Biden's Selection To Lead DOT: A Potential Rule-Making Game Changer

President-Elect Joe Biden's selection of Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 presidential candidate and the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to be the next Secretary of Transportation has drawn positive responses from sustainable transportation advocates excited about his big ambitions for transit and his commitment to tackling traffic violence.

Some transportation stakeholders are delighted to see a Midwestern former mayor take the helm of an agency that has not always recognized the unique challenges of transit-poor cities where most Americans live. There is an optimism about Buttigieg's vision for transportation reform, which many believe will be far bigger than South Bend's modest transportation system. Buttigieg at the helm of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will mean leadership from slow-growing, older industrial communities playing a key role in transportation policy. The reason for this optimism may come from Buttigieg's transportation plan when he was a