The GOOD 100: Ray Lahood
- Posted by: GOOD
- on October 21, 2009 at 10:18 am
The Hottest Thing on Wheels (or Rails)
As the new transportation secretary, Ray LaHood has been tasked with remaking our transportation infrastructure into one that focuses more on sustainability than widening highways. It’s a tall order but, so far, we’re impressed with his approach.
1. For supporting high-speed rail.
When Obama squeezed $8 billion for high-speed rail into the recent stimulus package, LaHood got on board fast. His grant program for rail projects already has nearly 300 applications. They’re being prioritized according to where they’ll serve the most people. You’ll find out whether your area gets quick, clean transport by the end of the year.
2. For looking for good models.
It’s no secret that Amtrak is struggling. But high-speed rail is working in Europe and Asia. Last May, Ray LaHood took a fact-finding trip through France, Spain, Germany, and Japan to find out what they’re doing right.
3. For joining up with the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Where we live, how we get around, and whether we destroy the planet with greenhouse gases are related issues. So it only makes sense for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency to work together. That’s just what they’re doing with the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which will coordinate their various programs.
4. For confronting George Will.
In Newsweek, the columnist George Will attacked LaHood’s efforts to create “livable communities” as excessive government intervention. LaHood was unrepentant, responding, “We have to create opportunities for people that do want to use a bicycle or want to walk or want to get on a streetcar or want to ride a light rail. … Everything we do around here is government intrusion in people’s lives.”
5. For his commitment to bipartisanship.
LaHood—elected to office as a Republican in Illinois seven times—has conservative bona fides. And he’s been using that clout with the Right to try to ensure that both sides of the aisle are working together.
DISCUSSION: 3 Comments
I think he is doing a great job. I would like to see things move more quickly, not at the usual pace of government. I want to see rail lines being built and so on. I am so happy that transportation is finally moving in the right direction.By the way, my favorite websites on the subject:http://www.planetizen.com/http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/
I’ve watched for decades while Amtrak has squandered billions. They should be getting high speed rail where its needed and practical. But i’m reading about idiot plans to put it where powerful politicians can score some points with the voters. Hi speed rail should be run by businesses not the government. If they can’t make a profit they shouldn’t be in business and we all know the Federal Gov. can’t make the cut on this.
Heh.>…idiot plans to put it where powerful politicians can score some points with the voters. With all due respect, we’ve had a representative-democracy form of government for quite a while now, and representatives understand that the voters expect them to accomplish things for their districts.> Hi speed rail should be run by businesses not the government. If they can’t make a profit they shouldn’t be in business (…)Hey, no problem. We’ll just go back 75 years to the early days of mass air and automobile travel, and undo the trillion current-value dollars of tax-funded Federal subsidies that those two competing modes of mass mobility have gotten in the forms of airport and air-traffic-control-system construction and operational funding, the Interstate System and other federal highway and road-infrastructure funding, government training of all the original and many current pilots and air traffic controllers, aircraft design and manufacturing utilizing research, design education and manufacturing infrastructure that was funded to create military equipment, government provision of the air and automobile safety agencies, etc., etc. Or, since that can’t all be undone, how about the Federal government just pays the original construction cost in current-value dollars for all of the rail-related property and infrastructure in the US, updates all of that infrastructure to be equal to the highest standards in the world (as is the case with the Interstate System, and US airports), and employs all of the traffic control personnel and updates and maintains all of that equipment in return for nominal traffic fees per train.With that kind of funds infusion, I’m guessing that the current rail operating companies would be quite eager to be economically competitive in the mobility field.