Brookings Institution
Talking Headways Podcast: Localities Subsidize the State DOT
Adie Tomer of Brookings on how to improve regional coordination around infrastructure.
July 10, 2025
One Structural Change Could Shift Everything About How Transportation Works in America
The so-called "highway trust fund" is disproportionately funded by gas taxes generated on non-highway roads — and those local priorities never get their money back. Is it time for a change?
June 2, 2025
The Highway Shakedown, Part Two: What Locals Lose When Road Funding Isn’t Distributed Fairly
While lawmakers fight to defend America's "user-pay" road funding system, both federal and state policies have not provided locally owned roads with a fair share of their users’ tax contributions. It's time to change that.
May 1, 2025
How State DOTs Keep the Public In the Dark About How They Spend Our Transportation Dollars
State DOTs control hundreds of billions of dollars of our transportation funding. Where does it all go — and what do we actually get for it?
November 14, 2024
Study: Remote Work Isn’t Always A Cure for America’s Driving Addiction
A lot of Americans traded long commutes for short errands during the pandemic — but whether that swap resulted in more or less driving is a consequence of policy choices.
October 4, 2023
The Walkable Neighborhoods Americans Want May Be Closer Than We Think
Walkable neighborhoods are a rare and valuable commodity in the U.S. housing market. But millions of places could be closer to the 15 Minute City ideal than we realize, a new study argued — if we made the modest policy changes they need to thrive.
July 6, 2023
Think Tank Offers Road Map to Break the Car Culture
Congress should stop splurging on new highways and instead expand transit to help Americans break their century-long addiction to a device that is killing us, the car, a D.C. institute says.
December 10, 2019
Report: No to Infrastructure — Yes to Congestion Pricing
A new Brookings report says U.S. highway conditions have been improving every year for more than a decade, according to the Federal Highway Administration's own accounting.
February 14, 2019
After Years of Unchecked Sprawl, Employment Inches Closer to the City
To hear some urbanists talk, you’d think the outer suburbs have been abandoned wholesale, lawn-mowers still running with no one to drive them, picket fences left open in the owners’ haste to beat it to the city.
April 19, 2013
Confronted With Congestion Pricing, People Clamor for Transit, Gas Tax
Could a congestion pricing program work in the DC region? Maybe. But first, officials would need to get the public on board -- no easy task. A report on the conclusions from five public forums, held in the region between October 2011 and January 2012, suggest that more and better transportation options need to be in place before a congestion charge is levied, so that commuters feel they have options.
January 24, 2013