Credit: Streetsblog USA
The new “abundance” agenda can deliver a wealth of equitable transportation options — but only if its proponents recognize how our glut of highways has contributed to the “scarcity” they say they hope to tackle, advocates are saying.
Inspired by the Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book of the same name, “abundance” became a political buzzword across America in 2025, inspiring a universe of think-pieces and justification for a raft of deregulatory policy proposals.
At the recent Crossroads Convening hosted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, though, a panel of researchers and advocates explored what panelist Kevin Shen called the “unclear and nebulous” abundance concept, and might mean for transportation, specifically — and whether it’s compatible with communities’ stated equity goals, especially under a president who has demonized the concept of social justice.