Is anyone else encouraged by the Federal Secretary of Transportation’s Blog? Yeah, it’s named “fast lane” but most of the posts are about liveable, walkable communities, high-speed rail, and a smart partnership between the HUD and DOT. The Feds may finally get it: transportation planning and land use are really two sides of the same coin. And nothing will get that message to Metropolitan Planning Organizations quicker than federal grant money. Let’s see Mr. LaHood deliver!
9 Replies to “Welcome to the Fast Lane”
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Don’t forget on the government side of the public private coin the opposites are transportation contracting and real estate development. Call that a 3 dimensional ‘coin’, if you will.
(Bonus trivia question – is a 3 dimensional coin a cube or a sphere?)
:-)
A 3-dimensional coin would be a cylinder. :P
Isn’t a coin by definition 3 dimensional?
Well, our new Sec/USDOT isn’t shy about where he stands on High Speed Rail.
Here’s a link to his comments this morning when asked if he supports it.
http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2009/03/is-highspeed-rail-worth-it.php
Go, Ray, Go!
The title is left over from the previous administration and I believe streetsblog is preparing to run a contest to suggest a new name!
“…partnership between HUD and DOT.” I know how some of you folks feel about Ron Sims but he gave a rousing speech at the annual Futurewise fundraiser a couple of weeks ago and broadly pointed toward this same spirit. He mentioned that when Pres Obama interviewed him, he asked him many questions about the connection between transit and neighborhoods with high quality of life, and whether we could bring “a little bit of Washington (State) to the rest of the Country.”
On the coin –
If it’s boolean logic we are talking about, I think it’s a square, elsewise a circle.
But I’m not a mathematician…
er, not circle, sphere.
Yep, I check it out almost every day. LaHood’s DOT may shape up to be one of the few bright spots in a government today…