Blogs

March 2025 ITE Journal Director's Message: Spring Cleaning

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 12 days ago
In many parts of North America and Europe, the custom of “spring cleaning” is an annual ritual. March is the month most often associated with this because in many regions the climate is starting to get warmer, and as we emerge from winter there is a renewed sense of cleansing. I recently read an article suggesting that this cleansing could be physical, spiritual, and even metaphorical. For me, I see spring cleaning as an opportunity for us to shake off the winter doldrums, and finally take all those New Year’s resolutions that are still on paper from January seriously! One resolution you can all brush up on is to keep current on or even expand your knowledge ...

February 2025 ITE Journal President's Message: Safety and Resiliency

By Ms. Karen Aspelin P.E., PTOE posted 12 days ago
When I learned “safety and resiliency” was the topic for this column, I initially thought the two subjects were completely different. I soon concluded, however, that they are actually quite similar. Let's start with safety. You probably know that the general idea of the Safe Systems Approach involves the "Swiss cheese model." It represents the idea that if one component of the transportation systems fails, other components will kick in and prevent a serious crash and severe or even fatal injuries. To illustrate, I'll use a fictional example involving a woman we'll call Erin. Erin is in a hurry to arrive at an event because she left her house too late. She ...

National Engineers Week 2025: Becoming a Transportation Engineer

By Marvin Ta P.E., PTOE, ENV SP posted 24 days ago
As part of National Engineers Week 2025, I was asked to write about the reasons I became a transportation engineer. Here is a link to my short video that talks about my journey: https://youtu.be/m6KSu0FnWXI?si=llWN1OiZm4D2a3J-

February 2025 ITE President's Message: The Criticality of Freight

By Ms. Karen Aspelin P.E., PTOE posted 02-01-2025
When I learned the topic of this month’s ITE Journal was freight, I realized something. Even though heavy trucks make up nearly a third of the traffic on some of the freeways in the Mountain District where I live, I know almost nothing about freight trucks! As a transportation engineer, my experience with freight trucks has generally involved 1) making sure they can drive around the curb returns and roundabouts in my designs, 2) ensuring my pavement design can support their weight, and 3) taking their size and slow acceleration into account in capacity calculations. Big trucks have definitely been an afterthought in my work. I needed to do some research, ...

February 2025 ITE Journal Director's Message: Keep Freight in the Conversation

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 02-01-2025
This issue of ITE Journal has an emphasis on freight, and in particular, urban goods movement. If you look back over the past several years of articles, you’ll often see freight come up as a tangent issue alongside other topic areas—but we are long overdue for an entire issue dedicated to this important subject! Let’s start with demand. Many things changed as we emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, including our work and travel patterns, how we view our personal health and interactions with others—and of course, our reliance upon online shopping. The U.S. Department of Commerce recently released their forecast showing a 20 percent increase in worldwide e-commerce ...

January 2025 ITE Journal Director's Message: Innovative Pathways to Safer Transportation

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 01-01-2025
Happy New Year! We’re hitting the halfway point of the 2020s already, and it’s amazing how quickly the decade is flying by! First, a huge welcome to Karen Aspelin, P.E., PTOE (F), as our new International President, and to Gordon Meth, P.E., PTOE, PTP, RSP2I, T.E. (F), International Vice President. I’m excited about the many great activities and meetings they will have the opportunity to preside over as ITE continues riding the wave of successful member engagement since we emerged from the COVID pandemic. It’s also the beginning of my second full year as Executive Director and CEO—and my personal goal of seeing safety elevated in the conversation is already ...

January 2025 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy New Year!

By Ms. Karen Aspelin P.E., PTOE posted 01-01-2025
It’s here, and I can’t believe it. Nearly 30 years ago at an International ITE conference, I attended an event for potential International President candidates. I look back now and envy the audacity I had as a 20-something: that I could have thought that this was an event for someone like me! I wasn’t wrong, of course, and now I’ve had decades to think of what I could accomplish in my position as International President. What could I say in my position of influence that could make our profession, our world a little bit better place? The answer to that question turned out to be easy. At every opportunity, I will make a plea to our members to tell others, ...

December 2024 ITE Journal Director's Message: Year In Review

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 12-02-2024
I have no hesitation in stating that ITE has had a banner year! Our Districts and Sections have held more than 300 meetings and events over the past 12 months, our Councils and Committees have produced more than 50 webinars and two dozen technical publications, and leaders at all levels of the organization have worked hard to ensure a successful handoff so that the organization is on solid footing as we flip the calendar into 2025. We achieved our goal of maintaining excellence across so many key areas—professional development programs, networking opportunities, technical prowess, leadership development—it’s hard to believe that we could be successful across ...

December 2024 ITE Journal President's Message: Closing the Chapter on Another Year

By Mr. John Davis P.E., PTOE,TSOS,RSP1 posted 12-02-2024
Greetings, everyone! As we approach the close of 2024, it feels only natural to pause and reflect on the journey we’ve shared this past year. First and foremost, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my family, friends, and esteemed colleagues for their support during my time as ITE’s President. It has been a true honor and privilege, and I am immensely grateful for each of you who helped make this year meaningful. This year marked an exciting new chapter for ITE, and at its heart was our resolve to prioritize safety. With our new Executive Director, Chief Technical Officer, and the implementation of a new Strategic Plan to guide us over the next 3 years, ...

November 2024 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy November Everyone!

By Mr. John Davis P.E., PTOE,TSOS,RSP1 posted 11-01-2024
This issue of ITE Journal emphasizes the importance of community engagement in transportation projects. While my formal education was strong, it didn’t focus on the skills necessary for effective community engagement. One of my professors at Purdue remarked that civil engineering—unlike most other engineering disciplines—directly involves people. Transportation engineering and planning perfectly embody this, as people are central to our work—whether they’re driving, riding, or walking. Thus, developing the ability to engage communities and people is crucial, especially for those working in or with public agencies. But how can you build these skills after leaving ...

November 2024 ITE Journal Director's Message: Action Speaks Louder Than Words

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 11-01-2024
As we focus on community engagement in this issue of ITE Journal , I want to start out with the famous Mark Twain quote, “action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” How many of you read that and didn’t realize the full quote includes “but not nearly as often?” I’ll admit that I am most familiar with just the front end of that quote and had to dig a little online to expand my understanding. The first part is straight forward—it means that action can accomplish more than words. The second part, which Twain added, points out that although action is more forceful, speech occurs far more often. So, what the heck does this historical English lesson ...

October 2024 ITE Journal Director's Message: Resilience Readiness

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 10-01-2024
n my column this month, I want to step back and reassure myself—and hopefully you along the way—that it’s okay to be slightly overwhelmed by the vastness of transportation resilience. What exactly does it mean to be resilient? Webster defines resilient (or resilience) as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” In the context of transportation, resilience is typically viewed as the ability of a transportation system to move people or goods in the face of one or more unexpected obstacles, failures, or extreme events. We often hear about “the resilience of a network” after a major weather disaster, or in conjunction with concerns ...

October 2024 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy October

By Mr. John Davis P.E., PTOE,TSOS,RSP1 posted 10-01-2024
This issue of ITE Journal delves into the planning and responses necessary to ensure our transportation systems remain resilient in the face of disasters and other unforeseen challenges. When the conversation turns to resiliency—whether discussing the actions needed or analyzing case studies to develop disaster response plans—I often reflect on the Scouting motto, “Be Prepared.” This motto, embraced by individuals worldwide, underscores the importance of preparation as a cornerstone of resiliency. However, there is another facet of transportation system resiliency that I would like you to consider. This aspect is deeply personal and individual, rooted in the ...

September 2024 ITE Journal President's Message: Happy September!

By Mr. John Davis P.E., PTOE,TSOS,RSP1 posted 09-03-2024
As we turn our thoughts away from this year’s International Annual Meeting and Exhibit, I hope you are doing well. If you were not in attendance at the gathering in Philadelphia with the Mid-Colonial District, you missed an incredible event! The technical sessions were excellent, the plenary sessions broadened our conversations, and the social and networking events were outstanding. In fact, I thought the plenary sessions were some of the best that we have ever conducted, with topics of great relevance that sparked outstanding conversations, especially for those employed by local agencies or working at this level of government. I encourage you to continue the ...

September 2024 ITE Journal Director's Message: It’s In Our Culture

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 09-03-2024
This issue of ITE Journal provides a recap from our incredibly successful Joint International and Mid-Colonial District Annual Meeting and Exhibit. If you weren’t able to attend, I hope you can get a sense of the highlights from the articles, pictures, and reports in this issue! If you were there, you undoubtedly walked away with a feeling of “wow, that was a lot to soak in” during the 3 plus days of activities! During my State of ITE speech in the opening plenary, I highlighted that ITE delivers so many things capably because it’s in our culture. Why so many of us have joined, renewed, engaged, and continue to hang around for decades—it all boils down to the ...

August 2024 ITE President's Message: Traffic Safety and Collective Responsibility

By Mr. John Davis P.E., PTOE,TSOS,RSP1 posted 08-01-2024
Friends and Colleagues, Every day, millions of people take to the roads to go about their daily lives. Whether driving, cycling, or walking, we all share the same space and have a role to play in ensuring it is safe for everyone. Traffic safety is a collective responsibility that affects every member of our community. Crashes and traffic incidents can have devastating consequences, leading to injuries, loss of lives, and emotional trauma. To make our roads safer, we must work together. Dwelling in the past or pointing fingers at drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, engineers, planners, elected officials, or advocates only creates division and detracts from the ...

ITE Journal August 2024 Director's Message: You’re Part of the Solution!

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 08-01-2024
This edition of the ITE Journal features several terrific articles focused on Intersection Improvement and Design. One of the things I like most about our monthly publication is the depth and breadth of technical content that we continue to feature, and it’s because of you—our members—who continue to produce interesting and exciting articles! While I’m always up for a great conversation about signalization, roundabouts, or unconventional intersection designs, my column this month leans into a topic that shines much earlier in the process: the trip generation data that many of our practitioners utilize to help them in their planning and development efforts. ...

July 2024 ITE Journal Director's Message: It’s Annual Meeting Time!

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 07-01-2024
It’s the summer, an ideal season for releasing some stress from work, spending quality time with those you enjoy being around, and oftentimes, seeing some place new or experiencing something exciting. You can do all that with a family vacation, but you can also do all that at an ITE Annual Meeting! I write that with a small amount of tongue-in-cheek, but if you step back and think about it, there’s a lot of truth to what I’m saying. Having attended industry conferences for much of my 37 years in the workforce, I can say with confidence that I’ve been able to pack all those requirements into a conference or convention visit with some regularity. And I do it by ...

July 2024 ITE Journal President's Message: Make Your Mark

By Mr. John Davis P.E., PTOE,TSOS,RSP1 posted 07-01-2024
I hope you are all doing well. It’s hard to believe we’re already 6 months into 2024! For me, this marks the halfway point of my term as ITE International President. The first 6 months have been incredibly rewarding. I’ve attended numerous district conferences and meetings, met many wonderful people, expanded my professional network, and reconnected with old friends. The technical presentations I’ve seen have been particularly beneficial, providing valuable insights that I’ve been able to bring back and share with my team in Des Moines. I would like to encourage you to consider serving as a committee member, committee chair, or officer at some level within ITE. ...

June 2024 ITE Journal Director's Message: Student-Teacher

By Mr. Stephen Kuciemba posted 06-08-2024
ITE has a proud tradition of providing tools and resources to students that will help them learn more about our industry—and ultimately advance their future careers. This is evident in some of the many webinars and publications available for free to ITE student members that focus on topics essential to professional development, as well as the emphasis on career path planning across our more than 150 Student Chapters globally. The many competitions for students that ITE helps support are also in line with that goal—giving students an opportunity to learn while hopefully having some fun doing it. I’m really excited every time I get to watch a Traffic Bowl match, ...