President Wants ‘People To Live In Communities Where They Don’t Always Have to Be in an Automobile’

In this interview last week with the Washington Post (which we just noticed is available on video), the Transportation Secretary said some interesting things. For instance:

• When asked about the vehicle miles tax–remember that LaHood got slapped down by the White House a couple of months ago for floating precisely this idea–he was indirect but seemed to suggest that the scheme is alive and well, but its fate is in Congress’s hands. “That debate will go on in Congress,” he said.
• There will be no increase in the gas tax while Obama is president because people are economically stressed and it “is very regressive.” (This got a bit of press pickup last week.)
• “The president wants to create opportunities for people to live in communities where they don’t always have to be in an automobile to get where they’re going.”
• He and Housing secretary Sean Donovan see the new Livable Communities program as a means of “creating opportunities for people to get out of their cars.”
• The current $13 billion in high speed rail funding is “a very good start,” but America’s HSR program “will develop over a couple decades.”
• Regarding Amtrak’s future, he said: “Amtrak will be a part of some planning for some high speed rail corridors.”
• His assessment of his own performance: “I was able to really help the president to extent that there’s $48 billion” in transportation funds in the stimulus package.

Part 2 of the video after the jump.

More here.