Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative About Us

In conjunction with the Metropolitan Policy Program initiative Blueprint for American Prosperity, Brookings has formed the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative to develop timely, independent analysis, frame key debates, and offer policy recommendations to help leaders in the U.S. and abroad address key infrastructure challenges with specific emphasis on transportation.

The Initiative builds on a decade of independent and rigorous research and policy development in the transportation and infrastructure area. Brookings recently completed a multi-year effort designed to frame the national transportation policy debate around the most pressing challenges facing the nation’s cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas and to provide options for reform. That effort resulted in policy briefs, reports, op-eds and essays, of presentations and Congressional testimony, and numerous media citations and stories. A book, Taking the High Road: a Metropolitan Agenda for Transportation Reform was released in 2005. The time is ripe for this initiative. Several important factors are driving a widespread demand for systemic reform of our nation’s infrastructure and transportation policies. These factors range from genuine concern about the condition and quality of our existing infrastructure, to difficulties and lack of choices in moving people and goods, to major national problems like climate change, foreign energy dependence, and strained household budgets. There is growing recognition that, if left unchecked, these challenges threaten not only the quality of life in our metropolitan areas but also the competitiveness of our nation. At the same time, these debates are taking place in a fiscally constrained environment that should be the motivating factor for real reform.

For more information contact: Senior Fellow Rob Puentes, Fellow Metropolitan Policy Program at 202-797-6071 or via email: rpuentes@brookings.edu