Analyze a report
Our purpose in producing this report was to analyze the latest data and trends shaping
transportation so we could objectively frame critical policy choices that need to be made. Trends
and choices such as:
How will we move?How will we build a transportation system to accommodate a growing population and changing travel patterns?
America’s population will grow by 70 million by 2045.
By 2050, emerging megaregions could absorb 75 percent of the U.S. population; rural populations are expected to continue declining.
Population growth will be greatest in the South and West; existing infrastructure
might not be able to accommodate it.
It is possible that Americans, particularly millennials, will continue reducing trips by
car in favor of more trips by transit and intercity passenger rail.
In 2045 there will be nearly twice as many older Americans—thus, more people needing quality transit connections to medical and other services.
How will we move things?And reduce freight chokepoints that drive up the cost of owning a business?
By 2045, freight volume will increase 45 percent.