Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a new spending plan for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that calls for more than $146 billion to be spent on road construction and maintenance over the next decade. It’s the third year in a row that the 10-year Unified Transportation Program (UTP), which is updated annually, has exceeded $100 billion. Officials say it’s a needed investment for a sprawling, car-centric state that has gained, on average, more than 8,000 new residents every week for the last 25 years.
“This more than $146 billion investment in our roadways will help Texas meet the critical needs of our growing state as more people and businesses move here for the freedom and opportunity they can’t find anywhere else,” Abbott said in a press release. “We must strengthen our roadways and improve congestion and safety to keep our economy booming and keep Texans moving.”
It’s a notably triumphant declaration of growth in a year when many other states, from Oregon to Illinois and Pennsylvania, are struggling with high-profile battles over how to raise and distribute transportation revenue. Texas’ plan, like other states, relies on a mix of federal, state, and local funding to pay for construction and maintenance.
But while many state transportation budgets are pegged to dwindling gas tax revenue, Texas has increased funding from other sources over the last decade. In 2014 Texas voters approved Proposition 1, which allocates tax revenue from oil and gas production — a key industry in the state — to the state highway fund. The next year they approved Proposition 7, which directs more state sales tax revenue to transportation. Together, these measures have generated more than $40 billion for the State Highway Fund to date. In addition, population growth has allowed Texas to steadily increase funding for transportation and other priorities without raising taxes repeatedly.
Transportation Investments and Successes
The state has claimed some progress on congestion relief. TxDOT says there’s been a 15 percent reduction in the average commuter’s time spent in traffic over the last decade. It’s also increased funding for roadway maintenance. The American Society of Civil Engineers notes that 90 percent of pavement on Texas roads is in “good condition” (though it gives the state a C overall on its infrastructure report card).
The state’s recent traffic safety record has mirrored national trends, with a big spike in fatalities in the beginning of the pandemic and a smaller drop since then. At least 4,150 people died on Texas roads last year, compared to around 3,600 in 2019.
Partisan Fights
The Unified Transportation Program includes funding for some alternate modes of transportation, including public transit, aviation and ports, though spending on those modes makes up just two percent of TxDOT’s budget. The lion’s share — 89 percent of the overall budget — is dedicated to “the development, delivery, and maintenance of state highway projects.” Critics say that focus not only shortchanges other transportation modes, but also undercuts the state’s own congestion-relief goals.
“Their entire budget is based on a fallacy, which is more roads equals less traffic,” says Katy Atkiss, director of the Texas Streets Coalition, a network of advocacy groups focused on street safety, air quality, and biking, walking, and other transportation modes. The coalition, which has supported efforts to stop highway expansions in Austin and Houston, has also criticized the way TxDOT evaluates the environmental impacts of its projects. It submitted a series of “very detailed recommendations” for the Unified Transportation Program in 2023 and 2024, but Atkiss says it didn’t see them reflected in TxDOT’s plans. As a result, she says, “Our group did not prioritize submitting comments for the UTP this year.”
Transportation planning has taken on an unusually partisan, ideological flavor in Texas in recent years. The state Republican Party’s official platform incorporates opposition to certain climate and safety programs, along with “anti-car measures that punish those who choose to travel alone in their vehicles.” TxDOT under Abbott has also clamped down on local efforts to build infrastructure for alternate modes. In one example, TxDOT canceled plans to cede control of a state road to the city of San Antonio after voters had approved a plan — and local funding — to build bike lanes there.
Still, the state has undertaken efforts to promote safer infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as drivers. TxDOT has a campaign dedicated to “ending the streak” of traffic deaths (there has been at least one death on state roads every single day since November of 2000). In 2019, the Texas Transportation Commission, which governs TxDOT, allocated $300 million a year for safety efforts, doubling the previous allocation.
“That is state money that otherwise would’ve gone to building roads,” says Jay Blazek Crossley, the Austin-based director of Farm&City, a group that advocates for better urban and rural planning in Texas.
There are other efforts at TxDOT to promote projects that go beyond widening highways. The department has recently developed an active transportation plan to support pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, for example. But it doesn’t come with any additional funding, Crossley notes. By contrast, the state has treated its highway spending, which supports a vast network of construction groups and contractors, as central to its economic development.
“I believe we can make progress; it’s just real hard,” Crossley says. “Keeping the gravy train going is the main thing that’s happening with the UTP, and that gravy train is chugging along.”
