In December, when President-elect Obama nominated Rep. Ray LaHood to head the USDOT, the transportation reform community seemed to emit a collective sigh of disappointment. For months, advocates had been whispering breathlessly at the possibility of having someone like NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan leading the nation’s transportation agency. Instead, we got Mr. LaHood, a congressman with a thin transportation resume from Peoria, Illinois — the headquarters of Caterpillar.
But in the 2 months he’s been on the job, Secretary LaHood has proven himself to be a reliable ally of the livable streets movement. Most recently, he and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan (formerly of the NYC Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development) announced a joint Sustainable Communities Initiative.
The press release reads like something straight out of the Surface Transportation Policy Project or Brookings Institution, and describes the new initiative as a an effort to lower family transportation and housing costs by promoting transit-oriented development. Mr. LaHood gives his own take on the initiative at his official Fast Lane blog, writing that “Our transportation investment decisions don’t occur in a vacuum; they must be consistent with our housing policies.”
This wasn’t the first time that Secretary LaHood talked about livable communities. In his opening address at the National Bike Summit, he promised advocates that they would “have a full partner at the U.S. DOT in working toward livable communities.”
Secretary LaHood’s comments on the stimulus bill also bode well for livable streets:
“We will emphasize sustainable investment and focus our policies on the people, businesses and communities who use the transportation systems… We will invest in jobs to expand transit capacity and modernize transit systems. Transit is a centerpiece of my focus on livable communities and our Department will work closely with Vice President Biden’s “Middle-class Taskforce” on transit initiatives.”
Other signs of hope include the recent appointment of former STPP director Roy Kienitz as undersecretary of policy at the USDOT.
Whether USDOT’s new love of livable communities reflects Secretary LaHood’s philosophy of transportation or just his deference to President Obama’s progressive leanings (see the president’s earlier remarks on sprawl) seems beside the point, so long as it keeps up. In fact, he’s gone further than the Obama administration by suggesting a VMT tax to fund transportation, an idea which he quickly retracted after a public scolding from the president’s press secretary. Either way, it will be up to the livable streets community to make sure LaHood’s actions speak as loudly as his words.
