Robert Puentes is President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation a non-profit think tank with the mission of improving transportation policy and leadership. Prior to joining Eno, he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program where he directed the program’s Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative. He is currently a non-resident senior fellow with Brookings. Before Brookings, Robert was the director of infrastructure programs at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

Robert has worked extensively on a variety of transportation issues, including infrastructure funding and finance, and city and urban planning. He is a frequent speaker to a variety of groups, a regular contributor in newspapers and other media, and has testified before Congressional committees. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Virginia where he served on the Alumni Advisory Board, and was an affiliated professor with Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

Robert serves on a variety of boards including the Shared-Use Mobility Center, UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies, and Young Professionals in Transportation. Recent appointments include the Federal Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, New York State’s 2100 Infrastructure Commission; the Advisory Council of the West Coast Infrastructure Exchange, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Transportation Reinvention Commission; the District of Columbia’s Streetcar Financing and Governance Task Force; the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s Technical Advisory Committee; and the Falls Church, Virginia Planning Commission where he lives with his wife and three sons.

 

Eno Transportation Weekly Articles

Driving Change: Advice For The National VMT-Fee Pilot (A Special Excerpt)

July 24, 2023 - A special excerpt from the Eno Center for Transportation's latest research report Driving Change: Advice for the National VMT-Fee Pilot.

Advanced Research Initiative Launched at USDOT

June 13, 2023 - Earlier this week, Eno staff attended the White House launch of a new federal agency designed to kindle advanced research and development in infrastructure.

Research

Yahoo News|July 24, 2023|Electric Vehicles, Federal Governance, Governance reform, Highways & Streets

Driving Change: Advice For The National VMT-Fee Pilot

The US faces funding challenges for transportation infrastructure due to changing vehicle technology. To address this, a national pilot program for a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fee is being established. Recommendations include simplicity, scalability, and...

Yahoo News|June 13, 2023|Data, Eno Announcements, Environment

Data for Environmentally Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Mobility

Data on passenger movements, vehicle fleets, fare payments, and transportation infrastructure has immense potential to inform cities to better plan, regulate, and enforce their urban mobility systems. This report specifically examines the opportunities that exist...

Media Mentions & Commentary

Reader's Digest|September 26, 2023|Trucking, Trucking Workforce

The Big-Rig Crisis: How We Fail Our Truckers

“If you’re relying on a just-in-time delivery system that prioritizes the synchronization of precise schedules and you can’t count on drivers to get the goods there, you’re going to have disruptions in the supply chain,”...

NPR|August 29, 2023|Infrastructure, Railroads

More Private Companies are Investing in Passenger Rail — Here’s Why

Back in the day, private companies took passengers on trains all over the United States, all the time, said Robert Puentes, the head of the Eno Center for Transportation. “Within cities, between cities, all across...