If you ever wondered what would happen if that white, upper-class student body president, you know the one who used your student activity fees to pay for bike lanes on campus, were actually in charge of a federal bureaucracy, look no further than our Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
CNN reporter DJ Judd shared a video that appears to show a team of Secret Service agents unloading Buttigieg’s bike from the back of an SUV, then at least two SUVs following him as he mounts the bike and rides to the White House.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg biked to the White House for today's Cabinet Meeting, it would appear. pic.twitter.com/XfYRB3COqm
— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) April 1, 2021
Presumably, the location where Buttigieg mounts the bike is closer to his destination than his house or his office at the Department of Transportation, which is about three miles from the White House.
Buttigieg has been sighted riding to and fro around the capital since he joined the Biden administration, and has received the expected fawning media coverage of it.
Cabinet secretaries @bikeshare home from work, too. A person who appears to be @SecretaryPete rolling through Navy Yard just now: pic.twitter.com/CmMS9psCQu
— Michael Stratford (@mstratford) February 25, 2021
Of course, having two armored SUVs in tow as you “bike to work” is certainly not reducing your carbon footprint, but at least it looks like you care, right?
While “biking to work” in a way that is neither a shorter nor a more environmentally-conscious commute is extremely on-brand for a millennial college-town mayor-turned-McKinsey consultant, it also perfectly encapsulates the role of D.C. bureaucrats: Devise the more expensive, more complicated path to accomplish a simple task, all for the sake of optics.
