21 elected officials selected to champion Active People, Healthy Nation in communities across the country

Today, we are proud to announce the selection of 21 local elected officials to join the inaugural class of the Active People, Healthy Nation℠  Champions Institute. Over the course of six months, these leaders will receive comprehensive training to help them become champions in their communities to promote activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations.

Complete Streets Technical assistance Transportation

Meet the artists taking on COVID-19 transportation challenges

Graphic including map of US with photos of five artist.
Smart Growth America is excited to announce the selection of five artists for our Arts & Transportation Rapid Response initiative. These five artists will be working in tandem with five local transportation agencies to design and implement projects that address pandemic-related transportation challenges and systemic inequities.

Creative Placemaking Transportation Uncategorized

New House climate plan endorses Smart Growth America’s holistic recommendations for reducing emissions

The House Select Committee on Climate Change released a new legislative blueprint this week for tackling the climate crisis that incorporates many of SGA’s recommendations across our programs, demonstrating how smart growth is at the very core of any potential plan to reduce emissions.

Advocacy Climate Change Complete Streets Economic development LOCUS Resilience Transportation

House’s massive infrastructure bill brings housing, land use and transportation together

This week the House will consider the Moving Forward Act, a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that reflects many of Smart Growth America’s core priorities, including a new kind of transportation bill, billions to invest in new or rehabilitated affordable housing, and support for more inclusive and equitable development around transit to help give more Americans access to opportunity. 

Advocacy Complete Streets Economic development LOCUS Resilience Transportation

INVESTing in more equitable transportation


American transportation is rife with inequality that makes it more difficult for low-income people, people of color, and people with disabilities to get where they need to go, and can put them at greater risk. Today’s inequalities reflect the racism and ableism of the era in which much of today’s network was built, but they also still pervade federal transportation policy. The INVEST Act—a transportation policy proposal in the U.S. House—offers a major first step towards a more equitable transportation system by breaking with many policies of the past.

Transportation Uncategorized

Improving safety by making it a priority throughout the INVEST Act

As noted in Transportation for America’s scorecard, the House’s INVEST Act transportation bill takes important strides to make safety a priority, from the inclusion of new performance measures all the way down to making changes with how agencies set speed limits. Here are five things to know.

Advocacy Complete Streets Transportation

INVEST Act amendment would help finance more transit-oriented development

One of the amendments to the House’s transportation bill (INVEST Act) we are supporting would expand one of the federal government’s biggest infrastructure financing tools to include more economic development near public transportation stations—increasing private investment in transit and helping multiply the impact of the INVEST Act’s sizable increases in transit funding.

Advocacy LOCUS Transportation