News and Views May 26. 2026: Build America 250: $580B Reauthorization Shapes Transit's Next Five Years

This episode of Transportopia News and Views breaks down the biggest surface transportation bill in years, New York’s congestion pricing first-year results, California’s controversial 140 mph bullet-bus study, and the winners of the 2026 International Bus Roadeo in Salt Lake City.

Host Rick L’Amie connects policy headlines with real-world practice, highlighting how funding, results, speed, and the people who run transit intersect — and teases a ride-along episode in New York City with his daughter coming next week.

SOURCES / SHOW NOTES

1. BUILD America 250 Act Advances — House T&I Committee, May 22, 2026 https://democrats-transportation.house.gov/news/press-releases/tandi-committee-approves-build-america-250-act 2. NYC Congestion Pricing One-Year Results — WBUR Here & Now, May 18, 2026 https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2026/05/18/nyc-congestion-pricing 3. CalTrans Studies 140 MPH "Bullet Buses" — Streetsblog USA, May 18, 2026 https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/high-speed-rail-california-22267442.php 4. APTA Mobility Conference & International Bus Roadeo — APTA Passenger Transport, May 2026 https://aptapassengertransport.com/apta-kicks-off-mobility-conference-in-salt-lake-city/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Congress unveils the biggest surface transportation bill

(00:02):
since the Infrastructure Act.
New York's congressional pricing crosses a milestone
almost no one expected.
California floats a 140-mile-per-hour high-speed bus plan.
And the best bus drivers and mechanics in North America
gather in Salt Lake City to prove who's the best.
This is the Transportopia podcast, featuring engaging

(00:32):
and sometimes humorous conversations about transit's
past, present, and future, with the people shaping it
every day.
Now, here's Rick Lemme.
Hello, everyone.
I'm Rick Lemme.
Welcome to Transportopia News and Views,
our bonus segment between full-length episodes

(00:52):
where we break down what's happening right now
across public transportation and urban planning.
Just the top stories, what they mean, and why they matter.
Let's get into it.
We start in Washington, where the next five
years of American public transportation policy
got its first real shape.
On May 18, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
Chairman Sam Graves and Ranking Member Rick Larson

(01:15):
released the text of the Build America 250
Act, a bipartisan five-year surface transportation
reauthorization bill that authorizes roughly $580 billion
across roads, bridges, transit, and rail.
After a 15-hour markup on Thursday,
the committee advanced the bill on a 61-to-2 vote.
The legislation includes the largest ever federal investment

(01:38):
in bridges and introduces new annual registration
on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids
to help shore up the Highway Trust Fund.
But there's a catch worth watching.
Unlike the 2021 Infrastructure Act,
this bill does not include general fund advance
appropriations.
That means about $106 billion of that total
would be subject to annual appropriations

(02:00):
fights in Congress.
Quick take, a bipartisan 61-to-2 vote is real news in 2026,
but guaranteed money is not the same as appropriated money,
and transit advocates will be watching the Senate carefully.
Next to New York, where the most debated transportation
policy in America just turned in its first-year report card.
New analysis published this week confirms

(02:21):
that New York's Congestion Pricing Program, which
charges vehicles to enter Manhattan's Central Business
District during peak hours, generated $578 million
in its first year alone, all of it
directed towards public transit restoration and improvements.
Subway ridership grew 7.7% in 2025,
with bus ridership up double digits in the congestion zone

(02:42):
and traffic in lower Manhattan is measurably lighter.
The Trump administration continues
to fight to end the program, but the program
continues to operate while the legal battle plays out in court.
Quick take, the thing about a policy that works
is that the results keep coming in, month after month,
whether the politics like it or not.
Out West, California is looking at what

(03:03):
sounds like science fiction, but it isn't.
Caltrans confirms that it is studying so-called bullet
buses that would travel up to 140 miles per hour
on dedicated freeway lanes between LA and San Francisco.
The idea is to offer rail-like speeds
without the decades-long timeline and cost of building
actual high-speed rail using existing highway

(03:25):
right-of-way, automated guidance systems,
and articulated coaches.
Reaction from the transit press and politicians
has been, let's say, skeptical.
The concept raises real questions
about whether putting buses on freeways at airline speeds
solves the underlying problem or simply
gives the state another reason not
to finish the high-speed rail project it's already started.

(03:47):
Quick take, high-speed bullet buses
will need high-speed infrastructure,
and there's not a road in America
that's built to safely handle that kind of speed,
let alone a bus.
And finally, to Salt Lake City, where
the people who actually keep America's buses running
gathered to honor the best of them,
the American Public Transportation Association

(04:09):
held its 2026 Mobility Conference
and International Bus Rodeo.
Rodeo as in R-O-A-D-E-O.
It's a spectacle that runs every year,
and it was hosted by Utah Transit Authority this time.
The rodeo, which is kind of like watching an obstacle
course with buses on it moving in slow motion,

(04:29):
brought together 94 transit agencies, 80 drivers,
and 49 maintenance teams competing
in events that measure safety, efficiency,
and professionalism behind the wheel and under the hood.
The grand champion this year, LA Metro.
The conference itself drew hundreds
of bus and paratransit professionals
and included a direct conversation
with senior Federal Transit Administration

(04:51):
officials about national priorities
heading into reauthorization.
Quick take, we talk about subways and BRT lines
and policy bills, but transit only
works because somebody shows up at 430 in the morning
to drive a bus.
And who would have thought that in the land of cars,
LA Metro would be crowned the bus rodeo grand champion.

(05:11):
This week's News and Views illustrates the gap
between policy and practice.
Congress is writing the next five years of transportation
law.
New York is generating real numbers
that change the argument.
California is floating ideas that may or may not
be serious, like the bullet bus.
And in Salt Lake City, the actual operators
of those systems competed to see who's best at the job.

(05:34):
Policy matters.
Results matter.
Speed matters.
Nothing of it works without people.
And that's true at every level, from the bus operator
to the rider.
That's your Transportopia News and Views for May 26, 2026.
Now, speaking of riders, next time,
we're taking the show on the road.
I'm heading to New York City to ride the subway

(05:55):
with my daughter, Lauren Lemme, who
left our old hometown of Austin, Texas,
10 years ago for Brooklyn, and has lived car-free ever since.
10 years without a car in America.
What does it actually look like, and how does it work?
Here's a quick taste of our conversation recorded
on the F train heading into Manhattan.
But I could go a different way and exit sooner.

(06:18):
But then the exit that way is in Times Square,
and then you're weaving through 1,000 people.
This exit, you'll see, pops me out right by my office entrance.
So it's way better.
It's a little quieter today, I think, since it's a Friday.
But Austin, you know, a lot of things.

(06:39):
There's also, like, there's a guy, like, asking for money.
And then there'll be, like, two dudes, like, singing at once.
Here we are.
All right.
We've made it.
That's next time on Transportopia.
You won't want to miss it.
Until then, thanks for listening to Transportopia,
the intersection of transportation and utopia.
Like us wherever you listen to your podcast,

(07:00):
and visit us at transportopia.org for show notes and more.
I'm Rick Lemme.
Goodbye, everybody.
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