U.S. DOT
Basics
Dueling Forecasts: Does the Energy Dept. Know Something U.S. DOT Doesn’t?
Tony Dutzik is a senior policy analyst with the Frontier Group. This article was originally posted on the Frontier Group's blog.
April 16, 2014
Sec. Foxx: Bicycle Infrastructure Can Be a “Ladder of Opportunity”
This morning, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx’s blog post is all about bicycling. He opens by touting the complete streets policy he helped implement in Charlotte (it passed before he was mayor) and the city’s bike-share system -- the largest in the Southeast.
March 5, 2014
Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: U.S. DOT Fails to Get Travel Forecasting Right
The U.S. Department of Transportation seems to be stuck in a bizarre time warp. For nine years in a row Americans have decreased their average driving miles. Yet U.S. DOT’s most recent biennial report to Congress on the state of the nation’s transportation system, released last Friday, forecasts that total vehicle miles will increase between 1.36 percent to 1.85 percent each year through 2030.
March 3, 2014
The Revolving Door Spins Again: LaHood Joins DLA Piper
When former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced earlier this month that he was going to co-chair Building America's Future, I thought, "well that seems like a good place for him, but it's not going to make his wife happy." Mrs. LaHood has famously been needling him for years to get out of public office and make some money in the private sector.
January 24, 2014
What If There Was No Highway, Transit, or Rail Agency — Just U.S. DOT?
“Highway people like highways, transit people like transit, rail people like rail,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said yesterday at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. “But our transportation system should be greater than the sum of its parts.”
January 16, 2014
Secretary Foxx Pledges to Make Bike/Ped Safety a Priority
Pedestrian crash statistics aren’t just numbers to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. He himself was the victim of one of those crashes once, while out jogging. “I got lucky,” he told a packed room at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board today. “But there are lots of people out there that aren’t so lucky.”
January 15, 2014
TIGER Funding Gets 20 Percent Boost in Final 2014 Spending Bill
We’re less than a third of the way through fiscal year 2014 and we already have a budget! Well, almost -- the president still has to sign it. But the House and Senate unveiled the details of the omnibus budget bill yesterday, and just having a complete bill that both parties and both chambers have agreed to is a pretty big deal.
January 14, 2014
NHTSA Chief David Strickland Gets Caught in the Revolving Door
When David Strickland announced last month that he was stepping down as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, he didn't give any clues about where he might be going. The news came out this week: The nation's top auto regulator is going to be a lobbyist at a law firm that deals with auto regulation, raising concerns that he's going through the revolving door between the public and private sector, more to the benefit of industry than the public.
January 10, 2014
Trucks and Cities Are Like Oil and Water. Is There a Solution?
About 350 pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are killed each year by large trucks in this country. Big freight trucks are incompatible with cities in many ways, bringing danger, pollution, noise, and traffic congestion. They park in bike lanes and have shockingly big blind spots, putting everyone around them at risk. And yet, most cities haven't found a way to reconcile the need to move goods with all their other priorities.
January 9, 2014
Silver Lining to the U.S. DOT Shakeup: Barbara McCann Joins the Team
The loss of Polly Trottenberg and John Porcari from U.S. DOT was a blow for livability advocates. But into the void has slipped Barbara McCann, an architect of the Complete Streets movement. McCann starts Monday as the new director of the Office of Safety, Energy and Environment in the Office of the Secretary of Transportation.
January 8, 2014