Dive Brief:
- A new national nonprofit advocating for public transit and safer streets will be officially announced Thursday, its leaders told Smart Cities Dive.
- The Center for American Mobility and the Center for American Mobility Research and Education Fund will be led by President and CEO Shelley Brindle, a former mayor of Westfield, New Jersey. Initial funding comes from Via, a transportation technology company, and Arnold Ventures, a public policy philanthropy.
- “There's lots of incredible advocacy organizations,” Brindle said, “but there isn't one that really brings the national political firepower to bring those advocacy efforts to fruition.”
Dive Insight:
CAM will support transit ballot measures, legislative campaigns and “candidates who champion modern mobility,” while its education fund will publish research that makes the case for investments in transit and safe streets, it said in a draft press release.
Even before the nonprofits were announced, their organizers were at work supporting sales tax measures generating millions of dollars for public transit in Pierce County, Washington, and Yampa Valley, Colorado. Both were approved..
“If we can really help empower a lot of these local advocates, whether it's through ballot measures or whether it's through … transit-friendly, street-smart-friendly candidates, we'd like to support them,” Brindle said. “We want to make supporting public transportation and safe streets not a niche issue, but really an issue that everybody cares about and touches everybody, regardless if you're in a metro, suburban or rural area.”
Brindle believes there is opportunity in smaller communities. “People trust their local government in many cases more than they trust the feds, and they feel like they have a better sense of knowing where their dollars are going,” she said.
“It's also about making living more affordable for every American, regardless of where they live,” Brindle said. Transportation costs accounted for more than 35% of inflation in the U.S. as of September 2026, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The consumer price index for transportation, which represents the average cost of transportation across all U.S. cities, was up 7.9% in September over the same month last year on an unadjusted basis.
“Transportation is 100% tied into affordability, and I think that's the message that we need to be talking about,” she said.
Brindle’s first priorities are establishing partnerships and collaborations and raising money, she said.
Dani Simons, former director of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation, will serve on the CAM board. Beth Osborne, president and CEO of Smart Growth America, will serve on the board of the Research and Education Fund.
