Remarks by Secretary Slater, New York International Auto Show Annual Wall Street Dinner

Remarks by Secretary Slater, New York International Auto Show Annual Wall Street Dinner

Remarks by Secretary Slater, New York International Auto Show Annual Wall Street Dinner

Rodney E. Slater, United States Secretary of Transportation
April 17, 2000

REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION RODNEY E. SLATER
NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW ANNUAL WALL STREET DINNER
APRIL 17, 2000
NEW YORK, NEW YORK

I am delighted join you tonight for the 100th Anniversary of the New York International Automobile Show-the oldest auto show in America.

And I congratulate Morgan Stanley Dean Whitter, J.D. Power and Associates and the Greater New York Automobile Dealer's Association for getting the show off to such a rousing start by creating this annual Wall Street Dinner.

I'm here in New York as part of a two-week, multi-modal transportation tour across America to look at the future of transportation in the 21st century, including the future of the automobile.

This tour reinforces the Clinton-Gore Administration's recognition of transportation as a strategic investment-along with education, health care, technology and the environment-that is essential to strengthening America for the fresh challenges and limitless opportunities of a new century and new millennium.

As part of the tour, we are conducting five 2025 Visioning Sessions with transportation experts and other public and private sector leaders. Our purpose is to listen to our partners-and to use what we learn to clarify our vision of transportation for the next 25 years.

We also seek to formulate a new policy architecture for transportation that will broaden participation and improve the quality of transportation decision-making for the 21st century.

Tomorrow's visioning session will be with auto industry representatives in Detroit, which has recently regained its historic title as The Automobile Capital of the World, at least in part due to the vigorous efforts of many of you here tonight.

We also plan to use what we learn in our visioning sessions to help design the International Transportation Symposium the U.S. Department of Transportation will host in Washington, D.C., this fall, to share best practices and innovative ideas from around the world.

The New York International Auto Show is a celebration of innovative ideas. Many concern safety, which is President Clinton and Vice President Gore's top transportation priority and the "North Star" guiding all of our work at DOT.

These accomplishments also reflect the growing power of public-private partnerships to foster safety-and I want to conclude by taking this opportunity to thank some of our partners who are represented here tonight-

Jack Smith of General Motors-and our other Intelligent Vehicle Initiative Partners, for their research on rear-end collision warning systems;

The coalition behind the Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign, which is already helping America save more than 10 thousand lives each year;

...And The Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network which brings engineers and medical professionals together to make vehicles safer.

I also want to acknowledge The Greater New York Dealers Association for sponsoring next week's World Traffic Safety Symposium on child passenger safety.

With partners like you, I am confident that we will continue to move from strength to strength to harness the awesome power of transportation to improve the quality of life for all Americans.

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Source: U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)