Preserving Essential Information in an Uncertain World

The new U.S. federal administration may eliminate useful information sources. Planners should download and preserve key documents and datasets.

2 minute read

January 24, 2025, 5:00 AM PST

By Todd Litman

Front entrance of U.S. Department of Transportation office in Washington D.C.

Tada Images / Adobe Stock

Bakers need flour and carpenters need lumber; what do planners need? Information of course! Data sets, reports, and maps are our key inputs. Some of these are now under threat.

Planners have reasons to be concerned about the new U.S. administration. In its first days it has shut down many federal websites, and that trend is likely to filter down to many federal agency pages, including some with basic planning information. I recommend that planners download and preserve documents and data sets that may be useful in the future. If necessary, we can pass it around like underground Samizdat literature during the Soviet era.

For example, the US Department of Transportation's Climate Change Center recently produced a Climate Strategies that Work Playbook website that provides guidance on evaluating and implementing the 27 transportation emission reduction strategies listed below. The entire set is also available in one large document.

This is useful information, and many of these strategies support conservative goals such as government cost efficiency, affordability, consumer sovereignty and efficient pricing, as discussed in my new report, Progressive Planning in Ideologically Conservative Communities, but I fear that the new administration will shut down the entire website simply because it is framed in terms of emission reduction goals.

I have a personal reason to hope that this website is preserved, since many of these documents cite my research, particularly a report, Planning for Quality of Life: Considering Community Cohesion and Related Social Goals, which was previously called Community Cohesion as a Transport Planning Goal. It analyzes quality of life (social) goals, describes ways to evaluate them, and identifies strategies that can help achieve these goals and improve overall livability. Both conservatives and liberals have good reasons to support these goals.

A basic principle of good planning is to hope for the best but prepare for the worst, which for planners means losses of the information needed for our jobs. Whenever you use a government website consider downloading and saving any documents and datasets that you or colleagues may want in the future.

What do you think? How can planners respond to harmful ideological attacks?

Government / Politics Ideological attacks Information Preservation Politics In Planning Urban Planning Data Government Data Federal Agencies View More

Todd Litman

Todd Litman is founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems. His work helps to expand the range of impacts and options considered in transportation decision-making, improve evaluation methods, and make specialized technical concepts accessible to a larger audience. His research is used worldwide in transport planning and policy analysis.

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Start Learning

Advertise with us

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.