Donald Trump Puts Biking And Busses On The Chopping Block
Plus General Motors has recalled almost 500,000 diesel trucks over locking rear wheels and layoffs will wipe out 10 percent of Boeing’s workforce

By Owen Bellwood
Published 57 minutes ago

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CityLab
Transportation

Under Trump, Prepare for New US Transportation Priorities
The Biden administration made high-profile commitments to cutting emissions, boosting urban transit and improving traffic safety. Now the road ahead looks very different.

By David Zipper
November 12, 2024 at 1:21 PM EST

Over the last four years, the US Department of Transportation has played an unusually prominent role implementing the Biden administration’s domestic policy agenda. Led by spotlight-happy Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the agency has distributed billions of dollars through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act while pursuing high-profile policy goals like building high-speed rail, reducing traffic deaths, cutting transportation-generated emissions and helping transit agencies recover from Covid.

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House — and Republicans take over the Senate — Washington’s transportation priorities will soon look very different.

Although infrastructure has historically been a relatively nonpartisan issue, that’s not the approach taken by Project 2025, an agenda for a conservative overhaul of national policy prepared by the right-leaning Heritage Foundation that is widely seen as the incoming administration’s playbook. The document describes eliminating USDOT funding for biking and walking paths, ending support for transit expansions, and replacing many federal programs with block grants provided to states. Democratic opposition is all but assured.

A former US Senate staffer and USDOT executive who now leads the advocacy group Transportation for America, Beth Osborne has had a front-row seat to transportation policymaking under every president since George W. Bush. Bloomberg CityLab contributing writer David Zipper spoke with Osborne about what Trump’s return to the White House means for US roads, transit systems and urban mobility networks. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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