Mary E. Peters
2001 — 2005
Federal Highway Administrator
Arizona Department of Transportation Director — Federal Highway Administrator — Transportation Innovator
Mary E. Peters served as the 15th Federal Highway Administrator from October 2, 2001 to July 29, 2005.
Ms. Peters made a lasting impression on surface transportation by fostering a new approach to strengthening the Nation's highway system. Her leadership focused national attention on expanding the private sector's role in financing, building, operating and maintaining transportation infrastructure. She created a new program that for the first time encouraged innovation in all phases of highway and bridge delivery, and she worked to remove legal and regulatory obstacles to surface transportation efficiency and creativity.
Working with other U.S. Department of Transportation leaders, Ms. Peters was instrumental in making highways safer. She promoted enhanced guardrail, rumble strip and other crash prevention technologies, encouraged community-based pedestrian safety programs, and challenged states to develop proactive and comprehensive safety strategies. She also led a national campaign to improve safety in highway work zones.
Ms. Peters' tenure was capped by passage of the long-term surface transportation legislation, SAFETEA-LU, which invested record funding in highway, transit and safety programs. The legislation included initiatives developed under her guidance that reduce traffic congestion, give states more flexibility to provide transportation services, advance construction technologies that save time and money, and streamline completion of transportation projects.
A fourth generation Arizonan, Ms. Peters was Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation when she was nominated as FHWA Administrator.