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The good, the bad, and the ugly: early signals for reauthorization

The debate over the surface transportation reauthorization bill is already underway, and early proposals show just how much is at stake for the future of our transportation system.As Congress gears up for surface transportation reauthorization, a slew of marker bills has emerged. These standalone proposals

Dallas’ suburbs show how poor land use harms transit

Transit investments are only one piece of the puzzle in a successful transportation system. The North Texas suburbs have forgotten that land-use decisions determine ridership. To make public transportation more useful to residents, the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex needs to build housing near transit and

Here’s how we will grade the next surface reauthorization bill

With the IIJA expiring in September, a draft version of the next surface transportation reauthorization will eventually be released. As with previous bills, T4America plans to release a public scorecard on how well Congress’s proposal would steer the federal program toward achieving its stated goals.

We’re hiring: T4America Policy Lead (Senior Policy Manager or Policy Director)

Transportation for America (T4America)—a program of Smart Growth America—is seeking a highly skilled individual with deep knowledge, experience, and interest in federal transportation policy development and state/local implementation to help lead the organization’s policy work—with an immediate focus on the ongoing federal reauthorization process. The ideal

Congress only proposes delusional ideas to fix the highway trust fund

Congress will propose nearly anything other than raising the gas tax to fix the highway trust fund. If Congress actually addressed the program’s total failure to deliver outcomes, maybe it would be easier to build broad support for raising significant new transportation funding.Since 2008, the

“Why do we do this bill?” Preparing congressional staff for surface transportation reauthorization

Over the past month, T4America organized briefings for Hill staffers (one each for the House and Senate) about the federal surface transportation reauthorization process to help them advance their members’ priorities, but also hopefully to encourage them to take a more skeptical look at a

The Trump administration tried to rip out a bike lane in DC. They’re trying to do the same nationwide.

The Trump administration’s attempt to rip out a protected cycletrack in the nation’s capital has been temporarily delayed by a lawsuit. For everyone else, the USDOT is hoping to cut off those fights before they even start by cancelling billions for these safety projects before

State DOTs should spend their safety money on safety or hand it over to locals

This Congress is focused on how federal dollars go out the door in the next surface transportation reauthorization, and it looks like states might win big time. But with a track record like theirs, why shouldn’t Congress consider who else might use their money better?If

Yes, even the suburbs want more transit

More often than not, transit is viewed as a public good reserved for bigger cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, DC. However, scores of suburban communities have invested in transit to give residents more affordable and reliable ways to reach jobs, services, and

A transportation two-fer: Save the highway trust fund and reduce emissions 22%

With only three real possible options to stave off the looming bankruptcy* of the nation’s transportation trust fund, a Senator has proposed choosing one of them: scale the nation’s transportation program down to the size of the revenues users pay into it. *No, the trust fund