U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has appointed 10 members to the Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics (ACTS) to advise the Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics
(BTS), a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), on statistical matters. Among the new members are Bob Costello, chief economist of the American Trucking Associations.

Other new members include Christina Casgar, San Diego Port Authority; Elizabeth Deakin, University of California, Berkeley; George Donohue, George Mason University; John Gray, Association of American Railroads; Michael Replogle, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy; Anthony Kane, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; Kara Kockelman, University of Texas at Austin; Leanna Depeau, Missouri Department of Transportation; and John-Paul Clarke, Georgia Institute of Technology.

"We are bringing together a knowledgeable group from diverse parts of the transportation community to provide their expertise to the Department," said LaHood. "The new ACTS members will assist the Department in coordinating data and statistics with our work on transportation systems for the future."

RITA Administrator Peter Appel said the appointments are an important step for BTS. "I expect the new ACTS members to provide recommendations to help BTS increase the quality and relevance of its data at a time when the Department is working to create a 21st century transportation system," he said.

ACTS was created by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) of 2005 to advise BTS on the quality, reliability, consistency, objectivity, and relevance of transportation statistics and analyses collected, supported, or disseminated by the Bureau and the Department.

The new appointees replace previous ACTS members whose terms expired.