The Senate Committee on Transportation has released its interim report to the 89th Legislature. The report includes recommendations on transportation funding, autonomous vehicle safety, and a review of the transportation industry. A spotlight of the recommendations from the report can be found below:
Transportation Funding
- Rail: During the 89th legislature the committee should further investigate rail grade separations. Rail grade separations at highway rail crossings improves safety, emergency response times, economic productivity, congestion mitigation, evacuation routing, and supply chain fluidity for critical locations in Texas.
- Ports: Texas Ports are critical to the economic growth of the state and are key components of the Texas Transportation system. The committee recommends continued investment in Texas Ports.
- Aviation: While the 88th Legislature funded aviation projects at an all time record high, doing so was only to keep up with a huge backlog of projects. The committee recommends continued investment in Texas Aviation Projects
Autonomous Vehicle Safety
Recommendations for additional legislation include:
- DMV and DPS work in conjunction and are authorized to suspend/revoke AV registrations.
- DMV review of AV registrations for compliance.
- Explicit legislation for on-demand “TNC” AV network companies.
- Clarification of federal and state roles in AV oversight.
- Exclusion of personally owned AVs from authorization processes.
The Future of Our Economy
- TxDOT will continue to manage the NEVI program’s implementation, focusing on completing Phase 1 and preparing for Phase 2. The private sector is responsible for securing host agreements, constructing, owning, operating, and maintaining EV charging stations and setting competitive rates.
- ERCOT projects a substantial increase in EV charging demand by 2039, requiring grid infrastructure upgrades. Current estimates show that EV charging will represent 0.9% of total annual demand by 2029 and 6.5% by 2039.
