Transportation for America

A long-fought effort to get states to spend more of their federal infrastructure dollars on fixing highways rather than building new ones is in peril in the newly GOP-lead head house — and if it succeeds, it could force President Biden to take an unprecedented stand in favor of progressive road priorities. 

By a roughly 3,000-to-1 ratio during the public comment period, Americans support a key Biden administration climate initiative.

For the first time in history, the United States Department of Transportation has committed to using every available resource to end roadway deaths and serious injuries on American roads — and now, they face the critical challenge of getting the rest of America to buy in with them. 

Rural communities need policies that make it easier for residents to drive less, a new report argues — but federal politicians keep perpetuating the myth that transit, walking and biking have no place outside mega-cities.

A new bill would give U.S. communities money to analyze how easy — or difficult — it is for residents to access the destinations they need most, and how their mode of transportation, race, income, age, disability, and other factors that impact their basic mobility.

Advocates acknowledged the goals is ambitious and achieving parity is unlikely this year, but a strategy of aiming high could significantly move the funding needle during this window of opportunity.

The 19th Secretary of Transportation may be the first in recent memory to publicly recognize that the need to remove excess asphalt from cities to meet our climate, safety and mobility justice goals.

A shift in messaging about how America gets from one place to another is emerging. At his confirmation hearing, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg pointedly called out the auto-centrism and inequities of our transportation system and noted the economic success cities like his own South Bend have had by making transportation options like biking and walking safer and easier to access. Could we possibly be on the verge of a transportation system that actively serves all Americans, whether they drive or not? Is it finally time to provide real mobility to those that have been denied and harmed by policies of the past? Could transportation infrastructure actually become part of the solution to climate change instead of a liability?

Most people who get behind the wheel every day don't want to be there, a new survey shows.