Transportation Secretary Foxx Wants to Go Out With a Bang

Daniel C. Vock reports on the lofty ambitions of U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx as he enters the final year of the Obama Administration.

According to Vock, the U.S. DOT "is pushing cities to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety, hosting a 'Smart City' competition to showcase how technology can improve transportation,  and doling out money from a new five-year, $305 billion federal transportation package."

But even more ambitious, according to Vock, Secretary Foxx has added two additional goals to his list:

First, he wants to tear down -- or at least improve -- transportation infrastructure that isolates communities. Second, he wants to find a way for cities to get federal transportation money directly, rather than have it flow almost exclusively through states.

In this case "transportation infrastructure that isolates communities" means elevated highways as well as the lack of transportation options found in some sprawling communities. Vock acknowledges that achieving those goals would "reverse decades of policy." But Secretary Foxx would settle for planting "seeds for long-term change."