Update: The Washington Post says it’s official.
Original story: The Hill is reporting Obama’s Secretary of Transportation may be moderate Republican Ray LaHood. An announcement could be made later this week. Bipartisanship in the cabinet is certainly a welcome and inspirational change, but I think it’s safe to say that most of us at this blog were looking for a massive shift at the Department of Transportation — toward a progressive and environmentally-friendly transportation policy with a strong focus on transit.
It’s hard to say if we’re disappointed (yet). According to the record, Ray LaHood actually has a very strong record on rail and mass transit. Most recently, he broke with his own party in supporting the Passenger Rail Investment Act (Amtrak) and the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act. He’s also favored improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists. His history on energy and the environment seems mostly good, though during the silly season this summer he favored off-shore drilling.
One policy that I, a typical Seattle liberal, liked about Bush’s Department of Transportation was its focus on congestion tolling. It will be interesting to see if the Department will still work toward congestion tolling under Obama.
A big thing that does need to change, though, is how the Federal Transit Administration (under the DoT) calculates which projects rail projects to fund. Particularly, land use changes and existing transit (i.e. bus) riders are disallowed from ridership figures. This makes no sense. If we’re serious about the environment, national policy should be walkable communities. And the busiest bus routes are prime candidates for grade-separated, fixed-guideway rail transit. In addition, transit projects need more federal assistance — a typical highway project has a much larger percentage of its construction funded by the feds than a typical transit project. Would a LaHood DoT implement these changes?
I’m reallllllly hoping for Steve Heminger, the director of transportation planning for the Bay Area. What we really need now is someone like him, not a little-known politician from Springfield/Peoria.
The odds of LaHood are small. It will most likely be Mort Downey or Jane Garvey.
What makes you say this? When someone’s name is leaked like this the decision is usually pretty concrete. No other cabinet positions had inaccurate leaks.
Like all the cabinet members being chosen, they are enacting policies on behalf of the president. Barack Obama’s thoughts on transit are FAR more important than what the secretary may believe personally.
Remember that if Ray LaHood is selected and accepts, he is signing up to enact and enforce Mr. Obama’s policies. And if he doesn’t? He should be removed.
NOT. MY. PRESIDENT!!
Just kidding, no ill-will. Would have preferred Earl Blumenauer, but I guess he does more by keepin’ on with the keepin’ on.
I’m really depressed about this. It doesn’t really matter if he supported Amtrak or not, I’m sure that he doesn’t get the land use transportation connection. Anyways, it seems pretty much like a done deal.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/12/lahood_asked_to_transportation.html
But Obama might. Obama is an urbanite and his platform specifically called for the FTA to account for smart land-use in funding transit projects.
I wouldn’t worry. It’s Obama’s call on major decisions.
I hope you’re right. If Obama is going to pay close attention on these issues, and it’s just dude’s job to implement obama’s plan, it could be fine.
Even if LaHood doesn’t get the connection between land use and transportation I suspect the new HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan does.
This selection sucks. The guy has a great rating from a roading building agency, and is from a town of 120,000.
This is not “change”, unless change only means “not bush”.
Better than Ron Sims.
At least ron sims is strongly for congestion pricing.
is there any real peer-reviewed research on congestion tolling? I seem to remember reading something abotu how London intentionally failed to establish a baseline–intentionally–that lead to a lack of legitimate studies.
If the guy is pro Amtrak, I am OK with the choice – it seems as if Obama and Biden both are pro Amtrak so hopefully they will push the guy in that direction. I don’t tihnk we can say too much until this administration finally gets in – this tedious inter-regnum period is getting to me – in England a new prime minister complete with cabinet moves into Downing Street as the old one leaves through the back door – its undignified but it does mean that a new government can get to work immediately instead of huffing and puffing about – the transition has been orderly but the take over should have been weeks ago – as Jon Stewart said of the bicycle under the tree “we know its a bicycle, just give us it now”
As a rule of thumb, I too would like to see more progressives in the cabinet!
Tim