Why are formulas used to allocate federal transportation money?
Formulas are used because the need for limited transportation money is not uniform across the entire United States. A different formula is written in authorizing legislation for each transportation program. Programs use formulas that are calculated using data on a wide variety of topics including population, air quality measures, public transportation ridership, or traffic congestion. Data inserted into formulas is scientifically obtained by governmental agencies such as the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the United States Census Bureau, or the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additional information–such as traffic crash data and transit ridership figures–are collected from state, local, and regional agencies. The Highway Safety Program uses one of the simplest formulas in the transportation funding arena, and this discussion is provided as an example of how a formula system works. The Highway Safety Program divides its $1.
