U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx at NYU Wagner

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx visited NYU Wagner on July 21 at the invitation of the school’s Rudin Center for Transportation. He spoke about “Transportation, Social Mobility, and Cities” on a panel with David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York; Sarah M. Kaufman, Assistant Director for Technology Programming at the NYU Rudin Center; and Patrick Sharkey, Associate Professor of Sociology at NYU. The panel was moderated by NYU Rudin Center Director and Wagner Professor Mitchell L. Moss (pictured with Secretary Foxx).

The discussion focused on improving access to education and job opportunities. Foxx shared childhood experiences that led him to value the importance of transportation in upward mobility. Sharkey emphasized the need for low-income populations to escape clustering effects. Jones explained the exceptional difficulties faced by low-income workers trying to travel in NYC, and Kaufman recommended the use of data for intelligent transit planning.

Secretary Foxx later posted about his visit to Wagner on his agency’s website.