Every reauthorization bill is more than a funding measure; it’s a moment of national choice. Transportation has always been a defining force in America’s growth, with investments defining and shaping eras and leaving legacies of both progress and sometimes, harm. As Congress prepares the next surface transportation reauthorization, we face another inflection point: whether to settle for incremental fixes or build a system that is safer, smarter, and better serves the public for generations to come.

Fixing a Broken Funding Model

The foundation of federal transportation finance is the fuel tax, but without even adjustments for inflation for decades, it no longer works. While annual growth in driving has flatlined, annual growth in highway spending has accelerated. Fuel efficiency and electrification are further decoupling road use from road revenue. The next bill must align funding with use, modernize user fees, and create a system that is both fiscally responsible and transparent to the public.

Harnessing Technology for the Public Good

Technology is already transforming transportation, from electrification to automation to predictive analytics. Yet federal policy often lags these advances. The next reauthorization should embed flexibility to support charging infrastructure, establish baseline standards for emerging technologies, and promote innovation funds that allow states and cities to pilot new ideas. Critically, it must confront the nation’s unacceptable roadway death toll by moving safety programs from reactive, crash-based responses to proactive, evidence-driven prevention. Data, telematics, artificial intelligence, and proven operational strategies can save lives – if Congress makes them core features of federal policy.

Reconnecting Communities and Expanding Choices

Reauthorization is also a chance to heal the mistakes of the past. Federal highway programs once divided neighborhoods. Today, we have the tools to reconnect communities, invest in main streets, and prioritize proximity, bringing housing, jobs, and services closer together to lower costs and strengthen local economies. Public-private partnerships, when structured well, can expand travel choices and leverage private investment for public benefit. Above all, success must be measured not in lane miles but in access, affordability, and opportunity.

A Nimbler Federal Role

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s siloed programs, complex permitting rules, and fragmented funding structures are poorly suited to today’s multimodal, technology-intensive systems. Reauthorization should simplify programs, streamline delivery, and align transportation with housing, economic development, and environmental outcomes. Smarter permitting and environmental review can accelerate project delivery without sacrificing protections. A modern federal role must enable innovation at the state and local level, not constrain it.

The Choice Before Congress

Too often policymakers hear only from stakeholders with a vested interest in maintaining the current programs. At this time of change and innovation, rethinking our approach to national transportation policy has the potential to achieve great benefits for generations to come. The ideas gathered in this special edition of Eno Transportation Weekly make one thing clear: reauthorization is not just about paying for roads and transit. It is about deciding whether our transportation system will continue to divide and delay, or whether it will connect and enable. The choice is stark: between patchwork fixes that sustain the status quo, or bold reforms that prepare America for its next 250 years.

Our Thanks

We thank our distinguished contributors: Jeff Allen, Dr. Clinton Andrews, Christopher Coes, Stephanie Gidigbi Jenkins, DJ Gribbin, Dr. Patricia Hendren, Dr. Ricardo Martinez, Beau Memory, Nicole Nason, Roger Nober, Dr. Steve Polzin, Andrew Rogers, and Fred Wagner – for sharing their bold ideas. Their insights illuminate the path forward. The difficult task now falls to Congress: to turn vision into law, and to deliver a transportation system worthy of the American people.