Planning Year in Review 2024: An Ongoing Housing Crisis, the Fight for Climate Resilience, and a Mixed Bag for Transportation

The past year saw a continued, slow adjustment to the post-pandemic world and new challenges for planners and policymakers as pandemic-era assistance programs and protections came to an end, revealing the dire economic situation facing a large number of American households. The high cost of housing still looms large, putting more Americans than ever at risk of eviction and driving up homelessness rates. The Supreme Court paved the way for harsher treatment of unhoused people, and households seeking housing assistance remain on years-long waiting lists.

Public transit agencies, decimated by low ridership rates and a lack of funding, face steep budget gaps, forcing service cuts that disproportionately harm low-income, transit-dependent Americans. Meanwhile, transportation departments continue to build deadly roads, ignoring growing evidence that the design of roadways and vehicles has a major impact on traffic safety even as pedestrian deaths remain at record-high levels in many regions.

Climate change is fueling more destructive floods, storms, and fires, causing a crisis in the home insurance industry and driving up costs for homeowners — when they can get insurance at all. The impact of extreme weather on U.S. infrastructure is prompting cities and states to engage in resilience projects to prepare for more powerful and unpredictable weather events. As this editor finishes writing this introduction, at the start of the new year, multiple wind-driven fires are raging across Planetizen’s home city of Los Angeles, displacing thousands of residents and highlighting the dangers of an extended fire season that stretches into January.

Forgive the doom and gloom. For all the troubling news of the last few months and concerns about changes in federal policy in the coming years, 2024 also brought some steady positive developments for U.S. transportation and land use. High-speed rail is finally having a moment, with multiple projects actually in the works and a successful line steadily gaining ridership in Florida. Bike share systems in several cities are seeing strong growth, in part due to the introduction of e-bikes that make cycling accessible to more people. Cities are liberalizing zoning laws to accommodate more housing and encourage more sustainable, walkable development, while states are taking steps to ensure that local jurisdictions pull their weight when it comes to housing production. The urgency prompted by extreme weather events has spurred expanded investment in resilience infrastructure and mitigation measures for extreme heat, flooding, and fire. And the potential changes imminent in federal policy are prompting quicker action on protecting public lands, the nation’s first congestion pricing program, and energy policy that aims to cement wins for renewable energy before the potential rollback of support.

Housing costs remain top of mind; is zoning the key to solving the crisis?

The housing crisis continues to impact American households, with homelessness jumping by over 18 percent since 2023 as pandemic-era assistance programs came to an end and housing costs remained exorbitantly high for most households. Other, older federal programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit are also reaching the ends of their terms, putting hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units in jeopardy. Roughly half of renter households are now ‘rent burdened,’ spending more than one-third of their income on housing. Meanwhile, a lack of adequate supply continues to benefit landlords, and a controversial Supreme Court ruling has led to a flurry of punitive laws that criminalize homelessness. Today, a growing body of research in housing and land use policy indicates that U.S. zoning codes are largely responsible for the insufficient housing supply and the high cost of housing.

To alleviate the crisis, cities and states are employing various ways to boost housing construction, encourage density, and lower costs for residents. From broad policies such as adaptive reuse or eliminating single-family zoning that restricts multi-family and mixed-use development to more targeted, small-scale interventions such as permitting accessory dwelling units and modular housing, cities and states are embracing new — and not-so-new — ideas for solving the housing crisis and bringing the housing supply in line with demand. But density continues to face backlash from what planners have long called the NIMBY crowd, and exclusionary tactics butt up against very real challenges posed by aging infrastructure and threatened resources like water in the growing cities of the Southwest and elsewhere.

For a more detailed look at developments in zoning reform, see our 2024 zoning roundup.

In a decision with far-reaching effects, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Grants Pass, Oregon in a case that charged the city could not cite or arrest unhoused residents for sleeping outdoors if no shelter beds were available. After the ruling, cities are free to criminalize people experiencing homelessness, even when no shelter options are available. In the wake of the ruling, dozens of cities around the country passed or strengthened ‘camping bans’ that prohibit people from sleeping outdoors. Advocates say this practice — which often leads to ‘sweeps’ of encampments resulting in displacement, loss of property, and sometimes arrest and a criminal record — destabilizes people living on the street and makes it harder for outreach workers to engage with them to offer services.

Transportation takes one step forward, one step back?

Still reeling from the seismic shifts in travel behavior brought on by the pandemic, remote work, and the changing character of central cities, public transit systems are struggling to maintain service in the face of massive budget gaps as federal funding that kept them afloat over the last few years dries up. With most agencies continuing to rely on fare revenue for the bulk of their funding, transit leaders around the country urged cities and states to dedicate additional funding sources to transit operations, arguing that properly subsidized transit can be more efficient and provide better service while cutting carbon emissions and traffic congestion.

Even with major injections of federal funding for transportation and transit capital projects, the year saw few new transit lines open. A few notable exceptions include Seattle, which expanded its light rail system, and Los Angeles, where a new Regional Connector transformed the city’s formerly disjointed rail network.

To fill gaps in existing fixed-route transit networks or provide service to far-flung areas, some communities are experimenting with on-demand transit (or microtransit), phone or app-based services that let people schedule rides as needed. While these services can serve as an important lifeline for seniors and people with limited transportation options in rural and remote areas, the high cost of operations and an overreliance on these services can leach resources away from fixed-route transit while remaining limited in their ability to scale up.

Despite Vision Zero pledges and some infrastructure improvements, the centrality of cars on American streets and the lack of regulations governing pedestrian safety have stalled safety efforts. Although the number of pedestrian deaths has begun to slowly decline over the last two years, it remains well above pre-pandemic levels. Evidence that large trucks and SUVs are more deadly to pedestrians continues to pile up. Autonomous cars wreaked havoc on cities, prompting recalls, federal investigations, and the shuttering of GM’s robotaxi division. More recently, Waymo engineers revealed that their robotaxis often fail to stop for pedestrians in part because they learn from the human drivers around them.

However, federal regulators are finally taking note: in March, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) proposed new rules that would require states to account for the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users in their project plans. And for the first time, crash test dummies will be designed to mimic female bodies to ensure more accurate safety testing.

Despite its local focus, the biggest transportation story of the year was New York City’s controversial congestion pricing program, which was repeatedly attacked by critics, then nixed by Governor Kathy Hochul, before finally gaining approval as the nation’s first-of-its-kind cordon pricing scheme after the election lent the issue new urgency.

A bright spot in America’s transportation future: intercity passenger rail is seeing renewed interest, with Amtrak hitting its highest ridership numbers ever and high-speed rail finally seeing serious investment in multiple projects around the country. After seeing increased ridership on its Florida line, the private Brightline rail operator broke ground on Brightline West, a high-speed rail line that will connect Las Vegas to the Los Angeles area. The project finalized key federal funding in October, ensuring its future.

Boosted by the advent of e-bikes and e-bike incentives, the micromobility sector is growing by leaps and bounds. Ridership grew rapidly on bike and scooter share systems in cities including Denver, Washington, D.C., Indianapolis, and Seattle. The growth in popularity of shared bikes and scooters — and data that indicate that most rides are taken by regular users — shows that these systems are becoming an integral part of some cities’ transportation systems.

Accessibility — both in public transit facilities and in the public realm at large — saw some inroads last year as more cities and transit agencies worked to improve accessibility and safety in stations and on streets and sidewalks for people with mobility, visual, hearing, and other challenges. In December, USDOT issued accessibility guidelines for new and renovated transit stops.

With the election of Donald Trump, federal support for policies to reduce emissions and public transit seem dubious — though Trump’s close ties with Tesla CEO Elon Musk could throw a wrench in the President-elect’s prior vow to eliminate the federal electric vehicle tax credit and roll back EV mandates for government agencies.

The need for climate resilience becomes clear

The climate crisis is reaching a (literal and metaphorical) boiling point as wildfires, flooding, extreme heat, and sea level rise exhibit increasingly destructive and unpredictable effects even in places previously deemed ‘climate havens.’ In the United States, millions of people will be forced to relocate in the coming decades as flooding, erosion, and fire make some communities unlivable. The effects are already evident on the West Coast, where service on the Los Angeles-to-San Diego rail corridor has been suspended repeatedly due to unsafe conditions on the shifting soil beneath the ocean-adjacent tracks. On the East Coast, New York is building massive flood barriers and raising its shoreline to protect the city from the kind of catastrophic flooding brought on by Hurricane Sandy and other storms.

In much of the Southwest (and beyond), extreme heat is becoming a deadly, annual danger as summertime temperatures climb and urban power grids strain to keep up with the demand for electricity. With heat deaths on the rise, some cities, including Phoenix and Los Angeles, have created new offices and action plans to address extreme heat and protect residents from its effects. Strategies to address heat include tree planting efforts, the installation of shade structures at more transit stops, which often lack seating and shade amenities, and the expansion of access to public pools. Heat not only impacts public health and electric grids, but can also damage public transit infrastructure.

In November, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced a Climate Adaptation Plan that acknowledges the impacts of climate change on transportation infrastructure and calls for prioritizing “investment in climate-smart infrastructure, linking climate resilience and environmental justice, leveraging federal climate data, and reducing climate impacts on federal assets.” The U.S. Department of Energy announced funding for 10 “climate resilience centers” at universities around the country to fund research and projects that address weather disasters.

Project 2025 threatens to roll back recent gains in transportation, infrastructure, conservation

Leading up to the November election, planners and experts in housing, land use, and transportation called for a close examination of the policies proposed in Project 2025, a conservative agenda whose recommendations are likely to be implemented by the incoming Trump administration. The proposals could have major impacts on housing policy, transportation, and public lands.

Chapter 15 of Project 2025, which addresses proposed changes to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), calls for minimizing federal preemption of local land use regulations and dismisses the idea that building more affordable housing will solve the crisis. While supporting homeownership, the document also calls for the preservation of single-family zoning, which is widely blamed for keeping homeownership costs unattainably high. The document also threatens cuts to the Community Block Development Grant and proposes changes to the tax code that would eliminate affordable housing incentives.

When it comes to transportation, Project 2025 would cut funding for public transit, arguing that mass transit is financially inefficient (never mind that public transit is expressly built as a public good). Chapter 19 also advocates an end to Vision Zero as federal policy, as well as any equity goals in transportation policy, including programs like Reconnecting Communities. It — and Trump — advocate for the elimination of the federal electric vehicle tax credit and a rollback of federal policies that encourage the adoption of electric vehicles.

Public lands are also under threat from Project 2025 and Trump, whose “drill baby drill” mentality doesn’t stop at protected areas. Proposed changes to the Department of Interior would restore mining claims and oil leases on sensitive lands, limit new national monument designations, repeal the 1906 Antiquities Act, and give more regulatory power to states. Trump has also suggested using public lands to build housing (a potentially tempting tactic before considering the infrastructure costs). In November, President Biden took steps to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska from further oil and gas drilling. Conservation groups are bracing for a potential slew of legal challenges to public land protections in the coming years.