It is that time of the year again. The air is crisp, the trees are full of color, the days grow shorter, and election day is fast approaching. While not a presidential election year, there are notable gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and mayoral elections in New York City and Minneapolis. At the local level, there is no shortage of referendums and special questions, including for transportation. During election season, the Eno Center revives its “Transportation at the Ballot Box” initiative, in which it tracks transportation related ballot measures from across the country.
Transportation Measures at a Glance
For the 2025 November elections, the Eno Center is tracking 82 different transportation measures. This does not fully capture every single transportation measure; however, it provides a sample of the kinds of measures voters will see this year. As done in previous years, tracked ballots are placed into several categories including region, locality, mode of transportation, and measure type. In 2025, 10 of the 82 measures are in the northern region, 22 measures are in the southern region, 25 are in the midwestern region, and 25 are in the western region.
Locality Type
| Locality Type | Number | Percent |
| County | 19 | 23% |
| Municipal | 59 | 72% |
| District | 4 | 5% |
Primary Mode of Transportation
| Mode | Number | Percent |
| Roads | 54 | 66% |
| Public Transit | 15 | 19% |
| Pedestrian | 1 | 1% |
| Ports | 1 | 1% |
| Aviation | 1 | 1% |
| General | 10 | 12% |
Measure Type
| Measure Type | Number | Percent |
| Bond Measure | 26 | 32% |
| Excise Tax | 2 | 2% |
| Policy Measure | 10 | 12% |
| Property Tax | 20 | 24% |
| Sales Tax | 24 | 29% |
Municipal elections hold the largest share of the total ballots. The trend of municipal elections having the largest share is consistent with Eno’s coverage of ballots in previous years. In 2024, municipal elections accounted for 58 percent of ballot measures; in 2023 they accounted for 64 percent and 45 percent in 2022. These percentages make sense, given that there are more municipalities than states or counties in the United States and the share of county and municipal funding in infrastructure has been growing.
Regarding the primary mode of transportation for the ballot measures, roads hold the largest share. This too is the same as previous years. Roads were the primary mode for 50 percent of 2024 tracked ballots, 67 percent of 2023 tracked ballots, and 76 percent of 2022 tracked ballots. Road maintenance or improvement projects dominate the ballot box, at the county and municipal level. Roads dominate the transportation landscape and as such, represent most of the local ballot measures.
Measure type is less consistent over time, but bond measures and tax increases are common, reflecting local government’s use of taxes as a mechanism to pay for transportation projects.
Notable elections
Columbus voters are deciding on the city’s largest bond measure in its history. The $1.9 billion packages include bond measures for safety and health infrastructure, recreation, public utilities, neighborhood development, affordable housing, and transportation projects. The bond for transportation is $400 million, going towards road and sidewalk improvements.
Voters in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina will be deciding on a 1% increase in the local sales and use tax. If the vote passes, the county’s sales tax will increase from 7.25% to 8.25%. The money from the increased sales tax will go towards major transportation projects, with about 40 percent towards public transportation projects. Some of these projects include a new Red Line commuter rail extending 25 miles from downtown Charlotte north to Davidson, with 10 planned stations. This new line would expand the region’s public transit provider, the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), to new areas north of the city. CATS envisions the route to reduce traffic on I-77 (the planned route is parallel to the highway), encourage economic development, and provide residents in Davidson, Cornelius, and Huntersville with multimodal connections to Amtrak and other transit options in Charlotte.
Other projects that benefit include a CATS Gold Line streetcar extension, Blue Line light rail extension, and a new Silver Line light rail to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Currently, there is no rail connection to Charlotte’s main airport.
The Glassboro-Camden light rail line in New Jersey is on the ballot again. Voters in Southern New Jersey are deciding whether to support running the proposed light rail service through the town of Pitman Borough. The Glassboro-Camden line is a proposed 18-mile light rail line connecting towns in southern NJ with Philadelphia. This is not the first time the issue has come to Pitman, with the Borough Council opposing the line in 2022. The issue of approving the light rail line came before voters in nearby Brooklawn and Glassboro in 2024. The measure was defeated in Brooklawn, but passed in Glassboro, and so far, almost half of the towns along the line oppose it. Supporters of the line say that it would improve connectivity to Philadelphia and Camden and increase people’s access to employment, recreation, and education in southern NJ.
Voters in New York City are not just voting for mayor in November, but also a policy measure impacting the Department of City Planning. The measure calls for the Department of City Planning to create a single digital map of the city, as opposed to using paper maps across its five offices. The existence of separate planning maps creates an environment for inconsistencies like different street information for the same area. This move improves the effectiveness of city planners by not having to rely on thousands of paper maps and instead bringing the information into a unified and digitized form. For transportation projects, this would be a valuable tool in providing clear and consistent information on streets names and layouts.
The Power of the Local Election
Local elections are not always exciting when compared to headline state or federal elections. Transportation measures across the country this year (and past years) are generally local and range from regular road maintenance to bond measures for important city or county projects. Local transportation measures do not capture the same attention as nationwide transportation developments.
But the impact of local transportation ballot measures should not be underestimated. The annual list of municipal transportation bond measures and sales tax increases reflects transportation’s continued relevance to people’s everyday lives. Cities and counties are always thinking about maintaining and improving transportation because everyone depends on it for school, recreation, work, healthcare, family, and food. With every passing edition of Transportation at the Ballot Box, the same principle rings true: transportation ballot measures are a tool for local governments and the people to engage with each other in transportation decision-making.
Keep an eye out for a breakdown of transportation ballot measure results and discussion in next week’s edition of ETW.
The Eno Center for Transportation does not endorse or oppose any of the measures.