DOT Nominee Seen As Positive Step

President Bush deserves credit for appointing Mary Peters, a respected transportation professional, as DOT secretary. He also deserves credit for doing it now, since there had been much talk that a new DOT secretary would not be appointed until after the election, when it would be known which defeated Republican needed a nice job. While Mineta issued a congestion paper in which the word “rail” was not mentioned, Peters pointedly mentioned rail yesterday: “We are experiencing increasing congestion on our nation’s highways, railways, airports and seaports and we’re robbing our nation of productivity.” Peters, currently national director for transportation policy and consulting at HDR Inc., an Omaha-based architectural, engineering and consulting firm, had been Federal Highway Administrator.  Before that, she headed Arizona DOT. In the past, she has made positive impressions on both NARP and Amtrak people.

—Ross Capon