Highway Bill Must Include Funding for Smart Transportation

Recommendation: The highway bill authorizes a dedicated fund of $15 billion over five years to accelerate smart transportation and deliver measurable benefits for customers and communities. This investment targets growth by enabling sensors, data platforms, and technology solutions that create connected-vehicle networks and faster, cleaner commutes. The reality is that without a clear funding stream, pilots stall, and momentum fades. There is a straightforward route: december milestones should kick off the first wave of projects, with public dashboards tracking progress and accountability.

Budgeting and governance: The fund will finance the acquisition of sensors, edge devices, and data platforms and require open-standard procurement to speed competition. A portion should be left for weather- and climate-related deployments to maintain reliability in snow, rain, and heat. Those rules create accountability and predictable cycles for departments and contractors.

Implementation focus: Prioritize corridors with mass transit usage and high emissions to maximize benefits there. The december milestone should kick off pilots along at least five busy urban corridors and three rural routes to gather comparable data. Use real-time dashboards to track idling reductions, average speeds, and safety metrics, then publish results to participants and the public.

Acquisition culture: Encourage open data sharing and interoperability across technology layers. Reclaim from legacy silos by aligning city, county, and state procurement with federal standards. The plan should create local jobs in manufacturing, software, and maintenance across the departments involved, with quarterly reviews and stepwise scaling.

reality check: This approach aligns with focused climate and mobility goals. The bill must move quickly to grant these resources, avoid piecemeal additions, and deliver tangible improvements in travel times, air quality, and taxpayer value. There, communities will see clearer value and faster progress.

Key Objectives for Smart Transportation R&D Funding in the Highway Bill

Allocate a broad investment of $25 billion over the next five years to fund smart transportation R&D with milestone-based contracts and transparent reporting. This approach creates a setting for outcomes, improves speed of decision-making, and reduces higher costs by linking payments to verifiable results. The data provided will be shared in a public record to inform future decisions.

1. Performance-based funding framework: tie grants and contracts to measurable milestones, safety improvements, and travel-time reductions. Establish quarterly progress reviews and a public fact sheet that records outcomes and lessons learned, and specify the data provided to participants.

2. High-speed and autonomous mobility, with scalable pilots: finance testbeds along priority corridors, including rural-to-urban travel, to validate control systems, perception, and resilience under real-world conditions. Provide risk-sharing mechanisms with industry and university partners.

3. Sustainable practices and lifecycle analytics: require life-cycle cost data, material reuse, and energy efficiency benchmarks for vehicles, sensors, and infrastructure. They should publish a sustainability scorecard for each project.

4. Residential and urban integration: fund architecture-driven designs for smart hubs that connect homes, workplaces, and transit centers. Support registration and data interoperability across modes to enable seamless door-to-door services, namely ride-sharing and micro-transit within residential settings.

5. Standards, data sharing, and contracts: accelerate development of interoperable data schemas, communication protocols, and cybersecurity requirements. Provide a common record-keeping standard to track performance, incidents, and system health across all pilots.

6. Leaders and partnerships: elevate collaboration among federal agencies, state DOTs, universities, and industry players. Provide cross-sector grants, enable talent pipelines, and create a credit incentive program to reward early adopters and proven performers.

7. Technology validation for safety and reliability: require independent validation labs, and include drug interaction testing considerations where applicable for in-vehicle health monitoring and driver-assist features. They must demonstrate high-level safety margins before deployment.

8. Elimination of inefficiencies and duplication: audit existing contracts to eliminate overlaps, consolidate procurement, and publish a repository of best practices to streamline future efforts.

Define Targeted R&D Funding Levels for Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Infrastructure

Recommendation: Set a rolling 5-year R&D funding plan for CAV infrastructure with a minimum annual level of $1.2 billion, rising to $2.0 billion by year five. This funding should be reauthorized in the Highway Bill to ensure continuity and to relieve gaps that slow deployment. Target programs that develop road-side sensing, V2X communications, edge computing, and data security, with clear milestones that translate research into field-ready solutions and deliver measurable savings.

Structure the portfolio around focused programs that accelerate progress across five areas: connected-vehicle infrastructure, V2X in urban cores and rural corridors, sensor networks and maintenance of roadside assets, grid-integrated energy use (including hydropower), and inclusive design for users with disabilities. Each program should include testbeds, open datasets, and pilots on real road sections to capture lessons quickly, also explore alternatives to costly expansions, and reclaim unused capacity in existing assets.

Define year-by-year milestones: deploy 2 cross-compatibility tests, establish 3 pilot corridors with low- and mid-band spectrum support, demonstrate a 15% reduction in travel times on target routes, and show a 10% savings in maintenance cost per mile. Measure results in crashes avoided, user satisfaction, and accessibility improvements for disabilities. Use these results to adjust funding, accelerate where outcomes are strong, and reallocate funds from underperforming lines to high-performing programs.

Ensure equity and user focus by requiring accessible interfaces and testing with disability advocates. By combining river infrastructure with charging stations and data centers, we reduce duplication and capture value from river crossings while ensuring resilience. Use hydropower-backed energy to power field tests and offices where feasible, and continue to utilize existing right-of-way to expand coverage without unnecessary road-building.

Keep oversight tight: prohibit duplicated pilots and vanity projects, track progress with quarterly reports, and capture savings to fund the next year’s rounds. Prioritize reuse of existing assets, rights-of-way, bridges, and river crossings across areas with high demand, while protecting sensitive data and ensuring safety for all users.

Establish Transparent Eligibility and Compliance Criteria for Grants

Publish a public eligibility matrix and a clear scoring rubric within 30 days of grant notice, and require quarterly updates. Because stakeholders operate across changing times, ensure criteria are machine-readable and paired with plain-language summaries for applicants and reviewers.

Define eligibility around ownership of the project: projects must be led by publicly owned entities or legally recognized partners with appropriate oversight. Focus on residential corridors and multimodal improvements that include crossings and safe routes for cyclists. Require alignment with nationally developed standards for safety, accessibility, and operation, and set a spectrum of performance indicators to guide evaluation.

Adopt clean procurement standards and clear vendor rules to ensure fair competition. Use open bidding, defined evaluation criteria, and documented decision trails. Include anti-fraud checks and a drug-free workplace policy for vendors, with clear consequences for non-compliance. Require reporting on procurement changes and timely amendments to the grant terms, with deadlines and public postings; initial compliance reports should be due by december and subjected to fact-based reviews. Offer a structured feedback process to applicants while protecting confidential information.

Establish ongoing monitoring that covers the whole lifecycle of funded projects. Track adoption of smart transportation features and how they affect housing and mobility options for residents. Use a national ownership and management focus, compile quarterly reporting, and provide accessible dashboards. Keep the focus on equity, safety, and resilience, and ensure that changes in federal policy or funding levels are reflected in grant terms and performance requirements. Avoid coal financing in housing or transportation energy upgrades; maintain a clear path from procurement to reporting across the whole program spectrum.

Structure Public-Private Partnerships to Accelerate Demonstrations on Highways

Recommendation: Launch a three-year public-private program that mobilizes investment from federal, state, and private sectors to fund 6–8 corridor demonstrations, prioritizing electrification, digital data-sharing, and smarter operations along key highways. Pair highway agencies with utilities, housing entities, and vehicle and bus manufacturers to test integrated solutions at scale and support increasing reliability of highway operations, while requiring private partners to invest alongside public funds.

Establish governance with a cross-agency board that includes DOTs, nhtsa, utilities, housing authorities, and labor representatives. Define measures, roles, and risk-sharing rules, plus a streamlined procurement path to accelerate pilots. Ensure accessible processes for small businesses and local contractors, and actively involve workers through apprenticeships and on-site training.

Adopt performance-based contracts that emphasize lifecycle costs, safety improvements, and reliability under varying weather and water conditions. Tie payments to milestones such as crash reductions, reduced idling, and expanded electrification and vehicle deployment; provide reinvestment incentives to scale demos across sectors and invest in additional demonstrations.

Build a digital backbone: a data-sharing platform with common standards, real-time monitoring, and secure data rights. Use it to coordinate smart signals, V2I communications, and mobility-on-demand services, while ensuring accessibility for workers across the sector and for housing and utility partners. All parties have access to the same data platform.

Focus on scale and replication: implement 3 corridor proofs, publish open-after-action reports, and create PPP templates that countries can adapt quickly. Track metrics such as miles of electrified roadway, number of buses and fleets involved, housing integration of transit, and lifecycle maintenance costs to guide future investment.

Operational steps for quick wins: Phase 1 selects three strategic corridors; Phase 2 adds five more with tighter performance gates; Phase 3 scales to national demonstrations, calling on agencies to adopt these templates, leveraging existing programs and measures. Encourage international collaboration by sharing results with other countries and aligning funding measures to expand the sector of smarter mobility solutions.

Specify Roles of Federal, State, and Local Agencies in R&D Oversight

Adopt a concrete, three-tier oversight model that assigns funding, evaluation, and compliance duties to federal, state, and local agencies. This option has been designed to reduce duplication and accelerate smart transportation R&D across highways, rail, and multimodal networks. It relies on clear milestones and a defined number of projects, with a mind toward long-term maintenance and equity.

Mind safety and equity in every pilot.

Federal leadership issues issued guidelines and set national priorities for smart transportation R&D. The secretary of Transportation coordinates cross-agency efforts, requires reporting on progress, and funds strategic programs. Federal oversight fosters sharing of results, requires an agreement on data standards, and issues grants that scale pilots. It also engages tribes and tribal colleges, coordinates intercity rail research with Amtrak, and considers energy implications, including transitions away from coal-fired power, to ensure grid compatibility for electrified fleets. This does, of course, consider the customer experience across rural and urban contexts.

States translate federal priorities into implementable plans, administer grants, and monitor performance against milestones. They issue solicitations, manage matching funds, and enforce zoning and permitting processes for pilots. State agencies collaborate with universities, labs, and tribes within the state to test equipment and evaluate results. They coordinate intercity corridors, align with regional MPOs, and publish transparent metrics including a number of performance indicators for residents and local businesses to assess progress.

Local governments design and operate pilots, manage equipment purchases, and tune projects to residential and living patterns. They shape zoning for bike lanes, e-bikes, and bus stops, and run inclusive outreach with customers and community groups since local feedback drives adoption. City and county agencies issue permits, manage small grants, and coordinate with state programs to integrate local projects into long-range plans. Local teams test data-sharing dashboards and report outcomes to state and federal partners. They also address motor traffic safety and ensure access for elderly residents.

Establish an issued, three-layer framework with clear roles, cadence for reporting, and a shared dashboard. Create a fund pool that blends federal, state, and local contributions, with in-kind support from tribes and private partners. Define equipment standards, safety requirements, and evaluation criteria up front to reduce rework and lifecycle costs. The framework should include an option for tribes, rural communities, and urban centers to participate, including intercity corridors and Amtrak connections, and smart infrastructure in residential streets. The policy must require real-time reporting and decision-making based on performance data, and it should inform investments that invest in maintenance and replacing aging assets. Since the highway bill anchors smart transport investments, align with zoning-based planning and community needs, while ensuring a mind toward customer access and equity.

Set Metrics, Evaluation Frameworks, and Reporting for R&D Outcomes

Launch a designated, centralized metrics dashboard by Q3 2025 to track R&D outcomes for smart transportation across corridors, including amtrak operating routes. Tie the dashboard to highway bill funding and to what they demand from these investments in technology and education programs.

Establish established baselines and four metric groups: demand-driven adoption, operating performance, record of improvements, and workforce education. These metrics cover corridor safety, reliability, and time savings; they track technology readiness and minority participation. They enable nations to compare progress and highlight the most demonstrated improvement across projects.

Adopt a blended evaluation framework that combines a theory of change, cost-benefit analysis, and independent verification. Use counterfactual analyses when feasible to show what results stem from R&D investments. Include technical progress, design milestones, and corridor-level outcomes to guide decisions on smart transportation investments.

Publish quarterly dashboards and annual summaries, with data feeds accessible to agencies, education partners, and the public. Provide concise narratives that explain what the numbers show, what actions they prompted, and how education and workforce improvements contributed to operating gains and safety enhancements. Maintain a robust record of data quality and limitations to support accountability across nations and designated corridors.