Transportation systems that allow everyone to reach what they need in a way that works for them
Transportation shapes nearly every dimension of life: where people can live affordably, whether they can reach jobs and services without a car, how much household income goes to getting around, and how much carbon a community produces in the process.
Yet the dominant approach to transportation in the United States, which is building and managing infrastructure primarily to move vehicles, has proven costly, inequitable, and counterproductive. A system designed around access rather than movement serves people better, costs communities less, and is far more compatible with a stable climate.
This page offers a practitioner-oriented framework for transportation grounded in current evidence and the kinds of decisions that cities and communities face today.
Way forward
Transportation for access is a design philosophy centered on enabling people with different needs, abilities, and resources to reach the destinations and opportunities that matter to them.
Access stands in contrast to the reactive, vehicle-first approach that has dominated U.S. transportation planning for decades — building and managing infrastructure primarily to move cars, for the sake of moving cars. That approach has proven costly, inequitable, and counterproductive.
Access reorients transportation around its fundamental purpose: human wellbeing. Three elements work together to determine it — mobility options, proximity, and quality of experience — and together they provide a measurable, comparable framework for evaluating how well a system serves people across population groups.
For a deeper dive, here is a primer on access.
Opportunities
Integrate transportation with land use and housing: Land use and transportation are inseparable. Where homes, jobs, schools, and services are located determines how far people must travel and which modes are viable.Integrated planning — aligning housing, zoning, and transportation investment — gives people better choices about where to live and how to get where they need to go, without requiring a car for every trip.
Center walking and bicycling: Create a ubiquitous, all-ages-and-abilities network of safe, comfortable walking and bicycling infrastructure accessible directly from people’s homes. This means both the travel infrastructure itself — paths, lanes, and crossings — and the wider suite of amenities needed to support complete, end-to-end, all-season trips: covered bike parking, wayfinding, lighting, and rest areas.
Provide excellent transit: Public transit should be frequent (every 15 minutes or better), span early morning through late evening (6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. or better), and be within a short walk of the vast majority of homes. Connections to intercity service should be convenient and reliable. The goal is a transit network that is genuinely competitive with driving — not a fallback option, but a preferred one.
Require safe streets: Safe streets are a prerequisite for access, not a byproduct of it. Design and manage streets to eliminate serious crashes while making them welcoming and calm for all users: pedestrians, cyclists, micromobility riders, and people in vehicles. Vulnerable road users — those outside vehicle cabins — need complete networks to get everywhere they need to go, with physical separation from fast-moving traffic and deliberate reductions in the kinetic energy posed by larger vehicles.
Design for efficiency first: The sequence matters: compact, multimodal land use and infrastructure should come before, or alongside, vehicle electrification — not after. A system designed for efficiency requires far less energy and infrastructure to serve well. Electrification applied on top of an efficient system delivers maximum environmental and cost benefits. Skipping this step risks locking in high costs and missed opportunities.
Manage transportation demand actively: Transportation demand management — TDM — is the practice of engaging directly with people about their travel experiences, understanding barriers and opportunities, and using that knowledge to continuously improve the system. Effective TDM programs operate across a spectrum from day-to-day service improvements to long-term policy change. A clear theory of change is essential: knowing which levers to prioritize, in what order, and how operational practice and policy reform reinforce each other. Equally important is sustained, proactive education of elected officials and other decision-makers about what the system needs and what strategic investments are possible — because even the best technical work stalls without political understanding and will.
Expand the affordable vehicle ecosystem: Make deliberate room for the emerging class of ultra-efficient, battery-electric small vehicles — from cargo bikes to neighborhood electric vehicles — that can dramatically reduce the cost and public impact of personal transportation. These vehicles need thoughtful planning and engineering to operate safely alongside pedestrians, cyclists, and conventional traffic, but the payoff is a system that works better and costs less for everyone.
Guarantee access for non-drivers: Everyone — regardless of age, income, disability, or preference — should be able to safely, affordably, and conveniently reach the destinations and opportunities that matter to them, and to walk or bicycle if they choose. Access is not a privilege extended to those who can drive and afford a car. It is a basic condition of participation in community life
Resources
The fast road to a prosperous, climate-compatible future is better transportation choices
To electrify transportation faster, look beyond vehicles to urbanism—and electrify that
Parking
Good parking: What we know now about effective policy and management
E-bikes
Moreworks 