Transportation Policy in the Obama Administration?

Ben Adler | Tue, Nov 25th, 2008 | Category: Commentary | City: New York | Tags: san francisco, barack obama, transportation, new york, janette sadik-khan, ben adler, rep. jim oberstar, rep. earl blumenauer

Earlier this month President-Elect Obama’s transition team announced the transportation experts who will form its agency review team for the federal Department of Transportation. The list serves as a reminder that while urban wonks might view Transportation as primarily about cars versus trains, the agency mainly worries about such obscure issues as air traffic and commercial shipping.

But among the career bureaucrats are a couple veterans of the nation’s most forward-looking cities on transportation: New York and San Francisco. So New Yorkers and urbanists who are enamored of New York’s aggressive Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, are wondering if she will get the tapped to run the federal agency. Sadik-Khan has launched multiple initiatives to reclaim New York’s streets from automobiles by creating dedicated bike and bus lanes. To learn more about her innovative strategies I highly recommend Dana Goldstein’s profile of her in the new issue of The American Prospect.

Other leading candidates, according to Politico, include congressmen with strong smart growth advocacy crednetials: Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.)

Whomever Obama ultimately taps, transporation policy is going to be a crucially front in the efforts to reverse suburban sprawl. The appointment, while it is not even included on most major media speculation lists for the new Cabinet, will matter a great deal. 

Ben Adler joins Next American City as an Urban Leaders Fellow based in Washington, D.C. He will be focusing on Washington and the role of the federal government in urban policy. Ben covered the 2008 election and Congress as a staff writer for Politico. Prior to joining Politico Ben was the editor of CampusProgress.org, a daily online political and cultural magazine at the Center for American Progress, a regular contributor to The American Prospect Online and its award-winning blog, TAPPED, and a reporter-researcher at The New Republic. His writing has also appeared in Newsweek, The Washington Monthly, In These Times, The Nation and the websites of The Guardian and The Atlantic among other publications.

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