Spain has been able to leverage funds for its infrastructure -- especially high-speed rail -- to an amount the United States cannot currently match. Norman Anderson, President and CEO of CG/LA Infrastructure (a Washington, D.C. based consulting group), explains how Spain has been able to finance its infrastructure build out, and what America has to learn.

Signaling a move to “green” Detroit, the City Council approved a resolution in 2007 to create a citywide Green Task Force to advise on energy efficient and environmentally sustainable principles and practices to better serve the community. A look at the groups that either led to or are the result of Detroit’s Green Task Force. In a city often depicted as a wasteland, these projects show the promise of transforming Detroit Motor City to Detroit Green City.

Eric Rauchway, professor of history at the University of California, Davis, makes the case that movements to advance American infrastructure, since the beginning, have been brought on by times of national crisis. But, will the current American crisis -- the Great Recession -- advance infrastructure again?

Robert Fishman, University of Michigan professor, on the role that national planning has played in shaping America's development.

The city of Denver was first settled not by the lone frontiersman, but by a community that came together. Mayor John Hickenlooper, a candidate to succeed former Colorado Governor and current U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, had the same in mind when he expanded the metro region's light rail and mass transit system after he became mayor in 2003.

A map of what high-speed rail might look like in America -- but, it is a slow train coming.

Two animated sequences in Beyond the Motor City attempt to show what a new transportation system in Detroit might look like. The Blueprint America team collaborated with transportation group America 2050 to create those sequences. America 2050's take on the animation kicks off the group's “A Better Tomorrow” project, an effort to visualize the future of a variety of American communities and transportation systems.

From Detroit Public Television (DPTV) -- Detroit's transportation future plays a starring role in Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City. DPTV and the Kresge Foundation recently hosted a screening and panel discussion at the Detroit Public Library.

Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City examines how Detroit, a symbol of America’s diminishing status in the world, may come to represent the future of transportation and progress in America. The film debuts nationally on PBS on February 8 at 10 pm (check local listings).

A look at the infrastructure of Blueprint America -- a video overview of the PBS reporting series on transportation and infrastructure in America.

Or, once you’re sorry you better be safe. That is the line U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is taking after introducing Tuesday the Administration's plan to take over safety regulation of the nation's subway and light-rail systems. This follows, among other recent incidents, the June 22 Metro crash in Washington, D.C., that killed nine people and injured dozens more.