State DOTs
Basics
What’s Missing From the Safe Systems Approach
Safe streets, road users, speeds, vehicles, and post-crash care have long been held up as the five pillars of the "safe systems" approach to ending road deaths. One state DOT, though, recently added a sixth one — and their outgoing secretary thinks it's key to saving lives.
January 13, 2025
How State DOTs Keep the Public In the Dark About How They Spend Our Transportation Dollars
State DOTs control hundreds of billions of dollars of our transportation funding. Where does it all go — and what do we actually get for it?
November 14, 2024
Talking Headways Podcast: How MPOs Can Help Design Safe Streets
Can federal Metropolitan Planning Organizations help localities build complete streets and create safe bike infrastructure? Yes, but it's hard!
September 26, 2024
Will the State DOT Support St. Louis’s Sustainable Transportation Surge?
In America cities, state roads are often among the most dangerous. In St. Louis, though, some say the state DOT is becoming a stronger safety partner than ever — and even more could be done to build on the momentum.
September 19, 2024
‘Legacy Highways’ Are Some of Our Most-Dangerous Stroads — And It’s Time to Fix Them, US DOT Says
States already have the money to retrofit their "orphan highways" to be safer for people outside cars — if they'd just put it to good use.
August 8, 2024
Data: State DOTs Look Nothing Like the Residents They Serve
Why are state DOTs so overwhelmingly white and male — and what impact does it have on road users who don't share those identities?
April 1, 2024
Freeway Fighters: ‘Stop the Highway-Expansion Madness,’ New Coalition Demands
"Endless highway expansions are pulling our country into an environmental, budgetary, and public health crisis," the letter states.
February 6, 2024
Talking Headways Podcast: Making DOTs Measure Emissions
Beth Osbourne joins the podcast to chat about the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Measure Rule that will make State DOTs and MPOs measure emissions on the federal highway system.
January 18, 2024
States, We Need Your Vision to Get to ‘Zero’
State DOTs play a central role in the safety and sustainability of transportation systems because states set policies. Here are two that do it poorly and two that do it well.
December 26, 2023
List: The States With the Best – And Worst — Transportation Policies
Which states have adopted policies that require their transportation officials to make choices that reduce emissions and make roads more equitable – and which are doing the exact opposite?
November 8, 2023
