US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood made cyclists smile at the National Bike Summit when he pledged to be a "full partner" with them through his term as head of the agency. Not content with good rhetoric at a gala event, he wrote about it on his official Welcome to the Fast Lane blog.
I have been a supporter of bicycling for many years and was a member of the Congressional Bike Caucus when I was in Congress.... I am committed to investing in programs that encourage bikes to coexist with other modes and to safely share our roads and bridges. And there’s strong support in Congress for these goals as well.
In the Department of Transportation, bicyclists have a full partner in working toward livable communities. We're excited that the Federal Highway Administration is looking at best practices in Europe to improve safety and mobility for walkers and cyclists. We're excited that a federally funded pilot project to study the effects of improved walking and bicycling facilities in four communities is underway.
LaHood went on to say that he thinks he conveyed his excitement to the summit and linked to stories on Bike Portland and Streetsblog as evidence of his success.
In today's post, LaHood extols the virtues of cities and seems to be having fun at his job. He writes "we are absolutely committed to more livable, sustainable communities by reducing congestion, by building housing near transit, by supporting all modes of transportation." Time to add him to the blogroll and start petitioning San Jose to change the name of their airport.
Though we commend him for blogging and for his support of livable cities and bicycles as vital transportation, maybe he could change the name of the blog to something more aligned with a livable cities future, like "Welcome to the Complete Street." Or "Let's Get Multimodal!"
Anyone want to help me out with this?
