Subscribe to Market Urbanism

 Subscribe in a reader

 Subscribe to the audio version

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

RSSTwitter Feed

Categories

Book Store

Book Store
« Obama’s genius high-speed rail plan  
  Video: Sandy Ikeda on The Unintended Consequences of “Smart Growth” »

Obama's DOT is out of touch with America


by Stephen Smith

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Ray LaHood
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Last night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood were making fun of New York bank executives’ recent excuse for missing a meeting in Washington due to “inclement weather” – i.e., fog at a private airport in Westchester. LaHood mentions that they could have taken Amtrak – the US government runs Amtrak, so this is to be expected – but then he says something that illustrates just how out of touch he really is: Greyhound. Who the hell takes a Greyhound bus from New York to DC as opposed to a Chinatown bus, Megabus, or Bolt Bus? I can understand your average DC legislator who’s never ridden a bus in his life, but shouldn’t the friggin’ Secretary of Transportation realize that the cubside buses are far more popular and efficient?

I think this is symptomatic of a broader problem with the Obama administration’s transportation policy: it’s naive and neglected. Ray LaHood himself is a token Republican cabinet member who, by his own admission, has no particular interest in transportation. Obama’s chief transportation initiative is a showy national high-speed rail system that only the rich will be able afford to ride, and yet he refuses to take even the most timid steps to combat suburban sprawl and the automobile’s dominance.

Originally posted on my blog.

  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • e-mail
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Twitter

Related Posts:

  • No Related Post
December 16th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments | printable view
  • Jeff
    Greyhound is to "bus" as Kleenex is to "tissue."
  • LaHood is out of touch due to the particular bus company he mentioned? That's a little bit silly. Being knowledgeable about transportation issues doesn't require knowing the name of every single bus company running between DC and NYC.

    Obama's Transportation policy may be somewhat neglected given the current political climate, but naive? Hardly. In just 10 months, Obama's DOT has established a livability initiative that acknowledges the important connection between transportation and land use. http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2009/dot18509.htm Thats a bigger step in the right direction than any previous administration has taken.
  • Patrick
    Methinks thou dost protest too much. As you said, it was an off the cuff comment, and it gives no indication to how knowledgeable LaHood is about transportation. And your article about opposing a gas tax increase is from April, so I present to you An Article Where Ray LaHood Says We Should Raise The Gas Tax, from, like, two weeks ago. And since you say only the rich will be able to afford high-speed rail, have an article where describing how the costs of the first new high-speed rail line have increased to 83% Of The Cost Of An Airplane Ticket.

    I don't care if Ray LaHood has no particular interest in transportation. He's done a damn fine job so far advocating for a more well-rounded transportation policy.
  • Rob
    Is it possible Lahood used Greyhound as the example because its a national brand that most people are familiar with? Not even every Daily Show viewer knows what a "chinatown bus" is. Otherwise, I pretty much agree with the general review of DOT's leaders.
  • It seems a bit off-the-cuff to have been so calculated. And if he really thought it over, he'd probably realize that just saying "take the bus" is a lot better than "take a Greyhound bus," given that the DOT isn't supposed to be playing favorites. It seems more likely that he just truly believed that Amtrak and Greyhound were the best two options to get from New York to Washington. Which of course makes perfect sense if you're a career politician from Chicago with no special interest in transportation.
  • DVA
    Or maybe he realizes that Greyhound owns Bolt Bus, and has matched the $20 price point with its main-brand station-to-station buses on that route anyway.

    (I live in DC and used to live in New York, and travel between the two frequently. I've barely noticed a difference between the bus options other than their stops' locations.)
  • ...er, I guess LaHood is from Illinois (Peoria, specifically), but not Chicago.
blog comments powered by Disqus