Sponsors (2)
The bill creates a powerful national data tool and funds research to improve transportation planning, safety, and freight efficiency, but does so at a modest Highway Trust Fund cost while raising privacy risks, administrative burdens, and the potential for uneven benefits between urban and rural areas.
State and local transportation agencies gain a centralized, regularly updated national tool to identify congestion hotspots and target mitigation investments more efficiently.
Planners, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and freight operators can use integrated origin–destination, speed, and multi-year freight data to improve project planning and freight routing, potentially reducing travel times and freight costs for commuters and shippers.
Local governments and communities benefit from enhanced safety analysis by including crash and safety data and performance measures, helping prioritize safety investments that could reduce crashes and related injuries.
Taxpayers face a $50 million Highway Trust Fund allocation (outside the Mass Transit Account) that could reduce funds available for other highway projects or programs.
Individuals and private data providers may face privacy and commercial-sensitivity risks because the aggregation of detailed speed, origin–destination, and freight data could expose sensitive information if safeguards are not specified.
State and local agencies may incur additional data-preparation, standardization, and coordination burdens to align local datasets with the national roadway inventory and HPMS standards, requiring staff time and resources.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 24, 2026 by John Cornyn · Last progress February 24, 2026
Creates a federally supported national infrastructure intelligence tool by directing the Secretary of Transportation to engage a university-based transportation research institute to develop and maintain an integrated national dataset and analysis platform for speeds, congestion, freight origin-destination, crashes, asset conditions, truck parking, and related measures. The tool must draw on federal, state, local, and publicly available private data, include specified data elements with at least three years of historical records for key datasets, be updated at least annually, involve consultation with State DOTs and stakeholders, and is funded up to $50 million from the Highway Trust Fund over five fiscal years.