Last month, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) questioned Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on road maintenance financing during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00for five minutes.
00:08Mr. Secretary, we have recently seen overall
00:12traffic fatalities start to decrease, but fatalities of vulnerable road users
00:21such as pedestrians and bicyclists continue to rise. Under the
00:26Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress required states
00:30to complete vulnerable road user safety assessments.
00:36The law also required states with high rates of pedestrian
00:41and bicyclist fatalities to dedicate a portion of their highway safety funds to
00:48stopping these needless deaths. What is the
00:52Department learning from the implementation of these provisions
00:57and what else is needed to reduce pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities?
01:03Thank you for the question. Like you, we've been heartened to see improvements
01:07in the overall numbers of roadway fatalities
01:10over the last eight quarters in the U.S., but we continue to see very troubling
01:14patterns in terms of pedestrian and cyclist injuries and fatalities
01:18or vulnerable road users. Part of what we've been able to do about it is
01:22through our Safe Streets and Roads for All program
01:25to help communities, including those undertaking the assessments you've
01:29described, implement plans that better protect
01:32vulnerable road users from exposure to traffic. I
01:37fear sometimes that media or other accounts of things like bike lanes
01:42treat them as ornamental when they are really about life safety
01:47and whether we're talking about bike lanes, lighting,
01:50signage, or other measures. Many of the things that we're now able to fund in
01:55hundreds of communities across the country
01:57are, we believe, contributing toward a safer environment for
02:01pedestrian, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users to go about their
02:05their commute, their trip, whatever they're doing without harm.
02:09Mr. Secretary, last fall the Department issued
02:13guidance on how two loan programs, TIFIA and RIF, can be used to support
02:22transit-oriented development, including conversions of unused office space to
02:28new housing, which is particularly needed
02:31in the District of Columbia, which I represent.
02:34Has the Department authorized any federal funds for
02:38office conversion projects, and how can we get more funds out the door?
02:45We've got a number of those in the pipeline, and our first
02:49transit-oriented development loan was closed in April, the Mount Vernon
02:53Washington Library Commons project, which is now
02:56under construction. We're very hopeful that this program will
02:59lead to support for those conversions you were
03:02describing. Post-COVID commuting patterns are
03:04changed, and the mix of what different cities require in terms of
03:09housing versus commercial square footage is different.
03:12We want to make sure we're helping them make use of opportunities to do those
03:16conversions, knowing the housing crunch that so many communities face. We
03:22can't predict a definite timeline for when some of the other
03:25applicants will be ready, but we are working through a number of applications
03:28as we speak. We'd be happy to keep you apprised of
03:31the development of that new pipeline in the TOD funding.
03:36I want to discuss the importance of strengthening consumer protection
03:41in transportation. This past April, the Department issued a final rule
03:46requiring aircraft carriers to provide automatic refunds
03:53when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights.
03:58I recently introduced the Household Goods Shipping Consumer Protection Act
04:04with Representative Ezell to give the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
04:10Administration more authority to protect consumers from fraud
04:18in the interstate transportation of household goods.
04:22The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration receives
04:30thousands of complaints every year from Americans who are victims
04:35of fraud in the shipment of household goods, and my bill
04:39would grant the agency the authority to reimburse
04:43states for enforcing federal consumer protection laws
04:47related to the transportation of household goods
04:51and to assess civil penalties against unregistered shippers
04:58and against entities that hold consumer personal goods.
05:02What other steps is the Department taking to strengthen consumer protection
05:07in transportation, Mr. Secretary? We see how fraud in the movement of
05:13goods has created just gut-wrenching stories
05:18from people who are vulnerable when somebody else has
05:22possession of their goods during a move, so FMCSA has increased
05:26its efforts to combat external fraud relating to commercial motor
05:31vehicle and driver operations. Legislation such as what you have
05:35led on introducing could give FMCSA the explicit authority needed to
05:40assess civil penalties for violations of commercial regulations,
05:44withhold registration from applicants who have
05:48failed to provide the right verification demonstrating that they are legitimate,
05:52and allow us to expand our household good program by
05:56engaging states as force multipliers. So we welcome this and
05:59appreciate your work on it. Thank you. I yield back.
06:05Thank you. The chair now recognizes himself for five minutes.