The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) announced new surface transportation priorities on July 7 – priorities that had changed since the organization adopted comprehensive surface reauthorization policies in 2019.
In a 15-page white paper entitled “Policy Recommendations on Key Surface Transportation Priorities,” the organization focused on 11 key principles – equity, safety, transit, passenger rail, resilience, “Fix it Right” and performance management, greenhouse gas reduction, broadband deployment, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, bridges and “Buy American” mandates.
One of the key policy updates is working towards the goal of equity in future decisions and actions.
“AASHTO and its state DOT members acknowledge the actions of the past—in programming, planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance of state transportation systems—which often disproportionally negatively affected low-income communities, minority neighborhoods, and people of color, and the legacy of those actions persist in disparities today,” the white paper said. “State DOTs strive to serve as stewards of an integrated, multimodal transportation system that achieves economic, environmental, and social goals set by the representatives of the people we serve. Through a unanimous Board resolution last year, AASHTO and state DOTs committed to hold ourselves accountable for engaging in the vital work of advancing racial justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as individuals and as an institution.”
Another priority that state departments of transportation “strongly support,” the organization said, is developing more resilient transportation systems with the ability to protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.
State DOTS are broadening the definition of resilience beyond climate change to include an all-hazards approach that would not limit resilience to just natural disasters but also man-made events such as cyberattacks, the organization said.
The organization also said it agrees with the Biden administration’s expansion of infrastructure to include broadband and equating it to the “new electricity” as something necessary for Americans to do their jobs, as well as participate equally in school and health care.