TxDOT-Statewide Podcast

Last July, President Barack Obama appointed former Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx to become the nation's 17th Secretary of Transportation. Foxx inherited a national transportation portfolio dealing with aging infrastructure, funding shortfalls and the expiration of the current transportation bill, MAP-21, this coming October. I spoke with Secretary Foxx following his keynote address to the 9th annual Texas Transportation Forum, Jan. 6-8, in San Antonio.

Two years ago, Phil Wilson took over as TxDOT’s Executive Director. As 2013 comes to a close, Phil is headed for the Lower Colorado River Authority. As he prepares to depart TxDOT, I asked him to look back on his time at the agency and what he’s accomplished.

As a reminder to keep the holidays happy and safe, the Texas Department of Transportation is urging Texans to give themselves and others the gift of a sober ride as they make the rounds to their seasonal celebrations. For more, I spoke with Terry Pence, Director of TxDOT's Traffic Safety Section. To enter for a chance to win a New Year's Eve trip to New York City, or for a New Year's Eve limousine ride in any Texas town, pledge to have a sober ride by texting "SoberRide" to 42330, tweeting "I pledge to have a #soberride this holiday season @TxDOT," or by logging on to soberrides.org.

How many times have you heard the rhetorical statement, "we can put a man on the moon, but we can't..." do something that seems simple? When it comes to technology and transportation, that question - and the urgency it represents - is becoming more and more common. Enter Brian Heath, the President and CEO of Drivewyze, a Canadian firm that may not have put a man on the moon, but may be on the path to solving some of today's most pressing - and perplexing - transportation issues. For more information about Drivewyze, log on to its website, http://drivewyze.com/.This episode originally posted in April 2013. Register for the 9th Annual Texas Transportation Forum here: www.txdot.gov/ttf.

The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest travel holidays of the year, particularly on the nation's highways. TxDOT and AAA-Texas want you and yours to be safe this holiday season, and that safety starts before you ever get into the car. For more, I spoke with Doug Shupe of AAA-Texas. For more travel safety tips, log onto the AAA-Texas website, www.texas.aaa.com.

Summer in Texas not only means road trips and vacations, but also soaring temperatures and an increase in ozone pollution levels. To help motorists save money and keep the air clean, the Texas Department of Transportation and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are again partnering on this year's Drive Clean Across Texas campaign. For more on the campaign, I spoke with Margo Richards, director of TxDOT's Travel Information Division. Enter to win the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid by logging on to the Drive Clean Across Texas website, http://drivecleanacrosstexas.org/, by September 15.

For each of the past 20 years, the Reason Foundation has compiled a report on the performance of state highway systems across the country, and ranked them on 11 different indicators. Texas was ranked 11th overall on the most recent report, which showed marked improvement from where we started 20 years ago. For more on this report, I spoke with Dr. Adrian Moore of the Reason Foundation. Read the Reason Foundation's 20th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems on their website: http://reason.org.

In the past 10 years, TxDOT has become a leaner, more efficient agency which has embraced new methods and new technology to keep up with the times. Aside from money spent to build and maintain TxDOT's 80,000-mile system, one of the department's biggest expenditures comes from maintaining its fleet of 16,000 vehicles and pieces of heavy equipment. But that, too, maybe about to change. For more, I spoke with Lauren Garduno, TxDOT's Chief Procurement Officer.

With July 4 just around the corner, chances are, your holiday plans include packing the family car and hitting the road - where, as Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Lonny Haschel reminds us, you'll be under the watchful eyes of the Texas highway patrol.

TxDOT Minute: As you travel around the state this summer, TxDOT reminds you to be safe when behind the wheel.

After nearly 20 years in the Texas Legislature, State Representative Joe Pickett has been involved with transportation in Texas on several different levels. In that time, Texas has grown, and so have its needs, which has prompted regular and sometimes heated debate on the best way to fund those needs. With the 83rd Texas Legislature adjourned, and a special session on the horizon, I spoke with Rep. Pickett about his expectations for another funding discussion.

When Phil Wilson came aboard as TxDOT's Executive Director in 2011, many inside and outside the department felt he had his work cut out for him. The department had just been through an exhaustive multi-legislative session Sunset process and was at the same time struggling to make ends meet as revenues dropped. I spoke with Phil recently about getting TxDOT ready for this most recent legislative session and what's next for the department.

With Memorial Day in the offing, AAA-Texas is anticipating nearly three million Texans loading up the family car and hitting the road. For more, I spoke with Doug Shupe of AAA-Texas.

Few in the Texas Legislature have a district as diverse as Senator Dr. Robert Deuell of the Second District. Spanning east from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to all or part of Delta, Fannin, Hopkins and Van Zandt counties, Sen. Deuell has made his career on striking balances between big city and small town politics on the three major political hot buttons; education, transportation and water. I spoke with the six-term Senator recently about how transportation funding has changed since he took office and where he sees it going next.

There may not be a clear beginning of distracted driving as a phenomenon in the United States, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is working to find the end. A recent survey by NHTSA showed that while a majority of Americans know distracted driving is dangerous, that hasn't stopped them from driving while distracted. For more on this dichotomy, I spoke with NHTSA Administrator David Strickland.