The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed in 2021, directed the Department of Transportation to conduct a travel demand data and forecasting study by November 2023 — and to repeat it at least once every five years thereafter. The study was supposed to produce best practices and guidance for states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to use when forecasting travel demand for future transportation investments. As of the GAO’s March 2026 review, the study has not been completed.

Metropolitan Planning Organizations and transit agencies have not been passive in the face of post-pandemic travel disruption. The GAO’s 2026 survey of all 410 MPOs found that at least 80 percent reported taking one or more actions in each of three domains — transit, vehicle use, and housing — since 2019. The range of those actions, and their uneven results, sketch a useful map of where American cities stand. On the transit side, roughly 80 percent of MPOs reported that providers in their communities adjusted service in some form.

The GAO’s March 2026 report on telework and travel patterns contains a data point that deserves to stand alone: as of fiscal year 2024, exactly one of the 26 cities the Federal Transit Administration designates as top transit cities had recovered ridership to 2019 levels. That city is Miami–Fort Lauderdale, at 104 percent. Every other major transit system in the country remains below the line. The spread is wide. Salt Lake City recovered to 91 percent.

The relationship between where people work and where they live has been recalibrated. The GAO’s 2026 telework report synthesizes evidence from empirical studies and metropolitan planning organizations to map the real estate consequences — and they run in opposite directions depending on where you look. In central business districts, the picture is one of contraction. Office vacancy rates climbed as hybrid schedules hollowed out weekday occupancy. A prior GAO report documented that between August 2022 and January 2024, prices fell across all commercial property types — office, multi-family, retail, lodging — with the single exception of industrial properties.

A March 2026 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office puts hard numbers on what transit agencies and metropolitan planners have been navigating since 2020: telework rates tripled during the pandemic and have not come back down to earth. According to American Community Survey data analyzed by GAO, the share of workers who primarily worked from home stood at 5.7 percent in 2019. By 2021 it had reached 17.9 percent. By 2024 it had declined to 13.

Total vehicle miles traveled in the United States surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time in 2024. Federal Highway Administration data show 3.28 trillion miles driven, clearing the 3.26 trillion recorded in 2019. On its face, the road network is as busy as it ever was. What that headline number conceals is a structural shift in when, where, and why people drive. The GAO’s 2026 review of telework’s transportation effects separates the aggregate from the composition.

The fight over armed ICE agents at airports is not just another procedural dispute in Washington. It is a clash over what airports are supposed to be, how federal power should look in public, and whether immigration enforcement should become a visible part of ordinary domestic travel. Last week, Representative John Garamendi joined Representatives Jesús “Chuy” García, Robert Garcia, Ro Khanna, and dozens of other House members in sending a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Acting ICE leadership, and White House border officials opposing the deployment of armed ICE agents to airports across the country.

The Netherlands will launch a kilometre-based truck toll on 1 July 2026, replacing the existing Eurovignette system. The toll applies to all trucks in categories N2 and N3 — vehicles with a maximum authorised mass exceeding 3,500 kg — including the estimated 725,000 unique foreign trucks that use Dutch roads each year. Coverage and compliance The toll covers almost all Dutch highways plus selected provincial and municipal roads. Every qualifying truck must carry a functioning onboard unit (OBU) from an approved service provider before entering the Netherlands.

TAP Air Portugal has signed on to operate out of JFK’s new Terminal 6 when the facility opens its first six gates later this year, joining a roster that includes JetBlue, Air Canada, Lufthansa, SWISS, ANA, Avianca, and a dozen other carriers. The announcement was made jointly by TAP and JFK Millennium Partners (JMP), the private developer behind the terminal. TAP has operated at JFK for over 50 years, currently running daily nonstop service to Lisbon on Airbus A330neo and A321neo aircraft.

The collision over Washington, D.C. still lingers as one of those moments that reshapes policy almost overnight. Sixty-seven lives lost in a dense, complex airspace where military, civilian, and rotary traffic intersect exposed something deeper than a single operational failure. It showed how fragile layered systems can become when proximity, speed, and mixed-use airspace all converge at once. In response, Congressman John Garamendi and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee pushed forward the Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency Act, better known as the ALERT Act.