The inaugural meeting of the new Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success (ROUTES) Council was led by U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao, which will improve the use of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) discretionary grant funds in support of rural America’s transportation system.
The ROUTES Initiative will analyze the department’s discretionary funding and financing opportunities to ensure rural communities’ transportation infrastructure helps the national transportation network meet desired outcomes for safety and economic competitiveness.
“Rural infrastructure has historically been neglected and the ROUTES Initiative will address this to boost safety, commerce and quality of life for all who rely on these transportation networks,” Secretary Chao said.
USDOT says rural transportation infrastructure has significant challenges.
While one-fifth of Americans live in rural areas, 70 percent of America’s road miles are in rural areas, carrying nearly 50 percent of the nation’s truck traffic. In addition, 44 percent of automobile travel on rural roads is done by metropolitan area citizens, and rural America’s traffic fatalities are disproportionately high, totaling 46 percent of fatalities in 2018. Further, of the nation’s bridges that are posted for weight limits, 90 percent are in rural areas.
Secretary Chao announced the ROUTES Initiative at the annual meeting of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials in St. Louis, Mo., last month. The initiative will be led by the ROUTES Council, a new internal deliberative body at the department, which will identify critical rural transportation concerns and coordinate efforts among USDOT’s different modal administrations. The council will initially review public comments, meet with rural stakeholders and publish user-friendly information, including a rural resources handbook.
The new ROUTES Initiative will address these national transportation challenges by assisting rural stakeholders in understanding how to access USDOT grants and financing products, and developing data-driven approaches to better assess needs and benefits of rural transportation projects. This builds on the model pioneered by the department’s Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program’s Rural Project Initiative, which offers lower project-cost thresholds for loan eligibility, subsidized interest rates and the coverage of fees to encourage use of the credit program for infrastructure projects in rural areas.
The department will engage rural transportation stakeholders at events over the coming year to educate project sponsors about the funding and finance opportunities at US DOT, as well as to receive their feedback.
