Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appointed 24 new members to his Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity.
One of the new members is Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, a “spatial policy scholar” who said that “all cars are bad.”
In an interview with the Washington Free Beacon, Marpillero-Colomina said, “My interest in being on the [equity committee] is to raise the question and push the Department of Transportation to really think about: What are some equitable, environmentally sustainable, economically beneficial, and feasible alternatives to policy that is car-centric?”
“How can we reimagine streets to prioritize people instead of cars? How can we create streets that are inclusive of modes other than cars?”
Another appointee, Veronica Davis, wrote in an essay that cars contribute to “systemic racism.”
The committee will aid Buttigieg on “promising practices to institutionalize equity into Agency programs, policies, regulations, and activities” and “[s]trengthen and establish partnerships with overburdened and underserved communities who have been historically underrepresented in the Department’s outreach and engagement.”
Buttigieg’s team also includes Oliver Sellers-Garcia, the director of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Green New Deal.
Reporting from Free Beacon:
This is far from the first time Buttigieg has shown an open hostility toward car transportation. Buttigieg's agency in January released a climate plan aimed at lowering the transportation sector's carbon emissions. Included in the plan is a call to reduce "commuting miles" through an "increase in remote work and virtual engagements." "The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted major opportunities for telework, with some studies showing the possibility of 10 percent long-term reduction in annual vehicle miles traveled," the plan says.
