It’s easy to look at this from an altruistic perspective – transportation planners and engineers have an important role in our everyday life. The provision of transportation – moving people and goods – is essential to our ability to work and live. But beyond the social impacts and opportunities that exist, I’ve enjoyed being a transportation engineer because of the great diversity of projects and programs.
Throughout my 35+ year career I’ve had the pleasure of doing some diverse things:
· Designing controls and displays on cars.
· Developing an ITS program for a State DOT.
· Launching a travel information business including radio, TV, and internet.
· Traveling the globe meeting with professionals from all disciplines and interests in transportation.
· Helping agencies both small and large plan how to best interact with new technology.
And that’s just a small sample. If you enjoy a variety of work, then transportation engineering provides so many avenues (pun intended) to explore. Sure, you can specialize in one narrow element of transportation and enjoy that too – but for me, being able to spread my wings and do so many different things throughout my career – all within the transportation field – has been incredibly rewarding. And I’ll say it – fun!