Transportation For America Transportation for America's statement on Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary nominee

Transportation for America’s statement on Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary nominee

15 Dec 2020 | Posted by Jenna Fortunati | 5 Comments | biden, buttigieg, usdot

Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg has just been picked as President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Transportation. Here is a statement from our director, Beth Osborne, on his selection.

“We are very excited to hear that Pete Buttigieg has been nominated to be Secretary of Transportation,” said Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America. “As mayor of South Bend, he showed great commitment to the safety of all road users through Complete Streets and that Complete Streets were about economic development because they better serve local residents and businesses. For example, our sister organization, the National Complete Streets Coalition, worked directly with South Bend on a Complete Streets demonstration project focused on reducing speeding on a neighborhood street. As a candidate for president, he proposed a fix-it-first approach to highway funding, a national Vision Zero strategy, and measures to organize the federal transportation program around improving access to jobs and essential services for drivers and non-drivers alike. We look forward to working with him in his new post at USDOT.”

We analyzed Buttigieg’s transportation plan from his presidential campaign back in February. Check out the analysis here.

5 Comments

Lara McKinnon
4 years ago

It is no secret that the current administration and transportation secretary have been focused on cutting regulation instead of building infrastructure. Are there any hidden or often overlooked opportunities a Secretary Buttigieg should focus on?
- Peter Vanderzee
  4 years ago
  
  Lara: Please take a few minutes to read my response. You asked a good question and I have answered that in my reply.
Peter Vanderzee
4 years ago

All fine and dandy, EXCEPT for that elephant in the room. We’re printing money and spending like drunken sailors on shore leave with no real appreciation of what long term effects this fiscal strategy will produce. I’m very concerned that the Biden Administration will continue this “spend first” strategy to the detriment of our progeny, who will eventually inherit the consequences, e.g. extreme inflation and loss of the US dollar as a world reserve currency (reference Ray Dalio’s studies). Instead of implementing a how much can we spend strategy, let’s consider a spending “pause” and use that time to think about what the post-COVID world will look like in terms of transportation demand; most likely less spending for new capacity and more for “FIX IT FIRST” work. Also, the Biden Administration should be incentivizing technologies that support modern asset management, allowing existing infrastructure’s life span to be safely extended. These technologies, e.g. structural monitoring, have been proven over the past 20 years and have reduced spending demand for bridge replacements because we now have a better process to understand actual condition than visual inspection provides – what we’ve relied on for nearly 50 years. It’s time to think first, plan carefully, use proven technologies, and finally, spend cautiously and only for projects that can produce a return on investment. Beleaguered US taxpayers deserve no less.
- Midwesterner for the Transpo Revolution
  4 years ago
  
  Oh stop. There is no rampant threat of inflation. If you think the dollar will be devalued by additional investment in infrastructure (that is falling apart), then I wonder where you think we will be once our transpo system completely breaks down. Stop selling our highways to China and invest in America, stop letting large and aged industry dictate priorities and our future. I can’t think of anything that is more important to ensuring we stay relevant, than being able to move people and things efficiently. We needed to invest in 21st technology and system solutions yesterday, and this is an investment area we all know will actually perform, and pay back for the American people. I’m happy to have a national figure champion the initiative, it means we may have an actual shot at passing investment to the literal foundation of our very large country, for the first time in FORTY years. All while creating jobs that create more tax funding to pay down the debt. I do agree a thoughtful, results driven plan must be the priority, but that is exactly where Pete excels, sitting on our hands doing nothing, gets us nowhere.
Greg Matz
4 years ago

We call them “Smart Streets” here in the bend. For the record I was against them at first and I was totally wrong.