When It Comes to US Transportation, 2025 Had Some Wins, Too

Amid federal-level threats and funding cuts, cities have still found ways to fight congestion, boost road safety and forestall the public transit death spiral.

This year has been a rocky one for those hoping to untether the US transportation system from its reliance on the automobile. Sean Duffy, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Transportation, has yanked funding for street improvements deemed “hostile” to cars, questioned the value of bike lanes and mounted an attack on “political messages or artwork” painted on crosswalks that researchers suggest are harmless.

Public transportation has been a particular focus of Duffy’s ire. Already vulnerable due to escalating costs and a post-Covid dip in ridership, transit agencies have also had to deal with the USDOT secretary’s dubious claims about endangered riders and threats about pulling financial support.

And yet, to channel Mark Twain, reports of transit’s death are greatly exaggerated. New dedicated bus lanes are opened in Miami-Dade County, the Twin Cities and Los Angeles. The Washington, DC, metro area has expanded service and nearly matched its pre-Covid ridership. In Illinois, a landmark state law will modernize transit across Chicagoland and provide $1.5 billion in recurring annual funding. And while its fiscal troubles are far from over, Philadelphia’s system has so far managed to avoid the catastrophic collapse that was widely feared a few months ago.

Transit’s resilience is just one of 2025’s transportation bright spots. Here are a few other developments worth appreciating before the calendar flips.

Congestion Pricing Is Thriving in Manhattan

Weeks after being inaugurated, President Trump demanded that New York Governor Kathy Hochul cease charging cars $9 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street during the workweek. Hochul flatly refused: “The cameras are staying on,” she declared.

The fight over congestion pricing quickly moved to the courts, where judges allowed the program to remain in place — to New Yorkers’ great benefit.

Since congestion pricing went into effect in January 2025, vehicles in the toll zone are moving faster, pedestrian counts are higher, streets are quieter and crashes have declined. Better yet, fees collected from drivers are providing tens of millions of dollars every month to buttress the finances of the city’s transit system, enabling the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to make upgrades like installing subway elevators and purchasing new buses. As in other global cities that adopted congestion pricing years ago, such as Singapore, London, and Gothenburg, Sweden, New Yorkers have grown more supportive of congestion pricing as they have experienced its effects.

The Big Apple is the first American city to adopt this policy, but it may not be the last. Manhattan’s rollout has attracted interest across the country, and urban leaders in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco are among those mulling the possibility of establishing their own programs.

Should they do so in the next few years, opposition from the Trump administration is all but assured. But New York’s experience suggests that the feds may not wield a veto.

We Have a New Tool to Fight Speeding

Across the US, more than 10,000 people die each year in collisions tied to speeding, representing around a third of all traffic fatalities. Some of the most horrific smashups involve vehicles flying down a roadway far above the speed limit, such as one in North Las Vegas in 2022 in which a driver going 103 miles per hour (on a road with a posted limit of 35) triggered a crash that claimed nine lives.

This year, several states opened the door for a promising technology known as Intelligent Speed Assist that offers protection from reckless “super speeders.” Using GPS and digital maps, ISA automatically restricts a vehicle’s maximum speed to reflect the posted speed limit of the surrounding highway or street.

In the European Union, new cars must be equipped with “passive” ISA systems that issue an alert when a vehicle breaks the speed limit, but the safety benefits are unclear since leadfooted drivers are still able to further accelerate. A more potent version of the technology is “active” ISA, which physically prevents a driver from exceeding the maximum threshold on a given stretch of roadway.

In 2024, the District of Columbia became the first jurisdiction in the nation empowering judges to require active ISA’s installation within vehicles owned by convicted super speeders. That move caught the attention of safety reformers, including local affiliates of Families for Safe Streets, a national advocacy group. With their help, this year Virginia and Washington adopted ISA laws that follow DC’s lead.

Even in the current hyperpartisan political climate, ISA has drawn support from both sides of the aisle: In Georgia’s Republican-dominated state government, an ISA bill passed both branches of the legislature before the governor ultimately vetoed it. The bill’s sponsors have vowed to introduce a modified version in next year’s session. Meanwhile, legislators in Democrat-dominated Maryland and New York have shown interest as well. Expect to hear more about ISA in 2026.

Tiny Cars Are Coming

A few weeks ago, President Trump startled US auto industry executives by commanding them to build ultra-compact Japanese-style minicars for the US market. His comments generated skepticism and confusion (and not only because he made them while announcing a rollback of fuel economy goals that would have encouraged small and efficient vehicles). But as US passenger vehicles get larger and more expensive — the average price of a new car now tops $50,000 — demand for more modestly sized and priced four-wheelers is poised to expand.

It remains an open question whether Americans really will soon be able to buy minicars like those currently on offer in Europe and East Asia. Luckily, there’s another option that’s already available — and increasingly popular. Responding to rising interest among constituents, many US towns and cities are allowing residents to operate golf carts on public streets. Once limited to country clubs, beach resorts and retirement communities, these diminutive machines are covering local trips in cities and suburbs, too: This year, the Texas city of Corpus Christi joined Cleveland and Belmond, Iowa, in giving golf carts the green light. (The state of South Carolina did so as well.)

Golf carts are getting schmantzier, too: Modern models can feature touchscreens, keyless entry, and GPS.

National media outlets have taken notice. A few months ago, the Wall Street Journal declared that golf carts have “taken over suburbia;” CBS News examined the enforcement challenges they have posed for police in a small town outside of Detroit.

CityLab readers might have seen this one coming. Two years ago, I visited Peachtree City, Georgia, an Atlanta exurb where most households use golf carts to get around, and wrote about how the vehicles have enhanced residents’ quality of life (especially for those unable to drive a full-sized car). The town’s mayor has said that the vehicles make Peachtree City a friendlier place: “If you’re on your golf cart and you see your neighbor doing yardwork, you’re going to pull over and chat. You’re never going to do that if you’re in a car.”

With electric powertrains and prices that are a fraction of new automobiles, golf carts can be budget-friendly alternatives to second or third cars for many suburban families. Such swaps are good news for street safety, since an ambling golf cart poses far less risk to other street users than a hulking SUV or pickup.

Just Keep Moving

If there is a lesson from these encouraging stories, it is that the Trump administration — or any federal administration, for that matter — has only so much power over how Americans travel. Trump’s antagonism toward New York’s congestion pricing has not been the death knell that many feared. USDOT’s apparent disinterest in Intelligent Speed Assist has not prevented states from pursuing it themselves. And as for golf carts, if anything Trump’s erratic tariff policies have enhanced their appeal as a relatively affordable mode of local mobility.

To be sure, 2025 brought more than its share of headwinds, both political and financial, for those eager to see the US transportation system grow cleaner, safer and more efficient. The pace of progress may have slowed, but the train hasn’t fully derailed.