Now, the transportation budget of its former mayor, 38-year-old Pete Buttigieg, looks set to make a massive leap: it will soon manage more than $ 85 billion after President-elect Joe Biden appointed him this week to head the Department of Transportation .
Those who are familiar with Buttigieg’s work in South Bend say it is very suitable for the job given its trajectory, intellect and vision of transportation as well as moving vehicles. They point to their success in revitalizing downtown South Bend. It redesigned streets, which attracted new business, increased real estate values and made the city safer for pedestrians.
But now Buttigieg is stepping onto a national stage, with bigger and more complicated challenges than he had to face in a city of about 100,000. It will have to address the challenges facing national traffic and journey workers, as well as integrate electric and autonomous vehicles.
C. Michael Walton, a professor of transportation at the University of Texas at Austin, said perhaps Buttigieg may not have as much direct experience as previous secretaries, but the most qualified candidates have not always proven to be the most successful.
“With his youth and energy he has a chance to show the future of transportation,” Walton said. “We need her, frankly.”
The next huge change in American transportation may be a stand-alone vehicle, and the debate is already on fire.
Buttigieg’s presidential campaign called for leading the world in safe, emissions-free autonomous vehicle technology, and said he would call for a strong federal role for regulation and oversight.
Perhaps most urgently, it is possible that Buttigieg will have to act on public transportation. Most traffic agencies are considering severe cuts to their services, given the low driving during the pandemic, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
Travel companies are already on Buttigieg’s radar as it protested with drivers outside Uber’s headquarters in 2019 as they sought better wages and benefits. You may be able to get better protections for concert workers. Biden protested against a California voting initiative this fall that exempted Uber and Lyft from classifying their workers as drivers.
Amid his successes in South Bend, Buttigieg did not avoid the broader national trend of declining public transportation numbers.
South Bend public transport fell 32% between when Buttigieg was elected mayor in 2011 and when he left office in 2019.
Other Indiana cities also experienced heavy falls. Evansville, Indiana, experienced a 42% drop during the same time and Fort Wayne, Indiana, fell 16%. Both cities have similar public transportation budgets to South Bend.
The South Bend streets that Buttigieg redesigned had fewer serious pedestrian accidents, according to Santiago Garces, who served as Buttigieg’s director of innovation at South Bend. There were also fewer empty stores and a higher real estate value, he said. One-way streets were converted into two lanes, bike lanes were added and sidewalks widened.
Biden has called for the installation of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and the South Bend experiences of Buttigieg can be valuable.
“We were a city you drove and didn’t stop,” said Greg Downes, who was the CEO of a South Bend insurance company when he met Buttigieg during his first campaign for mayor. “There’s nothing too big for this guy.”
Downes said he was already engaged to another mayoral candidate, when he agreed to meet with Buttigieg for a short coffee before Buttigieg’s 2011 campaign. Downes said that after a two-way conversation hours and a half, he was so impressed that he agreed to support Buttigieg. He later served on the South Bend Redevelopment Commission in Buttigieg.
Kim Irwin, executive director of Health by Design, an Indianapolis organization focused on the impact of public spaces on public health, said Buttigieg’s selection encouraged her to address her past focus on transportation.
“Look at things from a systems level and see how things are interconnected,” Irwin told CNN Business.
The wide sidewalks allow for outdoor dining, creating vibrant street life. When the streets are not so wide to cross and cars do not travel at extremely high speeds, pedestrians also feel more welcome and attracted to the city streets.
Now Buttigieg will see if he can translate his hits in South Bend to a national stage.
Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association, a New York transportation research group, believes Buttigieg has been involved in the most important moment for U.S. transportation since the interstate highway system was developed in the 1950s.
“This is a crucial moment,” Wright said. “The politics and culture behind the American transportation system are pending.”