U.S. DOT

The U.S. Department of Transportation seems to be stuck in a bizarre time warp. For nine years in a row Americans have decreased their average driving miles. Yet U.S. DOT’s most recent biennial report to Congress on the state of the nation’s transportation system, released last Friday, forecasts that total vehicle miles will increase between 1.36 percent to 1.85 percent each year through 2030.

“Highway people like highways, transit people like transit, rail people like rail,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said yesterday at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. “But our transportation system should be greater than the sum of its parts.”

When David Strickland announced last month that he was stepping down as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, he didn't give any clues about where he might be going. The news came out this week: The nation's top auto regulator is going to be a lobbyist at a law firm that deals with auto regulation, raising concerns that he's going through the revolving door between the public and private sector, more to the benefit of industry than the public.

About 350 pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are killed each year by large trucks in this country. Big freight trucks are incompatible with cities in many ways, bringing danger, pollution, noise, and traffic congestion. They park in bike lanes and have shockingly big blind spots, putting everyone around them at risk. And yet, most cities haven't found a way to reconcile the need to move goods with all their other priorities.

Two of the Obama administration's top transportation officials are heading elsewhere, creating a leadership shake-up at U.S. DOT.

Andy Clarke is the president of the League of American Bicyclists. This article originally appeared on the League's blog.