MoDOT chief resigns

Henry Hungerbeeler, head of the Missouri Department of Transportation, resigned Tuesday. Hungerbeeler, who has led MoDOT since 1999, will continue to run the agency for several months while a replacement director is found.

According to an article in the Kansas City Star,
Henry Hungerbeeler, whose resignation is effective June 1, said he was proud of his achievements.

"But as I review where we have been and what we have accomplished, I realize it is not enough," Hungerbeeler wrote in a letter to Barry Orscheln, chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission.

Management of the Department of Transportation, which has been burdened by a crumbling road system, was criticized last month by a blue ribbon panel. In August, a series in The Kansas City Star portrayed a dysfunctional agency that had earned its poor reputation.
MoDOT roads form the backbone of Missouri's transportation system, including primary arterial streets in every city and town. MoDOT's policies have a great deal of influence in determining local transportation policy around the state. Bicycle and pedestrian advocates should work to ensure the Hungerbeeler's replacement at MoDOT will support bike- and pedestrian-friendly policies.

Over about the next 10 years, Missouri's crumbling transportation system must be rebuilt, one way or another. This presents both a tremendous opportunity and a challenge to those who would like Missouri to become a more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly place. At the end of this rebuilding process, we could have a thoroughly modern, multi-modal transportation system that nurtures walkable, bikeable, anlivablele communities.

Or we could be back to square one, with a brand-new transportation system that is designed for automobiles but not for the people who drive them--and back to the kind of transportation system that discourages walking and bicycling and has helped place Missouri among the worst states in the scandalous epidemic increase in both childhood and adult obesity that has swept the United States in the past twenty years.

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