LaHood

US Secretary of transportation Ray LaHood is leaving. Ken Orski a well connected reporter in USDOT politics says has heard LaHood was told he wasn't wanted any longer. It is not clear he did anything to incur the displeasure of the White House, but perhaps they simply have someone else they now prefer in the slot.

A couple of those speculated about as successors come from state and local politics:

- LA mayor Antonio Villarigosa who is at the end of his term, who has been successful in getting things done, in tolling the I-110 and I-10 toll lanes

2012-08-12: US transport secretary Ray LaHood says he is moving against the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) - which runs the Dulles Toll Road and a new train line as well as airports - saying he has been discussing action to change its membership.  MWAA's board is made up of appointees of the governments of Virginia, Maryland and DC as well as the US Government.

Ray LaHood is quoted with colorful words by Politico reporter Burgess Everett: "America’s one big pothole right now … nothing’s happening in America right now.”

The reason: the Republican party leadership's stubbornness in not passing the Senate transport funding bill. LaHood says. And they are opposed because it would constitute a victory for President Obama and they're determined to deny him that in an election year.

The doctrine that tolls should only be used for adding extra capacity on Interstates - espoused by the Democrat Party administration's transport sec Ray LaHood and the Republican leader of the US House transport committee Cong John Mica alike - is not supported by public opinion according to a survey published by HNTB.

US secretary of transportation Ray LaHood (Dem) and US House of Representatives transport committee chair John Mica (Repub)  are both out of touch with public opinion in their hostility to use of tolls to rebuild interstates and relieve congestion - according to surveys by the big Kansas City based engineering firm HNTB.

The Obama Administration's Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and Republican House Chairman John Mica seem to agree that US policy ought to embrace a newly restrictive rule: no tolls on interstates except when they fund new lanes.

We wonder whether the Transportation Research Board has in mind US secretary of transportation Ray LaHood's enthusiasm for non-motorized transportation. They have just published a paper on CMV lanes.

CV for commercial vehicle has been the accepted term for heavy trucks for some years.

US secretary of transportation Ray LaHood got into trouble not long ago for saying that a so-called "livability initiative" of USDOT and US Department of Housing was "a way to coerce people out of their cars."  The 'coerce' bit was inartful, impolitic language that put an unnecessarily harsh interpretation on longstanding public policy of attempting to use subsidies, taxes and landuse regulations to buy so-called 'smart growth' and to incentivize pe

by Ron Utt   Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood remarked in May that his livability initiative[1] "is a way to coerce people out of their cars."[2] When asked if this was government intrusion into people's lives, LaHood responded that "about everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives," a sentiment that would have certainly surprised the authors of the United States Constitution, a document w

US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in interviews with journalists is saying that a raise in the federal gasoline tax "won't fly" politically, rejecting the transportation finance commission's recommendation of an interim 10c/gallon gas tax, 15c diesel fuel tax increase pending implementation of road use charges (RUCs).