This is the third and final installment of our exit interview with departing U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. In the first, he talked about his proudest accomplishments, why he decided to leave, and why it’s important to fund bike/ped improvements with federal dollars – and he made it clear he’s still not giving us […]

What follows is the second installment of an exit interview I conducted with departing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Tuesday. In the first installment, he talked about what he’s proudest of, why he decided to leave, and why it’s important to fund bike/ped improvements with federal dollars. I also gave him one last chance to […]

I had the chance to sit down with Ray LaHood yesterday morning before he spoke to the U.S. High-Speed Rail Association. Our conversation covered a wide range of topics, looking back on his four years at the helm of the U.S. Department of Transportation. We’ll publish the interview in three installments over the next few […]

The work of a sustainable transportation reporter can be a lonely lot. But it’s a lot less lonely now that two McClatchy reporters, Curtis Tate and Greg Gordon, have taken up the mantle of exposing wasteful road expansion. With their far-reaching and well-researched three-part series, published last Sunday, Tate and Gordon brought stories of highway […]

Next month, outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will speak at the National Bike Summit — he never misses one — and I’ll bet the standing ovation lasts 10 minutes. His support for biking and walking has been unprecedented at U.S. DOT. Now cyclists are worrying about who could replace him, and whether that person will […]

Hey, so you also shed a tear or two for the Dodge Ram “So God Made a Farmer” Super Bowl commercial before you realized it was about trucks. Because really, what does Dodge have to do with the noble, heart-warming, bittersweet story of farmers anyway? It’s a speech conservative radio personality Paul Harvey gave in 1978, and […]

In response to yesterday’s story on the Texas Transportation Institute’s congestion rankings, which take traffic delays out of context and risk being used to justify road expansions, former New Jersey DOT leader Gary Toth raised this question: What if, instead of getting frustrated with the report, we reframe its interpretation? He does it by pointing out that […]

Last Friday, CNN’s Anderson Cooper ran a segment about high-speed rail as part of his “Keeping Them Honest” series. Reporter Drew Griffin did an “exposé” of a Vermont rail project that spent .00006 percent of the federal stimulus money on needed track improvements and came in on time and under budget. Scandal! It amounts to […]

He strung it out long enough, but Ray LaHood has finally announced that he’s resigning as Transportation Secretary. Speculation has been rampant for months about who could replace him, and now it kicks into high gear. Matt Yglesias captured the sentiments of many transportation advocates when he tweeted yesterday, “Ray LaHood was a surprisingly good DOT […]

After a few false alarms, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has finally come out and said it: He’s leaving the administration. In a letter sent to U.S. DOT staff and contractors this morning, he listed the accomplishments of the last four years: We have put safety front and center with the Distracted Driving Initiative and a rule […]

Part One of this interview was posted yesterday. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett (R) has made it his mission to make his city healthier and less obese, in part by improving its walkability. The city lost a million pounds during his weight-loss campaign — and then they took a freeway out of the middle of downtown […]