Give cities the authority they need to build responsive, impactful, and multimodal projects
Safe, convenient, and reliable transportation is the bedrock of a functioning city. Despite this, cities are not in control of their own transportation funding, and decisions that affect their residents are made outside of local hands.
For cities to achieve the best outcomes for their residents, Congress must empower cities in the following ways:
- Cities need authority to direct funding to their priorities;
- Cities need authority to approve or prevent project designs and construction of projects in their jurisdiction;
- Cities need should have access to the same accelerated project delivery processes as states;
- Cities need a mechanism to participate in decisions about projects located outside their jurisdiction but that impact them.
Read NACTO and Transportation for America’s policy proposals to ensure federal transportation funding meets local needs (pdf) >>
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the part of USDOT charged with motor vehicle safety standards. It has broad authority to regulate the design and technology used in motor vehicles sold in the United States. The agency writes and adopts the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and other regulations. It also encourages the collection of crash data through the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria.
NHTSA’s approach to vehicle regulation needs to expand its scope from a limited consumer-protection approach to a holistic public health approach that protects all road users.
Traffic fatalities for vehicle occupants have largely held steady over the last decade, while traffic deaths for people outside of vehicles (pedestrians and bicyclists) have skyrocketed by more than 50% since 2009. Vehicle standards have failed to protect those outside of vehicles, resulting in thousands of preventable deaths each year. Especially in multimodal urban environments, vehicle design and regulation is critical to ensuring safe operations and movement.
Read NACTO’s recommendations for reforms to NHTSA safety regulations (pdf) >>