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Author Archives: Transportation for America

 About Transportation for America

For general inquiries about the campaign, email info [at] t4america [dot] org.
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It’s official: TransportationCamp DC returns on Saturday, January 9th, 2027

TransportationCamp DC is coming back! Mark your calendar for Saturday, January 9, 2027, and get ready to join hundreds of transportation professionals and enthusiasts from across the country for another day of big ideas, new connections, and lively conversations about the future of transportation.

Last year, more than 400 attendees joined us for 50 original sessions, with record numbers of TCamp first-timers and session proposals. We can’t wait to build on that momentum and make TransportationCamp DC 2027 even better.

Registration opens next month. Join the T4America email list to be the first to know when registration goes live and secure your spot!

Interested in sponsoring? Check out our sponsorship opportunities here.

About TransportationCamp DC

TransportationCamp DC is where transportation enthusiasts get together to share their ideas and map out new possibilities. As cities across the country work to reconnect communities divided by harmful infrastructure, pedestrian fatalities continue to rise, and new technology presents opportunities and challenges for the future of transportation, TransportationCamp is as important as ever.

An annual “unconference,” TransportationCamp is a time for advocates, practitioners, business leaders, professionals, students, and anyone else who might call themselves a “transportation nerd” to gather, share their ideas and perspectives, and take stock of where we’re going and how we got here.

At TransportationCamp, attendees steer the conversation by submitting, voting on, and facilitating breakout sessions on topics of their choice. Whether you’re interested in methods to reduce transportation emissions, bridge divides, or make our streets safer for all, join TransportationCamp to be part of the conversation!

Frequently asked questions about TransportationCamp DC

1. Why is it called an unconference? At TransportationCamp, every attendee has the opportunity to lead the conversation. Attendees submit topics for 50-minute breakout sessions and get to vote on what they want to discuss in sessions throughout the day, giving participants the power to create the experience they want to have.

2. Who should come to TCamp? Everyone! Advocates, practitioners, Complete Streets Champions, politicians, business leaders, and students are all welcome to join and learn from each other.

3. How do I submit sessions? Attendees will submit their session proposals the morning of Camp and have the opportunity to vote on what they would like to discuss. Come with your idea ready to go.

4. What do I need to know about leading a session? Sessions are fairly informal and often feel more like a conversation, so we recommend a casual, engaging, and inclusive approach. Each breakout room will have a projector and a connection to easily hook up your laptop and share your presentation. You can present on your own, but you can also propose something a little more assembled in advance, such as a panel with 2-3 speakers, potentially developed in partnership with a few other individuals or organizations.

5. What’s the schedule like? Expect a full day from 9-5. The room should open around 8:30 for networking and to propose breakout sessions until about 9:45 a.m. There’s a keynote (see speaker above) around 10 am, and then starting at 11, there are five concurrent 50-minute breakout periods across 9-10 different rooms, with a break for lunch after period 2. There’s typically a closing reception or happy hour (6 p.m. until) somewhere nearby in the District.

We’re hiring: T4America Senior Policy Associate

Text announcing hiring for Senior Policy Associate position.

Transportation for America—a program of Smart Growth America—is seeking a skilled, motivated, passionate individual with knowledge and interest in transportation policy who wants to shape the future of transportation. This position will work across our full policy portfolio but has the opportunity to lead on passenger rail and roadway safety. This position reports to the Senior Policy Manager.

The ideal candidate will be: A compelling writer with something to say on transportation who is excited to have the outlet; familiar with the federal surface transportation reauthorization process, a relational person who already has or is eager to make connections with Hill offices and staffers, coalition partners, and advocates; well-versed in federal transportation policy and practice; a self-starter who doesn’t wait to be told what to do; and a team player who wants to be part of a team of passionate transportation nerds working to advance T4America’s principles and advancing our mission.

As part of the T4America policy team working on our full policy portfolio, this position will also serve as the lead for our passenger rail work, including direct support for local partners such as the Southern Rail Commission, management and oversight of federal rail grants, the development of new passenger service on various corridors, and working with longstanding champions in Congress to shape the rail provisions and funding in the next reauthorization. This associate may also serve as the lead on roadway safety policy, working with the National Complete Streets Coalition to build their policy knowledge in this area and focusing on building streets that are safe for all users.

Responsibilities:

  • Support and communicate about T4America’s platform
    • Understand and explain T4America’s three priorities and the underlying policies required to turn them into reality.
    • Conceive and write regular blog posts, contribute to reports, conduct research, and collaborate with the T4America communications team to produce engaging content on our priorities. 
    • Effectively communicate T4America’s priorities and policies in person, online, and in various mediums.
  • Understand, analyze, synthesize, and develop policy
    • Read and stay plugged in to the world of transportation policy at all levels. 
    • Analyze policy developments closely and produce insights to share with others through memos, briefings, presentations, blog posts, and other external content. 
    • Develop new policy ideas or legislative language in support of T4America’s platform
  • Serve as the passenger rail lead 
    • Manage relationships with passenger rail stakeholders, make presentations, maintain and develop relationships with key Capitol Hill champions and stakeholders, support the senior policy advisor, administer rail grants, write and communicate about rail policy developments, and vision.
  • Be a successful advocate
    • Strategically identify local, state, and federal policymakers to educate and persuade.
    • Build relationships on Capitol Hill with individual offices, notable caucuses, committee staff, and members of Congress by making frequent in-person (and online) outreach and regular connections.
    • Equip advocates (T4A members, supporters, coalition members, like-minded organizations) with the information and tools they need to engage in the process of policy reform.
    • Communicate to T4America members and partners about opportunities to impact transportation actions in Congress as well as best practices in local and state policy.
  • Communicate effectively 
    • Draft portions of and edit reports (new and future editions) like Dangerous by Design, The Congestion Con, Divided by Design, and Driving Down Emissions
    • Write memos and other content for T4America members, clients, and advocacy purposes; 
    • Effectively communicate on organization priorities, especially equity, climate and public health; and
    • Participate in panels, conferences and other collaborations to present T4America’s priorities and reports.
    • Help develop and deliver education and training content for technical assistance offerings focused on equity in transportation.
  • Contribute to Smart Growth America’s overall vision
    • Support SGA’s broader policy work across housing, transportation, land use, zoning, economic development, placemaking, and environmental protection.
    • Support the National Complete Streets Coalition’s policy work.
    • Contribute to technical assistance engagements with states, counties, and cities across the country.

Required skills:

  • A college degree and at least 3-4 years of work experience.
  • The ability to think strategically and work across partisan lines.
  • Excellent written, verbal, and research skills—you should be a sharp writer.
  • Ability to execute advocacy strategies and projects, including policy research and partner outreach and engagement.
  • Excellent time management and the ability to complete multiple tasks with a high volume of work and minimal supervision.
  • Comfortable working in a collaborative team environment and have strong interpersonal skills.

Compensation and location

The salary range for this position is $59,000-$65,000. A candidate for the top of this range would have an advanced degree in public policy, transportation, planning or other related field; experience working on Capitol Hill, in a state legislative body or city council or previous experience in local, state, or federal transportation agencies; tangible experience with passenger rail policy development or implementation; and/or experience managing federal grant processes and demonstrated administrative excellence and experience.

Benefits include fully paid medical insurance, optional dental and vision coverage, 401 (k) contributions, life and disability insurance, three weeks of vacation in the first year, and 12 paid annual holidays. This position reports to the Senior Policy Manager and is based in Washington, DC. SGA staff work in the office at 1350 Eye St. NW, Tuesdays-Thursdays. No relocation assistance is offered at this time.

How to apply

Please send a cover letter and resume to jobs@smartgrowthamerica.org with “T4America Senior Policy Associate” in the subject line. In your cover letter, please indicate how you’ve learned of this opportunity.

Commitment to diversity and inclusion

Smart Growth America and Transportation for America are committed to building a diverse staff and strongly encourage applications from all backgrounds, including candidates of color. Employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation/preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as established under law.

About Smart Growth America

Smart Growth America envisions a country where no matter where you live, or who you are, you can enjoy living in a place that is healthy, prosperous, and resilient.  We empower communities through technical assistance, advocacy, and thought leadership to realize this vision of livable places, healthy people, and shared prosperity.

About Transportation for America

Transportation for America is a national nonprofit made up of local, regional, and state leaders who seek a transportation system that safely, affordably, and conveniently connects people of all means and ability to jobs, services, and opportunity through multiple modes of travel.

We’re hiring: T4America Research Manager

Announcement card for research manager job opening.

Transportation for America (T4America)—a program of Smart Growth America—is seeking a highly skilled and motivated individual with deep knowledge, experience, and interest in transportation policy at all levels to help plan and execute creative research ideas to advance the organization’s transportation policy goals. This high-profile position reports to the T4America Senior Policy Manager.

The ideal candidate will be: an entrepreneurial and creative self-starter who is eager to produce research and report ideas; experienced with analytical tools like GIS, data visualization, AI; knowledgeable about available federal, state, and local transportation data; a compelling writer who can produce research-backed content like in-depth reports, but also brief analyses, blog posts, and visuals; well connected to the world of transportation policy and practice; and is ready to both collaborate with others and produce their own creative ideas for research and other content to advance our mission.

Please send a cover letter and resume to jobs@smartgrowthamerica.org with “T4America Research Manager” in the subject line. In your cover letter, please indicate how you’ve learned of this opportunity.

Responsibilities and requirements

Produce strategic research:

  • Produce creative research and analytical ideas to advance T4America’s priorities and support our work on reauthorization
  • Research and examine the impacts of possible legislative, regulatory, and other executive actions at all levels of government with regard to T4America’s priorities.
  • Produce creative research and analytical ideas to advance SGA’s broader transportation work, including the National Complete Streets Coalition.
  • Provide research support for SGA’s technical assistance engagements, which could include tasks like running benefit-cost analyses, analyzing projects or plans, providing research-based policy recommendations, or creating bespoke products to assist SGA/T4A’s expansive technical assistance work.
  • Help conceive of creative new reports like Fueling the Crisis, World-Class American Transit, Dangerous by Design, The Congestion Con, Divided by Design, and Driving Down Emissions, or produce updated versions of these existing reports.
  • Build relationships with our allies and other stakeholders (especially other researchers) to inform and support collaborative research opportunities. 

Produce research-based content and communicate about it

  • Collaborate with staff and the SGA communications team to produce engaging research-based content for all channels, including blog posts, social media posts, quick hit research, and others to further our mission and advance our policy strategies.
  • Be a part of the team closely following, analyzing, and communicating about broader transportation trends and the impact on T4America’s priorities;
  • Identify research opportunities, oversee and draft reports that explain challenges in transportation in the areas related to our key principles, as well as other important priorities like reducing emissions and improving access to destinations.
  • Potentially speak about research and content on behalf of the organization, including at workshops, conferences, and other events (some travel included).

Knowledge and skills

Required:

  • Commitment to the organization’s priorities and a vision of how to achieve them;
  • Minimum of five years’ experience in the transportation arena or a closely related policy field;
  • The ability to use data to tell a clear story that can support advocacy goals;
  • An entrepreneurial ability to analyze the transportation sector and spot emerging trends;
  • Deep familiarity with available federal, state, and local transportation data
  • Experience with GIS or other data visualization software, as well as programming with R or other data analysis tools;
  • Project management skills and experience;
  • Excellent time management and organization, and the ability to work independently with minimal supervision;
  • Ability to strategically prioritize workload and complete multiple tasks and a high volume of work;
  • Excellent written/verbal skills, with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail.

Preferred:

  • An advanced degree in public policy, political science, urban planning, or other related field;
  • Knowledge of the legislative process at multiple levels of government
  • Experience working within a state or local transportation agency at the local, MPO, or state level;
  • Knowledge of the broader SGA set of issues, including land use, housing, and zoning, and ideas to produce or conceive of other research work for SGA’s other teams and work across the organization

Compensation and location

The salary range for this position is $68,000-$74,000. A candidate for the top of this range would have been involved in producing similar research on the outcomes of the federal transportation program, have 5-plus years of experience, and possess one or more of the knowledge and skills listed as preferred above. Benefits include fully paid medical insurance, optional dental and vision coverage, 401 (k) contributions, life and disability insurance, three weeks of vacation in the first year, and 12 paid annual holidays. This position reports to the Senior Policy Manager and is based in Washington, DC. SGA staff work in the office at 1350 Eye St. NW, Tuesdays-Thursdays. No relocation assistance is offered at this time.

How to apply

Please send a cover letter and resume to jobs@smartgrowthamerica.org with “T4America Research Manager” in the subject line. In your cover letter, please indicate how you’ve learned of this opportunity.

Commitment to building a diverse team

Smart Growth America and Transportation for America are committed to building a diverse staff and strongly encourage applications from all backgrounds, including candidates of color. Employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation/preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as established under law.

About Smart Growth America

Smart Growth America envisions a country where no matter where you live, or who you are, you can enjoy living in a place that is healthy, prosperous, and resilient.  We empower communities through technical assistance, advocacy, and thought leadership to realize this vision of livable places, healthy people, and shared prosperity.

About Transportation for America

Transportation for America is a national nonprofit made up of local, regional, and state leaders who seek a transportation system that safely, affordably, and conveniently connects people of all means and ability to jobs, services, and opportunity through multiple modes of travel.

New release: Repair Priorities 2026

Despite $1.5T in transportation spending, U.S. road conditions show only marginal improvement, new report finds

State spending on repair has increased, but record levels of roadway expansion continue to increase the repair backlog

Despite historic levels of federal transportation funding and modest shifts in state spending toward prioritizing repair, the condition of the nation’s federal-aid-eligible roadways has barely improved, according to a new report from Transportation for America and Taxpayers for Common Sense. From 2018 to 2024, the share of roads in poor condition declined only marginally, even as states continued to expand their road systems and create billions in new long-term maintenance obligations.

Repair Priorities 2026 analyzes federal and state spending alongside nationwide roadway conditions to evaluate how transportation dollars are used and whether those investments are improving outcomes. As of 2024, 16.34 percent of federal-aid-eligible roads were in poor condition, despite tens of billions of dollars spent annually on repairs between 2018 and 2024. States spent an average of 39 percent of their transportation funds on repair, compared to 25 percent on expansion over that period.

“Every time Congress passes a transportation bill, to a person they promise it will ‘fix our crumbling roads and bridges,’ but it never does because the bill they pass says nothing of the sort,” said Beth Osborne, President and CEO of Smart Growth America. “Taxpayers should be tired of watching Congress and those who draw their paycheck from the federal transportation program divide up taxpayer money to provide themselves more cash, more flexibility, and less oversight. It’s not their money, it’s the taxpayers’ money. And it is time to deliver the results that have been promised to them for decades.” 

“Congress authorized $56.8 billion from the Highway Trust Fund in FY2024, more than enough to fix every poor road on the federal-aid system. Yet conditions have barely moved in decades. That’s because there are no enforceable requirements to actually spend that money on repair first. Taxpayers aren’t getting what they were promised, and with reauthorization coming, Congress has no more excuses.” – Steve Ellis, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense.


Findings from Repair Priorities include:

  • The share of federal-aid-eligible roads in poor condition declined from 19 percent in 2018 to 16.34 percent in 2024
  • States added nearly 113,000 lane-miles of roadway between 2018 and 2024—enough to span the U.S. 45 times—increasing long-term maintenance obligations. 
  • Maintaining existing roads in good condition requires $32.6B annually, with an additional $10.6B needed to address the maintenance backlog. In total, $43.2B per year is needed just to keep the system in acceptable repair
  • Overall, 17 states saw an increase in the percentage of roads in poor condition from 2018 to 2024, while 31 states improved road condition, but these gains were uneven and often modest
  • Nationally, the share of bridges in poor condition declined from 7.6 percent in 2018 to 6.7 percent in 2024. Still, 41,730 bridges across the 50 states remain in poor condition and require significant maintenance or rehabilitation

Federal policy gives states broad flexibility in how they spend their federal funds. And while many states have shifted the balance of more funding toward repair over the last decade, many other states are deferring maintenance in favor of roadway expansion, even while their leaders use the rhetoric of fixing “crumbling roads and bridges” to justify increased funding.

Between 2018 and 2024, the national road network grew by 112,957 lane-miles, adding an estimated $5.3 billion in new annual maintenance obligations. Unless Congress implements stronger requirements that prioritize repair for existing and new roads, this ongoing trend will continue to undermine any progress.

The report also shows significant variation across states. In some states, spending on expansion still outpaces repair by a wide margin, making them particularly vulnerable to worsening conditions. Roads are often framed as assets, but they also represent major financial liabilities requiring operational and maintenance costs over their full lifecycles. 

Even where progress has been made, rising construction costs and decades of deferred maintenance mean available funding will cover an ever-smaller share of overall needs. Without a meaningful shift in priorities, the backlog of roads in poor condition will persist—and likely worsen.

The report recommends that Congress:

  • Guarantees measurable improvements in road conditions tied to federal funding
  • Requires states to repair their existing systems before allowing expansion of new capacity
  • Improves transparency and reporting on how transportation funds are spent

Despite more than $1.5 trillion in federal transportation spending over the past 30 years, road conditions have largely stayed the same. The nation needs $43.2 billion each year just to keep the federal-aid highway system in acceptable repair. That is a significant cost, but Congress authorized $56.8 billion from the Highway Trust Fund in FY2024—more than enough to cover the cost of fixing the system. The issue is not funding. It is how the money is spent.

Read the report >>

Transportation for America statement on reports of Amtrak restructuring

Recent reports indicate that the U.S. Department of Transportation may direct Amtrak to undertake a significant organizational restructuring. Transportation for America offers the following statement.

Transportation for America has spent decades pushing for the reforms needed to deliver the reliable, affordable, and connected service Americans deserve. But the current structure is not delivering on those outcomes.

For that reason, we support reimagining how we organize passenger rail in this country, and any reform must preserve and strengthen the national network and its funding, improve operational transparency, and modernize equipment and maintenance practices.

We’re withholding judgment until the Administration releases its final restructuring proposal. The Federal Railroad Administration has engaged us in discussions, and we have consistently raised our principles. Advocates should continue pressing for the principles that will make American passenger rail truly world-class, but let’s take a breath and let the process play out before assuming the worst.

If the proposal strengthens the national network and aligns with our principles, we will support it. If it falls short, we will say so. We remain committed to working with the FRA, Congress, Amtrak, and other stakeholders to ensure passenger rail in the United States is positioned to succeed.

Watch the World-Class American Transit webinar recording

On February 11, we hosted a webinar on Transportation for America’s latest report, World-Class American Transit

Led by report author Corrigan Salerno, the webinar broke down what it would take to deliver frequent, reliable transit across the U.S. The report examines 452 urbanized areas with populations over 50,000 and finds that a $4.6 trillion investment over 20 years would be required to approach the level of service provided by global peers.

Watch the webinar to see Corrigan walk through the findings and discuss what they mean for communities and decision makers.

What stood out to our team at TCamp 2026

Nearly 20 staff from Transportation for America and Smart Growth America attended TransportationCamp DC. While it’s hard to understand just how special TCamp is unless you’ve been there, some of these reflections from staff can help paint the picture. 

Special thanks to our underwriting sponsor, Arnold Ventures, and our local sponsors, Coalition for Smarter Growth and Greater Greater Washington, for making the day possible.

For our full recap of TransportationCamp DC, read this blog. 

On TCamp being the most optimistic, forward-looking transportation gathering:

“Despite the headwinds that transit and multimodal transportation have faced this past year, attendees did not hesitate to bring forward countless new and innovative ideas for sessions about how to make transportation work better in the future.” – Corrigan Salerno, Policy Manager, Transportation for America

“This was my second TransportationCamp. Our world has changed significantly since the first one I attended in 2024, but where you might expect folks to be discouraged by the many barriers to creating equitable and healthy communities, the opposite was felt. Everyone at TCamp this year seemed not discouraged by the obstacles we’re facing, but instead brought even more energy and dedication. Anyone who attended TransportationCamp left feeling empowered to go do the important work of creating systems that work for everyone.” – Coutney Cole, Program Associate, Thriving Communities, Smart Growth America

“This was my first time at TransportationCamp. The thing that surprised me most was the fun and joy! Despite the rain, early start time, and heavy topics, people seemed genuinely happy and excited to be together.” – Dustin Robertson, Program Manager, Thriving Communities, Smart Growth America

“This was my first TCamp, and you really have to be there to understand and appreciate the idea of an “unconference”. Seeing so many transit enthusiasts and advocates come together on Saturday to pitch their sessions and enthusiastically discuss and teach feels so communal. I loved how creative each individual period and workshops were, it gives me hope and keeps the momentum going on transit advocacy, which always feels like an uphill battle.” – Elisa Ramirez, Policy & Outreach Associate, Transportation for America

On TCamp bringing people together, and how new voices helped set the tone:

“My favorite session at TCamp was led by two high school students who reviewed what makes transit work well, how it is working in the Washington, DC area, and how we could improve it. What impressed me was how two young people, untrained in transportation and urban planning, were able to discuss what makes transit work and do so in a way more connected to the outcomes we seek than professionals do. They also pushed the rest of the attendees, most of whom were transportation professionals, to think bigger.” – Beth Osborne, President and CEO, Smart Growth America

“There’s always been a feeling at TCamp that it’s predominantly full of “regulars,” a tight crew of people who know what TCamp is and attend almost every year. And while that may have been the case in years past, one of my favorite things about this year’s camp was just how many first-timers we had. In the morning, while going through instructions for the day, I asked everyone in the auditorium to raise their hands if this was their first TCamp. And it felt like at least 60 percent of the room raised their hands! That not only shocked me, but I found it very encouraging, because bringing in new people and new voices is precisely at the heart of what TCamp is all about.” – Steve Davis, Interim Director, Transportation for America

“The best thing about Transportation Camp DC is the spontaneity and sense of fun that all the attendees bring with them. We had what seemed to be a record number of new attendees, and with it, new ideas for sessions. Despite the headwinds that transit and multimodal transportation have faced this year, attendees did not hesitate to bring forward countless new and innovative ideas for sessions about how to make transportation work better in the future. Leading a session at TCamp is a great opportunity to share your thoughts, work, gripes, and creativity in a fun, low-stakes environment with others passionate about better transportation.” – Corrigan Salerno, Policy Manager, Transportation for America

On some standout sessions at TCamp:

“My favorite session of TransportationCamp was a session on jargon. As an attendee before I got my job at T4America, I remember being overwhelmed by the intense use of acronyms by attendees. Now that I’m on the other side of things, it was great to have a reminder that avoiding jargon is not dumbing things down…it’s communicating clearly. The session consisted of people explaining their jobs. The host honked a clown horn every time a contestant used an acronym or an industry-specific term without explanation. As the session went on, people got better at explaining the specifics of their jobs without falling back on their usual speech patterns. I would really enjoy it if most transportation professionals had to do something like this every few months.” – Jaibin Mathew, Policy Associate, Transportation for America

“helped lead a debate about this important question: Is the concept of Complete Streets still useful, or has it run its course? It was a great conversation among a diverse group of transportation professionals, fans, and nerds from across the country. The conversation was serious (based on years of experience and data), fun (the word “sexy” was used at least 4 times), and inspirational (as we thought together about what the future of transportation can and should look like).”  – Dustin Robertson, Program Manager, Thriving Communities, Smart Growth America

“I am partial to the workshop that Raveena John (SGA Senior Program Associate, Thriving Communities) and I hosted. We provided maps of streets in Tennessee, Texas, and Florida, and supplied groups with markers and cut-outs of bus stops, benches, bushes, and parks. Groups would then design green and complete streets, and we received so much positive feedback! “I feel like a kid again” was my favorite comment. It is awesome to get creative juices flowing and to imagine how we can improve our streets simply by a few design choices.” – Elisa Ramirez, Policy & Outreach Associate, Transportation for America

Inside TransportationCamp DC 2026

TransportationCamp DC was back and better than ever. On a rainy January Saturday, more than 400 transportation professionals, advocates, and first-time attendees proposed and led more than 50 original sessions, shared big ideas, made new connections, and challenged one another to think differently about the future of transportation. The day demonstrated why TransportationCamp is so vital—and why we were so glad to be able to bring it back.

On a rainy Saturday in Washington, DC, more than 400 transportation professionals and advocates gathered at Catholic University’s Pryz Student Center for TransportationCamp DC 2026. Despite the weather, attendees showed up with energy to break through any bad-weather blues. TransportationCamp DC once again proved that when people are given space to share ideas, challenge the status quo, and learn from one another, momentum for exciting new ideas will follow. Before we dig into the excellent content shared at TCamp, we want to thank our underwriting sponsor, Arnold Ventures, and our local sponsors, Coalition for Smarter Growth and Greater Greater Washington, for making the day possible.

Jarrett Walker kicked off TransportationCamp DC 2026 with an incredible keynote that set the day’s focus with a clear call to design transit around people and outcomes, not just boxes to check. Above and beyond Jarrett’s presentation, the last question he answered about the misconception of there only being “choice” and “captive” transit riders helped capture the sentiment of his speech. Jarrett pushed back on the question’s framing because, as he said, when planning transit delivery, everyone should be considered a choice rider. If transit does not meet people’s needs, they will find another way to get where they need to go. He argued that we should treat every rider as though they had the choices they do and give them a better reason to choose transit.

For the Transportation for America team, the best part of the day was the palpable sense of joy and passion that filled the Pryz. There’s always been a feeling at TCamp that it’s predominantly full of “regulars,” a tight crew of people who know what TCamp is and attend almost every year. While that may have been the case in years past, this year’s camp was loaded with first-timers. In the morning, while going through instructions for the day, Steve Davis, Interim Director of T4America, asked everyone in the auditorium to raise their hands if this was their first TCamp. It felt like at least 60 percent of the room raised their hands! While that was an astounding response, it was also encouraging, because bringing in new people and new voices is precisely at the heart of what TCamp is all about.

On top of that, TCamp DC 2026 saw the highest number of session proposals we have ever received, with more than 70 individuals and groups submitting ideas. From the pool of submissions, attendees voted, and the T4America team identified the top 50 sessions to put on the “Big Board.” Topics ranged widely, from jargon and communications to Complete Streets and roadway safety, to youth perspectives on transit, green street design, and the future of service and funding.

And for Beth Osborne, our President and CEO, one of the most memorable sessions came from some of the youngest voices in the room. Two high school students led a standout session that included a presentation on what makes transit work, how it is performing in the DC region, and where it falls short. Their energy and excitement to present was infectious, but it was the way that they focused on real-world outcomes that pushed a room full of seasoned advocates and practitioners to consider what success actually looks like for all riders, and how we talk about it. 

Understanding your audience and communicating with them clearly were recurring themes throughout the day. Multiple sessions focused on the way transportation professionals talk about their work, and how jargon and acronyms can unintentionally shut people out. In one session attended by a T4A team member, participants were literally called out with a clown horn every time they used a wonky phrase or acronym. The exercise was fun and playful, but the message of the session was clear: it’s easy to get used to speaking in wonky terms or acronyms, but to ensure our ideas are easily understood by everyone who might join the fight for better transportation, we need to communicate clearly. 

Another interactive workshop led by T4America team members invited small groups of participants to redesign actual streets in Tennessee, Texas, and Florida using maps, markers, and cutouts of bus stops, benches, greenery, and public space. After the session, our team heard from several participants who said the activity made them feel like a kid again. That’s an important reminder that approaching transportation in fun, creative, and collaborative ways can help us identify new solutions that can help us achieve better outcomes.

Throughout the attendee-led sessions, impromptu hallway conversations, and the event reception at City-State Public House, it was clear that people were genuinely glad to be back with other transportation nerds at TransportationCamp. After a pause in 2025, we heard from so many attendees how meaningful it was to be back to reconnect in person and pick up on sharing and generating new ideas that push transportation to work better for everyone. By the end of the day, it was clear that, after 50 attendee-led sessions, the attendees—including T4America staff—went home energized for the year ahead and were better equipped to take these big ideas back to their communities.

New report: World-Class American Transit

New analysis shows U.S. transit falls far short of global peers and what it would take to close the gap.

Achieving world-class service would require nearly tripling the national transit fleet

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 14, 2026 — Transportation for America today released a new report, World-Class American Transit, which, for the first time, details the level of investment needed to create world-class transit service in each of the 452 U.S. urbanized areas with populations over 50,000. These communities are home to more than 230 million people, representing nearly 65 percent of the U.S. population.

The analysis finds that a $4.6 trillion investment across all levels of government over 20 years ($230 billion per year) would be required to build, operate, and maintain a transit network that approaches the level of service within a cohort of 17 global cities with world-class transit systems. While that represents a significant increase in current spending, it still falls short of the $6.3 trillion the U.S. is expected to spend on highways over the same period.

“Americans deserve top-quality transit,” said Beth Osborne, President and CEO of Smart Growth America. “Right now, most of the country has infrequent, unreliable transit service that doesn’t go to all the places people need to go. Not even New York City reaches the level of the places we studied. But if we triple our investment in transit, every single city over 50,000 people—over 450 communities—can have top-notch transit service connecting them to necessities and opportunity. It just requires a sustained commitment to frequent, reliable transit service, and a willingness to stop governing as if Americans should settle for less.”

To establish a benchmark for world-class service, we evaluated a diverse global set of 17 cities and found that each urban area’s transit fleet scaled with population, averaging over 130 transit vehicles in service per 100,000 residents. In comparison, the analysis finds that on average, American cities operate just 27 transit vehicles per 100,000 residents, offering just a fifth of the service provided by our peers. 

To approach world-class transit service over the next 20 years, the report finds the United States would need to:

  • Nearly triple the number of transit vehicles in service, investing $180 billion to add roughly 115,000 buses and rail vehicles.
  • Invest more than $859 billion to build more than 7,500 miles of dedicated transit right-of-way, allowing service to operate reliably and independently of traffic. 
  • Running the new expanded vehicle fleet at reliable and frequent levels would require doubling the annual investment in transit operations to $170 billion by 2045.
  • To eliminate the existing transit repair backlog and to keep pace with the operation of new services, an additional $403 billion would be required to maintain the new assets acquired in this scenario.

Federal policy has consistently prioritized highways, with transit receiving less than one-third of federal transportation spending since 1956. Since the 1980s, federal transportation funding has followed a roughly 80/20 split: 80 percent for highways, and only 20 percent for transit. 

“Americans should be able to rely on transit that gets them where they need to go, when they need to be there,” said Steve Davis, Interim Director of Transportation for America. “Good transit saves families money and provides vital access to jobs, housing, and opportunity. We also need dramatic changes in how we plan, build, and operate transit, but this report starts to show the level of commitment required to finally deliver the kind of transit Americans deserve.”

While the report focuses on the investment required to reach a new world-class transit benchmark, the analysis finds that investing in world-class transit would pay for itself in household savings. By modestly reducing the need for car ownership, Americans could save more than $5.4 trillion over 20 years, even without accounting for broader economic, environmental, and public health benefits.

This report establishes a clear benchmark for world-class transit and provides a number to get there, giving advocates and decision-makers a concrete target at both the national and local levels. It does not prescribe a specific funding source. Instead, it sets a credible baseline for the scale of investment needed as lawmakers discuss the next federal surface transportation and question the future of the Mass Transit Account.

Future analysis will build on this foundation by identifying funding options and advancing the policy reforms needed to ensure Americans have transit that is not just better, but truly world-class.

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T4America statement on USDOT proposal to eliminate federal transit funding

press release

Washington, D.C. (November 17) — In response to reports from Politico that the Trump administration is proposing to eliminate federal transit funding and the flexibility states have to determine how to spend their own formula dollars, Steve Davis, Director of Transportation for America, offered this statement: 

“This short-sighted proposal will annihilate state and local transportation budgets, strand millions of Americans who depend on transit every day in red and blue states alike, produce chaos and increase congestion, seize control from states, and utterly fail to actually solve our most pressing long-term transportation funding issues. The highway formula program alone spends $20 billion more than what the gas tax brings in every year—stealing transit funds won’t change that. Eliminating federal transit funding would cut the transportation options millions depend on and leave families paying even more just to get to work, school, or anywhere else they need to be. This unserious idea should be dead on arrival in Congress, as was a similar proposal in 2012 that was booed out of the room.  

The FHWA proposal says that “highway funds should be spent on highway projects,” but gas tax dollars haven’t been exclusively “highway” funds since 1982, when the federal gas tax was raised from 4 to 9 cents and 20 percent of all gas tax funds were permanently devoted to transit. This historic practice—enshrined in a bipartisan deal approved by President Ronald Reagan—has continued for 43 years with broad support in Congress and amongst stakeholders, including the association representing state departments of transportation (AASHTO). 

So who would bear the burden of this change? Everyday Americans of nearly every stripe, in communities of all sizes. Hospital workers who use transit to get to their jobs so they can care for us. Millions of rural and urban households without any access to a car. Millions who depend on transit to get them somewhere vital, in cities and towns small and large. Millions of older Americans who can no longer drive. And millions of others who benefit from the trips and cars that transit removes from the road. This proposal would take away travel options from everyday Americans, erode the significant local and national economic benefits of transit, and instead reward those who want to build more highways, no matter the cost.

Any state or country that wants to compete in the modern world is investing in transit. Even highway-happy Texas provides nearly 230 million transit trips for riders each year and is planning for more urban and rural transit as well as intercity connections. We should be building out transit in this country with the same gusto we built the highway system.

A silver lining is that this kind of insanity from the administration should put a nail in the coffin of the “business-as-usual” bipartisan approach to reauthorization. The federal transportation program has produced terrible results for decades, with unsafe, crumbling roads and unrelenting congestion, all while taking more than $275 billion from taxpayers to do it because Congress keeps spending more than the gas tax brings in. The trust fund is broken and beyond repair, and it’s time to stop propping up a program that’s failing both to pay for itself and deliver on its promises.  This proposal piles insult on injury as the administration continues to systematically pull funding from local transportation priorities for things like transit and the safety of people walking and biking.

No one in Congress should be willing to negotiate with partners sitting on their hands as the administration takes a blowtorch to their constitutional power of the purse and to the last bipartisan authorization passed in 2021. We’re encouraged to hear Rep. Rick Larsen, the minority leader on the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, call this proposal “harebrained.” But members like Rep. Larsen—who have made it clear that their top priority is passing a largely status quo bipartisan bill—should now be asking themselves: Why spend political capital to help negotiate and pass a bill where my priorities are either going to be targeted today, or eliminated tomorrow?”


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USDOT initiated another arbitrary freeze sowing chaos for chaos’s sake: Congress should take note

The Trump administration’s delay of the nation’s largest public transit and intercity passenger rail project underscores what Congress should already know: the Trump administration is a bad-faith partner and a clear threat to the legislative process.

Earlier this week,  Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought via X (formerly known as Twitter) and the United States Department of Transportation, announced the Trump administration has frozen approximately $18 billion in USDOT funding for the nation’s largest transit and passenger rail projects: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s Second Avenue Subway and the Hudson Tunnel Project (a component of the Gateway Program), justifying the hold “to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.” 

“The same people who say roads can’t be racist seem to think a tunnel will enact DEI. Everyone knows this project is extremely important to the Northeast Corridor, and the Northeast Corridor makes up 20 percent of U.S. GDP. We need this tunnel, and we have been waiting for it for decades. Get it done and stop making excuses.”

Beth Osborne, President and CEO of Smart Growth America

No matter the justifications, this is just another example of what the administration has been doing since taking office: acting out of retribution, illegally rescinding funds, and canceling congressionally authorized spending. This is nothing new, merely the latest and largest in a series of politicized, confidence-destroying attacks on transportation and bipartisan governance that should make any member of Congress think twice before entrusting authority to this administration in the next surface transportation reauthorization bill.  

In the words of Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, we need to “avoid top-down mandates from Washington, D.C.” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves would agree, in his own words, “we need to continue to empower states and limit federal intrusion,” but will not check an administration intent on governing by vendetta. Democrats are unable to stop the creep of administrative overreach by doing anything other than shutting down the government, and the country’s transportation infrastructure continues to both crumble and kill people while Congress pursues a business-as-usual approach to surface transportation reauthorization. 

The transportation system is broken, but negotiations over the surface transportation reauthorization bill don’t align with that reality—the administration will not faithfully implement any bill that Congress passes in a bipartisan fashion. Any agreement on reauthorization will not matter because it will be rendered ineffective the moment it’s signed by the President, who will do everything in his administration’s power to undermine and delay whatever he doesn’t agree with. This is the lesson of the Second Avenue Subway and the Hudson Tunnel Project delay, and the cancellation and impoundment of dozens of other projects last month. If Congress doesn’t learn that lesson now, taxpayers will be left with a transportation system that continues to fail to meet Americans’ needs.

“The Gateway project will be built one day. It will just be much more expensive than it would be if we got moving today. That is, if there is not a bigger emergency caused by a problem that closes the existing tunnel before we can get the Gateway project built.”

Beth Osborne, President and CEO of Smart Growth America

What got us here? Vengeance as governing

Transportation for America has been tracking the administration’s actions for months. Time and again, they have proven that, from the smallest bike lane to the most significant passenger rail infrastructure project in America, USDOT cannot be trusted to execute the programs authorized by Congress as they were intended to be carried out. 

This administration has proven they are not a faithful steward of federal funds by exercising a normal or near-normal scope of administrative interpretation—they are malignant actors with an agenda that far exceeds traditional administrative authority and the outlined programs and priorities in law.

“A functioning transportation system that is safe and in good condition is the point. The Gateway project is a big part of that. Instead, USDOT is undergoing a paperwork exercise of unknown parameters and length. Stop studying it, talking about it, and reviewing it, and just build it already.” 

Beth Osborne, President and CEO of Smart Growth America

As we have previously cautioned members of Congress, they would be foolish to move forward with a new bipartisan infrastructure deal if the administration can pick and choose, down to the smallest project, what they deem acceptable. The faith is broken—the terms of the agreement no longer exist. Under these conditions, it would be incredibly short-sighted to vote for any long-term reauthorization and believe that their wishes would be faithfully implemented.

Statement: Trump administration stalls nation’s largest transit and rail project

press release

Statement: To demonstrate that the country can “build stuff again” and that it supports states setting transportation priorities, the Trump administration has delayed the nation’s largest public transit and intercity passenger rail project that is supported across the northeast. 

Washington, D.C. (October 1) — Today,  Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought via X (formerly known as Twitter) and the United States Department of Transportation, announced the Trump administration has frozen approximately $18 billion in USDOT funding for the nation’s largest transit and passenger rail projects: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s Second Avenue Subway and the Hudson Tunnel Project (a component of the Gateway Program), justifying the hold “to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.” 

Beth Osborne, President and CEO of Smart Growth America, issued the following statement in response to the announcement.

“The same people who say roads can’t be racist seem to think a tunnel will enact DEI. Everyone knows this project is extremely important to the Northeast Corridor, and the Northeast Corridor makes up 20 percent of U.S. GDP. We need this tunnel, and we have been waiting for it for decades. Get it done and stop making excuses. 

Transportation leaders on the Hill have been quoted as saying they want to “avoid top-down mandates from Washington, D.C.” and “let states lead.” They say they want to speed project delivery to keep costs down and get things done for the taxpayer. It is unclear how they think actions like this one demonstrate either of those principles. The transportation system is broken, but negotiating a new surface transportation reauthorization while actions like these are ongoing is naive to the extreme.

The Gateway project will be built one day. It will just be much more expensive than it would be if we got moving today. This is the lesson of the Second Avenue Subway and the Hudson Tunnel Project delay. That is, if there is not a bigger emergency caused by a problem that closes the existing tunnel before we can get the Gateway project built. 

What got us here? 

Transportation for America has been tracking the administration’s actions for months. While they are worrying about how an off-road walking and biking trail might somehow inconvenience drivers, the U.S. has real needs now. The U.S. has a truly embarrassing roadway safety record, trailing several third-world countries. The overall highway and bridge safety and repair record hasn’t budged in the last 20+ years, according to ASCE. Congestion is getting worse in major cities, including those that have lost population—something that makes no sense at all. 

A functioning transportation system that is safe and in good condition is the point. The Gateway project is a big part of that. Instead, USDOT is undergoing a paperwork exercise of unknown parameters and length. Stop studying it, talking about it, and reviewing it, and just build it already. 

As we have previously suggested to Congress, moving forward with a new bipartisan infrastructure deal if all we will get is more bureaucracy like this is silly. Clearly, real infrastructure investment is not moving forward like promised. To talk about more money for this approach to federal transportation would be a disservice to taxpayers and a self-delusion so staggering that it stretches the mind to grasp how one justifies it.” 

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Helping small and mid-sized communities repair the damage of divisive infrastructure

T4A’s principle to invest in the rest aims to create a complete transportation network, which includes not just building out networks of transit, sidewalks, and bike lanes for safe and affordable transportation options, but also repairing the damage of the car-centric infrastructure that’s already been built. The hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. has invested in highways has repeatedly and deliberately torn communities apart. Under the guise of “urban renewal,” cities and states built dangerous arterials through Black and low-income communities to divide these neighborhoods from the rest of the city or destroy them entirely. But we don’t have to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can actively work together to restore connection and communities across this divisive infrastructure. 

Though the majority in Congress has moved to essentially kill the popular Reconnecting Communities program by rescinding and taking back more than $2.4 billion for these projects—much of that already awarded to local communities—that does not mean these types of projects cannot move forward. Although costly projects to remove or cap an entire highway or repair the damage of an enormous legacy interstate project will be far more difficult without this program, there are countless ways to use existing federal, state, or local money to quickly make dangerous and divisive roadways safer and more accessible. And implementing a quick-build demonstration project on roads like these can be an important first step toward a more ambitious permanent project.

Smart Growth America’s Community Connectors program seeks to equip small and mid-sized communities to identify, remove, or repair the wounds of divisive infrastructure. This iteration of the program is focused on divisive arterial highways and other dangerous roads that have divided or damaged communities.

This call for applications will support three teams from small to mid-sized cities (between approximately 50,000 and 500,000 in population) to participate in a yearlong cohort (September 2025 – June 2026) for training and support, culminating in the design and implementation of a temporary street safety pilot project to test out permanent changes to reconnect the community.

These joint teams consisting of local government and a community-based organization of some kind will receive in-depth instruction in building safer, complete streets through virtual training, a $25,000 grant to implement a street safety demonstration project, as much as $20,000 in in-kind support from outside engineering experts to support project design, and travel budget for a two-day convening in one of the three cities in fall 2025 for a site visit, walk audit, training, and project design.

Applications for Smart Growth America’s Community Connectors program are open until September 11. Learn more here and apply today!

 

Getting America’s passenger rail back on track requires a radically different approach

The inspection train arrives in Mobile, greeted by a crowd lined up by the tracks

$66 billion was dedicated to rail in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), but this historic amount was directed into a federal structure that has repeatedly failed to efficiently manage passenger rail projects, including those already funded. We cannot afford to repeat that experience. We can’t build tomorrow’s rail system with yesterday’s tools—reform is long overdue.

Transportation for America’s policies to restructure federal rail governance

In our platform for reauthorization, under our core principle of Invest in the Rest, we propose building a world-class passenger rail network. One of the five specific policies we recommend is to restructure the roles and responsibilities of the federal entities that govern passenger rail. To build a world-class rail network, we need a coordinated system working toward a clear goal—one with clear authority, transparency, and accountability. This proposal includes four specific policy changes:

  1. Amtrak should be responsible for the operations of every federally funded long-distance route and for operating the Northeast Corridor. It would work with state rail commissions on planning, identifying funding needs and priorities, and conducting outreach to communities.
  2. Amtrak and new service providers should be responsible for the state-supported routes, as well as managing stations and marketing passenger rail routes.
  3. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) should oversee national planning for passenger rail infrastructure, network connectivity, and safety standards. FRA would set standards for stations and maintain a registry of station features and conditions. The agency would also facilitate information sharing between freight and passenger rail providers and enforce regulation and oversight of both sectors.
  4. The Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) authority should include initiating independent proceedings, expediting cases with additional funding, and ensuring access to data for decision-making. Congress must ensure the STB has the funding and authority to move actions expeditiously and in compliance with legal deadlines.

For decades, the federal government has poured hundreds of billions into highways, while rail, transit, and other options have been left behind. That lopsided approach has left much of the country without viable alternatives to driving. T4America’s Invest in the Rest principle aims to change that by committing real resources to the modes that have been underfunded for generations, particularly passenger rail.

Amtrak’s national network, which includes long-distance routes, the Northeast Corridor, and state-supported lines, connects small towns and major cities alike. These services are essential. But the past few years have taught us that these existing structures and systems are poorly suited to building what we need tomorrow. To make lasting progress, the next surface transportation bill must not only invest in rail, but it must also build a modern system to plan and deliver it.

That starts with restructuring the federal roles and responsibilities that determine how rail service gets on the ground.

Learn more about how our policy proposals help to unlock the power of passenger rail in this webinar.

A new federal structure for rail

Each agency needs a clear mission and the authority to fulfill it. Amtrak should run service. The FRA should lead planning and regulation. The STB should resolve disputes swiftly and transparently. This kind of structure is how we move from good intentions to real outcomes. And it is the only way to build a passenger rail network that lives up to the investment we are making.

The vision: many routes, many providers

Amtrak should retain operational authority over its long-distance routes and the Northeast Corridor. These are the core services it already runs, and it remains best positioned to manage them. But even within this scope, Amtrak’s role should be strictly operational: running trains, managing stations, marketing the routes, and ensuring service quality. When it comes to state-supported routes, however, the model needs to change: Amtrak has proven that they are poorly situated to be in charge of developing new rail service. 

Over the past 15 years, the federal government has made significant investments in passenger rail with the goal of making Amtrak a more flexible, responsive partner to states. However, this funding has not translated into fast or widespread service expansion. The reality is that Amtrak has not successfully expanded either long-distance or state-supported services. As the only show in town, Amtrak is the only partner that those trying to launch or grow service can turn to, regardless of how easy or difficult they are to work with. The delays are not associated with one side of the aisle. While the Trump administration did not prioritize passenger rail during his first term, the Biden administration was slow to get the historic amount of funding in the IIJA out the door. 

Under current investment planning practices, where Amtrak plays a central role, reinvestments in passenger rail corridors such as the Northeast Corridor now struggle with ballooning expenses and inefficient project management. The Northeast Corridor is critically overdue for repairs and upgrades, facing a $5 billion State of Good Repair backlog. Despite owning a significant portion of the corridor’s track, tunnels, and bridges, Amtrak has struggled to maintain or modernize the corridor at the pace needed to meet today’s demand. 

The current structure simply struggles to deliver. Amtrak is not set up to rapidly deploy new routes or scale service across states. This is not a criticism of Amtrak’s core mission. Instead, our proposal recognizes that no single entity can meet every state’s needs, and Amtrak should focus on its core mission of running existing routes. That is why states should have the flexibility to work with other qualified rail operators that meet their needs. Amtrak could be one option to provide service, but it should not be the only one.

Brightline, a private passenger rail provider, is in the process of building a new service from Southern California to Las Vegas and currently operates regular service in Florida. Amtrak is not the only organization in the United States that can run a passenger rail operation. States, ideally through interstate rail commissions like the Southern Rail Commission or similar entities, should have the authority to choose the operator that best fits their needs.  A more competitive model would drive innovation, improve customer experience, and help translate policy support into real-world results.

We will explore the role of alternative service providers in a future post. For now, the takeaway is clear: the current system is not working fast enough. If we want better rail service in America, we need to reorganize how it is delivered and give states the power to move forward.

Planning a national network with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)

The FRA should take the lead on national passenger rail planning. While it currently serves as a regulator, grant administrator, and technical advisor, its authority is often too limited to proactively guide development. That needs to change. We envision a stronger FRA that leads network planning, enforces safety standards, and maintains a national database of station conditions and network assets. The FRA should also be empowered to facilitate data sharing and coordination between passenger and freight railroads. Right now, too many delays stem from freight railroads withholding critical data, leaving other parties in the dark. The FRA must have the authority to compel the disclosure of data and ensure that proprietary claims are not used to avoid transparency. Knowing how many trains and how long they run on a line should never be considered confidential. That is public infrastructure, and the public deserves to understand how it’s being used.

Empower the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to be proactive in problem-solving

The STB, meanwhile, needs expanded powers and resources to actually serve as an effective arbiter of passenger rail access disputes. The STB is an independent federal agency that regulates certain surface transportation modes, including freight rail. Right now, the STB is reactive. It must wait for a provider to bring a complaint, and often waits years before anything happens.

A case in point is the long-running effort by the Southern Rail Commission, an interstate rail compact comprising the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, to restore passenger rail service along the Gulf Coast, which was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This 20-year, multi-state effort was continuously stalled due to freight rail opposition. Despite the Commission and its partners clearing every conceivable obstacle, from station renovations to funding commitments, the freight railroads operating in the region (CSX and Norfolk Southern) refused to comply with sharing their tracks for the passenger rail service, claiming that the proposed two trains per day between New Orleans and Mobile would “unreasonably” impair their freight operations. 

As a result, it took nearly ten years and direct intervention by the FRA to force a resolution. In 2021, Amtrak finally submitted an application to the STB, petitioning them to intervene and arbitrate the conflict if CSX and Norfolk Southern continued to delay the project in bad faith. Notably, the FRA Administrator at the time himself testified to the STB to compel the freight railroads to adhere to federal law and provide Amtrak the use of track for the service. Two decades after Hurricane Katrina disrupted the line, the Gulf Coast Mardi Gras service is finally launching on August 18, 2025. It should never have taken this long to deploy service on a previously existing route. Government partners need to be positioned to deliver projects on clear timelines, starting with allowing the STB to mediate disputes efficiently. 

STB is too cautious and deferential. Congress should give the STB the authority to initiate proceedings on its own when there are substantial disputes, delays, or risks to public investment. If a host freight railroad is blocking a funded passenger rail project, and the STB knows about it, the Board should not have to wait to step in and render a verdict. Regional commissions or public agencies should be allowed to initiate or request action even if they are not the operator or the host. And to make this possible, the STB needs the funding to hire staff with specific passenger rail expertise. Too often, the Board has treated these cases like freight conflicts, when they require an entirely different set of experts.

Why it matters

Right now, the biggest threat to passenger rail is not just a lack of funding—it is a lack of a functioning system to deploy existing funding efficiently to create and support new or expanded passenger rail service. The IIJA allocated $66 billion to rail, but without clearer roles for the key players, a clear, scalable structure, and real accountability, this money is not delivering the transformation the public expects.

Rather than creating new layers of bureaucracy, we are calling for a clear division of responsibilities between Amtrak, the FRA, and the STB that is designed to support growth, increase transparency, and speed up service delivery. We’ve had record levels of funding, new laws and programs,  and a decade of political momentum, and yet we still don’t have real results. That’s not just a policy failure, it’s a structural one. If we want to make rail work in this country, we need to start building a system that can deliver it.

Someone who is good at the economy please help AASHTO budget this our country is dying

The stakeholders most responsible for producing the mediocre outcomes on transportation—poor road conditions, increased congestion, continued emissions, record pedestrian deaths—believe all taxpayers should hand over an additional $210 billion above what the gas tax brings in to keep producing more of the same for the next five years. Haven’t they been given enough?

With transportation investment priorities this misguided, it’s easy to draw comparisons to this popular absurdist tweet. When our budget is $190 and you’re asking for $400, there’s a basic math issue we’re not addressing.

As the nation approaches the expiration of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Highway Trust Fund’s insolvency looms large once again (save the date: 2028), forcing policymakers on Capitol Hill to contend with tough questions on who, what, where, and how federal transportation funding is spent.

The trade group for state departments of transportation

The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, or AASHTO, is a trade group that represents state departments of transportation. Under the IIJA, state DOTs received record levels of funding—approximately $270 billion in flexible formula funding, a 50 percent increase compared to what they received in the 2015 FAST Act, the previous federal transportation bill. (By comparison, their funding only increased by 15 percent in that 2015 law over 2012’s MAP-21).

But apparently, this record level of funding didn’t go far enough. As Congress debates the replacement for the IIJA, AASHTO says that the funding levels from the IIJA—plus inflation since 2021—should be the floor for funding in the next law, despite the fact that this will wildly outspend future gas tax revenues and only deepen investment in a broken approach. How much money are they really asking for?

The ask: IIJA funding levels (plus inflation!) as the starting point

Assuming state DOTs are asking for an inflation adjustment to account for their ballooning highway construction costs, the next bill’s highway elements alone could cost over $400 billion over a five-year authorization. The gas tax is only projected to bring in $190 billion over this period. Read that again: For highway spending alone, they are asking for more than double what the program’s revenues are going to be. Right out of the gate, they believe that taxpayers should pony up more than $210 billion over five years to pay for highway and bridge-focused programs alone. Forget about transit and every other form of federally funded transportation.

To further put that into perspective, that’s greater than the Gross Domestic Product of Denmark ($400.1 billion, according to United Nations stats).

That’s just for the programs they cared enough about to support. AASHTO is not defending programs with specific goals to improve resiliency and mobility options (like the PROTECT program and Transportation Alternatives program). They are instead asking to consolidate programs like these and give themselves even greater capability to shift program funding around from goal-oriented programs to those with wide-ranging project eligibility and little in the way of actual direction (though these programs seemed plenty flexible to status quo priorities before). While state DOTs are asking for more money and less accountability, the federal government is at a point where we’re discussing cuts to programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and early child education (Pre-K).

This request is despite the immense, “once in a generation” transportation funding infusion from the IIJA in 2021, the $1.5 trillion in total transportation investment over the last 35 years, and the growing insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF).

The gap between what the gas tax brings in and current spending levels on transportation is so large that the House’s modest but disproportionately punitive fees on electric vehicles would barely dent the growing gap between revenues and spending. It is getting more and more expensive to undertake road projects, meanwhile, adding new lanes here and there on existing interstates and highways brings diminishing to potentially negative economic returns.

As we suggest in our own platform for reauthorization, it’s well past time we assess the value proposition of the Federal Aid Highway Program. Why should we continue to pour money from all taxpayers into a program producing such bad outcomes? Decades of flexibility for state DOTs and other agencies without any significant accountability for accomplishing specific, measurable things have led to our infrastructure’s current state of mediocrity.

The fundamental difference between groups like AASHTO and T4America (and others in Congress starting to bring a critical eye to this program) comes down to this question: Why does our federal transportation program produce such bad outcomes? Is it because this program is underfunded (AASHTO), or are the problems more fundamental? Why does throwing more money at this system fail to solve problems efficiently?

The primary barriers to achieving world class transportation—meaning transportation that cheaply and reliably gets you to work and does not kill you at a rate far exceeding the rest of the world— are current policy and practice.

As a default, many states still try to prioritize building road infrastructure that leaves communities fundamentally disconnected despite an abundance of existing, decaying roads, creates unsafe conditions by prioritizing speed over safety (in vastly higher proportions than other developed nations), and leads to perpetually worsening traffic congestion. For decades, state DOTs have spent an inordinate amount of funding on road expansion versus repair, and what good has that done us? The current approach often does not solve these problems, but instead can worsen them.

We know how much it should cost to fix things

While there is always plenty of fanfare and coverage accompanying the American Society of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card release1, there’s little public praise for the original source of much of its data. Federal Highway Administration data, especially the Conditions and Performance Report, undergirds most recommendations in ASCE’s report. The most recent edition of the C&P report finds that, pre-IIJA, if we were to spend approximately $87 billion* annually on repairing existing assets, we would be on track to eliminate the road repair backlog entirely.

*2018 dollars. Amounts are not adjusted in this post.

While that seems pricey (and we’re overdue for a report update), we spent well over double that on highways already: $206 billion was spent across all units of government in 2021, even before the IIJA. Instead of planning to address repair directly, it seems the plan is to ensure that topline funding levels are so absurdly high that at least some of the money gets spent on maintenance before expansion.

Our priorities call for a federal program that prioritizes fixing it first. Before building new capacity, we need to address the growing backlog. The 25th edition C&P report estimates that there will be $1.9 trillion in new maintenance needs alone between 2019-2038. Adding new lane miles simply expands the total number of liabilities we must care for in the future.

Even ASCE agrees: “you can’t build your way out of congestion.” Instead, as roads reach the end of their lifecycle, we should rebuild them to more effectively serve everyone who needs to use them according to the basic principles of Complete Streets—serving transit and people walking and biking in addition to driving. Shifting funds away from overbuilt roads to allow for more robust active transportation networks and transit systems is one way to reduce long term maintenance costs, increase access to jobs, reduce transportation costs, and improve safety outcomes.

Giving states these blank checks with almost no oversight plays into bad political incentives for state politicians and the infrastructure lobby to continually greenlight boondoggles that don’t serve people. Congress needs to take a stronger stance to ensure federal funding is spent in some minimally responsible manner. Without ensuring that funding is directed to accomplish specific outcomes, the next reauthorization will lead us down the same dangerous, congested and dirty road we’ve been down the past 35 years.

USDOT’s new memo requires a review of competitive grant awards

A leaked policy memo from leadership at USDOT will add a new layer of extra-legal review of all awarded competitive grant projects without fully signed federal funding obligations, calling for bicycle infrastructure, green infrastructure, and EV chargers to be cut from projects.

What’s in USDOT’s new memo? 

Drawing authority from the President’s inaugural slate of executive orders and the Secretary of Transportation’s first round of policy memos, the Department of Transportation Secretary’s office has, according to a leaked policy memo, issued another round of unprecedented orders, calling for the removal of all elements of projects related to bike infrastructure, charging infrastructure, climate change or those that take equity into account competitive grant funding. The memo specifically applies to competitive grants that have not yet completed grant agreements or obligated the funding, including those that have only been partially obligated. Projects with existing and executed grant agreements are not subject to additional review, but any new federal dollars made out to those projects would be. 

What’s the difference between funding that is announced or obligated?

When the federal government announces an award, the awardee does not get that funding as a grant. First, the federal government and the awardee have to negotiate and sign a funding agreement, which lays out the project scope, schedule, and budget and demonstrates the availability of required nonfederal funding match.

Funds can be canceled or reclaimed until they are obligated, which is a binding commitment to pay out money. Funding cannot be obligated until the grant agreement is signed and all permitting and relevant regulations are complied with. Planning grants that don’t have those regulatory requirements are obligated once there is a signed grant agreement. However, capital (ie, construction) projects would need to complete regulatory review and permitting before being obligated.

Once there is a grant agreement and funds are obligated, an awardee must spend their own funding and file for reimbursement from the federal government.

This memo instructs USDOT operating administrations, like The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), to conduct a project-by-project analysis to identify any activities that include primary elements of “equity, climate change, environmental justice, green infrastructure, bicycle infrastructure, electric vehicles, and charging infrastructure.” Once projects are identified for non-compliance with the administration’s priorities, they will be subject to individual scrutiny for a final decision on whether they will be canceled, modified, or continue as planned. Projects that contain “flagged activities” could be revised, even if they meet all requirements of law, to comply with this administration’s agenda. This comes full circle from the “Woke Rescission” memo, which we unpacked in a previous blog, and follows the episode of STIP and TIP review of obligated projects that were recently walked back (though the new burdensome review remains an issue for environmental permits, according to a recent letter from AASHTO). 

While it is normal for a new administration to set its own agenda, it has always applied to spending and policy going forward. This administration is setting the precedent that any project not underway can be undone when there is a new president.  This memo furthers the agenda laid out in the “Unleashing American Energy” memo, which calls for increased reliance on fossil fuel consumption.

Under this approach, USDOT will reach back to 2022 to defund many projects that Congress specifically defined as eligible activities in the text of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Congress defines the scope of what federal programs can fund. Even under the Biden administration—despite its commitments to advancing zero-emission transportation—USDOT still followed congressional intent by awarding the statutorily required 25% of funds to more emitting fossil fuel buses under the Low or No Emission bus program, despite strong demand for zero-emission buses from applicants. 

By nature of being eligible for funding, the bike, green infrastructure, and EV chargers elements of projects already got the okay for funding from Congress on a bipartisan basis. If this becomes precedent, future presidents could make unilateral decisions to freeze funding for any project that does not align with their own priorities. Allowing the pendulum to swing back and forth every four years undermines the rationale of the supposedly stable highway trust fund—perhaps further evidence that the model is no longer sustainable. If funding appropriated years in advance can be arbitrarily revoked, why even plan beyond the next fiscal year?

For an administration that has spoken at length about the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse, even absent the hugely dangerous and detrimental impact this will have on people’s health, safety, and long-term environmental sustainability of the transportation system, these reviews are going to slow down projects they would want to proceed. Actions like these continue to sow confusion and are inefficient, waste staff time, and squander funds and resources at the federal and local levels. 

What’s at stake

Nearly $2.9 billion in funding was announced for the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program for projects in over 1,700 communities. Only $515 million has been obligated across 979 grant,s according to a search of USASpending data. The vast majority of this program’s funding, $2.4 billion, and hundreds of communities receiving assistance through this program would now be subject to review and renegotiation due to this memo. 

About $7.6 billion was announced under the RAISE/BUILD program for federal fiscal years 2022 through 2025. Still, only $1.25 billion, or less, of funding has been secured and obligated, leaving the rest of the announced funds, representing potentially hundreds of projects, stuck once again in the grant review process. 

Zooming out to the whole program, based on data last updated by the USDOT on January 31, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, and the Federal Railroad Administration have a combined $51 billion in funds unobligated for non-formula programs. Much of these funds are now likely subject to review, cuts, and delays.

It likely will not stop there

While the current memo applies to competitive grants, there is good reason to expect that this administration will expand this review to cover other programs, too, if they find they don’t agree with how states, regions, localities, and transit agencies are using the funds. 

For example, new, flexible formula programs created in the IIJA designed to address infrastructure resiliency, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and build out the national network of electric vehicle infrastructure remain at risk and could be the next target for politicized review and freezes. Further, if Congress decides to rescind funds for impounded or frozen climate-related programs, the impacts would disproportionately hit rural states, likely disrupting planned projects of all types. Carbon Reduction Program and PROTECT funds have been programmed for anything from new highway lighting to tunnel rehabilitation. Members of Congress should be aware of how cuts to these programs may fall hardest on whose constituents. 

A pause for TransportationCamp DC

backs of people at tcamp sticking sheets of paper with session proposals on the board

After careful consideration, Transportation for America is announcing that we have decided to pause TransportationCamp DC this coming January. For years, we’ve enjoyed hosting the event and particularly enjoyed bringing together all of the dedicated transportation leaders and advocates to share ideas, shape the future of mobility, and tackle pressing challenges like emissions reduction and street safety.

While it was a hard decision, it ultimately came down to two things: timing and resources. With the New Year’s Holiday falling on the Wednesday before TCamp, there’s not sufficient time for our staff to conduct the intense preparations that make this event so successful. Additionally, hosting the event requires significant funding and venue flexibility, which have been harder to secure in recent years, and this year in particular.

We understand that this year’s pause may be disappointing, but it offers a chance to reimagine how we can sustain the “unconference” in Washington, DC. If you or your organization would like to support future TransportationCamps through sponsorship or other contributions, we’d love to hear from you.

Thank you for being part of the TransportationCamp community. We look forward to working together to advance the conversations and new ideas that make this event so special.

We’ll see you soon!
Transportation for America