| | | | |  | | By Tanya Snyder | | | | — The protest that has blocked the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ont. since last Monday is over. — NHTSA is pushing safety benefits of lowering the alcohol driving limit to .05 blood alcohol content, but that decision is up to the states. — Airlines are canceling flights to Ukraine as Russia appears ready to strike. IT'S MONDAY: You're reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. Alex is off, Tanya is in. Send tips, pitches, feedback and song lyrics to us at adaugherty@politico.com, tsnyder@politico.com and opawlyk@politico.com. You can also find us on Twitter: @alextdaugherty, @TSnyderDC and @Oriana0214. "I will always love you for what it's worth / We'll never fade like graffiti on the overpass."
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BRIDGE PROTEST ENDS: Authorities broke up the dayslong protest on Saturday night and Sunday. The bridge was not reopened until 11 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Associated Press, and police said more than two dozen people were arrested earlier in the day.
How it happened: Ontario declared a state of emergency Friday and a court granted an injunction that day against the protests. On Saturday evening, police began seizing vehicles, removing barriers and arresting protesters, charging them with mischief. Police also blocked all streets near the bridge. The Ambassador Bridge had been deadlocked since last Monday evening, when a protest in Ottawa spread to other areas. According to the Detroit News, Ontario officials said they plan to fine protesters blocking the bridge up to $100,000 and sentence them to up to a year in jail. They said they may also take away the personal or commercial driver's licenses of anyone who defied orders to clear the bridge. White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, as well as governors and members of Congress from states in the border region, were involved in negotiations to restore traffic and trade on the bridge over the weekend. Don't be fooled: Just because the protests started with truckers taking a stand against vaccine requirements to cross the U.S. border doesn't mean the protesters spoke for the U.S. trucking industry. The American Trucking Associations, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the Teamsters forcefully denounced the blockade of travel and trade last week. As Tanya and Alex reported , the trucking industry in the United States has generally put the vaccine issue behind it — a Covid vaccine mandate, like the one the one that spurred the Canadian protests, has been stayed in U.S. court, and truckers have been deemed exempt anyway. The trucking lobby would rather talk about ensuring that truckers have a safe place to sleep and other top legislative priorities.
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| | | DRIVING LESS DRUNK: NHTSA published a new study Friday showing that Utah's fatal crash rate dropped by 19.8 percent in 2019 after it became the first state to lower its impaired driving legal limit to .05 percent blood alcohol content. Utah's crash and fatality rates fell much more during that period than in the rest of the United States, where the crash rate went down just 5.6 percent in 2019. "Changing the law to .05 percent in Utah saved lives and motivated more drivers to take steps to avoid driving impaired," said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Steven Cliff. "This study will be a useful tool for other states considering a move to .05 percent." The legal intoxication limit for driving is up to states to decide, not NHTSA. Sober ride home: NHTSA found that more than 22 percent of those who drink alcohol indicated they changed their behaviors once Utah's law went into effect, with the most common change being that they ensured a sober ride was available when drinking away from home. The agency also "found none of the economic impacts that had been predicted with the change from .08 percent to .05 percent." Alcohol-impaired driving arrests did not go up dramatically. NTSB cheered NHTSA's findings, noting that lowering the BAC is a priority listed on NTSB's current Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements. The board cited a previous study that estimated that lowering the BAC in every state could save about 1,800 lives a year. | | | AIRLINES PULL FLIGHTS TO UKRAINE: Airlines started canceling and diverting flights to Ukraine Sunday as the country braces for a possible invasion by Russia. "Russia denies it intends to invade Ukraine but has massed well over 100,000 troops near its border and has sent troops to exercises in neighboring Belarus," the Associated Press reports. As a result, Dutch airline KLM has canceled flights to Ukraine until further notice. "Dutch sensitivity to potential danger in Ukrainian airspace is high following the 2014 shooting down of a Malaysian jetliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur as it flew over a part of eastern Ukraine held by Russia-backed rebels," the AP writes. "All 298 people aboard died, including 198 Dutch citizens." The Ukrainian charter airline SkyUp also diverted a flight destined for Kyiv from Madeira, Portugal, to Chisinau, Moldova, after the plane's Irish lessor banned flights in Ukrainian airspace. No U.S. carriers fly to Ukraine. GEE, WIZZ: U.S. pilots' unions are up in arms about an application by the Hungarian carrier Wizz Air to fly to the United States. In its comment to DOT on Wizz's application, the Air Line Pilots Association, International, asked DOT to reject Wizz Air's application, saying Wizz is anti-union and has "the opposite of a safety culture." The Allied Pilots' Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, pointed to Wizz's "demonstrated anti-union record, poor labor standards, lack of a safety culture, the impact its foreign carrier permit would have on competition, and its issues with consumer access and protection." The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association also charged that "Wizz Air's application is woefully short on basic details."
| | | NERD OUT ON INFRASTRUCTURE DATA HERE: Brookings Metro on Friday unveiled its online hubbreaking down the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including an interactive database of every program in the law, spending details and key characteristics. In an accompanying blog post detailing "what the database tells us about IIJA's mechanics," Brookings scholars also said that it's "far from a $1 or $1.2 trillion bill — it's actually around $864 billion. Of that total. 68 percent is for transportation uses, including "enormous spending on roadways." More than 60 percent of the transportation funds — $361 billion — will go to various highway, roadway and bridge programs.
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