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Biden has now announced most of his Department of Transportation leadership. That’s exciting, but of course the big decisions abut how much funding there is get made in Congress, and the big decisions about service and infrastructure get made locally. So what could the feds do?
DOT staff does play a big role in proposing programs, setting the rules for those programs, awarding grants, administering grants, and providing technical assistance. And there’s a lot they could do to make transportation better. Some ideas:
Do a really simple low paperwork bus stop improvement program — any bus stop with all day service qualifies, no need to do a study to justify it, the agency gets $10,000 (or whatever) for each stop upgraded to be ADA accessible with a shelter.
Require every highway project to consider a “repair and fix safety issues but add no capacity” alternative.
Create easy-to-use national standards for transit maps, schedules, and way finding. Give small agencies free technical assistance to implement them.
Change Title VI rules so that highway departments and transit agencies have to affirmatively address past injustice.
Do a really simple ped safety program — easy funding for safe crosswalks and sidewalks.
Require every transit agency to provide up-to-date GTFS for transit planning apps (providing help to smaller agencies) and provide a single API that links to all of them, making sure that every agency can show up in every app…
…and use that same data to create and track metrics that show how well every metro area is doing at serving its residents.
Make every agency that still has non-ADA rail stations or bus stops provide a plan to fix them within 5 years. And fund that plan.
Make every agency that’s proposing to add capacity on existing transit to evaluate if operational improvements could accomplish the same thing. Fund operational improvements.
Encourage and support agencies who are developing new and better ways to measure service quality and equity.
Require every highway and roadway project to study a range of ways to improve transit as part of the project.
Do a really simple low paperwork bus lane funding program…
…and adopt rules that clarify that the replacement of a SOV traffic lane with a bus lane or bike is not an environmental impact. Evaluate transit by measuring VMT, not LOS at each intersection.
Develop an open source standard for fare collection that can be used by many agencies and supported by multiple vendors.
Revise the MUTCD to prioritize safety and to value direct pedestrian routes and pedestrian travel time.
Create a comprehensive national map of intercity bus service for the general public.
Require regional fare integration.
Scrutinize regional traffic models. Don’t accept projections without seeing how well that model has matched reality. Analyze induced demand.
Look at fire code requirements for stations and transit centers to make sure they really make sense and aren’t just adding a lot of cost to projects with minimal safety benefit.
Reward cities that have good land use rules with additional transit funding.
What else? I want to hear more ideas! (Some other good ones in here: https://transitcenter.org/publication/a-green-new-deal-for-city-and-suburban-transportation/)
This! It is so frustratingly hard to find good ridership data (by stop, by time of day, etc.) and some agencies still do only once a year hand counts, which are nearly useless in finding ways to improve transit service. https://twitter.com/evanlandman/status/1352654925835112451
A great idea that DOT is already talking about: https://twitter.com/cden4/status/1352655011159924739
This is so important! Transit needs to be accessible and usable even when it rains or snows. https://twitter.com/fcable/status/1352649678123372544
This is a really important point — programs like CMAQ are some of the easiest quick changes — the funds are already there and DOT can influence what kinds of projects get them. https://twitter.com/sandypsj/status/1352643244547579907
Agreed in considering it, but a note of caution: transit agencies don’t control zoning, and we should not punish transit riders by not improving transit simply because the cities they live in aren’t doing good policy. (There’s an equity issue in that, too) https://twitter.com/natemcdermott/status/1352662124414316544
My take: federal cost effectiveness requirements have done more harm than good, forcing agencies to cut things that actually make projects better (DART bypassing Love Field is a good example), and not really stopping stupid projects. But maybe a better way to implement them? https://twitter.com/jackjackharman/status/1352662848615243776
Totally agreed! I think core capacity has been a great program, and there are lots of good potential projects. https://twitter.com/union_tpke/status/1352669471689867270
The feds could potentially do a cooperative purchasing arrangement, where they take bids on several different types of rolling stock and agencies could simply buy vehicles “off the list” without having to do their own competitive procurement. State laws might complicate that. https://twitter.com/union_tpke/status/1352669471689867270
Truck tolls (very easy to do with GPS) would also support US manufacturing and local businesses — shipping being so cheap has really been an incentive to moving manufacturing further away and overseas. https://twitter.com/union_tpke/status/1328692886259593217
The feds have lots of way to examine project costs. Maybe hire some talented designers at FTA who understand operations and identify places in major capital projects where agencies could do the same with less? https://twitter.com/union_tpke/status/1352679938671996929
I definitely think federal funding of operations is worth thinking about, as long as it funds good service (this could be a useful incentive for frequency, all-day service, bus lanes) and isn’t used to replace local funds to pay for existing service. https://twitter.com/scudderwagg/status/1352667623012638724
The feds already do some of this, but should do more: all day frequent service should be a minimum requirement for most new transit infrastructure. https://twitter.com/a320lga/status/1352674390157250561
In general: little projects should be easy. One of our problems in the US is that building 500 bus shelters can take as much paperwork as building a streetcar line. We favor big, single projects rather than bundles of little ones, but the latter often do more good. https://twitter.com/jsmyersraleigh/status/1352666022038409216
Really important point. This is great stimulus. (And the jobs that come from it are local and often at small firms.) https://twitter.com/mary_lbee/status/1352652711758540805
Networks! We need more intersections, not fewer. https://twitter.com/fcable/status/1352650287434129409
We really should be concerned about the long term maintenance costs of all this extra pavement the feds are funding and the states are building. Some highways actually need to be narrower, not wider. https://twitter.com/union_tpke/status/1352643977871241223
