Research

A New Direction: Our Changing Relationship with Driving and the Implications for America’s Future

As the average number of miles driven by Americans heads into its eighth year of decline, a new report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund finds that the slowdown in driving is likely to continue. ...

Lessons Learned from the TIGER Discretionary Grant Program

Lessons Learned from the TIGER Discretionary Grant Program looks at key players involved in the creation and sustaining of the program and examines how the funds were distributed. It concludes ...

Local Funding Options for Public Transportation

This paper summarizes research concerning potential local public transport funding options. It evaluates eighteen options according to eight criteria, including potential revenue, ...

Highway Trust Fund Pilot Program Could Help Determine the Viability of Mileage Fees for Certain Vehicles

As revenue from federal fuel taxes is eroding, GAO examined the benefits and challenges of mileagefee initiatives in the United States and abroad to determine what mileage fee rates ...

Smart Growth and Economic Success: Benefits for Real Estate Developers, Investors, Businesses, and Local Governments

Smart Growth and Economic Success is the first in a series of reports from EPA’s Smart Growth Program designed to inform developers, businesses, local government, and other groups about the ...

Smart Congestion Relief: Comprehensive Analysis Of Traffic Congestion Costs and Congestion Reduction Benefits

This report examines the methods used to evaluate traffic congestion costs and the benefits of various congestion reduction strategies. It describes various biases in current congestion ...

Local Funding Options for Public Transportation

This paper describes the results of a study that identified and evaluated potential local funding options to help finance public transit improvements. It evaluates seventeen options according to ...

Bus Rapid Transit: Projects Improve Transit Service and Can Contribute to Economic Development

The results of a GAO study on the performance of Bus Rapid Transit projects funded by FTA in terms of ridership and service in comparison to rail projects. The differences in cost and economic ...

Where the Jobs Are: Employer Access to Labor by Transit

This paper takes a look at the suburbanization of jobs and transit accessibility.

Opportunity Cost of Inaction: High-Speed Rail and High Performance Passenger Rail in the United States

This paper closely examines the benefits of immediate investment in high speed rail. Its release coincided with the decision of California lawmakers to approve $4.6 billion in bonds for HSR ...

Infrastructure 2012: Spotlight on Leadership

This report examines how we invest in our infrastructure, specifically looking at the increasing role that local governments and voters are playing in ensuring that our transportation systems are ...

Are We There Yet? Selling America on Transportation

This report details four key strategies for successfully messaging the need for transportation investment to the public.

Terrorism, Transit and Public Safety: Evaluating the Risks

This paper evaluates the overall safety of public transit, taking into account all risks, including recent terrorist attacks. It indicates that transit is an extremely safe mode, with total ...

What's Next? Real Estate in the New Economy

This report looks at six categories that will affect land use, housing and transportation decisions for the next generation.

Transit Campaign Planning Template

This is an updated template for communities preparing to launch a transit financing campaign.

Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Surface Transportation Infrastructure

This report finds that without immediate action to improve our infrastructure, 876,000 jobs coudl be lost and GDP growth could be suppressed by $897 billion by the year 2020. 

The Role of Driving in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Oil Consumption

Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure: A National Study of Employment Impact

This report takes a look at the national employment impacts of building and repairing transportation infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.

Performance Driven: Achieving Wiser Investment in Transportation

For years there has been overwhelming evidence that the U.S. is failing to maintain its highways, bridges, and transit systems, and consistently falling short in making the infrastructure ...

Aging in Place, Stuck without Options: Fixing the Mobility Crisis Threatening the Baby Boom Generation

Revisiting Factors Associates with the Success of Ballot Initiatives with a Substantial Rail Transit Component

This report is a follow-up to a 2001 study of transportation tax initiatives. The report specifically looks at rebound initiative--measures that are placed back on the ballot after initially ...

Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America

This report takes a detailed look at transit coverage and connectivity across and within the nation’s major metro areas. The results of the analysis find several major trends with implications for ...

Measuring Transportation Investments: The Road to Results

This report looks at the use of performance measures by states to ensure that they are getting the most from transportation investment choices. Only 13 states are found to be doing a good job, ...

Where We Need to Go: A Civil Rights Roadmap for Transportation Equity

Windfall for All: How Connected, Convenient Neighborhoods Can Protect Our Climate and Safeguard California's Economy

Stranded at the Station: The Impact of the Financial Crisis in Public Transportation

This report analyzes the impact the current economic climate has had on communities and transit systems.

Planning Complete Streets for an Aging America

This report offers best practices for planning and engineering transportation infrastructure for an aging population.

Transportation Finance at the Ballot Box: Voters Support Increased Investment & Choice

CFTE analyzed transportation ballot measures from 2000 - 2005. This report documents key trends in these elections and the implications for transportation finance. From 2000 - 2005, voters in 33 ...

One-Fifth of America: A Comprehensive Guide to America's First Suburbs

This report details the public policy challenges facing the nation's older, inner-ring suburban communities, where one-fifth of the nation's population now resides. The report addresses a ...

Building Communities Through Public Transportation: A Guide for Successful Transit Initiatives

Released at the 2005 Transit Initiatives and Communities conference, this guide is designed to help with the nuts and bolts of a public transportation referendum.

Mean Streets: How Far Have We Come?

This report reveals that walking remains the most dangerous mode of transportation, and some areas of the country are becoming markedly more dangerous.

Aging Americans: Stranded without Options

This report looks at the limited availability of transportation choices for Americans aged 65 and older, a sect that is expected to nearly double by 2025.

The Need For Regional Anti-Congestion Policies

This report describes the implementation inadequacies of anti-congestion policies and offers new policy paradigms on the regional level.  

Highways and Transit: Leveling the Playing Field in Federal Transportation Policy

Authored by Robert Puentes and Edward Beimborn, this report shows that despite a number of reforms in the past decade, federal rules remain stacked against transit, and funding highway projects is ...

Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl

This report presents the first national study to show that people who live in counties marked by sprawl-style development tend to weigh more, are more likely to be obese and are more likely to ...

Clearing the Air, Public Health Threats from Cars and Heavy Duty Vehicles- Why We Need to Protect Federal Clean Air Laws

This report ranks metropolitan areas by the highest number of days of unhealthy air pollution levels, finding that n early half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air, and air quality in ...

The Mobility Needs of Older Americans: Implications for Transportation Reauthorization

The report highlights the projected demographic change in America's aging population and its relation to our nation's transportation system. According to the report, by the year 2030, ...

Second Nature--Improving Transportation Without Putting Nature Second

Released on Earth Day 2003, suggests that the nation’s natural environment and wildlife habitats are at risk from both development patterns and the roads that make the development possible. The ...