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Editor’s Note: Last month, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood invited Streetsblog readers to submit questions for a Q&A installment on his blog, the Fast Lane. Here are his answers. (For maximum effect, picture the secretary delivering these remarks while standing on a table.)

Since March, I’ve been doing a monthly video series called “On the Go with Ray LaHood,” where I respond to questions from the public. I want to thank Streetsblog readers for supplying the bulk of the questions we received this month.

But in my latest “On the Go” video, I was only able to answer a few of them. Since you provided so many great questions, I thought it would be nice to answer a few extra ones right here on Streetsblog.

On my Fast Lane blog, Josef Szende asked, “Does the USDOT consider its job on creating a sustainable transit system to be over once the majority of the country is using electric vehicles?”

Josef, it’s true that I’m excited about Electric Vehicles. They’ve got a lot of potential to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and they really help solve the problem of tailpipe emissions. But many people don’t want to own cars–electric or otherwise. And, with transportation costs as the number two item in most household budgets, we know Americans need access to affordable transit options.

So this DOT is pushing forward to continue growing innovative transit systems across the U.S. For example, our Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has a very popular Urban Circulator program and a successful New Starts program that, on Monday, announced nearly $1.6 billion for 27 projects nationwide.

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Note that LaHood had Facebook on in the background during his last video chat. (And he says he's not a hipster.)

Got a question for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood? He’s all ears.

LaHood has been doing a series of video chats where he responds to questions from the public, and a DOT official told me they would like to “explicitly invite Streetsblog readers to submit their questions to the Secretary” for the next episode of “On the Go with Ray LaHood.”

There are three ways to submit questions. You can leave a comment on the Secretary’s blog, go to his Facebook discussion page, or tweet a question using hashtag #q4ray.

Go ahead, give him your best shot.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters today that the administration sent its draft bill to Capitol Hill two weeks ago. “It’s with the people that it needs to be with,” LaHood said, “the staff that’s working on a bill.”

Ray LaHood says everyone who needs the White House bill already has it. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

So while we reporters have been busy poring over draft bills that, it later turns out, don’t accurately reflect the administration’s plans for the transportation reauthorization, the final bill has already been out there?

Not exactly. Committee staffers say they’ve received “technical assistance” from the White House but not a final bill. “Technical assistance” is Congressional jargon for getting a sneak peek at relevant sections of the president’s draft of the bill. But it looks like the White House is only releasing it like that – piece by piece, as needed, and only to Congressional staff.

Even that technical assistance was slow in coming, said one staffer. The leaked versions that were floating around probably helped convince the White House to be more forthcoming with their guidance, just so staffers could have an accurate idea of what the administration has in mind.

It’s unusual for Obama to publicly release his own draft of a piece of legislation – he generally leaves that to Congress. LaHood clearly seems to think that the people who need the bill have it, and I take that as a sign that we won’t be seeing any more from the White House.

Meanwhile, the action alerts we’ve seen today indicating that the EPW Committee in the Senate is getting close to finalizing their language are only partly accurate, according to inside sources. Committee staff seems to be getting done with their draft, but that’s just at the staff level. Apparently that conversation has barely begun at the level of the senators themselves, and the staffers in their offices haven’t seen the committee draft yet. So it looks like there’s still a ways to go before we see a final bill.

Both the House and the Senate have recently stepped back from earlier talk of finalizing a bill by Memorial Day and are now shooting for “sometime in June.”

This morning, House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica told transit professionals gathered at the American Public Transportation Association’s legislative conference that he’s still hoping to pass a bill out of the House by May in order to get it signed before September 30, when the current extension of SAFETEA-LU expires. “It’ll be very difficult after that,” he said. “Because of the presidential ‘happy season,’ major legislation sometimes gets left behind.”

Photo: Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel

As he’s said before, Mica doesn’t have a bill in his “back pocket.” It’s hard to say if he was praising or criticizing his predecessor, Rep. Jim Oberstar, when he told the APTA audience, “He had waited 32 years to become chair. He knew exactly what he wanted in the bill, and he hand-wrote it out and projected it up on a screen and everyone was to march, and I did, until we started to get picked off by the administration and other folks who had other ideas, and it never happened.”

Mica also announced a series of stakeholder meetings to be held in the last week of March to supplement the field hearings the committee has been holding around the country. The meetings will help lawmakers craft a transportation reauthorization bill. Mica told the APTA members that they will be among those invited. It will include “all the Washington folks that haven’t been heard.”

Then he’ll “buy beer and pizza” (and fruit smoothies, as requested by Sen. Barbara Boxer) and lawmakers will sit down and hash it all out, he told reporters after his speech.

As for the broader budget fight, Mica alluded to the current deal to pass another extension for three more weeks – “Then, my advice and counsel would be, grab a hold of your shorts and hang on,” he said. “It might be a wild ride.”

He said it’s “above his pay grade” to guess whether more extensions will follow. “It’s not the way to fund the government, but a lot of people were sent here with a mission to cut spending.”

Mica got in his usual jabs at Amtrak, which he likes to call a “Soviet-style” train operator, incapable of developing real high-speed rail. It’s a sad time for high-speed rail proponents, like him, who were excited about the president’s vision, he said, “It’s like trying to celebrate and you’ve got a box of cigars and the first three cigars explode in your face.”

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Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood immediately after addressing the Bike Summit. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

New York City politicians may have had their feathers ruffled by Janette Sadik-Khan, but on the national stage, New York City’s transportation commissioner is getting nothing but love from the Obama administration for her innovative leadership.

Streetsblog Capitol Hill’s Tanya Snyder reports that at the National Bike Summit last night, US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood had this to say about Sadik-Khan:

A quite extraordinary lady as all of you know. She has really put New York on the map when it comes to making New York a livable, sustainable community with lots of opportunities for walking, and biking paths, and you can live in New York and not own an automobile. So Janette, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your leadership.

New York City is a liberal bastion and the least car-dependent city in the country. But our senior senator seems intent on halting the progress of innovative street designs here in NYC, while representatives from Maryland and Oregon carry the banner for bike infrastructure in Congress. One of our mayoral hopefuls makes wisecracks about ripping out bike lanes, while the next mayor of Chicago has pledged to install miles of bikeways, with an emphasis on physically-protected lanes, each year he’s in office.

What does it say about the political class in this town when changes to make our streets safer leave our electeds hyperventilating, while a former Republican congressman from Peoria touts their safety and environmental benefits?

On the first night of the National Bike Summit, Secretary Ray LaHood told an enormous hotel ballroom filled with cycling advocates about his childhood riding bikes in Peoria, Illinois and reminded them that they need to work harder than ever to convince Congress to support cycling.

Sec. LaHood immediately after addressing the Bike Summit. Photo by Clarence Eckerson.

Last year, he captivated the Summit crowd with his famous “Tabletop Speech” and his declaration that “this is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”

Last night, League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke introduced LaHood with the high praise, “He talks about bikes -– not just with us -– but with other people too!”

LaHood encouraged the attendees, who will be going to Capitol Hill to lobby their representatives on Thursday, to “talk to your member of Congress about the importance of making communities cycle-friendly.” He reminded them that Ohio Congressman Steve LaTourette went from ridiculing cycling to supporting it after hearing from committed advocates. (LaHood was polite enough to not mention LaTourette by name, but everyone in the room knew who he was talking about.)

“I want you to work hard on your members of Congress,” LaHood exhorted the crowd. “We really need your help more now than, maybe, ever before. Because you know that a new crowd is in town and they have a little different agenda and it’s being played out in a way that maybe doesn’t reflect the kind of values many of us believe in.”

He didn’t talk much about the “big, bold” transportation plan proposed by “that fella I work for” (President Obama), other than asking attendees to “charge up to Capitol Hill” and push members to support cycling.

LaHood bolstered his own cred with the room full of cyclists by telling stories of how he and his wife go cycling on the C&O Canal trail every weekend (though I think he meant the Capital Crescent), and recounting his own early years riding a Schwinn all around town, and how he bought bikes for his four kids and his nine grandkids to make sure cycling was part of their lives.

“You have a full partner -– many more than one partner -– at DOT,” he told them.

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Rep. John Mica promised state DOT leaders this morning that he would deliver a six-year reauthorization bill. He said he had previously thought of advancing a shorter-term bill but transportation officials convinced him of the need for greater certainty. With the full zeal of the converted, he announced, “Anyone who talks about anything less than a six-year bill, I’ll take you outside and beat the crap out of you.”

Photo credit: Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel

Later in the morning, Republican staffers argued for a Highway Trust Fund devoted just to highways (“back to basics,” they call it) but Mica stands firm in calling for “not just a highway bill, but a transportation bill.” He told AASHTO that he wants the bill to cover all modes. When he talks about finding money in underused programs, like the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing Program, he made it clear that he would keep that money for rail and not shift it to other modes. Somewhat opaquely, he said the rail section of the transportation bill “will be anywhere from one paragraph to 20 pages.”

Mica made it clear he didn’t have a bill in his back pocket and couldn’t answer any questions about its size. He grumbled that he and then-committee chair Jim Oberstar were ready to pass a bill back in 2009 but the administration wanted to wait 18 months, and even that 18-month hold has been a patchwork of six extensions. (It’ll be seven by the time this week is over – the House is voting this afternoon on the seventh extension, to keep the program going at current levels until September 30.)

Meanwhile, Mica called unemployment insurance just another “cockamamie” idea for putting people back to work, saying if we had just put that money toward infrastructure we’d have six percent unemployment by now.

He, and Secretary Ray LaHood, who spoke after him, reiterated for the umpteenth time that while the transportation system has to “spend within its means” (because “that’s the directive of the House of Representatives”), the gas tax is decidedly “off the table,” to the great frustration of many state DOT officials. They wondered how he would achieve his goal of “stabilizing the highway trust fund” without a gas tax hike.

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The president’s six-year transportation plan [PDF], included as part of the administration’s FY2012 budget proposal, weighs in at a hefty $556 billion and lays out several policy reforms that, if enacted, could help the nation transition to a more multi-modal, less oil-dependent transportation system.

The plan is a blueprint that Congress can use as a basis for its transportation reauthorization bill. It has a lot in common with then-Transportation Committee Chair Jim Oberstar’s bill from 2009. And, like Oberstar’s bill, it leaves unanswered the question of how to fund transportation investments. This time, however, it comes in the midst of an all-out Republican war on deficit spending.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the president's proposal represents the administration's "big bold vision" for transportation. Photo: Tanya Snyder

How much of this plan will survive the GOP cutting machine is anyone’s guess. There’s a lot in the president’s proposal that’s worth saving. Some notable elements:

• Transit funding is going up by 127 percent, while funding for roads and bridges is getting a 48 percent increase. That represents a significant shift in the highways-to-transit ratio, which will go from an 80-20 split to a 74-26 split.
• The Highway Trust Fund is getting a long-overdue name change. The new Transportation Trust Fund will now have four accounts – the traditional highways and mass transit accounts and also new accounts for passenger rail and an infrastructure bank.
• Some advocates are disappointed that the proposed infrastructure bank will be housed at DOT and not be formed as an independent entity, as many had hoped. Still, the shift to more discretionary, competitive grants is a huge victory for reformers.
• The consolidation of 55 road programs into five means there will no longer be separate pots of money for bridges, for example, or trucker rest areas, according to Undersecretary Roy Kienitz. That money will be rolled into a larger pot of funding for highways that states and local governments will compete for. The five programs will be: the National Highway Program, Highway Safety Improvement, Livable Communities, Federal Allocation and Research, Technology, and Education.
• The TIFIA loan program will go from a $120 million allocation to $450 million; TIGER, which has given out $2.1 billion in grants so far, will get $2 billion the first year in the president’s proposal.
• The funding for livability programs – $28 billion over six years – will include bike and pedestrian improvements, but allocation decisions rest with the states.
• While the new bill doesn’t have a line item for a new national freight policy or a new office overseeing freight movement, Kienitz said freight programs got the lion’s share of TIGER grants (pun not intended, I think) and will be well-positioned to get money from the infrastructure bank.
• Amtrak funding will be split into two accounts: one for state of good repair and one for new system development.

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FocusDriven's Jennifer Smith, at left, with Ray Lahood at an event held earlier this month. Photo: UPI

A year ago, the Department of Transportation helped launch FocusDriven, an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using cell phones.

“In one year, we’ve made progress – but at least 5,500 people still die every year in crashes,” said FocusDriven president Jennifer Smith, who lost her mother in a collision involving a distracted driver. Vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists are especially at risk when drivers aren’t paying attention.

“I am noticing a lot of pedestrians and cyclists getting killed,” Smith said. “They’re at most danger. They don’t have the car to protect them. And these people are hitting them and not even realizing that they hit someone. That’s how engrossed in the conversation or the text message they are.”

At a press conference at the DOT headquarters in Washington, Secretary Ray LaHood listed the accomplishments of the relatively young campaign against distracted driving.

“In 2010, legislators in 43 states considered more than 270 distracted driving-related bills,” LaHood said. “Because of our collective efforts, 30 states have outlawed texting behind the wheel, and eight states have banned handheld cell phone use for all drivers.”

The Obama administration has also banned federal employees, commercial truckers and bus drivers from texting while driving.

Now he’s taking his message to the automakers. He’s already had talks with top officials at GM, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and BMW. Tuesday, he’ll be in Detroit to talk to the chairmen of Ford and Chrysler. He applauds Subaru’s recent commercial featuring a father admonishing his daughter not to use her cell phone while driving.

And that’s the message he’s taking to the automakers: “devote some of your money that you’re devoting to advertising for your products to the idea that distracted driving is very dangerous.”

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President Obama told reporters today that he’s committed to a six-year plan to rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, lay and maintain 4,000 miles of railways, restore 150 miles of runways, and create a national infrastructure bank.

President Obama, with other transportation leaders, calls for a 6-year infrastructure plan. Reuters

He made his remarks after meeting with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, former Secretaries Samuel Skinner and Norman Mineta, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. They all stood beside him as he spoke to the press.

The president’s remarks echo the promises he made on Labor Day, when he announced a $50 billion “down payment” on transportation and infrastructure spending. LaHood later told activists that the administration planned to get behind a six-year plan in February.

President Obama held up a report, released last week, from a conference chaired by Secretaries Skinner and Mineta, in which they laid out the dismal state of infrastructure in this country and the need for more funding. Obama said choosing whether or not to invest in infrastructure was “a choice between decline and prosperity.”

He also referred to a new report by the Department of the Treasury with the Council of Economic Advisers on the economic impact of infrastructure investment [PDF], emphasizing the significant return from projects that are rigorously analyzed and selected “rationally.” Noting that the average American family spends one-third more on transportation than on food, the report bolsters the administration’s strategy of investing in projects that give middle-class Americans options besides driving.

Obama’s comments — and those of the Democrats and Republicans who flanked him — underlined the traditional bipartisan support for infrastructure spending. With the elections looming, there hasn’t been bipartisan support for anything in Washington lately. They’re hoping that will change.

Perhaps as a hedge against Republican attacks, Obama emphasized that “it should not take another collapsing bridge or failing levee to shock us into action. So we’re already paying for our failure to act.”

With that one line, evoking the needless deaths in New Orleans and Minneapolis, he practically dared Republicans to oppose this plan on the basis that it involves too much spending.

The administration’s long-awaited transportation push is finally underway. We’ll have more analysis in the days ahead.