By Mason Fish
SPC
8/31/2026
Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about how transportation decisions are made. We have places to go, and we find a way to get there; whether that’s behind the wheel of a car, on a bus, or on a bike.
Behind those everyday trips is a much larger system, supported by programs and investments that most people never have much of a reason to think about. One of those programs is The Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program.
The need for a program like CMAQ becomes easier to understand when you consider some of the challenges built into everyday travel. More vehicles on the road can mean more congestion, and transportation-related emissions can affect air quality. CMAQ is designed to address both issues, supporting projects that can improve traffic flow, reduce emissions, and give people alternatives to driving alone.
CMAQ provides federal transportation funding for projects that can help reduce transportation-related emissions or improve the movement of people and vehicles. The program can support things such as transit improvements, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, traffic-flow projects, carpool and vanpool programs, cleaner vehicles and other transportation strategies.
It’s undoubtedly a wide range of projects, but they all have something in common. Each is intended to help address the effects that transportation can have on congestion and air quality. So, what does that look like in practice, and how do we know whether these investments are making a difference?
Well, CMAQ isn’t simply a matter of funding projects and checking a box when they’re finished. Federal requirements also call for transportation agencies to establish performance targets and measure how the region is doing over time. For the Pittsburgh urbanized area, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) tracks several measures.
One looks at peak-hour excessive delay, which measures how much additional time people spend traveling when traffic slows significantly during the busiest parts of the day.
Another measures non-single-occupancy-vehicle (non-SOV) travel. In simpler terms, these are work trips made without someone driving alone. Transit, carpooling, biking and walking can all count. Furthermore, trips that never happen can also be counted due to someone working from home.
The third measure looks at emissions reductions from on-road mobile sources, including pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5).
Together, these measurements provide a way to look at several different aspects of transportation performance such as how much time people spend in congestion, how they get to work, and how transportation-related emissions are changing.
What do the numbers show?
SPC recently reported the results from the 2022–2025 performance period during its Full Commission Meeting on Aug. 27. The scope is positive in some areas, while showing that there is still work to do in others. The region exceeded its target for non-SOV travel, where the goal was for 27 percent of work trips to be made without someone driving alone. The actual figure was 34.8 percent, which is quite encouraging.
The emissions results were also positive. CMAQ-funded projects exceeded the four-year targets for reductions in nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter. Volatile organic compound reductions also exceeded the four-year target.
Congestion, unfortunately, remains a challenge. SPC had set a target for annual peak-hour excessive delay at 10.5 hours per person. The actual result was 11.9.
However, this does not mean CMAQ investments have simply failed to reduce congestion. Peak-hour congestion can be influenced by a wide range of factors across the transportation system, including major construction projects, special events, and weather-related impacts. CMAQ is only a single part of that larger picture.
These results instead show us why it is useful to look at transportation performance from several angles, as progress in one area doesn’t always guarantee progress in another. A region can increase the number of people using alternatives to driving alone and reduce emissions from CMAQ-funded projects while still facing significant congestion. The performance measures make those differences visible.
In conclusion
SPC is now moving into the next performance period, covering 2026 through 2029. The new targets build on the region’s most recent results. Interestingly, SPC’s new target for non-SOV travel during the performance period in 2027 and 2029 is 30 percent.
Now, in-case any readers are wondering, this doesn’t mean the region is necessarily expecting non-SOV travel to fall from 34.8 percent, rather that the 2026–2029 targets are established as part of a new four-year performance cycle. Using the federal performance-measurement process and its underlying data, SPC will use the new targets to track progress through 2029.
Furthermore, the new peak-hour excessive delay target is 12 hours per person, to better reflect expected construction and weather impacts. New targets have also been established for reductions in VOC, NOx, and PM2.5 emissions.
The numbers may come across as transportation-planning jargon, but what they represent is largely quite simple. Can people get where they need to go without always having to drive alone? Can transportation-related emissions be reduced? Can the transportation system work more efficiently? CMAQ is one way SPC aims to pursue those answers.
All in all, the goal isn’t simply to hit a number on a chart. It’s to understand whether the transportation system is becoming less congested, giving people more ways to travel and producing fewer transportation-related emissions. No single project will solve all of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s transportation challenges, and CMAQ is definitely not intended to do that on its own.
Instead, it is one part of a broader effort to improve how people and goods move throughout the region while reducing the environmental impact of transportation.
The latest performance results show progress in several areas, along with challenges that remain. These next four years will give another opportunity to measure the region’s progress.