Republicans were right to fire Washington State Department of Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson.

It may or may not have been “triggered” by her decision to spend $484 million implementing HOT on I-405.

Thousands of commuters are rightly questioning how making it more difficult to car pool and increasing tolls as more drivers pay them could reduce congestion. If it did, why don’t they add HOT to I-5. New WSDOT leadership will hopefully end further HOT lanes.

Peterson’s HOT failure pales in comparison to her inability to use her WSDOT position to exert “competent transportation leadership” on the Sound Transit board.

Instead she’s “acquiesced” to the board’s decision to continue with a light rail system totally incapable of meeting the area’s transit needs. Her WSDOT was an accomplice to Sound Transit incompetence rather than a “corrective influence.”

The clearest example of the need for more competent WSDOT leadership is their failure to recognize the need for Sound Transit to demonstrate I-90 outer roadway can accommodate all cross-lake vehicles before they close center roadway next year.

They could do so by temporarily closing the center roadway after they’ve added the 4th lanes. Cross-lake commuting will likely change forever in 2017 if they don’t.

Bill Hirt

Bellevue