Blogger Ray LaHood

Posted by Carol Coletta on March 24, 2009

Welcome to the Fast Lane.  That is, welcome to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's blog.

Today, he is defending high speed rail. (I interviewed Rick Harnish, head of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association today for Smart City.)  But LaHood is pushing hard for livable communities.  Here are excerpts from a recent post:

"We know that housing and transportation are tightly bound up with one another. Our transportation investment decisions don't occur in a vacuum; they must be consistent with our housing policies.

"I want to pursue this idea a bit more here and describe for you what the HUD-DOT task force will do. I hope you can see how this will increase the quality of life for all Americans.

"To begin, here are our four goals:

•  More choices for affordable housing near employment opportunities;
•  More transportation options, to lower transportation costs, shorten travel times, and improve the environment;
•  The ability to combine several errands into one trip through better coordination of transportation and land uses; and
•  Safe, livable, healthy communities.

"How will we accomplish this? That's a simple question with a complicated answer.

"We'll start by integrating the planning process. We'll encourage major metropolitan areas to integrate housing and transportation planning by providing HUD grants to support that integration.

"We'll coordinate HUD-required 5-year Consolidated Planning with DOT-required long-range Transportation Plans and 4-year Transportation Improvement Planning.

"And, we'll look for ways our two departments can further coordinate location efficiency in housing and transportation choices for states, counties, and municipalities.

"On a less concrete level, the task force will evaluate and recommend measures that indicate livability. After all, if we don't know livability when we see it, how can we know if we've helped communities achieve it?"

You gotta love this guy.  Kudos to Secretary LaHood.