Welcome to The Weekly Journey - your two-minute journey through the world of mobility and beyond. Use it to stay informed, find a new go-to source, or just have a peek inside how we think. Brought to you by the team at Journey.

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A few interesting things. 🧠

The Big Deal: DOT announced over $5 billion in new federal infrastructure grant awards last week, including the latest round of RAISE, Reconnecting Communities, FRA Restoration & Enhancement, and Airport Infrastructure grants. Our team at Journey is excited to collaborate on these innovative projects over the coming years - learn more below in the update.

Congestion 📉 Bus Speeds 📈 : Very early days, but definitely worth checking out MTA’s week one report-out (PDF) on how congestion pricing has affected travel behavior in Lower Manhattan so far.

NEMT Across the USA: Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) services play a vital, and often overlooked, role in ensuring access to healthcare. Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and National Center for Mobility Management (NCMM) just published a great resource with NEMT model profiles for all 50 states and DC (PDF) - prepared by our friends at TTI and RLS.

Yay Bus Lanes!: Awesome video from TransLink dispelling “The Empty Bus Lane Myth”

NEPA EIS Timelines: The federal government has made a big push to reduce the time it takes to complete environmental impact statements (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A new report tracks their progress.

NACTO 3.0: The latest edition of NACTO’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide drops today.

A quick Journey update. 👷‍♀️

Team with Journey: Last week the Biden administration announced over $5 billion in new federal infrastructure grant awards, via programs like RAISE and Reconnecting Communities. Our team at Journey – a new national D/WBE mobility planning firm – is excited to dive into these projects! We’re ready to support your proposal team with services such as:

• 🚌 Transit service planning, including operations plans for BRT projects and microtransit planning

• 🏘️ Neighborhood-area mobility strategies, including mobility plans for highway cap projects

• 📈 Mobility-focused market analyses, existing conditions assessments, and transit competitiveness strategies

• 📒 TDM/Mobility Playbooks for district plans and new developments

• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Comprehensive community engagement strategies in Austin and Central Texas

• 🏗️ Strategic community engagement, construction mitigation, and Title VI compliance plans nationwide

Journey holds D/WBE certifications in over 25 jurisdictions – including LA Metro SBE and City and County of Denver M/WBE. We specialize in seamlessly embedding with your team and hassle-free standalone deliverables. Reach out or visit our website to get started.

Join Our Book Clubs: Ready to make 2025 your reading era? Then join one of our upcoming book clubs…

• Chicago City Builders Book Club: Journey founder Lauren Mattern is partnering with Marla Westervelt of Cityfi to launch a new Chicago-focused book club, discussing all things related to urban development and architecture. They’ll meet up on the 4th Wednesday of every month (i.e. next Wednesday!) somewhere in The Loop. In January, they are reading The Daley Show: Inside the Transformative Reign of Chicago’s Richard M. Daley. Sign up here.

• ACT Book Club: Lauren is leading the Association for Commuter Transportation’s first-ever book club. Discussions will be held virtually and are open to all ACT members - and qualify as 1 TDM-CP credit per meeting. Our first meeting will be on February 13 at 4:30 PM ET and feature Sara Bronin, author of Key to the City. Lauren and Sara will lead a tactical discussion focused on what TDM practitioners need to know about zoning codes. Feel free to join whether or not you’ve had time to read the book! Sign up here.