If transportation policy is going to achieve critical national objectives around economic competiveness, environmental sustainability, and social equity in an era of fiscal constraints it will require a 21st-century transportation vision. In this presentation, Robert Puentes will lay out such a vision and argue that by concentrating reforms on three major policy areas—federal leadership, empowerment of metropolitan areas, and optimization of the program—federal transportation policy can move from the anachronistic structure that exists today to something that actually works for the nation and metropolitan America.
Speaker: Robert Puentes is a fellow with the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program where he also directs the Program's Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative. The Initiate was established to address the pressing transportation and infrastructure challenges facing cities and suburbs in the United States and abroad.
Robert's work focuses on the broad array of policies and issues related to metropolitan growth and development. He is an expert on transportation and infrastructure, urban planning, growth management, suburban issues and housing.
Recent publications include: "A Bridge to Somewhere: Rethinking American Transportation for the 21st Century",”America’s Infrastructure: Ramping Up or Crashing Down?","Challenges Ahead: New Urban Demographics and Impacts on Transportation”,"A Review of the Land Use Regulations in the Nation's 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas", "Prosperty at Risk: Toward a Competitive New Jersey", and "One Fifth of the Nation: A Profile of Change in America’s First Suburbs". He is a frequent speaker to a variety of groups, a regular contributor in newspapers and other media, and has testified before Congressional committees.
Prior to joining Brookings, Robert was the director of infrastructure programs at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. He holds a master degree from the University of Virginia where he serves on the Alumni Advisory Board, and is an affiliated professor with Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He serves on a variety of boards and committees including, most recently, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, the Tysons Corner Tomorrow Advisory Task Force, and the Falls Church, Virginia Planning Commission where he lives with his wife and three sons.