Transforming Communities in the 21st Century Connecting People to Opportunity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh7I-j9MTpo

The choices we make about future transportation projects—the people and places they connect, will play a role in determining how widely opportunity expands throughout America.—Secretary Anthony R. Foxx “ ” Transportation infrastructure—the road, water, air, and rail networks we depend on— are easily taken for granted and their impact often forgotten. In the 1950s, the United States paved the way to its future with local, state, and federal dollars building millions of miles of roads under President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway program. What we now know as the modern highway system opened up new worlds to those who traveled along it. As a result of the Interstate Highway program, the United States has a well-developed network of routes that link every state and connect the country like never before. However, we also see today that the same infrastructure that brought massive expansion, too often reinforced dividing lines within communities and created physical barriers to opportunity. At a time when much U.S. infrastructure will be repaired or replaced, it is an appropriate time for communities to reimagine existing transportation projects via innovative and restorative infrastructure designs that reflect a more inclusive America, reconnects people and neighborhoods to opportunity, and reinvigorates opportunities within communities by empowering and encouraging communities and decision-makers to work together. The Every Place Counts Design Challenge aims to raise awareness and identify innovative solutions to reconnect communities to jobs, healthcare, education, and other essential services.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) plays a critical role in connecting Americans and communities to economic opportunity. Transportation infrastructure choices made at the Federal, State, and local levels can strengthen communities, create pathways to jobs, and improve the quality of life for all Americans. revitalize connect work Transportation infrastructure can lift up neighborhoods and regions by attracting new opportunities, jobs, and housing. A multimodal transportation system provides Americans with safe, reliable, and affordable connections to employment, education, healthcare, and other essential services. Infrastructure investment creates jobs and paves the way for business, particularly small and disadvantaged business enterprises. REVITALIZE: Transportation infrastructure can have a dramatic impact on neighborhoods and regions by creating better access and attracting new opportunities within an area. It can provide support for urban and rural main street centers and attract more business and residential developments designed to bring everyone closer to opportunities where they live. CONNECT: A multimodal transportation system provides people with safe, reliable and affordable connections to employment, education, healthcare and other critical services. WORK: Transportation projects create jobs, both through the project directly as well as in jobs stimulated through the resulting economic development.

Safety • Innovation • Opportunity The USDOT has pledged up to $40 million (funding subject to future appropriations) to one city to help it define what it means to be a “Smart City “and become the country’s first city to fully integrate innovative technologies – self-driving cars, connected vehicles, and smart sensors – into their transportation network.

Beyond Traffic: How we move… The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Beyond Traffic 2045: Trends and Choices study indicates that many communities will experience rapid population increases and rapidly growing demands on their transportation infrastructure in the next few decades. The Smart City Challenge is designed to help cities begin to address the difficulties these trends present. To show what is possible when communities use technology to connect transportation assets into an interactive network, the Smart City Challenge will concentrate federal resources into one medium-sized city, selected through a nationwide competition. Funding of up to $40 million will go to the mid-sized city to demonstrate how advanced data and ITS technologies and applications can be used to reduce congestion, keep travelers safe, protect the environment, respond to climate change, connect underserved communities, and support economic vitality.

WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BUILD NEW INFRASTRUCTURE Our infrastructure is aging. Many parts of it were built NEARLY 60 YEARS AGO With 70 million more people 65% more trucks on the road and 45% more freight in the next 30 years WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO BUILD NEW INFRASTRUCTURE

– A Vision for Bridging the Divide – Connecting People to Opportunity – A Vision for Bridging the Divide – The challenge we face as a country is that we must reinvent how we think about transportation. We need to aspire to more, we need a transportation system that connects a big missing dot in the line between income inequality and opportunity. – Secretary Anthony R. Foxx Transportation connects people to opportunity and can invigorate opportunity within communities. To the greatest extent possible, we should support transportation projects that do both. While we cannot change the past, we can ensure that current and future transportation projects connect and strengthen communities, including areas that have, in the past, been on the wrong side of transportation decisions. Transportation facilities should be built by, for and with the communities impacted by them. Development of transportation facilities should meaningfully reflect and incorporate the input of all the people and communities they touch.