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House-passed COVID relief bill increases emergency funding for transit construction grants

Local governments’ budgets have been decimated by the pandemic. Yet the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program—the main federal program for funding new transit construction—counts on project sponsors matching federal funds with local funds. To keep transit projects moving, the House approved increased emergency funding for over 24 CIG projects from Arizona to New York in the upcoming COVID-19 relief package. 

Phoenix, AZ’s Valley Metro’s South Central Extension/Downtown Hub—a CIG project that would receive this emergency funding. Photo courtesy of Valley Metro.

Capital Investment Grants (CIG)—composed of the New Starts, Small Starts, and Core Capacity programs—is the federal government’s main program for constructing new and expanded transit projects. Potential CIG projects go through multiple rounds of review by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), where they are rated on cost-effectiveness, environmental benefits, land use, congestion relief, and mobility improvements. 

Most other transportation grant programs require a 20 percent local match, whereas current law prohibits any CIG project where the local match is below 50 percent, as we wrote in our report The Green New Deal for City and Suburban Transportation. In normal times, this places a much higher burden on local and state governments that wish to build or expand public transit. COVID-19 has worsened this burden while also threatening local communities existing commitments. 

Due to COVID-19, local governments’ revenue is significantly down, with tax receipts declining with the economy. As a result, project sponsors are having a much harder time raising funds for the local CIG match. This threatens the viability of existing projects, potentially leading to delays, cost increases and the extreme outcome of cancelling projects. The recent action by the FTA helps, but the CIG program needs emergency funding to support local communities and keep projects moving. 

We are thrilled that the House Budget Committee added an additional $425 million to the $1 billion in emergency funding for CIG included in the first version of the latest COVID relief bill (the American Rescue Plan Act). They will go a long way towards keeping projects moving through the CIG pipeline—at a time when we need frequent and affordable transit more than ever. 

This additional emergency funding for CIG was part of the COVID bill approved by the House this past Friday, which now heads to the Senate. This bill also includes $30 billion in emergency funding for transit agencies, which is needed to ensure that transit can continue to connect Americans to jobs and essential services—because if you have no money to run the system, building new transit is pointless. 

The original bill approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee provided $1 billion for CIG projects that have negotiated full funding grant agreement (FFGAs) in fiscal year 2019 or 2020 but are not yet open for revenue service. These funds were to increase the projects’ non-federal match, as a result of project sponsors facing significantly reduced revenues due to COVID. 

The additional $425 million, added to the bill by the House Budget Committee, will be allocated in two ways:

  • $250 million to increase the amount given to each project funded by the base bill
  • $175 million for projects that received their most recent CIG funding in fiscal year 2018 but are not yet open for revenue service. 

Yet more needs to be done to support the demand for new and expanded public transit.

As described in The Green New Deal for City and Suburban Transportation, Transportation for America recommends replacing the CIG program with two programs: A $6 billion/year formula expansion program, and a $6 billion/year discretionary grant program for capital projects that improve access to frequent transit for low-income people, both requiring a 20 percent local share. 

These investments—along with investments in transit operations, maintenance, and electrification—can be possible if Congress provides transit with the same amount of funding as highways. To truly support public transit, the federal transportation program must be re-oriented towards investments in transit that substantially improve people’s access to jobs and services. 

With Congress writing long-term transportation policy now, we need your help to push for fundamental reforming the federal transportation program. Sign up for our Month of Action—kicking off today, Tuesday, March 2—to take one small action every week to influence this important legislation.

The CDC needs to do more to show the public that transit is safe

Public transit is one of the safest indoor spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic for a plethora of reasons. But the perception of transit’s safety is lagging. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a lot of power to change the narrative and pursue vaccination sites that are transit-accessible, as we wrote in a joint letter to the agency with our partners. 

New York MTA’s Mask Force distributing free masks to subway riders. Photo courtesy of the MTA.

Public transit is incredibly important to our pandemic response, connecting riders and essential workers to jobs, groceries, healthcare and more—safely. With proper precautions such as wearing a mask, transit is one of the safest indoor spaces for COVID-19 transmission, with a plethora of studies failing to link disease spread to transit. 

Why is transit so safe? Buses and trains are highly-ventilated; riders must wear masks (thanks to a new requirement from the CDC); vehicles are cleaned frequently; and riders tend to spend a short amount of time on vehicles and in stations. 

But the CDC isn’t clearly communicating transit’s safety to the public. In fact, last summer the CDC actively encouraged Americans to avoid transit—guidance they updated after criticism from Transportation for America and our partners.

While we’re grateful that the CDC updated this guidance and last month instituted a mask requirement on transit and other forms of transportation, the CDC needs to do more. CDC guidance that does not make it clear that transit is safe undermines public confidence in this essential service and ultimately undermines our communities today and our recovery tomorrow. 

We urged the new CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, to communicate transit’s safety in a new letter written by Transportation for America and signed by our partners the Transport Workers Union, TransitCenter, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). You can read the full letter here. 

It is also critical that the CDC considers transit access as a determining factor in choosing vaccination locations, and to provide guidance to states to ensure no one is denied access to a vaccine. As we wrote in our letter, no one should be denied access to a vaccine because they do not have access to a car. Public transit can and must play an important role in providing Americans with safe, convenient, and equitable transportation to vaccination appointments. 

We urge the CDC to clearly communicate how safe transit is to the public, and make transit access a factor in determining vaccination sites. Americans need transit—the CDC shouldn’t undermine it.

The Generating Resilient, Environmentally Exceptional National (GREEN) Streets Act re-introduced in the Senate today

Today, Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Tom Carper (D-DE), and Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) re-introduced a bill that would measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled. This would be transformative.

We originally wrote this blog when the bill was first introduced in July 2019—we hope that 2021 is the year it becomes law. 

Crossing the street in Boston. Photo by Yu-Jen Shih on Flickr’s Creative Commons.

Transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gases (GHG), contributing 28 percent of the United States’ total GHG emissions. While many other sectors have improved, transportation is headed in the wrong direction. Driving represents 83 percent of all transportation emissions and these emissions are rising—despite cleaner fuels, more efficient and electric vehicles—because people are driving more and making longer trips.

Unfortunately, our federal transportation program forces people to drive more by measuring success through vehicle speed—not the time it actually takes people to reach their destination. Building wider highways and sprawling cities to accommodate high-speed driving creates a feedback loop of more driving, virtually guaranteeing ever-increasing transportation emissions (and congestion). 

To reduce emissions we must make it possible for people to take fewer and shorter car trips, as well as make it easy and convenient for people to bike, walk and use transit. But we can’t do this if we only measure and value high speed car trips. The bill introduced today would change what we measure and value in transportation to include reducing GHG and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). 

The Generating Resilient, Environmentally Exceptional National (GREEN) Streets Act, introduced by Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Tom Carper (D-DE) and Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02), will create new performance measures and goals requiring that states measure, and reduce, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and GHG in their transportation systems. Read more about the bill on Senator Markey’s website. 

“Business-as-usual is building bad highways and breaking our planet — we can build smarter, safer, and healthier systems if we factor climate impacts and emissions into our decision-making process,” said Senator Markey, a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and co-author of the Green New Deal resolution. “We can advance the goals of clean energy, climate progress, and healthy communities, as well as fortify ourselves against the adverse impacts of climate change. An essential component of that effort is to re-envision how we plan for, construct, and maintain our national highway system, using climate measures that matter and ensure that we hold systems accountable.”

To reduce VMT and GHG, states would likely have to employ a variety of strategies, including better transportation options and smarter land use. These strategies  come with a host of benefits besides reducing GHG: reduced congestion, lower household transportation costs, safer streets, more attractive communities and better health outcomes. By measuring how successful transportation projects are by how many destinations—like jobs, schools, and grocery stores— people can access, the federal government can incentivize states and local governments to invest in transit, biking, and walking, as well as build places closer together. 

“Our transportation system gives many Americans no choice but to drive everywhere, which is no surprise because our transportation program is designed to consider only vehicle speed, not whether people (driving, taking transit, walking, rolling or biking) reach their destination. We need to measure what matters,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America. “Doing so will help give Americans more freedom to choose how to get around, save them money, and also reduce the harmful emissions wreaking havoc on our climate. We are hopeful that the re-introduced GREEN Streets Act will resume an important conversation about aligning federal funding with the outcomes we deserve from our transportation system, and we are pleased to support it.”

Transportation for America strongly supports the GREEN Streets Act and urges Congress to pass this transformative legislation. 

Hey #TeamPete, here’s how you can advance sustainable and equitable transportation policy

Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s appointment as Secretary of Transportation has brought some much-needed attention to this important department— especially from Pete’s former presidential campaign supporters. Here’s a primer for anyone new to transportation policy on how it works, how it’s broken, and what you can do to help fix it. 

Pete Buttigieg in February 2020. Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr’s Creative Commons.

There’s never been more attention on the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), with hashtags like #LearnAboutDOT, #HighwayHopes, and even #ChastenYourSeatbelts trending among supporters of Pete Buttigieg’s former presidential campaign. It’s good timing: 2021 is a big year for transportation, with the prospect of an infrastructure stimulus on the horizon and long-term surface transportation policy expiring in September. 

Here’s a primer on the state of transportation policy—and what you can do to fix it—for anybody interested in making a difference in this critical issue. 

What’s the problem with U.S. transportation?

Transportation is the bedrock of our nation’s economy and is critical to addressing our environmental, racial, and economic crises. Yet despite spending billions in federal tax dollars every year, our transportation system is broken: 

Climate change, racial and economic equity, safety, and infrastructure maintenance are interrelated transportation challenges—just like highways, public transit, biking, walking, and passenger rail are interrelated. But Congress and the federal government apply an outdated 1950s approach to transportation policy, pumping billions into a program designed to build the Interstate Highway System yet expecting different results.  

The billions we spend fail to address our most basic need: getting people where they need to go safely and efficiently. Spending more money won’t work without changing what we’re spending money on.

How can we change federal transportation policy? 

Every five to six years, Congress passes a long-term transportation law referred to as the “surface transportation authorization.” This law determines what we spend federal transportation funding on. The current authorization, the FAST Act, expires this September, giving Congress a rare opportunity to fundamentally reform transportation policy. 

We’re used to not expecting measurable results from the dollars we spend. It’s time to change that. At Transportation for America, we believe that we must orient federal transportation policy according to these three principles to connect our funding to the outcomes Americans desire:

  1. Prioritize maintenance before road expansion; 
  2. Design roads for safety over speed, and
  3. Measure transportation success by how well we connect people to jobs and essential services. 

Why these three principles? We can cut our maintenance backlog in half by simply dedicating formula highway funds to maintenance—finally “fixing our crumbling roads and bridges,” as politicians love to cry. By designing roads for safer speeds, we can save thousands of lives and make it easier to bike, walk, and ride transit. And by measuring the success of our investments by how well they connect people to the things they need—not how fast cars can drive, which is how we currently measure “success”—we can prioritize investments that improve those connections, regardless of mode. (For a deeper dive on our principles, check out this primer.) 

Last summer, the House of Representatives passed a proposal that makes progress on many of our recommendations. This bill—the INVEST Act—can serve as a template for reauthorization proposals this year. 

What about an infrastructure stimulus? 

Our three principles can apply to any federal funding for transportation, including an infrastructure stimulus. If the conversation around a stimulus focuses on how much we’re spending and not what we’re spending it on, it won’t succeed at rebuilding our economy—something we discovered in our analysis of the 2009 Recovery Act. 

It’s critical that any COVID-19 stimulus includes at least $39.3 billion in emergency relief for struggling public transit systems. This funding will prevent cuts to transit service through the end of 2023. 

Public transit’s revenue has been decimated by the pandemic, yet millions of riders continue to rely on transit to reach jobs, healthcare, groceries, and other vital resources. Without continued emergency support, transit will not be able to connect riders—particularly low-income riders and people of color—with the places they need. 

What can Secretary Buttigieg do? 

Without changing federal transportation policy, USDOT doesn’t have much power to fundamentally change our transportation system. But there are some reforms Secretary Buttigieg can make without an act of Congress, including:

  • working with President Biden to reinstate the greenhouse gas performance measure for transportation (overturned by the Trump administration); 
  • streamlining and releasing transit construction grants; 
  • encouraging safer roadway design standards;
  • prohibiting states from setting regressive safety goals, like planning for more road deaths than actually occured in the year prior; 
  • measuring induced demand; 
  • and making multimodal access data available to local planners. 

You can read more of these recommendations—and our reasoning behind them—in our memo to the Biden administration. 

What can I do to help? 

In the short term, supporting emergency relief for public transit is critical. Congress needs to pass at least $39 billion to prevent transit cuts through the end of 2023. Please call, email and tweet your Congressional delegation to preserve the $30 billion in emergency relief the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee included in their COVID-19 relief package, and advocate for passing an additional $9.3 billion in subsequent legislation.  

Tweet to support transit

In the long-term, you can help Congress pass a better transportation authorization. Members of Congress rarely hear from constituents about transportation policy (which is part of the reason why members of Congress bipartisanly agree to maintain the broken status quo)—so you calling, emailing, and tweeting at your representatives goes a long way. 

As Congressional committees start to draft proposals to reauthorize transportation policy, we need grassroots advocates ready to fight for fundamental reform. Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter to stay tuned for upcoming actions on transportation policy. (And follow us on Twitter.)

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Over 75 organizations and elected officials want the greenhouse gas performance measure reinstated

Reducing transportation emissions is necessary to slow down climate change. Which is why in less than a week, over 75 organizations and elected officials signed a letter by Transportation for America urging the Biden administration to reinstate the greenhouse gas (GHG) performance measure for transportation. This letter supported a similar effort in Congress led by Senator Cardin and Rep. Blumenauer. 

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, and the bulk of them come from driving. Reducing these emissions is critical—but in 2018, the Trump administration repealed a performance measure that would have required states to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when planning new highway projects.

That’s why in less than a week, over 75 organizations and elected officials urged the Biden administration in a letter to reinstate the GHG performance measure. This letter was sent to Secretary Buttigieg along with a letter by Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman Earl Blumenauer, signed by 47 Senators and Members of Congress, who asked the secretary to “urgently” restore this performance measure. 

Restoring the GHG performance measure can be done immediately through executive action initiating a notice of proposed rulemaking. According to Transport Topics in 2018, “The proposed measurement rule would have required state DOTs and MPOs to undertake administrative activities to establish targets, calculate their progress toward their selected targets, report to [the Federal Highway Administration] and determine a plan of action to make progress toward their selected targets if they failed to make significant progress during a performance period.”

Please read the full letter—with the list of 80 signatories—here. For more on the connection between transportation and greenhouse gas emissions, check out our latest report: Driving Down Emissions.

Release: Over 100 elected officials, cities, and organizations support $39.3 billion for transit

press release

Over 100 elected officials, cities and organizations urge Congress to provide $39.3 billion in emergency funding for public transportation to preserve transit service through 2023

WASHINGTON, DC: With only three days’ notice, over 100 elected officials, cities and organizations signed a letter written by Transportation for America (T4America) and the Alliance for a Just Society (AJS) urging Congress to provide transit agencies with $39.3 billion in emergency funding over three years. This critical funding will allow transit agencies to avoid service cuts through 2023, ensuring that public transit will survive the pandemic and continue to provide safe and reliable access to jobs, schools, and services for millions of Americans. 

Public transit has been devastated by the pandemic, with ridership losses and declining local revenue sources putting this essential service at risk. Without federal emergency relief, many transit agencies and paratransit service providers will be forced to dramatically reduce or eliminate critical service as soon as this spring, as found in an analysis by TransitCenter.

Transit agencies face a projected funding shortfall of $39.3 billion through 2023, according to an independent economic analysis highlighted by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Without equivalent relief, “four in 10 agencies will have to consider additional service cuts to close their budget gaps. These cuts would come on the heels of 65 percent of transit agencies having cut service in 2020. Twenty-two percent of agencies will be forced to consider implementing additional layoffs,” according to APTA. 

Last night, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved additional COVID-19 relief including $30 billion for public transit. This funding is a huge step towards helping transit agencies survive this crisis and continue powering our economic recovery. The additional and much-needed $9.3 billion can be provided in subsequent legislation. 

Read the full letter here. For requests to interview Transportation for America Director Beth Osborne or Policy Director Scott Goldstein, please contact Jenna Fortunati at jenna.fortunati@t4america.org.

Request for proposals: Grant reporting for the Southern Rail Commission

Summary  

Transportation for America (T4A) supports the Southern Rail Commission (SRC) to promote passenger rail  connecting Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to each other and the broader nation. As part of this work, the SRC was awarded several planning and construction grants from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for both passenger rail stations and capital improvements to support better intercity passenger  service along the Gulf Coast.  

T4A currently manages these grants for SRC and is seeking support for grant reporting, including:

  • working with state and city partners conducting the planning and construction work to follow the status of their work and steer any questions to T4A; 
  • compiling content from state and city partners needed to file quarterly reports;
  • compiling content from state and city partners needed to file final reports, when projects are completed;
  • and updating project trackers as requested by T4A or SRC Commissioners. 

This project is expected to last for 2-3 years.  

Background  

There are two types of grants at issue: 1) rail station planning or construction grants and 2) Consolidated  Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grants. With regard to the station grants, in 2016, the  SRC announced the allocations for more than $2 million in funding through the FRA to ten communities in  Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana that are planning for restored and improved passenger rail service. 

Of the 10 projects awarded funding, six are still awaiting final FRA approval and/or are underway. Those  projects are: 

  • City of Birmingham: enhancements and construction of pedestrian corridor connecting the  downtown Intermodal Facility to the Amtrak platform; 
  • City of Mobile: passenger rail station plan development, including a master plan and architectural design: 
  • City of Bay St. Louis: canopy improvements, trackside improvements, landscaping, signage, and ADA compliant access; 
  • City of Biloxi: passenger rail platform and pedestrian access connecting to transit station nearby;
  • City of Gulfport: construction of a new platform canopy with lighting, ADA improvements, sidewalk improvements and landscaping;
  • and City of Pascagoula: improvements to restore the historic train station. 

In addition, the SRC has issued another Notice of Funding Availability in the amount of $794,385 for  improvements to the Gulf Coast rail corridor in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Once these grants are awarded this spring, they too will be a part of the grant administration task contained in this RFP.

Under the CRISI program, in June 2019, FRA awarded a $33 million grant to the SRC to restore passenger rail service between New Orleans, LA, and Mobile, AL. These funds will be matched by non-federal state funds for a total of $66-million of infrastructure improvements to facilitate passenger rail.  

All of the grants require tracking and reporting to ensure they meet all of FRA’s requirements. It also  requires the gathering of expenses for submission to FRA for reimbursement. 

Selection criteria  

T4A will select a proposal based on: 

  • qualifications and cost; 
  • past experience managing comparable grants; 
  • knowledge of and experience in the SRC region;
  • and knowledge of and experience with the projects that are the subject of the grant. 

Transportation for America is committed to building a diverse team, including through its contracting, and strongly encourages applications from Women- and Minority-Owned Enterprises.   

Submittal requirements  

Interested individuals or companies should submit information regarding your qualifications and hourly rates to Elizabeth Schilling (eschilling@smartgrowthamerica.org) and John Robert Smith  (jrsmith@t4america.org) by 5:00 PM ET on February 24, 2021. 

Proposal should be no more than 5 pages and include: 

1. A description of your experience in the region, your familiarity and experience with the projects at  issue, and any past grants management work. 

2. An estimate of the time and cost to perform the required work on a quarterly basis. 3. Names, titles and billing rates for each staff person expected to participate in this contract, and  their relative roles and responsibilities. 

For further information:  

Please email questions about the RFP to info@t4america.org.

Public transit needs $39.3 billion in the next COVID package

Public transit has been decimated by the pandemic. While the December 2020 COVID package gave transit much-needed support to keep running essential service, this funding will start running out in the spring—as soon as cities and towns prepare to reopen. We urge Congress to provide at least $39.3 billion in emergency relief to prevent transit cuts through 2023. 

EDIT, February 11th: On Wednesday night, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved $30 billion in emergency relief for public transit. We thank the Committee for passing this critical funding and encourage them to provide an additional and much-needed $9.3 billion for transit in subsequent legislation.

Transit is essential to our ongoing pandemic response and our economic recovery. But it’s facing an existential crisis: without additional emergency relief, transit agencies across the country will be forced to make service cuts this spring—just when our cities and towns prepare to reopen. 

Public transit needs an additional $39.3 billion in any economic stimulus or relief legislation to preserve transit service though the rest of the pandemic and into the economic recovery. Without this funding, over 2.8 million essential workers who count on transit won’t be able to get to work. These essential workers power healthcare, grocery, sanitation, and other crucial sectors. In addition, millions of Americans—particularly people of color, who make up 60 percent of transit riders—continue to rely on public transportation as an essential connection to jobs, food, healthcare, education, and other critical services. 

Why $39.3 billion? 

Public transit has been devastated by the pandemic, with ridership losses and declining local revenue sources putting this essential service at risk of near extinction. In fact, transit agencies across the country were planning massive cuts to service and layoffs before the December COVID-19 relief package was passed; the $14 billion in relief from this package delayed these cuts, but without additional robust support, transit agencies will soon be in the same dire situation. 

An analysis by TransitCenter found that “without further assistance, some agencies will have to confront service cuts this spring, before cities begin to recover from the pandemic. Other agencies will have to contemplate cuts in the fall, undercutting a fragile economic recovery.” Compounding this financial pressure, transit agencies already face increased costs for cleaning and revenue losses due to COVID-19 that will continue long after the public health crisis is over.

Transit agencies face a projected funding shortfall of $39.3 billion through 2023, according to an independent economic analysis highlighted by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Without equivalent relief, “four in 10 agencies will have to consider additional service cuts to close their budget gaps. These cuts would come on the heels of 65 percent of transit agencies having cut service in 2020. Twenty-two percent of agencies will be forced to consider implementing additional layoffs,” according to APTA. 

The $39.3 billion ask is in line with the Biden administration’s ask for transit relief. President Biden’s American Rescue Plan calls for $20 billion in relief for transit agencies to survive through summer 2022 without service cuts, which is the size of the budget gap assessed by both APTA and TransitCenter for this year. However, the $39.3 billion goes beyond summer 2022, filling the expected budget gap through 2023. 

It’s critical that Congress provides an additional $39.3 billion for public transit in any upcoming economic stimulus or relief legislation. These funds are necessary to preserve essential transit service and support our economic recovery.   

If you represent an organization or are an elected official, please sign our letter with the Alliance for a Just Society urging Congressional transportation leaders to include $39.3 billion in emergency relief for public transit in the next COVID-19 relief package.

If you don’t represent an organization or elected official, you can still tweet to get the message out.

How zoning keeps the number of low-emission neighborhoods artificially low

Many Americans want to live in walkable neighborhoods that are served by rapid public transportation. But these neighborhoods are few and far between and incredibly expensive to live in. That’s because in many cities and towns, building walkable neighborhoods is illegal, putting a premium on the few dense communities that exist. 

A neighborhood in San Diego.

The following blog is adapted from an excerpt of Smart Growth America and Transportation for America’s recent report, Driving Down Emissions, which explores how changing transportation policy and land use patterns are key to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

It may appear that the United States’ typical car-oriented suburbs and exurbs that we’ve been building for the last 60-plus years—where often the only way residents can access what they need is by car—is the most in-demand style of neighborhood. 

This isn’t true. For the past few decades, the demand for compact and walkable neighborhoods connected to jobs and services by transit has skyrocketed, but the housing market hasn’t kept pace. That’s because local zoning rules often make building more of these types of neighborhoods illegal. 

In 2017, 62 percent of Americans reported that living near transit was important in choosing their home, and 54 percent cited their desire to live near bike lanes and paths, as found in the National Association of Realtors’ Community Preference Survey. And despite numerous news stories warning of a mass departure of residents from U.S. cities due to COVID-19, data has shown the opposite: Zillow’s research showed that, during the pandemic, “suburban housing markets have not strengthened at a disproportionately rapid pace compared to urban markets.” Even during an unprecedented pandemic, large numbers of people are not fleeing the cities for the suburbs, and cities will endure. 

Millions more Americans want to live in compact, transit-connected communities than can find or afford a home in one. And those who do pay a premium to be there. Yet in many towns and cities, local zoning regulations artificially constrict the number of these communities that can exist. By limiting how densely housing can be constructed or requiring minimum lot sizes, zoning interferes and prevents the market from meeting the demand for walkable, transit-served communities. In fact, it’s illegal to build anything except single-family detached houses on roughly 75 percent of land in most cities—which might explain why in the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., walkable neighborhoods account for between 0.04 percent and 1.2 percent of land area.

The consequences of making housing like duplexes or multi-unit apartment buildings illegal are severe. For one, the artificial dearth of compact, walkable neighborhoods dramatically increases property values in these types of communities that already exist—often to levels that make them unaffordable to those who could benefit from them the most. This trend has pushed low-income people out of compact cities to more affordable suburbs, where fewer transportation options fail to thoroughly connect them to jobs and services. Their transportation costs immediately go up, sometimes wiping out the gains of the more affordable housing. One study found that residents in low-income suburban neighborhoods with some transit access can reach just 4 percent of metro area jobs within a 45-minute commute. This means many people without access to a car can’t reach most jobs, further trapping them in a cycle of poverty.

In addition, it’s an immense challenge to efficiently serve a neighborhood of only single-family homes by transit. This fact, combined with the way that destinations spread farther apart, trips become longer or more frequent, and roads become wider and less safe to walk along or cross, results in more greenhouse gas emissions. Driving contributes the majority of transportation sector emissions in the United States, making transportation the largest source of U.S. carbon emissions and the only sector of the economy where emissions are rising, not decreasing. 

One solution? Permit the construction of more housing and neighborhoods that people want by reforming zoning rules to allow more homes, and more types and sizes of homes. More housing near transit and communities where people can live, work and play is needed to meet the demand and reduce the price pressure. 

Many cities are already updating their zoning to help build these walkable neighborhoods. Consider this: 

  • In San Diego, where housing prices have gone up 70 percent in the last six years, the mayor is seeking to address this issue by making it easier to build more housing near transit. 
  • Minneapolis also passed a comprehensive plan in 2018 that allowed duplexes and other types of housing citywide and eliminated parking requirements, which together could have a substantial impact on transportation emissions in the region. 
  • South Bend, Transportation Secretary Buttigieg’s former domain, eliminated parking requirements citywide, halting the practice of requiring developers to build expensive extra new parking that residents often don’t want or need but which ends up being rolled into the cost of a new home or apartment. 
  • In Portland, OR, the city recently moved to allow up to six homes on almost any residential lot. 

In these cities, anyone is free to continue building single-family homes in almost any neighborhood, but now more home types are legal. These changes will encourage compact urban development and make it more affordable to live in these cities, mitigating future sprawl and the additional driving it would cause.

However, local zoning regulations don’t exist in a vacuum: many zoning decisions are made in response to federal incentives. Federal transportation policy’s disproportionate investment in highways encourages many local governments to double down on sprawling land use patterns that best accommodate the high speed roads their state is building everywhere, pushing destinations further and further apart. 

Federal transportation policy can help reverse this trend by allocating funding to programs that increase access to jobs and services the most, regardless of mode—as is the case in the INVEST Act, the surface transportation bill passed by the House this past summer. The federal government can also commit to funding public transit and highways equally. 

Cities and towns should reform their zoning so that everybody who wants to can live in a walkable neighborhood connected to jobs and services by transit. Allowing the market to meet the demand for more homes in places that naturally come with lower emissions is a powerful climate change strategy. We’ll never reduce our carbon emissions, dismantle barriers to opportunities (particularly those faced by people of color), or rebuild our economy if we don’t make it easier and more affordable to live in great places.

COVID-19 threw a curveball at curb management. Here’s how cities adapted.

Transportation for America’s 2020 cohort of the Smart Cities Collaborative was always meant to focus on curbside management. But then came COVID-19, radically shifting all aspects of our lives—including how we use curbs. Our new report, COVID and the Curb, explores how cities adapted their curb management strategies to support public health and small businesses, and ideas for better curb policy at the local, state, and federal levels. 

A Shared Spaces street in San Francisco, organized by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

The following blog is adapted from our new report, COVID and The Curb. Read the full report—chock full of in-depth case studies—here.

Over the past few years, demands for curb space have skyrocketed. No longer just for personal car parking, curbs are where people board buses or streetcars; access app-based shared bicycles, scooters, or cars; and host block parties or parklets. Businesses send out and pick up deliveries at the curb, and unhoused community members, often without other options, use curbs as temporary living spaces.

In 2020, the curb was used for all those purposes and more. Local governments got creative to align curbside management with COVID-19 response efforts—at the same time the pandemic was accelerating some of the changing uses of and growing demand on the curb already underway. 

Click the image to read the full report.

Across the country, a number of cities reprogrammed curb and street space for retail, outdoor dining, and active transportation; working with communities to design curb pilots; and setting up temporary transit lanes and COVID-19 testing sites. Due to the urgent nature of the crisis, cities developed new approaches to a number of challenges (many rooted in issues that existed far before COVID-19) that should be revisited post-pandemic. We explored many of these new approaches in our new report, COVID and the Curb. 

The challenge to adapt curbside management to COVID-19 raised a host of questions for cities. How do you balance equitable community engagement with pressure to provide quick solutions? How do you revise permitting processes—like for outdoor dining—to be less arduous and more equitable? How do you clearly communicate new regulations and processes as they’re being changed and implemented?

These questions were made all the more significant because of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on certain communities, particularly Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color. In response, cities across the country piloted new solutions, swapped use cases with peers, stayed as nimble as possible, and reassessed how government assets could better and more equitably serve the public during this crisis.

Here’s what some cities did: 

  • The City of Boston waived and reduced outdoor dining permit requirements, which previously involved surveyed and engineered design drawings, a public hearing, multi-departmental permitting, and fees. The majority of these requirements were either waived or reduced, and the review and approval process was expedited to take a matter of weeks, rather than months.
  • In Ann Arbor, city staff developed a “parking space repurposing” program to allow 40 restaurants to use the on-street parking spaces in front of their properties for extended patio space at no cost to businesses. 
  • In San Francisco, as traffic started to slowly return after the initial lockdown, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) set up temporary transit lanes to ensure “that essential workers and transit-dependent San Franciscans do not bear the costs of traffic congestion.” By devoting lanes solely for buses, SFMTA reduced the amount of time buses spend in traffic, protecting public health by reducing riders’ travel time and hence their potential exposure to COVID-19.
  • …and more case studies featured in COVID and the Curb. 

Looking to the future of curb space

With residents, elected officials, and small business owners paying closer attention to the curb and how it can be strategically leveraged for the public’s benefit, cities now have a unique opportunity to shift management of their curbs in a way that’s equitable, flexible and innovative. Cities can set up curb guidelines to prioritize curb uses, ensure curb signage is understandable and accessible,  and address inequitable curb enforcement—and much, much more. 

While curb management largely occurs at the local level, there are a handful of policy actions states and the federal government can take to support local governments’ ability to efficiently and equitably manage their curb. For example, providing additional regulatory oversight on delivery vehicles and TNCs, and requiring data sharing between private operators and cities. 

Go deeper in these case studies and  policy ideas in our new report, COVID and the Curb. 

Meet the new leaders of the U.S. Department of Transportation

A new presidential administration means a brand new set of political appointees. Luckily, the Biden administration’s picks for top jobs in the U.S. Department of Transportation give us reasons to be optimistic. Here are our thoughts on the appointees, and a reminder that we can’t rest easy: we need to seize this historic opportunity in our fight for transportation that actually connects Americans to the places they need. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation. Photo by the author.

Deputy Secretary: Polly Trottenberg

Polly Trottenberg has led one of the most storied transportation careers we can think of: assistant secretary for transportation policy and under secretary for policy in the Obama administration, a Senate staffer for over 12 years, and most recently—and perhaps most prolifically—the commissioner of New York City’s Department of Transportation. Her leadership in lowering all NYC speed limits to 25 mph is a major testament to her vision and willpower.

What she brings to USDOT: Trottenberg has a strong understanding of the transportation system, the needs of cities, and how federal policy often undermines municipal attempts to reverse autocentric planning. This background—coupled with her vast management experience bringing innovation to one of the country’s largest DOTs—could be game changing in the upper echelon of USDOT leadership. 

As our director Beth Osborne put it to E&E News: 

“Polly was a groundbreaking leader of New York City’s Department of Transportation, consistently challenging the transportation status quo, including lowering speed limits to 25 mph to reduce crashes and roadway fatalities. This is just one of her many accomplishments. I’m lucky to count Polly as a friend and colleague from my time working at USDOT and on Capitol Hill, and know firsthand that her vision and breadth of government experience will help the new administration modernize the US transportation program and system. We’re excited to work with her!”  

Federal Highways Deputy Administrator: Stephanie Pollack

Massachusetts’ Secretary of Transportation for the past five years, Stephanie Pollack’s selection as Deputy Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sends a strong message. She’s a long-time advocate for increased investment in public transit. As secretary, she led the way on greenhouse gas reduction, including helping to shape the Transportation Climate Initiative, which Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed onto . She has also made safe access to walking and biking a priority in MassDOT’s street designs, especially near transit.

What she brings to USDOT: Pollack understands state DOTs—a major recipient of FHWA funding. She’s also committed to the safety of all road users, and understands that street design is critical in the effort to save lives and improve access to jobs and services. 

Take this powerful quote from Pollack for a sense of how she’ll lead at FHWA: 

“Some people think it’s a little odd that I’m headed to [the] Federal Highway [Administration]. But many of you have heard me say that I don’t think of people as pedestrians or bicyclists or bus riders or transit users or drivers. I think of them as people who need the transportation system to help connect them to the things they want and need. And so I go into Federal Highway with a mindset that it can be an agency that supports people rather than a singular mode of transportation.” 

National Highway Traffic Safety Deputy Administrator: Steve Cliff

Since 2017, Steve Cliff has been chief of the California Air Resources Board, a state agency  “charged with protecting the public from the harmful effects of air pollution and developing programs and actions to fight climate change.” Which might make Cliff an unusual choice for Deputy Administrator of NHTSA, a federal agency overwhelmingly focused on the safety of people inside cars—but that’s exactly what makes his selection exciting. 

What he brings to USDOT: A climate leader like Cliff at USDOT who knows that reducing vehicle miles traveled (and not just investing in electric vehicles) is critical to reducing emissions will help shift USDOT’s role in fighting climate change in necessary ways. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy: Christopher Coes

As of January 19th, Christopher Coes was our coworker! For 10 years, Christopher has shaped the direction of our parent organization, Smart Growth America, most recently serving as our vice president of land use and development and Director of SGA’s LOCUS coalition of real estate developers and investors. 

What he brings to USDOT: As the chief of SGA’s land use initiatives, Christopher has a deep understanding of the intersection between housing, land use and transportation—knowledge that is essential to creating a transportation system that efficiently, conveniently, affordably and sustainably connects people with the things they need.  

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety Policy: Robin Hutcheson

Robin Hutcheson was most recently the director of Public Work in Minneapolis and President of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO)’s Board of Directors. Previously, she was the director of transportation for Salt Lake City. 

What she brings to USDOT: Hutcheson understands new mobility, curb management, and the design changes needed in order to build safe, transit-friendly streets in towns and cities. Her years of helming NACTO and transportation in Minneapolis—one of the cities that participated in our 2020 Smart Cities Collaborative—are testament to this. 

Director of the Office of Civil Rights: Irene Marion

Irene Marion was the Equity and Inclusion Manager for the Portland (OR) Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). At USDOT, her new role makes her responsible for enforcing civil rights across all federally funded transportation programs.

What she brings to USDOT: Marion’s experience defining transportation justice for PBOT will be critical in advancing racial justice at USDOT, a department responsible for a sector that President Biden and incoming Secretary Buttigieg both billed as sources of racial inequality.

NEW EDITION: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology: Robert Hampshire

Robert Hampshire is an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy “whose research and policy engagement focuses on understanding the societal, climate and equity implications of autonomous and connected vehicles and other innovative mobility services,” as per this press release.

What he brings to USDOT: The equity and climate implications of automated vehicles (AVs) have not been robustly considered in any effort to regulate this new technology. With Congressional interest in passing AV policy mounting, Hampshire’s research and expertise in this area will be critical in the effort to ensure that AVs help improve equity and our climate, not make these problems worse.

There are many other exciting appointees in addition to those highlighted here, including Nuria Fernandez at the Federal Transit Administration, Amit Bose at the Federal Railroad Administration and Meera Joshi at the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration.

It’s a “dream team,” but we still need to hold them accountable

Pedestrian safety advocate Angie Schmitt said it first: the Biden administration has put together a “dream team” for USDOT. 
This is definitely one of the most exciting groups of political appointees we’ve seen for the department. But these capable leaders cannot reform our transportation system alone. We need to hold them accountable to doing their part to make U.S. transportation safe, accessible, sustainable, and equitable within their authority at USDOT. That means more than running the current program well. It means making permanent changes to the program that makes it hard for leaders in the future to run it poorly.

At the same time, we need to support  their efforts by urging Congress to pass long-term surface transportation policy that throws out the broken status quo and actually connects federal funding with the outcomes Americans want: getting to where they need to go.

Everything we liked (and didn’t like) at Buttigieg’s Transportation Secretary confirmation hearing

Last Thursday, former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg faced the Senate for questioning on his nomination to be Secretary of Transportation. We liked almost all of his answers, and we weren’t alone: Senator Tester said Buttigieg’s testimony was “refreshing.” Here’s what T4America liked and didn’t like from Buttigieg’s confirmation hearing. 

Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg facing the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee as President Biden’s nominee to be Secretary of Transportation. Screen grab from C-SPAN.

✅ Complete Streets is a priority for Buttigieg

When answering a powerfully-worded question from Senator Schatz (D-HI), a cosponsor of the Complete Streets Act, Buttigieg confirmed his commitment to a Complete Streets approach. He even highlighted the Complete Streets projects that took place in South Bend. (Smart Growth America provided technical assistance to South Bend to pursue Complete Streets demonstration projects.)

“It’s very important to recognize the importance of roadways where pedestrians, bicycles, vehicles, any other mode can coexist peacefully. And that Complete Streets vision will continue to enjoy support from me if confirmed,” Buttgieg said. 

✅  Our “autocentric view” is a problem

Doubling down on his commitment to Complete Streets, Buttigieg noted that transportation in the United States overwhelmingly prioritizes cars. “There are so many ways that people get around, and I think often we have an autocentric view that forgets historically all of the other different modes,” Buttigieg told Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN). “We want to make sure that every time we do a street design that it enables cars, bicycles, and pedestrians, and businesses and any other mode to coexist in a positive way. We should be putting funding behind that.” 

✅  Addressing past damages is a priority 

Transportation infrastructure—particularly urban highways that have demolished and divided communities of color—is sometimes a major roadblock to improving equity in this country. Buttigieg knows this and told senators so in his opening remarks. “I also recognize that at their worst, misguided policies and missed opportunities in transportation can reinforce racial and economic inequality, by dividing or isolating neighborhoods and undermining government’s basic role of empowering Americans to thrive,” Buttigieg said. 

✅  Policy hasn’t kept up with automated vehicles 

Automated vehicles (AVs) is one of the transportation technologies that often captures lawmakers’ imagination. But in response to Sen. Fischer (R-NE), Buttigieg acknowledged that the federal government has failed to provide the leadership necessary to ensure that AVs actually deliver the benefits they promise. “[AV technology] is advancing quickly and has the potential to be transformative, but in a lot of ways, policy hasn’t kept up,” Buttigieg said. 

This couldn’t be more true. After investigating deaths from two separate AV crashes, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) billed the utter lack of federal safety performance standards as one of the causes for the fatalities. 

But proactive federal policy is needed for more than just ensuring that AVs are safe. Policy is needed to ensure that AVs are equitable, accessible, and sustainable. That’s why we joined Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and other partners in creating tenets for AV policy. 

✅  He supports passenger rail

Buttigieg said he’s the “second biggest enthusiast for passenger rail in this administration,” referring of course to President Biden, a long-time rider and fan of Amtrak, as the first.  “Americans deserve the highest standard of passenger rail,” Buttigieg said. 

When Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)—a major supporter of restoring passenger rail to the Gulf Coast—asked Buttigieg if he’s a rail rider himself, Buttigieg said he enjoys short rail trips “and long ones too.” In light of Amtrak’s proposal to cut its long-distance network, this might signal Buttigieg’s support for those critical routes.  

✅  The BUILD program should be easier to apply for

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) offers a host of grant programs for cities and towns to construct and maintain transportation infrastructure. But the application process is often daunting for smaller entities. As mayor of a small city that wasn’t able to have “full-time staff managing federal relations,” Buttigieg told Sen. Wicker (R-MS) that making BUILD and INFRA grants easier for small and rural municipalities to apply for are one of his priorities. 

“It’s very important to me that this process is user-friendly, that criteria are transparent, and that communities of every size, including rural communities and smaller communities, have every opportunity to access those funds,” Buttigieg said. 

✅  Senators on both side of the aisle support Buttigieg

Buttigieg felt the love from both sides of the aisle during his confirmation hearing, with Sen. Tester (D-MT) going as far to say that Buttigieg’s testimony should serve as a model for other nominees facing Senate approval. Sen. Wicker (R-MS) listed Buttigieg’s accomplishments in his opening statement, praising his “impressive credentials that demonstrate his intellect and commitment to serving our nation.”

With slim Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, bipartisanship will be key to passing surface transportation authorization. But historically, infrastructure is one the areas where lawmakers bipartisanly agree to pass bad policy—rather than ruffling feathers and taking a hard look at what the federal government spends money on and why. (We blogged about it here.) It will take lots of work—like the herculean effort the House underwent this summer to pass a new kind of transportation bill—to make sure that the long-term transportation bill lawmakers must pass this year actually connects funding with the outcomes Americans want.

🚫 His climate answer only mentioned electric vehicles 

When Sen. Schatz asked about Buttigieg’s approach to climate change, Buttigieg only discussed electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and increased vehicle fuel efficiency as a solution. Yet it’s a fact that electric vehicles and improved fuel efficiency—while critical—aren’t enough to reduce transportation emissions on their own. 

While we applaud Buttigieg’s support of President Biden’s “whole government” approach to addressing climate change (meaning that climate work isn’t confined to a single department like the EPA), we need Buttigieg to understand that USDOT needs to do more than invest in electric vehicles as a climate solution.

We like what we heard. Now let’s make sure it happens 

Buttigieg might be one of the most promising new Secretaries of Transportation that we’ve seen, but we must hold him accountable to following through on these initiatives. Now is not the time to lay back: we have a lot of work to do to ensure that USDOT does what it can internally to connect transportation funding to the outcomes Americans want (like our three principles) and that Congress passes a long-term transportation bill that ends decades of broken, misguided policy.

The Scenic Route is getting a makeover

Back in early 2016, we launched the Scenic Route website, a new interactive guide to help transportation professionals collaborate with artists and to introduce creative placemaking to transportation planners, public works agencies, and local elected officials. This guide was an important touchstone, but the evolutions in this field and the notable projects that have happened since its launch have left it in need of an update, which we’re pleased to announce is on the way.

Do you have a project you’d like to see included in the new Scenic Route?
Tell us about it here.

The Scenic Route has inspired communities across the county to embed artists into transportation projects through stories like the Green Line in the Twin Cities, where art was integrated into the entire light rail construction process, or transit planning effort in Portland, OR, where artists played a crucial role in community engagement. As part of the Scenic Route’s makeover, we will be updating case studies, adding new resources, and featuring new projects, to reflect the proliferation of artist/transportation agency partnerships and artist-in-residence programs, and to share what has been accomplished over the past few years with the projects we previously featured. Here’s what you can expect:

New resources. In some ways, the Scenic Route launched just as our arts and culture work was really getting off the ground in 2015 and 2016. But Transportation for America’s arts and culture team has been busy in the last few years surveying the state of creative placemaking, training cities and artists to improve transportation projects, launching the first ever artists-in-residence program at State DOTs, and most recently working with communities to creatively address COVID challenges. We’ll be adding new resources that stemmed from those projects and can help communities looking to do similar work. 

Updates to flagship case studies included in the first iteration of the website. Oftentimes a creative placemaking project’s impact isn’t realized right away but rather develops in the years following implementation. That’s why we’re following up with some of our favorite projects featured in the guide to see how they have benefited communities in recent years.

A new website organization. The new website will be reorganized to better help you find what you’re looking for.

And most importantly, we want to feature work that you think is important. Have you been a part of a project, or are you familiar with a project that should be featured on the Scenic Route? We’re primarily interested in transportation projects in which artists have played a key role in solving a transportation challenge. Let us know by filling out this form. 

We look forward to releasing a new and improved Scenic Route in March. Stay tuned!

RELEASE: The emergency funding for transit and Amtrak is good but not enough

press release

Late Monday evening, Congress passed appropriations for fiscal year 2021 that included $908 billion in a supplemental COVID-19 relief package. Transportation for America and our partners the Alliance for a Just Society, NRDC, and U.S. PIRG released this statement:

WASHINGTON, DC: The Alliance for a Just Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), U.S. PIRG, and Transportation for America are happy to see Congress make a critical downpayment of emergency funding for public transportation in the coronavirus supplement to FY 2021 appropriations. Millions of riders—including essential workers—rely on transit to reach jobs, groceries, healthcare, COVID-19 testing centers, and soon vaccination sites. Additionally, 60 percent of transit riders are people of color. We appreciate that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle recognize the crucial role that transit plays in our economy and COVID-19 response. 

However, this bill’s $14 billion for transit is less than half of what transit needs to survive—and it won’t be as effective as it should be because it is being provided through a short-term, halting approach. Many transit agencies could assume that they will not receive additional relief in time to prevent devastating service cuts and layoffs when this funding runs out in a few months. Transportation costs more and works less well when funded in short-term chunks.

This bill also gives state departments of transportation $10 billion in flexible emergency relief. We encourage governors and state legislatures to work with their transportation departments to use this funding to support essential workers, improve access to work and essential services for people whether they have access to a car or not, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce the impact of the transportation system on neighboring communities, especially Black and brown communities. 

Transportation for America appreciates the $1 billion in emergency funding for Amtrak in this bill, but this too is short of the $2.5 billion Amtrak needs to survive this crisis. Passenger rail provides critical connections for rural communities and big cities alike—losing reliable Amtrak service will massively hinder our economic recovery. 

We’re glad to see lawmakers from communities large and small, blue and red recognize the importance of transit to our pandemic response and economic recovery in this relief package. And we look forward to working with Congress in the new year to secure long-term, reliable transit funding that is necessary for a robust and equitable economic recovery. 

Over 160 elected officials and organizations support fundamental changes to the federal transportation program

press release

Over 160 elected officials and organizations urge Congress to prioritize maintenance, safety over speed, and access to jobs and services in the next long-term transportation law

WASHINGTON, DC: With 169 signatures from elected officials and organizations across 39 states, Transportation for America on Thursday sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to set a vision in the next transportation reauthorization, including holding the program accountable for maintaining our transportation system, building safer streets, and connecting people to jobs and services by providing reliable transportation choices. 

“Updating long-term transportation policy is an opportunity to ensure that our economy recovers strongly and evenly,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America. “Our 1950s approach to transportation has led to increases in congestion, emissions, and pedestrian fatalities, and decreases in access to economic opportunity for those without access to a reliable car. It’s long past time for Congress to connect federal policy to the outcomes Americans want from their transportation system: getting where they need to go affordably, conveniently, and safely, on infrastructure that is well-maintained.” 

The current surface transportation law, the FAST Act, was extended by Congress and President Trump for one additional year and is now set to expire in September 2020. In July 2020, the House of Representatives passed the INVEST Act, a reauthorization proposal supported by Transportation for America that starts the work of updating our broken federal transportation policy. 

The letter also highlights how COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated the crisis plaguing our transportation system. Pedestrian fatalities have increased during the pandemic despite fewer cars on the road—a result of streets designed to move vehicles as fast as possible in all contexts without considering the needs of people walking, biking or using mobility-assistive devices. Over 2.8 million essential workers have been relying on transit since the pandemic’s start, but a legacy of insufficient federal funding is hindering transit agencies’ ability to provide the service riders need. It is critical that Congress uses the upcoming reauthorization as an opportunity to reverse these harmful trends and strengthen our economic recovery with smart, impactful policy. 

You can read the full letter and the list of 169 signatories here. 

Transportation for America’s statement on Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary nominee

press release

Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg has just been picked as President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Transportation. Here is a statement from our director, Beth Osborne, on his selection.

“We are very excited to hear that Pete Buttigieg has been nominated to be Secretary of Transportation,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America. “As mayor of South Bend, he showed great commitment to the safety of all road users through Complete Streets and that Complete Streets were about economic development because they better serve local residents and businesses. For example, our sister organization, the National Complete Streets Coalition, worked directly with South Bend on a Complete Streets demonstration project focused on reducing speeding on a neighborhood street. As a candidate for president, he proposed a fix-it-first approach to highway funding, a national Vision Zero strategy, and measures to organize the federal transportation program around improving access to jobs and essential services for drivers and non-drivers alike. We look forward to working with him in his new post at USDOT.”

We analyzed Buttigieg’s transportation plan from his presidential campaign back in February. Check out the analysis here.

How we ranked Pete Buttigieg’s transportation plan during his presidential campaign

Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg has just been picked as President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Transportation. Transportation for America is excited about this pick for one big reason: his transportation plan from his presidential campaign was one of two that received passing marks from us. Here’s what we wrote back in February on Buttigieg’s high score, using our three principles for transportation policy as a rubric.

Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg would make big changes to the formulas at the heart of the transportation program. His plan would require states plan for maintenance before they’re allowed to build new or wider highways with federal funding. Requiring maintenance before expansion earns Buttigieg a ✓ by our standards.

Pete’s plan calls for instituting a national Vision Zero plan, which is radical for a country where states are allowed to set targets for pedestrian fatalities above the actual number of deaths. He would require that states “actively improve their safety records or road design processes, or else lose federal funding for other roadway projects,” according to his plan. 

Lastly, Mayor Pete’s plan scores high on access. He would require that states, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and any other recipient of federal transportation funding demonstrate how projects improve access to jobs and services. That is key: requiring progress towards goals—and even setting goals—in order to receive funding is common sense. Sadly, it is not a feature of our current transportation program. 

Pete’s plan is similar to Michael Bloomberg’s. The big difference is in how he communicates it: Buttigieg leads with funding, not what he’d do with the transportation program. We think this is a bad way to do policy. After all, in what other policy area (or facet of life, for that matter) do people tell you the price before they tell you what they’re selling? 

What isn’t clear is how funding will be shifted between modes, if at all. With a President Pete, are we still in a world where highways get 80 percent of the funding pie, leaving only 20 percent for transit? 

Read the full blog from February where we ranked all presidential candidates’ transportation plans.

Three representatives introduce a resolution to finally fund transit and highways equally

Last week, 30 members of Congress joined Reps. Jesús G. “Chuy” García (IL-4), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), and Hakeem Jeffries’ (NY-8) groundbreaking resolution supporting equal funding for public transportation and highways. This marks the first time that members of Congress have joined together to end the arbitrary rule dedicating 80 percent of transportation funding to highways and just 20 percent to transit. 

One of public transit’s biggest hurdles to providing convenient, affordable, and rapid service and maintaining its aging infrastructure is the fact that highways have been receiving the lion’s share of all federal transportation funding—at least 80 percent since 1982. This is all due to an arbitrary policy started in 1982 that limits transit to only 20 percent of these funds. 

Today, three members of Congress took the first stab at ending this policy. With 30 cosponsors, Reps. García,  Pressley, and Jeffires introduced a resolution to the House floor that supports funding transit and highways equally in the next long-term surface transportation authorization.

Urge your representative to cosponsor

This is truly groundbreaking! The “80/20 split” has been the status quo for almost four decades, and in that time has never been challenged with so much support. This resolution is a real testament to the changing attitudes towards transportation policy, and a direct result of the powerful advocacy led by Representatives García and Pressley. 

The resolution is also endorsed by 30 organizations. You can read the full list of cosponsors and organizations here. 

This effort would not have happened without Reps. García, Pressley, and Jeffries, all three of whom are leaders in Congress on transportation policy. We’re lucky to have these powerful and passionate changemakers in Congress who understand the power of transportation to truly improve people’s lives. 

In only two years, Rep. García from Chicago has made a bold impact on transportation lawmaking. García’s experience as a former urban planner led him to co-found the Future of Transportation Caucus with Reps. Pressley and Mark Takano and to push for status quo-breaking reforms in the House-passed INVEST Act, from a performance measure to ensure that transportation projects improve people’s access to jobs and services to a bipartisan fix-it-first policy for highway funding. 

Despite not serving on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Pressley has made reforming transportation policy a key part of her advocacy and lawmaking because she has seen firsthand how instrumental transportation decisions are for determining basic issues of quality of life and access to opportunity in her district. She’s been a powerful advocate through her work on the Future of Transportation Caucus and her fight for at least $32 billion in emergency funding for transit, among other things. And as a member of Democratic leadership, Rep. Jeffries’ support for this resolution sends a powerful message. Thank you Representatives García, Pressley, Jeffries, and everyone who joined the resolution as a cosponsor. 

Tweet “thank you” to Reps. García, Pressley, Jeffries

We need your support: what you can do 

We need to show strong support for this unprecedented effort to finally provide strong funding for public transportation! We can’t transform this resolution into policy and actually fund transit and highways equally in the next surface transportation authorization without strong support. Call your member of Congress and ask them to support the resolution. 

Urge your representative to cosponsor

Over 30 members of Congress support equal funding for public transit and highways in a resolution led by Reps. García, Pressley, and Jeffries

press release

WASHINGTON, DC: Today, 30 members of Congress joined Representatives Jesús G. “Chuy” García (IL-4), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), and Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8) in a groundbreaking resolution supporting equal funding for public transportation and highways. The “Resolution for Transit-Funding Parity” is also supported by 30 organizations, demonstrating widespread support for ending an outdated policy that dedicates 80 percent of all federal transportation funding to highways. 

For almost four decades, Congress has severely underfunded public transportation, leaving millions of Americans reliant on deteriorating transit systems with infrequent, inconvenient, and unreliable service. This particularly hurts people of color, who make up 60 percent of all transit riders, and over one million rural households that rely on transit. 

“Public transit is a lifeline—for working people, marginalized communities, and our entire economy. Decades-long disinvestment has starved communities of adequate public transportation and created deep, physical barriers to jobs, health care, and education,” said Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04). “Simply put, breaking the status quo on transit funding is an urgent matter of equity and economic opportunity. Public transit systems like CTA and Pace Bus are the arteries that keep communities like Chicago thriving—keeping our frontline workforce moving even during a pandemic. Our resolution lays out a transformative vision for transportation policy—one that funds transit equitably like the vital public good and force for economic empowerment that it is.”

The origin of unequal transportation funding is a 1982 agreement where the majority of a gas tax increase was dedicated to highways, serving drivers through a “user fee.” But even though gas tax revenues are no longer the sole source of transportation funding—and haven’t been since 2008, when over $144 billion in taxpayer dollars were needed to supplement this user fee—the “80-20” funding split persists.

“We have never shown the vision or commitment to building a robust transit system that we have shown to highways; and that cannot change so long as we stay wedded to an outdated 1980s approach to transportation spending,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America. “We’re thrilled that Rep. García and so many cosponsors have confronted this broken policy head-on. We urge every lawmaker in Congress to join Rep. García in this fundamental rethink of transportation policy to finally deliver the transportation system Americans deserve and need — one that provides equitable access to economic opportunity and essential services, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and supports a strong national economy.” 

The resolution is available to view here, and you can read the full list of cosponsors and endorsing organizations here.

Read more about the “80/20” split on Transportation for America’s blog here.

Looking back on Minnesota and Washington State DOTs’ inaugural artists-in-residence

Last week, we brought together the artists and agency staff involved in the nation’s first ever artists-in-residence at state departments of transportation to reflect on the inaugural year of the program. Speakers shared their reflections on the residencies, how they coped with the current pandemic, lessons learned, and plans for the future of these novel programs.  

Image of the corner of a room with numerous photos taped to the walls. In the foreground is a table with two chairs.
WSDOT AiRs Kelly Gregory and Mary Welcome transformed their office space at WSDOT headquarters to be a gathering space, as well as a gallery featuring different aspects of WSDOT’s work. Photo credit: Mary Welcome.

You can find the webinar slides here and the recording below.

The decades-old concept of integrating art within government has increased in popularity in the last couple of years as cities created a number of artist-in-residencies within their departments of planning, parks and recreation, transportation and more, as Ben Stone, director of arts & culture at Transportation for America (T4America), shared last week. But it had never been done at the state level. 

It was clear to T4America that having an artist work within a state department of transportation could help the state better accomplish its goals and result in transportation projects that are more supported and beloved. This idea started to crystallize toward the end of 2018 when T4America approached MNDOT and WSDOT about hosting an artist in their respective agencies. T4America helped both agencies fundraise and design their programs, and since the launch in the summer of 2019 has managed the programs and hired the artists. 

What made these residencies unique is that they not only were the first programs to occur at state departments of transportation, but at any agency at the state level.

In both the MnDOT and WSDOT AiRs, the intent was to bring a creative approach to advancing the agencies’ goals of improving safety, reducing congestion, promoting economic vitality, supporting multimodal transportation systems, and creating healthier communities. 

WSDOT’s artist in residence 

Artists Kelly Gregory and Mary Welcome, the artists handpicked for the Washington residency, exceeded the expectations of the WSDOT staff, according to Allison Camden, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Multimodal Development and Delivery at WSDOT. It was “heartening and cathartic for a lot of our staff to see Mary and Kelly capture our challenges so clearly, with ideas on how to address them,” she said. From the beginning Secretary Roger Millar considered it to be an exciting opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to the challenges of a transportation agency. 

“People felt heard. They felt understood. And they felt valued. If I could do anything differently, it would have been to set up a two-year program.”
– Allison Camden, Deputy Assistant Secretary Multimodal Development and Delivery, WSDOT

Image of four people overlooking a flat landscape scene in Washington State.
Photo credit: Mary Welcome.

Gregory and Welcome’s approach included several months of listening and intentionally “getting lost in the weeds with WSDOT.” If you’re wondering what that actually looked like, they tracked it. They read exactly 69 different reports from different folks in the agency, interviewed 147 different people, traveled over 161 hours, conducted 600 hours of on site work and 170 hours of off-site research, traveled 2978 lane miles on the road and 1830 rail miles, handwrote 190 pages of interview notes, and attended 18 different public legislative hearings.

From their research, they identified a number of themes that they used to shape their numerous final products. Those final products included transforming their office space at WSDOT headquarters into a gallery and gathering space, creating a bumper sticker campaign and DOT-specific conversation cards, as well as writing and printing a newspaper on WSDOT’s maintenance efforts.

Image of the top of a table that has a black tablecloth. On top of the tablecloth is a variety of photos and bumperstickers that read "State of Good Repair", "Ride the damn bus!", and "Maintenance is Sexy".
Photo credit: Mary Welcome
Image of person sitting on the grass and holding up a newspaper.
Image credit: Mart Welcome

Some of these products will be available for purchase from this publisher in early 2021. 

“Understanding the people’s dynamic of a place means we can build systems for nurturing, for challenging, for listening, and for imaginative magical thinking.”
– Kelly Gregory, Artist-in-residence, WSDOT

MnDOT’s artist in residence 

Jessica Oh, the Highway Sponsorship Program Director at MnDOT described how well the AiR program—which MnDOT calls their Community Vitality Fellowship—lines up with MnDOT’s values and strategic plans of acknowledging the importance of place; uplifting community voices and assets; and strengthening relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.

This program has involved deep thinking on the following ideas:

  • How to build innovative and different partnerships—with artists, arts and culture organizations, and more—to improve transportation outcomes;
  • How to embrace innovation, flexibility and creativity;
  • How to be responsive to communities, elevate their voices, and elevate the cultural values within a community in the transportation system;
  • And how to address the impact of transportation facilities.

Similar to Gregory and Welcome, artist Marcus Young 楊墨 was hand selected by MnDOT and SGA and started his residency by listening to staff and their priorities. Based on that, he identified just how important it would be that his projects provide space for staff to be their whole selves, to be creative, to gather in new ways, and most importantly bring more humanity to their work and transportation as a whole. 

Image of a quote on a purple background that reads "I am a granddaughter of one of the porters who helped establish the Rondo community. I have a perplexing space that I live in, working for MnDOT and acknowledging the fact that it tore up a community that I will never get to know. Some things you just can’t mend. Some wounds are so deep that the scar tissue is within. Even if you create a land bridge, you still have the scar of the depth of this freeway that has torn apart a community and the social insight of the people." – MnDOT Staff Member
A reflection from a MnDOT staffer that came about as part of Young’s work on land acknowledgment at MnDOT. Image courtesy of Marcus Young 楊墨.

This led to Young focusing his time on the creation of three projects: 

  • The Land Acknowledgement Confluence room, a repurposed conference room where staff will be able to gather, be creative, and explore new everyday cultural practices of land acknowledgment. Through his residency Young has had numerous conversations on land acknowledgement, he hopes that this room can help ensure those conversations continue in the future. He remarked that it will not only be a place, but it will be “a placeholder so that we can all practice acknowledging land in better ways. And by acknowledging land in better ways, we acknowledge history. We acknowledge our whole selves in different ways.”

What is a land acknowledgment? “An Indigenous Land or Territorial Acknowledgement is a statement that recognizes the Indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed from the homelands and territories upon which an institution was built and currently occupies and operates in.” Learn more at http://landacknowledgements.org/

Image of a rending of a newly designed conference room with several plants, armchairs, and purple map of indigenous land on the left wall.
A rendering of the future “Land Acknowledgment Confluence Room” which will be created at MnDOT’s headquarters in 2021. Image courtesy of Marcus Young 楊墨.
  • A Sense of Place Convening that would bring 90 MnDOT leaders together for an intensive day-long event. As part of this convening, Young would use creative exercises and the Open Space Technology method to help participants generate ideas on how MnDOT can elevate placemaking and placekeeping within its work on livability, quality of life, public engagement, equity, economic development, and partnership with communities. This was fully planned, but unfortunately had to be rescheduled due to COVID-19.
  • A Creative Conversations discussion series tackling topics such as equity, land acknowledgment, sustainability, and imagining what’s possible during this period of great change. 

Be it converting unassuming conference rooms or holding space for conversations in unique ways, Young’s overarching message is that the potential of art is hidden everywhere, and you don’t necessarily need to be a professional artist to unearth it: 

“If you create a space where we can gather and really work on things together, [you realize] that the potential of art is hidden not only everywhere, but within everyone.”
– Marcus Young, Artist-in-residence, MnDOT

What’s next?

Stay tuned for more resources from Smart Growth America and T4America on state DOT AiRs. We’ll be releasing new resources on this topic in early 2021 and providing updates as MnDOT enters year two of its program. You can also sign up for arts and culture-specific updates from us here.

If you are interested in starting up an AiR at your department of transportation or transit agency, we’d love to hear about it! You can reach Ben Stone, our Director of arts & culture at bstone@smartgrowthamerica.org.