2025’s Biggest Transportation Wins

Despite the challenges facing sustainable transportation advocates in 2025, there were some major wins that deserve celebrating, too, writes David Zipper in Bloomberg CityLab.

For one: New York City’s congestion pricing program, which is chugging along despite the Trump administration’s efforts to kill it, has dramatically reduced traffic and improved air quality in its first few months. The program is also raising significant revenue for public transit and could serve as a catalyst for more U.S. cities.

In other road safety progress news, “several states opened the door for a promising technology known as Intelligent Speed Assist that offers protection from reckless ‘super speeders.’ Using GPS and digital maps, ISA automatically restricts a vehicle’s maximum speed to reflect the posted speed limit of the surrounding highway or street.” 

Finally, Zipper lauds the potential shift to smaller cars encouraged by the rising cost of vehicles, though meaningful change in that direction would require a change in our road designs and infrastructure. However, Zipper points to the growth of golf cart-centered communities as one promising avenue for reducing car dependency and introducing Americans to the idea of smaller vehicles. “With electric powertrains and prices that are a fraction of new automobiles, golf carts can be budget-friendly alternatives to second or third cars for many suburban families.”