Almost Half of US Roads are Locally Owned, but Receive Just 16% of Federal Funds. Local Leaders Want That to Change.

State and local leaders are calling for more federal transportation funding to their agencies, which control and maintain 43 percent of the Federal-Aid Highway System, yet receive only 16 percent of federal transportation funding. 

Now, a bill introduced by U.S. Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Mich., and Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa. would “streamline access to funds for regional priority projects, improve accountability and focus on road safety,” writes Dan Zukowski in Smart Cities Dive. 

In a letter, a coalition of officials from around the country called on Congress to “deliver federal formula funding fairly based on the ownership and the national goals of the system including condition, performance and safety.” The coalition is particularly focused on the Surface Transportation Block Grant program, whose funding “may be used for any federal-aid highway, bridge or tunnel project, including pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, transit capital projects and intercity bus terminals.”