in Iowa, Michigan, California. There's also money for Connecticut and Florida. These are all states with close races. How is this going to affect the midterm elections?

President Obama spent his Labor Day in Milwaukee, announcing big plans for the nation's infrastructure. The plan begins with an initial investment of $50 billion of taxpayer money, followed by increased spending over the next six years. It aims to build or repair 150,000 miles of roads; 4,000 miles of rail and 150 miles of airplane runways.

President Barack Obama is talking about the economy all week. Yesterday, he delivered a jobs speech before a whooping crowd in Milwaukee, Wis., where he called on Congress to swiftly approve a new stimulus plan: one that would devote at least an additional $50 billion to upgrade the nation's infrastructure.

Standing before a crowd of union members and leaders at the Milwaukee Laborfest yesterday, President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass a $50 billion public works plan that would rebuild and modernize the country's transportation systems; it's a move designed to create jobs and help jump-start the economy.

The president's critics, particularly Republicans, are calling his actions too little, too late.

The history of economic development in the United States has always been connected to the messy business of opening up trade routes. Whether it was the Erie Canal, which for many threatened to cut through their quaint home towns, or the thousands of miles of railroad track and highways strewn across the country, the same has been true: new transportation routes brought development, shipping and a lot of change.

Why isn't there a better way to text while driving? That’s a question that Joel Johnson, editor at large of Gizmodo.com asked in a recent column.

So far, he’s received over 500 responses to his column, most of which suggest that people who text and drive should simply give it up, use the phone instead, or die behind the wheel because they deserve to. However, Johnson insists that, in a world where most people text and drive, his question is valid. If we can't stop it, why not make it safer?

What do you think? Should texting while driving be outlawed or be made safer?