For National Engineers Week, I thought Transportation Engineers needed a little love. So here’s a few thoughts on what I think makes Transportation Engineers the epitome of awesomeness.
Very few things impact the daily lives of people everywhere more than the design of our transportation systems. In each of our cities, towns and neighborhoods, it is the network of roadways, sidewalks, rails and trails that stitches the community fabric together. That infrastructure, along with the technology that operates it and the policies that govern its use, dictates much about the way we spend our time each day, where and how we interact with our neighbors, and even how active and healthy we are. Transportation Engineers, maybe more than engineers in any other discipline, have the ability to influence the daily quality of life for billions of people.
When combined together, our transportation rights-of-way make up the largest piece of public open space in every one of our communities, and not just by a little bit. We often think that the planners and landscape architects are the ones responsible for placemaking, but much of our interaction with our fellow citizens happens on a sidewalk in front of your house, on a downtown street corner, or any number of other serendipitous meetings as we go to-and-from. This is the realm of the transportation engineer, and in this sense, transportation engineers truly are urban designers.
For too long, our transportation system has been killing us. Bigger, wider, faster roads connecting far flung places have made it all too efficient to drive, almost always one to a car, wherever and whenever we need, which has contributed to increasingly sedentary lifestyles, obesity and associated diseases. In the meantime, our absolute devotion to the automobile has made us complacent, or at least willing to turn a blind eye, to the fact that we kill thousands of people every year on our roadways, nearly 40,000 in 2016 in the U.S. alone. By designing connected communities that enhance and encourage walking and biking, and by embracing the goals of Vision Zero to make transportation safer for all, transportation engineers truly are public health professionals.
By designing transportation systems that are efficient and safe for all users, that minimize the time we spend behind the wheel, and that consider our transportation corridors for their urban design and placemaking opportunities, transportation engineers truly can be the new lifestyle gurus helping to improve quality of life for all.
Take the initiative and dream big. What is the envisioned future for our communities? As transportation professionals, we have the ability to design a future through the built environment that allows us to be safer, healthier and happier. We need to embrace our responsibilities and think like the urban designers, public health professionals and the lifestyle gurus that we are. It’s a revolutionary way of thinking for many engineers…in fact, I kind of like that, transportation engineer as revolutionary! Now that’s an exciting way to think; what young up and coming engineer wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
Happy Engineers Week! Hug a transportation engineer today.