Need for Speed Act

The "Need for Speed Act" mandates the Secretary of Transportation to develop a national infrastructure intelligence tool for congestion mitigation. This tool will be created in coordination with a university-based transportation research institute, leveraging its expertise in areas like traffic and freight mobility, safety, and data integration. Its core purpose is to provide a consistent national resource for identifying congestion locations, determining their causes, and quantifying their impacts. The tool will integrate diverse federal, state, local, and publicly available private data sets, aligning them with a national roadway inventory network to support informed investment and operational decisions by various transportation agencies. Key components include national speed data, vehicle origin and destination information, crash data, asset condition data, and truck parking availability. It will also incorporate federal performance measurement resources and relevant state and local intelligence tools to offer a comprehensive view of roadway conditions. The Secretary is required to update the tool at least annually and consult with transportation organizations during its development, with an authorized appropriation of $50,000,000 from the Highway Trust Fund over five fiscal years to support this initiative.