Obama’s Transportation Secretary Says He Wants to ‘Coerce People Out of Their Cars’ (CNSNews.com) - Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, a former Republican congressman from Peoria, Ill., has become a champion of using the Department of Transportation and federal transportation spending to get people to take trains, busses, and ride bikes instead of driving cars. He told reporters at the National Press Club on Thursday that he wants to “coerce people out of their cars.”