This story is part of my ongoing coverage of the 2008 National Bike Summit. See the rest of my coverage here.
During this morning’s opening remarks, the executive director of Bikes Belong, Tim Blumenthal, reported that U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters apologized to him for disparaging remarks she made about bike funding.
Peters caused an uproar back in August when, during a media interview about the Minnesota bridge collapse, she pinned partial blame for the disaster on spending too much transportation infrastructure money on “special programs” and “earmarks” which she said included things like lighthouses, museums, and bike paths (!).
Her remarks led to the meeting with Blumenthal where he reported that she said, “I am sincerely sorry, I can’t believe those words came from my mouth.”