Event Date
Event Overview
Tribal governments have responsibilities for their transportation systems similar to those of state transportation agencies, and the responsibilities of Tribal elected officials are also similar to federal and state legislative bodies. However, the context in which they operate is significantly different. All too often, Tribes do not have access to resource levels to fulfill those tasks. This gap has yet to be studied and addressed. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) together with key Tribal organizations organized this national Tribal transportation peer exchange summit. By bringing together Tribal transportation leaders, the summit helped to identify and prioritize transportation program delivery challenges, including the core competencies and related training and resources needed for Tribal governments to carry out their duties.
The summit provided a national platform to highlight gaps in transportation funding, data accessibility, and regulatory hurdles that Tribes encounter. Major themes discussed were the necessity of securing funding and workforce development opportunities, difficulty in developing institutional knowledge, and limited amount of transportation data access.