The newly capitalized TIFIA loan program in the MAP-21 federal transportation bill is being called the “largest transportation infrastructure financing fund” in USDOT history. But on a Transportation for America call about MAP-21 today former USDOT Undersecretary of Policy Roy Kienitz wondered whether federal transportation loans instead of grants aren’t the way of the future, given declining federal gas tax revenues. That could work well for LA, because Measure R has provides us with a revenue stream that can be used to secure TIFIA loans. There are regions that aren’t so lucky. Consider the failure of a sales tax measure in the Atlanta region last Tuesday, which went down in defeat due to what one commentator calls “the three-cornered politics” of transportation today:  the road lobby, the environmental/transit coalition, and anti-tax and anti-spending conservatives. Read more.