Transportation Planning

Transportation planning is a comprehensive process for evaluating transportation needs in a collaborative and meaningful way. It allows for public involvement in setting long-term transportation visions and goals in order to prioritize projects for federal transportation funding.

National Transportation Strategy

The National Park Service’s transportation system represents a $60 billion transportation portfolio and supports its core mission by providing visitor access to America’s greatest natural and cultural treasures. Within the 420+ units of the national park system, transportation assets include approximately:

• 14,000 miles of road
• 2000 bridges
• 8,000 parking areas
• 1,000 miles of transportation trails
• 100 transit systems, including buses, trolleys, trains, ferries, and snow coaches

The National Park Service (NPS) is facing challenges with its transportation system such as aging bridges and roads, the effects of climate change on park resources and infrastructure, and changing technologies and visitor expectations. To address these challenges and identify opportunities and priorities, the National Park Service has prepared the National Transportation Strategy (NTS). The NTS guides transportation investments at a high level and is part of the NPS’s continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative approach to transportation planning. The NTS includes actions that the National Park Service can take within the next five years, defines long-term goals and objectives, and sets an agenda for achieving ambitious changes in transportation infrastructure and operations.

The Highway Trust Fund, which provides the bulk of NPS' transportation funding, is a surface transportation funding source that is reauthorized every five years, most recently in 2021 via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). This document, Transportation System Needs and Priorities for the Surface Transportation Reauthorization (May 2024), is a complement to the NPS' National Transportation Strategy (April 2024) and identifies specific funding needs and priorities in advance of the 2026 surface transportation funding reauthorization.