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Three Whole Onions with Secretary Pete Buttigieg

2024-05-10 · collab / interview · Hank, Pete Buttigieg · 25:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Science & nature) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: guest or collab, timely hook

In Missoula, Hank and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg interview each other about airports, parking, EV chargers, high-speed rail, freight priority over Amtrak, housing and mayors, with Hank's researched interstitials; Hank closes that government's real work is unglamorous problem-solving.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Setup: the DOT invites Hank to a vlog during the Missoula airport visit; dual interview with interstitials

  • ★★ Hank says the DOT emailed that the Secretary would be in Missoula for the new airport's opening; Hank proposed a dual interview, with explanatory interstitials added in editing. — 00:00:00 · Missoula, Montana

00:00:31 — The DOT triskelion lapel pin ('three whole onions') and a pin trade

  • ★ Pete Buttigieg: The DOT's triskelion pin represents the three areas it transports in: water, sky and ground. — 00:00:31

00:01:00 — Airports: who owns and funds them, state takeovers in the South, post-9/11 redesign and taxiways

  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says who owns an airport depends, but it is usually the city or the county. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says airports are funded partly by local government and partly by passenger facility charges, one of the many charges added to an airline ticket. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ Hank found that the passenger facility charge is not a percentage of the fare but a flat fee of $4.50 at almost every US airport. — 00:01:40
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says airlines sometimes invest in airports, and in Missoula he is celebrating the Biden-Harris administration's federal funds for the airport. — 00:01:40 · Missoula, Montana
  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says airport control is becoming politically salient: states, notably in the South, are pressing to take control of locally run airports, which concerns the DOT. — 00:01:40
  • ★★ Hank explains the takeovers as tension between conservative state governments and more progressive big-city governments, and agrees they are troubling. — 00:02:43
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says most US airports were built before 9/11, so security checkpoints and layout must change; the DOT is funding replacements, down to taxiway geometry. — 00:03:12
  • ★★ Hank explains that an end-around taxiway makes planes travel farther but speeds things up and is safer, since planes need not cross active paths. — 00:03:41

00:04:11 — Hank's 2002 'I Hate I-4' blog and Pete's childhood wish to be an airline pilot

  • ★★ Hank confirms that in 2002 he had a blog, 'I Hate I-4', about Orlando's interstate and how to improve it, wanting people to look at it. — 00:04:11
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says that as a child he wanted to be an airline pilot. — 00:04:40

00:05:10 — Parking minimums, land use and automated vehicles

  • ★★★ Hank says municipalities setting parking minimums ignore the costs: space taken from bike lanes, the built environment and homes. — 00:05:10
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says as mayor he saw many land-use visions die because of parking requirements, and many cities are now moving on from them. — 00:05:10
  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says safety is automated vehicles' biggest promise: human drivers kill about 40,000 people a year, as many as gun violence, with much less attention. — 00:05:40
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says the second big gain may be land use: self-parking cars could park out in the county, freeing land now allocated to parking. (hedged) — 00:05:40
  • ★★ Hank doubts it outside entirely new communities: people want their car waiting, not summoned 20 minutes later; we are too spoiled. — 00:06:09
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says many cities have found they need less parking than they thought, even with human-driven cars. — 00:06:38

00:07:00 — Zipper merges, EV charger reliability and funding, gas-station snacks and the jerky drawer

  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: On zipper merges Pete, stressing it is not official policy, says experts told him to go to the end and merge at the last moment; Hank agrees. (playful) — 00:07:00
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says chargers are less reliable than gas pumps because they are newer; federal standards for funded chargers include an uptime standard. — 00:07:00
  • ★★★ Hank says the infrastructure bill approved $7.5 billion for tens of thousands of chargers, but basically none are built, partly due to standards like 97% uptime. — 00:07:30
  • ★★ Hank says state proposals slow the program down; it is expected to pick up in 2024, but basically none of the money has been spent. — 00:07:59
  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says EVs are where gas cars were around the Model T; Biden set a 500,000-charger goal for the decade, with federal funding where the market won't build. — 00:09:33
  • ★★ Hank says owning an electric car works really well with a plug at home; his commute is short enough to charge from a regular outlet. — 00:10:02
  • ★★ Hank says the DOT's separate $623 million for chargers puts half into locations for people in multifamily housing, where slow overnight charging suffices. — 00:10:02
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says funding lets the government require chargers to be reliable, interoperable and transparent on pricing, as drivers expect at gas stations. — 00:10:31

00:10:52 — Favorite modes of transport: jet skis and Hank's e-bike

  • ★★ Hank says he is a big fan of walking and just got an e-bike that lets him carry his son, 55 pounds, up hills. — 00:11:14
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says e-bikes expand the range of bicycle commuting and who chooses it; bike-commuting cities abroad are ahead, and the US is seeing more. — 00:11:14

00:11:44 — Cancer and policy: universal health care, Hank's cheap cancer, FMLA, the cancer moonshot, the ACA

  • ★★★ Hank says Pete's 'Medicare for all who want it' plan from his presidential run sounds great, since private insurance seems unlikely to go away in the US. — 00:11:44
  • ★★★ Hank says he had a 'cheap cancer', scans being the costliest part, plus flexible work, support systems and money, so he didn't have to worry. — 00:11:44 · cancer
  • ★★ Hank says systems like FMLA exist, but families with seriously ill children find them complicated; he doesn't know how, but it seems it could be simple. — 00:13:02
  • ★★ Correcting himself, Hank says Biden's cancer moonshot covers this: the Labor Department created resources to help workers with cancer, caregivers and survivors use FMLA rights. — 00:13:02
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says his mother-in-law's topical skin-cancer chemotherapy costs thousands a tube, and the Affordable Care Act is why her small-business family can afford it. — 00:13:31

00:14:00 — Roads and paving research, market failures, ARPA-I and DARPA, favorite invention

  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Asked why neighborhood streets aren't built of the long-lasting highway material, Pete says the short answer is cost. — 00:14:00
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says as mayor he filled many potholes, about 50,000 in one year. (hedged) — 00:14:00
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says the Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank facility tests a dozen road strips with embedded sensor chips to optimize the next generation of paving. — 00:15:38
  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete describes a market failure: under pressure to cover much quickly, mayors and states would refuse a paving material lasting 50% longer at 30% more cost. — 00:16:07
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says the DOT has a little-known R&D side and is even trying to stand up an ARPA-I, like DARPA or ARPA-E. — 00:16:07
  • ★★ Hank explains DARPA funds high-risk, high-reward research; its biggest launch was probably the internet, plus GPS, graphical interfaces and the mouse; ARPA-I would pursue far-out infrastructure ideas like self-healing concrete. (hedged) — 00:16:36
  • ★★ Hank's favorite invention is science: the idea that we can ask the universe questions, it answers, and we get better at asking. — 00:17:05

00:17:33 — Orin asks whether the Secretary of Transportation owns secretary birds

  • ★★ Hank explains secretary birds are African birds of prey that eat snakes among other meat, though Wikipedia says snakes' importance has been exaggerated. — 00:17:33 · Wikipedia
  • ★ Hank says secretary birds may be named for guarding crops like a 'secretary of the field', or for quill-like head feathers and waistcoat look. (hedged) — 00:18:21

00:18:43 — High-speed rail to Las Vegas, the podcast bet, freight railroads ignoring Amtrak's priority

  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says the US is building high-speed rail and he broke ground on a line two weeks ago. — 00:18:43
  • ★★★ Hank says the infrastructure law funded a 185 mph line from Southern California to Las Vegas along I-15: two hours versus about four driving; Pete says it aims to run by 2028. — 00:18:43
  • ★★ Hank bets his podcast's name with Pete: if Brightline West opens in 2028, Pete gets to rename the podcast. (playful) — 00:19:12
  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says Amtrak trains could be faster if the freight railroads owning the tracks yielded; a 50-year-old rule from Amtrak's formation requires host railroads to let passenger trains go first, but they often don't. — 00:19:12
  • ★★ Hank explains the Surface Transportation Board, established in 1996, is an independent adjudicatory agency regulating rail rates, service, construction and abandonment. — 00:19:58
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says the independent Surface Transportation Board is stepping up enforcement, the DOT helps with data, and compliance has already improved. — 00:20:27
  • ★★ Hank found coverage only in FreightWaves; since the railroads prefer their own freight trains, they won't comply unless someone comes after them. — 00:20:56

00:21:24 — Fewer cars, transportation and housing, mayors' pragmatism and the infrastructure package

  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete, raised in Studebaker's South Bend, says from the 1950s to 70s cities came to revolve around cars; more choices like microtransit and e-bikes mean fewer forced car trips. — 00:21:24
  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says housing and transportation go hand in hand, and for the first time he sees mayors nationwide all focused on one issue: housing. — 00:22:23
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says transportation and housing costs hit the monthly budget together, and for lower-income families they exceed 40 percent of the budget. — 00:22:52

  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says we experience distance in minutes, not miles, so better options like transit-oriented development help. — 00:22:52

    “we don't actually experience distance in miles we experience it in minutes”

  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says fitting a transportation agenda with a housing agenda also brings a climate payoff, through fewer compelled trips. — 00:23:21

  • ★★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says mayors mostly face non-partisan problems like trash and potholes and must act pragmatically without surrendering their values. — 00:23:21
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says the best indication the DOT is doing a good job is whether mayors' jobs are a bit easier. (hedged) — 00:24:09
  • ★★ Pete Buttigieg: Pete says being a mayor is harder now than a decade ago, and as mayor he would have welcomed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. — 00:24:09

00:24:38 — Hank on why local government is harder now and voting for problem-solvers

  • ★★★ Hank thinks local government is harder now because the temperature is hotter: people bring big existential fears, many made up by the internet, into local government. — 00:24:38
  • ★★★ Hank says the unglamorous work with no Twitter threads, like enforcing Amtrak's priority, is the work government, especially local government, is doing. — 00:25:12 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Hank says he wants to vote for people whose values align with his and who focus on solving towns' big problems, like housing. — 00:25:12

00:25:42 — Gifts: Hank's cancer socks and a Garfield; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank gives Pete the cancer socks he designed during chemo and thanks him for the pin; Pete notes he also got a Garfield and is not leaving empty-handed. — 00:25:42 · Hank's Cancer Socks

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Pete Buttigieg, as Secretary of Transportation, runs the 55,000-person US Department of Transportation. — video description
  • ★★ The description says Hank quite liked Pete: a big nerd focused on understanding people's problems and systems to help them, not on rhetoric. — video description
  • ★ The description says Hank made the video in a weird way that Pete's team had not agreed to, and hopes they don't mind. — video description
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank jokes that nine years ago (2015) he was interviewing Obama, so interviewing the Secretary could be a step down. (playful) — creator comment · Barack Obama

Humor (significant)

  • Pete says the DOT pin is called a triskelion; Hank repeats it as — 00:00:31

    “Three whole onions.”

  • Hank learns the passenger facility charge is a flat fee at almost every airport — 00:01:40

    “The airport has a $4.50 cover.”

  • Hank says he made the I-4 blog just wanting people to look at him; Pete replies — 00:04:40

    “A lot of politicians get started the same way.”

  • After Pete says he sticks to bagged snacks like beef jerky, Hank offers his beef jerky drawer — 00:09:04

    “That's actually mushroom jerky, so now I'm one of the elites.”

  • Hank pushes jet skis as his favorite transport; Pete is sure he'd get hurt — 00:10:52

    “A perfectly good boat? Why would I get out of the boat?”

  • Hank finds almost no information on the federal highway research center except its online reviews — 00:14:39

    “I can tell you, however, that it has six Google reviews, all five stars”

  • Hank's son Orin whispers a question for the Secretary of Transportation — 00:17:33

    “He wants to know, since you're the Secretary of Transportation, if you own secretary birds.”

  • Hank bets his podcast's name on the high-speed rail opening on time, then announces the terms — 00:19:12

    “I'm sorry. It's a federal law.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: charging station · housing crisis · Pete Buttigieg · secretary bird · United States Department of Transportation

Also: People: Joe Biden · Orin Green

Works: Hank's Cancer Socks

Organizations: Advanced Research Projects Agency–Infrastructure · Amtrak · DARPA · Federal Highway Administration · FreightWaves · Studebaker · Surface Transportation Board · Tesla, Inc. · Twitter · United States Department of Labor · Wikipedia

Concepts: cancer · common carrier · electric bicycle · Electric car · high-speed rail · Internet · local government · market failure · parking minimum · science · self-driving car · Traffic collision · transit-oriented development · universal health care · urban planning · zipper merge

Places: Africa · Brightline West · Interstate 4 · Las Vegas · Missoula Montana Airport · Missoula, Montana · Orlando, Florida · South Bend · Southern California · Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center

Characters: Garfield

Products: Ford Model T

Policies: Affordable Care Act · Cancer Moonshot · Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 · Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act · Public option

Only in the description or credits: Barack Obama · nerd

Also centred on housing crisis: My Governor is Weirder than Yours · The AI Question that No AI Person Asks

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