Former MoDOT Director and "Highway Man" Pete Rahn now running Maryland DOT - his unfortunate legacy in Missouri

"Highway builder" and former MoDOT Director Pete Rahn has been on the job in Maryland as Secretary of Transportation for over six months now.

Pete Rahn

In Maryland, Rahn stepped into a very different environment than the one he found in Missouri. Maryland is one of the top U.S. states for bicycling, consistently ranking near the top in the annual Bicycle Friendly State rankings.  The state has a long history of serious, statewide, institutional support for bicycling and the state and local level.

Now it appears that Maryland DOT's bicycle program is currently undergoing some changes--and perhaps turmoil? The details, and the consequences, remain to be seen. 

But it is worth reminding our friends in Maryland that changes to MoDOT's bicycle and pedestrian programs during Rahn's tenure were always portrayed as positive steps in moving the program forward--but in reality, the sum total of them set bicycling and walking Missouri back by over a decade.

Rahn's legacy as a "highway builder" at MoDOT includes these highlights:

• Eliminating the MoDOT Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), which had been created by action of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission in the 1990s.
   
• Stopping adoption, or even consideration of official adoption, of the statewide strategic bicycle and pedestrian plan that had been created by the BPAC in its final year.
   
• Firing the MoDOT bicycle and pedestrian coordinator who ran the committee and create the statewide strategic plan--leading (even under the most favorable possible interpretation) to years of lost time and failure to make significant progress on these issues.
   
• Personally quashing the state's Complete Streets bill, which MoDOT had formerly supported until Rahn personally intervened to manage the agency's legislative opposition to the measure.
   
• Overseeing the creation of a "Practical Design" framework that gave MoDOT Central Office unlimited authority to eliminate bicycle and pedestrian-friendly elements from road designs, even after public input and local leaders had supported them.

Has the leopard changed his spots? We will see . . .