Latest Blogs

Jeff Lindley

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 10-08-2022
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As you have likely heard, Jeff Lindley will be stepping down from his position as Deputy Executive Director and Chief Technical Officer at the end of October. This will certainly create a big void at ITE and for me personally. Jeff has served in the Deputy ED/CTO role for the past six years and has been instrumental to ITE’s success over that time. As a Deputy Executive Director, Jeff serves as part of ITE’s Executive Leadership Team. Working with the ITE Board of Direction and guided by the ITE Strategic Plan, we provide day-to-day management and support for the ITE enterprise. Jeff has been a key member of this team, bringing strong leadership skills honed ...
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Our Transportation Epidemic

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 10-08-2022
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Like most of you, I am painfully familiar with the tragedy of roadway deaths. My first exposure to this epidemic was in middle school when a childhood friend I’d known since I was three was killed while riding his bicycle down a two-lane highway. I still think of him when I drive down that road. His mother was my math teacher a few years later, and I remember wondering how difficult it must have been for her to teach her son’s friends. She is now in her late 80s and has lived nearly 50 years with her loss. As a mother of two, I cannot imagine what that would be like. Unfortunately, my list of personal connections to roadway tragedies is lengthy, including our ...
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#ITENOLA2022

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 09-12-2022
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Our much-anticipated return to an in-person ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibition took place in New Orleans last month, and I wanted to share some exciting highlights from the event. A productive International Board of Direction meeting included the acceptance of new charters and bylaws for three New England Sections—Northern New England, Connecticut, and Southeastern New England—and approval of our first new international Chapter in many years. This new Chapter in Pakistan is a direct outgrowth of our establishment of a Student Chapter there several years ago and helps grow our global professional footprint. The Board also took note of the strong progress being ...
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Traffic Engineering from a Global Perspective

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 09-12-2022
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Growing up in a suburban town in the 1970s and 80s, my awareness of traffic engineering practices was fairly run-of-the mill, especially for someone who didn’t give any thought to a career in transportation until college. Our community had the typical street network with a handful of traffic signals, a rail line running through it, and a major interstate that connected us to the beach in Galveston, TX, USA and the big city of Houston, TX. Like most of my peers, I learned to drive at 15, navigating typical Texas roadways with little variety as to their design and operation. My first exposure to a different type of intersection control was at the age of 19, riding ...
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State of ITE 2022

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 08-02-2022
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At the Opening Session of each ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibition,I provide a “State of ITE” report. I wanted to take this opportunity to share the highlights of my presentation in New Orleans: Membership Is Growing – Despite COVID-19, our membership continues to grow. We expect to exceed 16,500 members in 2022. If recent trends continue, we can reach 17,000 in 2023—which would be the highest membership in the more than 90-year history of ITE. Fueling our growth are new public agency members; the past year we added Caltrans; New York State DOT; Kentucky Transportation Cabinet; Connecticut DOT; City of Atlanta, GA; City of Orange, CA; City of Victoria, BC and ...
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Technological Innovation and Transportation

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 08-02-2022
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Without innovations in technology across a broad range to industries, we would not be where we are today when it comes to transportation. When I consider how rapidly our profession and the modes we utilize and operate have advanced, I think about my own great grandmother, who was born in 1888 when the primary mode of personal transportation was the horse and buggy. She died in 1985 at the age of 97, having witnessed the evolution of the personal automobile, bullet trains, supersonic airplanes, and humans walking on the moon. As we in the profession know, transportation is a foundational component of society that contributes to the safety, security, and prosperity ...
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The Next Step Forward in Trip Generation

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 07-09-2022
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At the upcoming ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibition in New Orleans, ITE, PTV Group, and Transoft Solutions will be debuting the latest advancement in ITE’s trip generation efforts, a new applications programming interface (API) that supports integration between the ITE TripGen11 app and third-party traffic engineering software. Since the release of the first Trip Generation Manual (TGM) in the 1970s, ITE has been the industry leader for transportation impact analysis resources. Over the last 5 years, we have been on a journey to modernize our trip generation offerings. With the release of the TGM 10th Edition in 2017, ITE took a major step forward by including ...
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Service to The Profession

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 07-09-2022
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Some of my earliest memories growing up in my family were related to service. My parents and grandmother served as role models for my sisters and me through their involvement in our community. Their commitment to giving back includedvolunteering with organizations such as the Pilot Club, the Optimist Club, and the Girl Scouts of America. They were involved in our local church, served on the school board, and were members of organizations that supported education, the health of children, and the community as a whole. Service was in their blood, and I followed their lead through my involvement in service organizations starting in high school. I have continued that ...
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Join Us in New Orleans

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 06-01-2022
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Finally! After 3 years of fits and starts in trying to hold the ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibition in New Orleans, LA, USA, it is finally going to happen in 2022. While it has been great to start reconnecting with members at District meetings this spring, nothing replaces the opportunity to draw members from across ITE together at the Annual Meeting and Exhibition. We have a strong line-up of plenary session speakers from the federal, state, and local level, including U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg and Louisiana Department of Transportation Secretary and AASHTO President Dr. Shawn Wilson, who will share their perspectives on key transportation ...
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Thinking Beyond the Car

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 06-01-2022
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When one looks across the landscape of America, it is easy to see the impact the personal automobile has had on our evolution as a society. The Interstate system allowed Americans to travel from coast to coast in the comfort of their car, charting their own route and seeing the beauty of the horizon rising before them. I, myself, have been a devotee of the road trip, having traveled across the country with my husband and our two sons since they could see out of the back seat window, stopping at many a national park and cozy roadside eatery along the way. However, growing up in a small Texas community in the 1970s, I was more likely to roam the streets on my ...
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Notice of Intent to Adopt the ELMS Standard v03.37b

By Nicola Tavares posted 05-17-2022
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NTCIP 1213 Electrical Lighting and Management Systems (ELMS) Standard v03.37b On April 25, 2022, ELMS Standard v03 was accepted as a Recommended Standard by the NTCIP Joint Committee (JC). The JC is made up of representatives of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). Effective date of the standard: The effective date when this “Notice of Intent to Adopt” is deemed complete as of June 21, 2022 close of business, if no appeal is received. The next and final step to adopt the standard is obtaining ...
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Stakeholder Invitation for the ATC Cybersecurity Project

By Nicola Tavares posted 05-17-2022
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The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO) is sponsoring a new project to help address cybersecurity issues in the US transportation infrastructure. The project is called the Advanced Transportation Controller (ATC) Cybersecurity Project. It is supported by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), and SAE International. The primary purpose of the project is to identify and address cybersecurity needs in the ATC family of standards made ...
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Our Biggest Challenge

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 05-02-2022
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One of the most confounding and unexpected results of COVID-19 has been the dramatic increase in the loss of life on our nation’s roadways. If you had told me at the start of the pandemic that travel would drop dramatically during this period, but fatalities would increase significantly, it would be hard to believe. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the National Safety Council estimated that there were 39,107 motor-vehicle deaths. That increased to 42,339 in 2020, and again in 2021 to 46,020. Across this same period, the fatality rate increased from 1.20 fatalities per hundred million vehicle miles traveled in 2019, ...
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Our Community

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 05-02-2022
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ITE describes itself as a community of transportation professionals that includes engineers, planners, consultants, educators, technologists, researchers, and more. The use of the word “community” is intentional and seeks to include all who work to improve mobility and safety for all transportation system users and help build smart and livable communities. Merriam-Webster online defines community as either a unified body of individuals, a social state or condition, or society at large. A synonym is “neighborhood,” and words related to community include city, commune, hamlet, town, village, denizens, dwellers, inhabitants, residents, citizenry, culture, people, ...
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The Importance of Belonging

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 03-29-2022
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Several years ago, I came across a quote by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy that struck a chord in me. “Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice heard,” (www.lizandmollie.com). At the time, ITE was embarking on its exploration of diversity, inclusion, and equity and their intersection with transportation. After reading that quote from Liz and Mollie, I reflected on a pivotal moment I had early in my college career that still haunts me today. I was a sophomore in an entry-level civil engineering class and one of about five women in the class of at least 50. Early in the semester, the professor ...
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Back In-Person, Finally!

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 03-29-2022
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As I sit down to write this column, it is with a bit of a happy glow. I just finished making travel plans to attend the Southern District Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY, USA in late March. It has been so long since I have had the opportunity to be together with members in person, I am very much looking forward to reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, and meeting more recent members and building new relationships, as well. With a full slate of spring and early summer District meetings followed by the ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibition in New Orleans, LA, USA July 31-August 3, there will be lots of upcoming opportunities for ITE members to gather. I hope ...
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Connected Transportation Interoperability (CTI 4502 v01.00) CI Validation Report Now Available!

By Nicola Tavares posted 03-22-2022
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The Connected Intersections (CI) Committee is pleased to announce the publication of the Connected Intersections (CI) Validation Report , formally catalogued as Connected Transportation Interoperability (CTI 4502 v01.00) . This CI Validation Report summarizes findings from the validation phase of the Connected Intersections Project, which include data collection, analysis, and feedback received from validation sites between the months of April and September of 2021. The CI Project Committee developed CTI 4502 v01.00 with broad stakeholder representation from the standards development organizations (including the American Association of State Highway ...
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Another Female Leader in Transportation

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 03-10-2022
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In my March message in the ITE Journal, I invited members to share their favorite women in transportation via the ITE Community or social media. I have heard from several of you and will share them with the broader membership so that we can all learn more about trailblazers in our profession. Martin Pietrucha, who was my Ph.D. faculty advisor at Penn State, shared via Twitter that he always thought highly of Lillian Boronne. He shared a wonderful article on her that I encourage you to read. Lillian become the director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Port Commerce Department in 1988. She was the first woman in the world to head a major ...
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Women’s History Month

By Dr. Beverly Kuhn P.E., PTOE, PMP posted 03-04-2022
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When you think about the women you have known in your life, who stands out? Who inspires you? Who exemplifies courage? Who has vision? Who leads from the front? My maternal grandmother, Janice Dorothy Smollen Goff, is at the top of my list. Born in 1908 in a small town in Texas, USA, Dotsie was a trailblazer, always pushing boundaries and embracing the colors and flavors of life. She and my grandfather lived in Cuba in the 1930s where she learned Spanish and a love of Cuban culture. She lived in New Orleans, LA, USA and San Antonio, TX, learning to cook regional cuisines. She fed the needy during The Great Depression. She was a journalist, a feminist, and a ...
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Innovations that Work

By Mr. Jeffrey Paniati P.E posted 03-04-2022
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The theme of this issue of ITE Journal and this month’s Virtual Spring Conference capture the essence of what ITE is about from a technical perspective. What has always attracted me to ITE is that we are an organization that finds the best practices and puts them to work for our members and the traveling public. While it is critical for ITE to be on the leading edge of our profession, keeping pace with the latest trends, what sets us apart is our focus on taking this new knowledge and moving it into practice. The Council Leadership Team is exceling at finding new knowledge and making it work for our members. The annual Developing Trends Report (available at ...
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