Visualizing Transportation Funding

Date and Time: : -
Location: 

 

Julia Edmonds, OST-R/Bureau of Transportation Statistics

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION

Visualizing Transportation Funding
10th International Symposium on Visualization in Transportation

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) simplified and distilled the complex information in recent transportation funding bills through a series of interactive, online visualizations. The bills include the three emergency COVID-19 authorizations (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021) and the recent infrastructure spending bill (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—otherwise known as BIL).

These visualizations embody the ‘Innovative Visualization Frontier’ and demonstrate ‘Cross-Cutting Applications of Visualization for Transportation’, because they transform difficult to digest legislative text into easily understandable visuals that succinctly show the details of the bills. Across all four spending bills, transportation received approximately $892.0 billion: $114.8 billion in the CARES Act, $45.0 billion in the CRRSA Act, $58.4 billion in the ARP Act, and $673.8 billion in the BIL. The legislative text and traditional tables rendered from the legislative text do not easily convey the magnitude of the allocation. In transforming the text into a series of visualizations, BTS makes it easy to see the key points. The colors and space used in the visualizations help the reader comprehend the total amount allocated and understand what programs received funding.

These visualizations start at a high level, showing the total amount allocated to transportation (see figures 1 and 2 below as an example). Subsequent visualizations provide further detail, showing which modes of transportation received funding, for what, and over what period of time. The three COVID-19 emergency response acts allocated one-time payouts, whereas BIL generally allocated amounts over five years (from 2022 to 2026). All the visualizations include a tool-tip that provides the user with additional information when they hover their curser over the visualization.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

PRESENTATION FILE