"On the Go with Ray LaHood" promises your lively questions, my honest answers

Today, I want to express my appreciation for everyone who takes the time to read, comment, and share their experiences with me.  Whether it's on this blog or on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even Flickr, your engagement inspires me.

That's why I'm excited to launch a project I'm calling "On the Go with Ray LaHood."  It's a chance for you to ask questions and for me to answer them.

Here's how it works.  First, between now and next Tuesday, March 8, you can pose your transportation questions to the "Ask your questions" forum I've created on my Facebook "Discussions" tab, or as a comment to this blog post, or on Twitter using our special #q4ray hashtag.  If you want to get creative, you could even pose your question by video and post a link to it on my Facebook discussions tab.

Then, next week, I'll select a handful of your questions, trying to cover a range of topics. Finally, I'll post a video of my responses on the YouTube USDOT channel.  For those of you who would rather listen to an audio podcast, we'll make that available, too.

Now, rather than just quietly waiting for me to select questions next Tuesday, let's get lively.  If people want to use the Facebook discussions tab to comment on each other's questions or get discussions going about which questions you most want to see answered, why not get that conversation started?

As I said at Netroots Nation last year, it's a terrific benefit for all of us that the internet and its social media platforms make it easy for citizens to interact with their government. 

It's pretty obvious that I like having a way to share the DOT activities I think are interesting or important.  But I also enjoy hearing your feedback about those activities.  Whether it's praise or criticism or simple observation, I am thrilled about this interaction because it means democracy is thriving in America.

So please put on your thinking caps, dig deep, and let those questions fly.

Comments

[Mary Bennington]

Please do NOT eliminate the Recreational trails program. It provides the one grant program that we have in Nevada for hiking biking and riding. It supports both urban and rural trails and paths and even community gardens and trailheads. We at the Tahoe Rim Trail Association along with many other Trail organizations and local communities depend on this funding to provide environmentally sustainable recreation.

[Laura Schiltz]

According to the Defenders of Wildlife habitat and highways website, the United States has 4 million miles of roadways, on which an estimated one million vertebrates die every day. How do you view USDOT's responsibility in addressing the impact of existing roads on wildlife?

[Jeff Seabolt]

Secretary LaHood,

I am curious about your reaction to the reported bipartisan letter to you from 122 members of Congress petitioning you and FMCSA to discard the proposed rulemaking regarding CMV HOS in favor of keeping the current regulations intact. I myself found their arguments to be both cogent and compelling, particularly in regard to the manner in which a small number of narrow special interest groups have hijacked this process in what I personally view as a disingenuous attempt to tilt the transportation playing field towards modalities they view as more desirable. They've held this process hostage for the better part of a decade in spite of the current regulations' proven success in reducing crash and fatality rates while at the same time increasing the potential for productivity in an industry that lies very close to the heart of the American economy. I certainly hope you are at least devoting some serious consideration to an argument originating with and signed by well over 20% of the distinguished members of the Congress of the United States.

I am a truck owner-operator with 33 years of over the road experience and 40 years as a professional driver. My own humble experience is that the current regulations are both workable and working and I would echo the sentiment of these legislators that it's not broken and therefore doesn't need to be fixed.

[Ron Bales]

Mr LaHood - there are a LOT of jobs at stakes with the President's proposed consolidation and changes regarding many key transportation programs - i.e. the entire new Livability program area. When will the FHWA & Administration actually give full details as to what these changes really mean? People are sick and tired of sitting on pins and needles in these programs wondering whether they will have a job or their office and/or program will exisit in 6 months. Please let us know as soon as possible. Thanks kindly!

[Jerry Roane]

We have been trying to get the attention of US Dot for 7 years with our dual mode TriTrack which is both a street vehicle and a monorail car. This vehicle system swaps its battery on the fly allowing it to sip energy. When it was introduced during the previous administration the idea was directed to the railroad side where a soon to retire "expert" in high speed rail, John Harding, spent his last years tearing down the idea of a car that is efficient enough that it can run cost-effectively on PV solar power with panels under the elevated monorail. It was unfortunate that this expert then went on to represent Siemens maglev as a consultant as it looks from the outside that he may have been promoting German maglev from within US Dot and was squelching this advancement. This vehicle has a Cd of .07 in the solar version and out performs maglev on door to door speed at a fraction of the cost. It can be built without any more public right of way because it is so small and it can carry all the load of a train in a line haul arrangement with a grid approach that affords redundancy and can serve all the population not just a few in California and a few in Florida if they run that line. At 5 cents a mile energy cost using power plants of just sunshine if we build the sustainable version with PV Solar, it cannot be beat with fossil fuel burning approaches. Since it uses so little energy to go HSR speeds even if running on lignite coal with the worst plant in the US, it still pollutes much less than transit, trains or traditional cars. Since oil is stealing the wealth from America and all this energy is made here it gets the U.S. off of imported oil completely even without full market share. NIST has looked at it NREL was interested in it. The city of San Jose has a proposal. The Texas TCEQ has been given three proposals but so far oil and gas interests have crushed this approach to free America from the burden of oil from our enemies. Please have someone in the aircraft side of US Dot look over the subsonic wind tunnel test and run the calculation of energy and then listen carefully to that expert on aerodynamics. It is aerodynamics and frontal area that use the energy of transportation not wheels or weight. America has to do better for the sake of the world and technology shared with the world is the only chance we have of fixing a global problem.

Technology can save us but we have to change how we power our transportation and we have to make road vehicles more like flight vehicles. $10,000 cars-- $200,000 per mile guideway-- 5 cents a mile energy cost-- 200,000 mile design life-- No battery for the customer to deal with-- fully sustainable not just a catch phrase

[MySmartTraveler]

Secretary LaHood:

Often you are quoted as saying that driving a vehicle and talking using a cell phone connected via a "Hands-Free" device is NO safer than talking while holding a cell phone in one hand.

If the above is true (in your opinion), then is it also true (in your opinion) that it is NOT ALWAYS SAFER to drive with two hands.

Respectfully,

Hamby Hutcheson
- Subject Matter Expert

[Frank Wsol]

Thank you for listening - you noted honest answers would be provided - as the O"hare Modernization Project continues what is your stance on a new EIS that will address the amount of air traffic post project completion and its impacts to neighboring communities?

Certain targets are interpreted to provide for 60% of all traffic to impact Park Ridge - if so - that is unfair, additionally the pollution impacts and night flights past midnight are very disruptive and ............

Wht is your stance on the FAA conducting a supplimental EIS and altering the impacts of flight patterns and frequencies across the region more equally?

Appreciate your comments -

[Albert Gamble]

We need to stop subsidizing the fuels of the past like oil and coal and give meaning for subsidies to the fuels of the future like renewable wind and solar as well as Natural Gas.

[Rob]

My question is framed with some important background commentary below; if you wish to skip straight to the question, see the very last line.

Organizational leaders and others focused on the science and art of change have long been familiar with the problem of the “Concrete Middle.” Cultural or institutional resistance to new ideas or new ways of doing things has profound implications for efforts to realign organizational activities with a new vision of success. Nowhere is the problem of the Concrete Middle more pronounced in its collective out-dated understanding of vision, mission, and values than in the organizational structure that determines America’s major transportation investment strategies. Amidst a changing world characterized by creation of federal Livability Principles, merging of regional land-use and transportation agencies under a unified metropolitan planning agency structure, and widespread endorsement of context sensitive solution approaches to project development, many of our state departments of transportation continue to define their success in terms of improved compliance with highway design and capacity standards. The engineering functionality of the highway network supersedes the importance of generating outcomes that support maximizing economic, social, environmental, and national security outcomes. We have lost sight of the simple fact that transportation is not an end in and of itself, but rather a means to achieve a myriad of ends critical to our nation’s continuing success.

Healthy, Equitable Transportation Policy: Recommendations and Research relates that "Transportation policy is, in effect, health policy—and environmental policy, food policy, employment policy, and metropolitan development policy, each of which bears on health independently and in concert with the others." Despite successive legislative attempts and associated policy initiatives at federal and state levels spanning several decades, there continues to be a high degree of incongruence between legislative intent, policy commitments, and the manner in which they are interpreted and applied in major capital project development and evaluation processes. The work products delivered, major capital investments with lasting impact on the geographies in which they occur, often fail to support improved economic, social, and environmental outcomes; they often fail to achieve an even lesser minimum standard of effectiveness - lasting improvement to the transportation facility, itself. While there is a substantial and growing body of evidence supporting the pressing need to significantly adjust our transportation priorities and associated implementation strategies, the Concrete Middle – where the rubber hits the road – refuses to budge. To illustrate, one state DOT official wrote this past summer (2010) about the need to more effectively consider outcomes beyond highway design and capacity standards, such as those described above, “Yes, there are other important issues and needs out there, but they are not part of the mission of the FHWA or state DOTs. Like it or not, Congress has divvied up the money into pots, and put requirements on what each of those pots of money can be spent on.” Unless we are able to change the mindset and organizational culture defined by the foregoing statement, our future is bound to our past, and our past has led us down a very slippery slope with roadway capacity, geometrics, and vehicle through-put calculations dragging us toward the edge of 1,000 foot cirque high wall. We can no longer afford to keep building the last great highway projects of the 20th century; rather, we must sharply focus on achieving a bold new 21st century vision.

USDOT leadership and the current administration have made great strides in shifting policies and programs to support improved outcomes; however, significant barriers persist. While TIGER and similar programs have demonstrated ability to support non-traditional planning objectives, the overwhelming majority of our scarce transportation funding is still channeled into highway programs controlled by highway-minded folks that demonstrate a rather myopic view of their roles and responsibilities. Although many have transitioned in title over time from separate Mass Transit and Highway Departments to presumably more holistic “Departments of Transportation”, the unfortunate reality is that too many continue to view themselves as “Highways” while operating in a manner that divorces “non-transportation” interests (non-highway engineering interests) from project evaluation processes, thereby resulting in patently flawed decision-making that yields sub-optimal outcomes on many levels.

My two-part question is thus: What strategies has USDOT planned to ensure effective consideration of “non-transportation” outcomes in standard project development processes, and how is accountability for appropriate outcomes being cultivated?

Respectfully submitted,

Rob Cole

[Don Stewart]

Dear Secretary LaHood:

It now appears that Florida/Gov Scott has totally rejected their ARRA HSR funding. Award it to Virginia and North Carolina for the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.

Their SE HSR Corridor will serve one of the fastest growing regions in the south and connect it to Washington and the Northeast Corridor. These states have an excellent plan to rebuild the former Seaboard line between Petersburg and Raleigh into a grade separated alignment with 110-120 mph passenger service early morning until late evening and high-speed inter-modal freight trains late night and early morning. They have formally authorized a joint rail compact which can apply for and receive federal funds, negotiate contracts, acquire equipment, take and own real estate and operate trains.

ARRA funds have already been awarded for the Richmond to Washington and Charlotte to Raleigh segments so we are now talking about the full completion of one of the first five USDOT HSR projects identified back in 1992 -- with future extensions to Atlanta and Columbia easily within reach.

The SE HSR Corridor fully meets the middle of the three "tiers" (90 to 125 mph "regional"service) proposed by President Obama in his recently released six-year plan for high speed and intercity passenger rail in the US. These states have been putting up their own money for years and also appear to have administrations that embrace HSR.

The SE HSR Corridor represents the opportunity to put a well planned and operational higher speed service, with high projections for ridership and revenues, on the ground quickly and efficiently. And, perhaps most importantly, right under the collective noses of those who will control the funding for the rest of the nation.

Respectfully,

Don Stewart

[Deirdre Lightsey]

Dear Ray,
Please highly consider continued funding of the RTP grants to keep our out of doors accessible to all Americans. I'd love to see weighting of these grants to collaborate with the current Presidential initiative to get Americans outside, getting exercise & stimulating their innate love of nature. In the long run, it will pay dividends in lowered insurance & medical costs, more healthy living & a renewed sense of love of country for our citizenry. Thank you in advance for being proactive on this issue.

[T.Shemmans]

My friends use the trails you are discussing.

I think you are doing an excellent job of keeping us informed, this site is so comprehensive.

I think you should be proud that you have accomplished so much.

[Martha Simons, Bonita Springs, FL]

Dear Secretary LaHood,

I am not an FAA employee or connected with construction at airports. Nor is any of my family or friends. I am a citizen appreciating the good job you are doing. You have been an excellent advocate for our country's transportation. I wish Congress would do more.

I just want to say thank you for fighting for the workers who would have been out of work till October if you and the President didn't get Congress to make an agreement.

Ray, you showed compassion, something which has been lacking in the recent debt talks.
May the Lord welcome you at the end of your days, saying, " Well done, my good and faithful servant."

[Am i Pretty]

I wish there will be more opportunity and job openings for us in congress, the people really need work and if it would given a chance the better.

[Hostel Buenos Aires]

I'm looking forward for those promises to be reality, I'm sure lots of people are counting for those world and I am hoping for success and progress of our people as well.

[Hostel Buenos Aires]

Well, I'm hoping that a lot of people will benefit from this program. It's a good thing that a politician that makes a promise and I hope that promise will takes its place to be real.