COMMUTE Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1629 To require the Secretary of Transportation to carry out a pilot program to develop and provide to States and transportation planning organiza- tions accessibility data sets, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 13, 2021 Ms. BALDWIN (for herself and Ms. ERNST) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To require the Secretary of Transportation to carry out a pilot program to develop and provide to States and transportation planning organizations accessibility data sets, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Connecting Opportuni- 4 ties through Mobility Metrics and Unlocking Transpor- 5 tation Efficiencies Act’’ or the ‘‘COMMUTE Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:24 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1629.IS S1629 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1629 IS SEC. 2. ACCESSIBILITY DATA PILOT PROGRAM. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 2 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transpor- 3 tation (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 4 establish an accessibility data pilot program (referred to 5 in this section as the ‘‘pilot program’’). 6 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the pilot program is 7 to develop or procure an accessibility data set and make 8 that data set available to each eligible entity selected to 9 participate in the pilot program to improve the transpor- 10 tation planning of those eligible entities by— 11 (1) measuring the level of access by multiple 12 transportation modes to important destinations, 13 which may include— 14 (A) jobs, including areas with a concentra- 15 tion of available jobs; 16 (B) health care facilities; 17 (C) child care services; 18 (D) educational and workforce training fa- 19 cilities; 20 (E) affordable housing; 21 (F) food sources; and 22 (G) connections between modes, including 23 connections to— 24 (i) high-quality transit or rail service; 25 (ii) safe bicycling corridors; and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:24 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1629.IS S1629 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1629 IS (iii) safe sidewalks that achieve com- 1 pliance with applicable requirements of the 2 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 3 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.); 4 (2) disaggregating the level of access by mul- 5 tiple transportation modes by a variety of population 6 categories, which may include— 7 (A) low-income populations; 8 (B) minority populations; 9 (C) age; 10 (D) disability; and 11 (E) geographical location; 12 (3) assessing the change in accessibility that 13 would result from new transportation investments; 14 and 15 (4) providing data necessary to prioritize trans- 16 portation investments that will improve access by all 17 modes of travel. 18 (c) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity eligible to par- 19 ticipate in the pilot program is— 20 (1) a State (as defined in section 101(a) of title 21 23, United States Code); 22 (2) a metropolitan planning organization; or 23 (3) a rural transportation planning organiza- 24 tion. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:24 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1629.IS S1629 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1629 IS (d) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to participate in 1 the pilot program, an eligible entity shall submit to the 2 Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, 3 and containing such information as the Secretary may re- 4 quire, including information relating to— 5 (1) previous experience of the eligible entity 6 measuring transportation access, especially in low-in- 7 come, transit-dependent, or other high-needs com- 8 munities, or other performance management experi- 9 ence; 10 (2) the types of important destinations to which 11 the eligible entity intends to measure access; 12 (3) the types of data disaggregation the eligible 13 entity intends to pursue; 14 (4) a general description of the methodology the 15 eligible entity intends to apply; 16 (5) if the applicant does not intend the pilot 17 program to apply to the full area under the jurisdic- 18 tion of the applicant, a description of the geographic 19 area in which the applicant intends the pilot pro- 20 gram to apply; and 21 (6) a description of how the eligible entity plans 22 to use the data to improve access to jobs and serv- 23 ices by all modes of travel, including for commu- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:24 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1629.IS S1629 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1629 IS nities of color, low-income communities, people who 1 are transit-dependent, and vulnerable road users. 2 (e) SELECTION.— 3 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall seek to 4 achieve diversity of participants in the pilot program 5 by selecting a range of eligible entities that shall in- 6 clude— 7 (A) States; 8 (B) metropolitan planning organizations 9 that serve an area with a population of 200,000 10 people or fewer; 11 (C) metropolitan planning organizations 12 that serve an area with a population of over 13 200,000 people; and 14 (D) rural transportation planning organi- 15 zations. 16 (2) INCLUSIONS.—The Secretary shall seek to 17 ensure that, among the eligible entities selected 18 under paragraph (1), there is— 19 (A) a range of capacity and previous expe- 20 rience with measuring transportation access; 21 and 22 (B) a variety of proposed methodologies 23 and focus areas for measuring level of access. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:24 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1629.IS S1629 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1629 IS (f) DUTIES.—For each eligible entity participating in 1 the pilot program, the Secretary shall— 2 (1) develop or acquire an accessibility data set 3 described in subsection (b); and 4 (2) submit the data set to the eligible entity. 5 (g) METHODOLOGY.—In calculating the measures for 6 the data set under the pilot program, the Secretary shall 7 ensure that methodology is open source. 8 (h) AVAILABILITY.—The Secretary shall make an ac- 9 cessibility data set under the pilot program available to— 10 (1) units of local government within the juris- 11 diction of the eligible entity participating in the pilot 12 program; and 13 (2) researchers. 14 (i) REPORT.—Not later than 120 days after the last 15 date on which the Secretary submits data sets to the eligi- 16 ble entity under subsection (f), the Secretary shall submit 17 to Congress a report on the results of the program, includ- 18 ing— 19 (1) the feasibility of developing and providing 20 periodic accessibility data sets for all States, regions, 21 and localities; and 22 (2) an identification of specific actions the Sec- 23 retary and eligible entities participating in the pilot 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:24 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1629.IS S1629 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1629 IS program may take to further the use of accessibility 1 data. 2 (j) FUNDING.—The Secretary shall carry out the 3 pilot program using amounts made available to the Sec- 4 retary for administrative expenses to carry out programs 5 under the authority of the Secretary. 6 (k) SUNSET.—The pilot program shall terminate on 7 the date that is 5 years after the date on which the pilot 8 program is implemented. 9 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:24 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1629.IS S1629 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS