John A. Volpe sticks out like a sore thumb even in a group as mediocre as Richard Nixon's cabinet. Secretary of Transportation Volpe will, no doubt, build roads, but this nation--particularly its cities--needs more than another maze of express-ways to solve its transportation problems.

In his television extravaganza, Nixon introduced Volpe as not merely a road-builder, but as an expert in all fields of mass transportation. That statement is ridiculous. As Governor the ex-highway contractor has continued to emphasize roads as the primary mode of transportation in Greater Boston and throughout the Bay State, while allowing public transportation to lag far behind, as everyone who has tried to travel to Wellesley by MBTA can witness.

The governor's road-building program, moreover, has always had only one real aim: to move traffic. Time and time again, communities have protested the losses in housing and unemployment which Volpe's hard-driving road program was imposing upon them. Since its founding two years ago, the federal Department of Transportation has been creeping toward a policy of taking a hard look at such costs of building roads before approving them. If he holds true to form Volpe will reverse this trend, making Federal road-building once again simply a matter of pouring concrete along lines dictated by traffic flows alone.

The more parochial of the Commonwealth's citizens may be happy that Volpe is no longer directing the state's affairs. But the ex-contractor has gone on to bigger things and the nation is that much worse off.