Transportation Policy Gets Left Behind in Presidential Race
Harris and Trump barely mention transportation. But the winning candidate will have a lot to say about what kinds of infrastructure will get funded.
Signs for Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump sit along a rural highway near Traverse City, Michigan.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images North AmericaIn 2019, two Kentucky regions applied for federal transportation grants. The first, Taylor County, wanted to build a new four-lane highway bypass through a rural area of the state. The second, the city of Louisville, hoped to add bike lanes, bus stops and large, vegetated sidewalks to existing thoroughfares — while cutting down on street space for cars.
Staff and appointed officials at the US Department of Transportation, who manage the multibillion-dollar Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program, considered both proposals, which were just two of many from around the US. Whereas the Taylor County proposal would demolish natural landscapes and serve a population that was predominantly White, Louisville’s proposal would reimagine polluting, unsafe roads that cut gashes through predominately Black and low-income neighborhoods.