"Secretary of the U.S Department of Transportation Sean Duffy has a suggestion for better travel this holiday season: have you considered just being in a good mood? That's the message of DOT's new " civility campaign" titled "The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You," and it's meant to address the surge in unruly passenger air travel - even if some might argue it encapsulates the transportation profession's over-focus on personal responsibility over systemic reform in the air and on the ground."
"The campaign is just the latest publicity stunt for Duffy, a former congressman, "Real World: Boston" cast member and Fox Business co-host who is never one to shy away from a camera. And while it's a fine suggestion in a vacuum, the Secretary's comments are particularly outrageous against the backdrop of his department's broad defunding and deregulation of safety measures across the country."
"Secretary Duffy calls for safety improvements ad nauseum while his department's actions are actively making U.S streets more dangerous. A recent ProPublica report found that the federal DOT has been rolling back rules and regulations at unprecedented breadth and speed in 2025, racking up thirty regulatory actions that safety advocates say are at odds with the agency's mission to protect the public."
Secretary Sean Duffy promoted a civility campaign urging travelers to 'be in a good mood' to address unruly passenger air travel. The campaign links courtesy to passenger safety but frames problems primarily as individual behavior rather than systemic failures. The campaign follows a government shutdown that intensified travel stress and coincides with a Department of Transportation agenda that critics say deregulates and defunds safety. The DOT pursued numerous rollbacks in 2025, including limits on driver hours and rollback of crash-protection mandates. Safety advocates say thirty regulatory actions contradict the agency's public-protection mission and risk more harm.
Read at Streetsblog
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