March 8, 2021
Pete Buttigieg Wants to Make Public Transportation 'Sexy'
Kevin Schattenkirk READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Pete Buttigieg thinks public transportation is sexy and wants you to think so too, according to a new interview in Rolling Stone.
"There's nothing I love more than bringing attention to an unglamorous topic that deserves more attention," the current Secretary of Transportation said. "Even as mayor [of South Bend, Indiana], I was an evangelist for smart sewer technology because it was, in my view, really exciting. So I'm relishing the opportunity to do that with a lot of things in transportation, some of them well understood and already considered fairly sexy in the policy world, some of them pretty obscure."
Highlighting how such "smart" sewer monitoring systems – which detected water congestions – saved South Bend $100 million in replacing pipes, Buttigieg said he wants to apply the same approach toward innovation in the Department of Transportation. Buttigieg also points to America's "slipping competitiveness" with "countries that have not hesitated to make big infrastructure investments" – such as highly developed train systems in the U.K. and Japan – stating that bipartisan support is necessary for infrastructural innovation.
Among his priorities, Buttigieg points to the Department's commitment to developing and building electric vehicle charging stations and all-purpose roads that accommodate not only drivers but also pedestrians and bicyclists. He believes that by encouraging Americans to recognize "that not every trip needs to be in a single-occupant vehicle," which has an impact on the climate, we develop a more "intimate connection" with the environment.
"I can't think of maybe a less-sexy phrase for some people than 'land use,'" the Secretary joked. "But when I'm thinking about automated vehicles and the challenges that presents, it's not just the safety and the operational questions of the vehicle; it's what happens in a world where we don't need nearly as many surface parking lots because most people experience cars as a service rather than as a possession."
