By Ben Crowther
Is it possible to reconnect communities while expanding highways that split communities?
The answer is obvious (no!), but state departments of transportation continue to put highway expansions first and some even promote expansions under the guise of reconnecting communities.
That’s why 155 organizations are calling on the US Department of Transportation to take a stand and apply Reconnecting Communities as a principle for all its discretionary grant programs. Unlike the transportation formula funding that goes directly to states, USDOT has direct control over discretionary grant programs. USDOT has the power to stop funding highway expansions through these programs.
For years, advocates across the country have called on USDOT to reject highway-oriented applications to its Reconnecting Communities program. This year, USDOT committed to lower the score of applications that are associated with highway expansions. But why stop there? A lower grade for highway expansion projects could be applied to all USDOT discretionary grant programs. This aligns with the recommendations of USDOT’s own National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, which endorses a fix-it-first approach (one of the Communities Over Highways principles).
The harms of highway expansion in vulnerable communities are myriad and significant – increased air pollution, greater noise pollution, contributions to the urban heat island effect, loss of affordable housing, more impermeable surfaces increasing flood risk, and of course greater carbon emissions from induced driving.
Repeated expansion doubles down on the 20th century transportation planning that caused so much damage, particularly for low-income communities and communities of color. Deprioritizing it across all programs would make significant progress toward Reconnecting Communities as a USDOT principle and give the agency the power to tackle the challenges of the 21st century head on.
At the very least, let’s use Reconnecting Communities grant funding for its primary purpose, and not use these dollars to mitigate further highway expansion.
