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Hallelujah!

Mary Peters, Bush administration Secretary of Transportation, in an August, 2007 TV interview:

“You know, I think Americans would be shocked to learn that only about 60 percent of the gas tax money that they pay today actually goes into highway and bridge construction… bike paths, trails, repairing lighthouses. Those are some of the kind of things that that money is being spent on, as opposed to our infrastructure… there’s about probably some 10 percent to 20 percent of the current spending that is going to projects that really are not transportation, directly transportation-related. Some of that money is being spent on things, as I said earlier, like bike paths or trails.”

Ray LaHood, Obama administration Secretary of Transportation, yesterday on the the USDOT blog:

“On Earth Day, it seems appropriate to talk about bicycling, not only as recreation, but as an environmentally sound commuting option… When I told the League of American Bicyclists National Bike Summit that “Cyclists are important users of America’s transportation systems,” I meant it. And, when I wrote that “With DOT, bicyclists have a full partner in working toward livable communities,” I meant that as well. President Obama has challenged us to transform the way transportation serves the American people by creating more choices and encouraging less carbon-intensive transportation, and we are working hard on that challenge… Earth Day is today, but we’ll need the sustained engagement of bicycle commuters and their advocates in the weeks and months to come to help keep the wheels of bicycle-friendly legislation on the road.”

There is still a lot of institutional bias towards cars and against alternatives like transit and cycling, but it’s only a matter of time until those biases are torn down (the upcoming federal surface transportation legislation could be a major turning point), and there is no better ally than a DOT boss who understands that the words “transportation” and “infrastructure” are not mere synonyms for “highways”.

For the record, lest I be accused of partisanship, Peters was a career DOT bureaucrat while LaHood is a former Republican Congressman.

April 23rd, 2009 | Permalink
Tags: government, people, The New America, transportation



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