CHICAGO — Hundreds of bicycle advocates were at an annual summit this month in Washington, D.C., when their cellphones lit up over breakfast with an urgent email warning that President Donald Trump’s transportation department had just halted federal grant funding for bike lanes.
As the administration targets green energy projects championed by former President Joe Biden that boosted transit, recreational trails and bicycle infrastructure, several states are banding together to advance those priorities on their own.
California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania joined forces for a national organizing effort dubbed the Clean Rides Network. The group gained momentum in various statehouses this year on environmentally friendly transportation projects it contends the federal government has abandoned.
“These are changes we need to make anyway, but they’re more urgent than ever,” said Justin Balik, senior state program director for the environmental advocacy group Evergreen Action and one of the organizers of the Clean Rides Network. “I’ve been calling the state departments of transportation the next frontier of climate advocacy.”
Although Colorado wasn’t among the seven charter members of the Clean Rides Network, a policy enacted there set the framework for one of its most ambitious goals.
In 2021, Gov. Jared Polis committed to a dramatic reduction in Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions and employed a novel approach to accelerate the timeline. Whenever the state’s transportation department commits money to a large-scale project that increases vehicle traffic such as a new highway, it must also pursue a corresponding project to offset the environmental harms.
Two major highway expansion projects were canceled because of the policy, said Matt Frommer of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. The group advocated for the change.
Colorado used the savings to expand an intercity bus service that has soared in popularity for urban residents and tourists traveling to ski resorts.
Polis’ vision lined up with the multimodal transportation aims under the $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law Biden signed that year. In the final months of Biden’s administration, the city of Denver won a $150 million federal grant to build a rapid transit bus line along one of its busiest corridors.
Frommer, a transportation and land use policy manager, said there are fears that states will now have to pursue projects like that on their own.
“If your state cares about climate change, you need to take the reins and step up and direct your transportation funds to projects that are going to reduce emissions,” Frommer said. “We may not be able to rely on the federal government to put that policy in place or to really help you in many ways.”
Minnesota followed Colorado’s lead and adopted a similar rule to offset greenhouse emissions. Other states that are part of the network are pushing proposals this session.
The Maryland House recently passed its version of the Colorado law, and Senate sponsor Shelly Hettleman said she’s cautiously optimistic it will win final passage before lawmakers adjourn.
In trying to persuade her colleagues, Hettleman has focused less on the environmental benefits than what she sees as economic ones. A study commissioned by the Colorado transportation department projected up to $40 billion in savings through improved air quality, road safety and reduced traffic congestion, among other things.
Lawmakers in the Clean Rides states of Illinois and Massachusetts have advanced similar proposals, but they’ve encountered resistance from some business leaders and advocates for road construction.
“This is another ill-advised piece of legislation, not based upon science, that will defer needed improvements to our crumbling transportation infrastructure in Illinois,” said Mike Sturino, president and CEO of the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association. “Commuters will have to wait for improvements to our existing interstate system, as this bill would delay addressing unsafe conditions on our roads and bridges.”
Although most of the state leaders who have pushed alternative transportation options have been Democrats, the Clean Rides Network said more conservative states have shown interest in some of the topics, too.
Just as Colorado’s anticipated cost savings helped spur legislation in Maryland, economic concerns continue to be foremost in the minds of residents, with some studies showing that transportation ranks second to housing in consumer costs.
“Forget about the cost of eggs. It’s never been more expensive to drive a car,” said Miguel Moravec with the nonprofit climate think tank RMI, which created a calculator to help states project the money they could save through policies that reduce emissions.
Virginia employs a scale that scores potential transportation projects based on factors such as safety, congestion relief, and environmental impacts.
Utah launched an ambitious transit plan for the rapidly growing state, while Montana implemented land use and zoning reforms that made cities more walkable.
Muhammed Patel, senior transportation advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Chicago, said states are at least rethinking some of their policy priorities.
“We do live luckily in a country where states have authority over their own transportation systems,” Patel said. “There’s flexibility innately built in.”