Blogs

May 2026 ITE Journal Director's Message: Complete, Connected Mobility

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 2 days ago
This month’s issue of ITE Journal is dedicated to creating complete, connected mobility systems. On the surface, that concept seems like a no-brainer—delivering a complete mobility system that serves all users, including drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, freight operators, and individuals with disabilities. Most of us recognize, however, that we’re still (slowly) working through legacy designs that didn’t consider all users equally, and we’re still dealing with 19th- and 20th-century land use policies that were siloed. Our profession has made a concerted evolution in the right direction. As communities grow and travel behaviors evolve, transportation ...

May 2026 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy May

By Mr. Gordon Meth PE,PP,PTOE,PTP,RSP2I posted 2 days ago
This issue of ITE Journal is dedicated to transit, land use, and mobility integration. This topic brings me back to my teenage years in Toronto, where I depended on transit for mobility. My favorite song by Rush (a band I heard constantly on my favorite radio station growing up) is called “Subdivisions.” It resonated with me as I had moved from older inner Toronto to a new subdivision in Scarborough when I was 16. I fully identified with the opening lyrics “Sprawling on the fringes of the city, In geometric order…” When we moved into our newly constructed home, we were surrounded by other houses and had to drive everywhere. I continued at my downtown Toronto ...

April 2026 ITE Journal Director's Message: Admiration for Operations

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 04-01-2026
I’ve been blessed with a lengthy career in our industry—and with that duration has come the opportunity to actively participate in the birth and growth of many of today’s practices. None has been more significant to me personally than transportation systems management and operations (TSMO). The massive cultural shift that took place (and is still taking place) across our practice to more proactively think about operations when planning, designing, building, operating, and maintaining our transportation network has been a backdrop to almost every job I’ve held. TSMO is a practice that is not unique to any particular country or region; rather it is generally ...

April 2026 ITE Journal's President Message: Happy April!

By Mr. Gordon Meth PE,PP,PTOE,PTP,RSP2I posted 04-01-2026
This issue of ITE Journal is dedicated to operations. Earlier in my career, operations meant optimizing traffic signal timing and coordination. It was my small part. I was a bit of a player in a much larger game that involved every part of keeping our transportation system functioning on a daily basis. In planning and design, we historically focused on typical days. However, our reality now is that few days end up being typical. Between incidents, work zone closures, emergency repairs, and special events—not to mention the impact of working from home—few days are normal anymore. Near where I live, sinkholes shut down a section of I-80 for months, leading to ...

March 2026 ITE Journal Director's Message: Building Our Future

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 03-02-2026
ITE members engage in an extremely broad spectrum of issues and projects—there is truly something for everyone. Over the past few years, one topic in particular is garnering a lot more attention: workforce development. Workforce development isn’t simply about filling jobs. It’s about building a robust, adaptable, and forward-looking talent pool capable of advancing safety goals, tackling technological challenges, and designing sustainable transportation networks. Across the world, transportation agencies—from planning organizations to government departments of transportation—report challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified planners, engineers, data ...

March 2026 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy March!

By Mr. Gordon Meth PE,PP,PTOE,PTP,RSP2I posted 03-02-2026
This issue of ITE Journal is dedicated to education and workforce development. The challenges facing our industry have evolved rapidly—more in the past 10 years than in the previous 40. To face them effectively, we need the brightest and the best, and we need to train them differently than before! Some of our old solutions have led to unintended negative consequences. Going forward, our workforce will need far more foresight and understanding. Even seasoned members need to continue learning in the here and now to face the new challenges in our industry. My favorite song by Rush (a band I heard constantly on my favorite radio station growing up) is called “Subdivisions.” ...

National Engineers Week 2026 Blog: Creating Solutions from Challenges

By Mr. Peter Koonce posted 02-21-2026
As a high school student almost 40 years ago, I rode the public buses to school. A bus transfer was required for the trip, which often resulted in long delays. Those delays gave me time to formulate many questions: What caused the bus to be late? Why was it different every day? Who writes the schedules and why can't they get this right? Those questions prepared me for an internship with the local transit agency working with traffic signal engineers at the City to determine what sorts of changes we could make to the bus stops, traffic engineering, and technology on the bus to make Portland buses faster and more reliable. So as a part of National Engineers Week, ...

National Engineers Week 2026 Blog: My Journey to Being a Transportation Professional

By Bhavya Krishna Sontineni P.E., PTOE posted 02-21-2026
My interest in transportation engineering began long before I chose it as a career. Growing up in India as the daughter of a civil engineering professor, I was fascinated by how traffic moved, sometimes chaotic, sometimes coordinated, and how infrastructure quietly shaped safety and behavior. That curiosity led me to pursue a master’s degree in transportation engineering at Texas A&M University. When I first landed in the United States, my first ride from DFW Airport gave me my first view of the Dallas High Five interchange. Looking at it, I wondered how so many roads could work together so smoothly, deepening my appreciation for transportation engineering ...

February 2026 ITE Journal Director's Message: Stacking Safety Wins

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 02-03-2026
It seems like just yesterday, but it was more than 2 years ago that ITE released its 2024–2026 Strategic Plan. The plan contained two sentences that carried tremendous weight, as these statements were meant to plant a seed for many future activities. The first was to “foster a cultural shift that prioritizes roadway safety,” and the second was to “elevate ITE’s leadership position in safety.” Bear in mind, this was a strategic plan, so the path toward achieving those goals wasn’t outlined—only a set of twin north stars meant to spark innovation and inspiration. ITE had always considered safety an important topic—sessions at Annual Meetings were always jam-packed; ...

February 2026 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy February!

By Mr. Gordon Meth PE,PP,PTOE,PTP,RSP2I posted 02-03-2026
This issue of ITE Journal hits home for me. Traffic safety is the one topic that unites all ITE members, regardless of their background, where they live, or what their role is. Throughout my career, I have watched the evolution of our profession’s understanding of roadway safety. Back in the late 1990s, safety was a topic to be addressed in many corridor studies I performed. Back in those days, safety was about counting the number of crashes by location and looking for patterns. In many corridor studies, simply reviewing whether the roadway design met current standards was considered roadway safety. The presumption was that substandard design was less safe, and ...

January 2026 ITE Journal Director's Message: The Many Faces of Volunteer Leadership

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 01-16-2026
When people hear the phrase “volunteer leader,” they often picture someone standing in front of a room giving instructions, organizing events, or managing a team. While those roles certainly count, volunteer leadership within ITE comes in many shapes and sizes. It can be bold or quiet, front and center or behind the scenes, highly structured or informal. Based on my experience, I believe that one of the most powerful qualities of volunteer leadership is its flexibility. People can lead in ways that align with their personalities, strengths, schedules, employers, and life circumstances. It’s not a one-size-fits-all definition. Having served in many different volunteer ...

January 2026 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy New Year!

By Mr. Gordon Meth PE,PP,PTOE,PTP,RSP2I posted 01-16-2026
I am honored and humbled to be able to lead ITE for the next year. My desire to lead began when I joined ITE in 1990 as a student member at the University of Waterloo. I was a third-year civil engineering student and had already discovered that transportation engineering/planning was my passion and career path. The president of the ITE Toronto Section came to speak. I was impressed that someone so important had come all the way (75 miles/125 kilometers, to be exact) to talk to a handful of us. That was when I told myself that I wanted to be that person talking and inspiring others someday. Within this role, I consider it my duty to support the nearly 100 Presidents ...

December 2025 ITE Journal Director's Message: 2025 – A Unique Year

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 12-03-2025
We’ve reached the final month of 2025—and what a wild ride this year has taken us on! Geopolitical changes, global economic impacts, and shifts in labor markets have contributed to feelings of anxiety for some, with potential impacts on personal financial stability for others. Uncertainty has been a common word tossed around the water cooler this year. Advancements in technology and AI have reshaped various aspects of life, from transportation and business to how we grow food and approach medicine. Life is significantly different than it was just 25 years ago, a change that is exciting for some, and intimidating for others. Was 2025 a unique year? A one-off? ...

December 2025 ITE Journal President's Message: 2025 Reflections

By Ms. Karen Aspelin P.E., PTOE posted 12-03-2025
As ITE members, we are united by a shared dedication to advancing safer, smarter, and more sustainable transportation systems. Reflecting on 2025, I’ve seen firsthand how our collective efforts have made a meaningful global impact—solidifying ITE’s leadership in mobility innovation, professional development, and the exchange of technical expertise. This year’s annual meeting theme—Innovative Pathways to Safer Transportation—was more than a slogan; it was a call to action. More than 1,500 of us gathered in Orlando to exchange ideas, showcase research, and explore new technologies. The event spotlighted the launch of ITE’s Safety Roadmap and Action Plan, a bold ...

November 2025 ITE Journal Director's Message: The Power of Data

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 11-05-2025
In an age where data are abundant and technology continues to evolve rapidly, the field of transportation planning and engineering is undergoing a quiet revolution. Gone are the days when decisions were made based solely on historical trends, location-specific studies, and even gut intuition. Today, data-driven decision making is at the core of designing smarter, safer, and more efficient transportation systems. Why has this trend evolved so much more prominently over the past decade? In part it’s because we have made the cultural shift to recognize that transportation systems are complex and dynamic. They’re influenced by a wide range of factors including ...

November 2025 ITE Journal President's Message: Data Into Action

By Ms. Karen Aspelin P.E., PTOE posted 11-05-2025
With the debut of ITE’s Safety Roadmap and Action Plan this year, I’m dedicating this month’s ITE Journal message to exploring the vital connection between data—the topic of this month’s issue—and their roles in advancing transportation safety. Our profession is being called to elevate our approach to safety, and the goal is clear: eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways. But the path to that goal demands a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of crashes. And that understanding begins with data. Not just any data, but the kind that only a multidisciplinary crash response team can uncover. For decades, transportation engineers and planners ...

October 2025 ITE Journal Director's Message: Celebrating People and Achievements

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 10-04-2025
So many great things happened at this year’s ITE Joint International and Florida Puerto Rico District Annual Meeting (held in beautiful Orlando, Florida). One of my personal highlights each year is the opportunity and pleasure of delivering the annual “State of ITE” speech during the Opening Plenary. One of my themes this year was to celebrate the many accomplishments ITE members helped achieve. I started with talking about our membership, and the remarkable fact that despite a constantly changing environment where jobs are increasingly under pressure, ITE’s membership has remained strong—proof that even in a fragmented world, ITE is still a place people choose ...

October 2025 ITE Journal President's Message: Rewarding Leadership

By Ms. Karen Aspelin P.E., PTOE posted 10-04-2025
At the Orlando meeting, I had the honor of giving opening remarks. In this ITE Journal column, I’d like to again reflect on leadership within ITE—what it means, why it matters, and why stepping up is so rewarding. Serving as your International President has given me a front row seat to the passion and dedication of our members. I’ve seen firsthand how we rally around bold ideas, especially through initiatives like our Safety Roadmap and Action Plan. What began as a strategic framework has evolved into a grassroots movement. Districts have taken ownership, forming committees and driving real change in their communities. It’s inspiring to witness strategy turn ...

September 2025 ITE Journal Directors' Message: Updated TripGen Now Available

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 09-02-2025
At last month’s ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibition, I had the pleasure of announcing that the new 12th Edition of the Trip Generation Manual was about to go live. The Trip Generation Manual i s updated every 4 years, and a lot can change during that quadrennial period. Not only have we continued to experience our “new normal” after COVID-19 forever changed commuting patterns—but we added nine new land use classifications, and data from more than 550 sites have been incorporated to ensure the database remains relevant. The ability to predict traffic patterns and plan the necessary infrastructure is a fundamental responsibility within our profession. The ...

September 2025 ITE Journal President's Message: Planning Growth Responsibly

By Ms. Karen Aspelin P.E., PTOE posted 09-02-2025
Like many of you, I live in a growing community. In my city, new subdivisions are springing up in nearly every direction. This surge in development is a positive indicator—it reflects economic vitality, population growth, and a strong demand for housing and services. With each new project, however, comes a set of responsibilities that cannot be overlooked. Chief among these is the need to carefully assess the potential impacts on traffic operations and public safety. Without thoughtful planning and thorough analysis, even the most well-intentioned developments can have unintended consequences that affect the quality of life for residents and the efficiency of ...