Maine's response to a serious road maintenance funding emergency is to cling to AASHTO’s archaic code book while projecting a value system of improve, Improve, IMPROVE, even going so far as to assume massive traffic increases where there is little traffic today.
Read MoreEngineers in Obetz have built a hamster wheel for walkers and cyclists.
Read MoreHere are five rules of thumb that have led to a distorted view of our transportation problems and their appropriate solutions.
Read MoreLast week I received a notice from the board of licensing that a complaint has been filed against my professional engineering license because of my work at Strong Towns.
Read MoreTwo simple photos show the difference between a street designated 20 mph and one designed to be safe. We can't regulate our way to safety.
Read MoreThere are a handful of ways engineers deflect criticism. Here are five that we’ve heard time and time again.
Read MoreIt might be role of O'Toole, and those who would follow him, to simply serve as a warning for others. That's a useful role in society.
Read MoreWe have obsessive attention to detail on the things that matter to us and only pay superficial heed to those that don't.
Read MorePredictably, the National Society of Professional Engineers, despite a weak reference to serving the public, is all about protecting its members.
Read MoreJason DeGray is a transportation engineer as well as a member of both Strong Towns and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). As a member of ITE’s advocacy committee, he brought the charge levied against the engineering profession by Chuck in his piece Just Another Pedestrian Killed to the ITE Community to be explored. The resulting internal dialogue led to the development of the op-ed below which was published in the March 2015 edition of the ITE Journal, their international publication, and is reprinted here with his permission.
Read MoreHere's a clear example of the values some engineers bring to their work.
Read MoreInstead of drive like your kids live here how about design like your kids live here.
Read MoreForgiving design principles that traffic engineers employ have replaced the “that’s what kids do” burden on the driver with a “that’s what drivers do” burden on all of society. If we want to make our cities prosperous again, we have to return that burden to the driver. Not just at intersections. Not just where there are properly specified signs. It is their burden, their responsibility, everywhere, all the time. Period.
Read MoreCities are complex places. We need to embrace the complexity, and the difficult and sometimes painful feedback that comes along with it, if we want our cities to grow strong and resilient. Best of Blog 2014.
Read MoreWhen we mix high speed cars with stopping and turning traffic, it is only a matter of time until people get killed. It is statistically inevitable because we are all normal people living normal lives. When things get bad on one spot – when a random sample of accidents becomes the inevitable statistical aberration in one place or another, the mistaken signal within the noise – professional engineers will propose some turn lanes or a lane widening or a greater clear zone. They will never propose the two things that would matter: designing non-highways in such a way that people drive more slowly and removing dangerous accesses from those highways where we want people to drive fast.
Read MoreFor a city to get there, current priorities need to be realigned and everyone -- from the mayor, the city engineer, the maintenance worker and everyone in between -- needs to be working to get more value out of our existing investments.
Read MoreThe engineering profession likes to blame Americans for being cheap. This is dangerously self-serving.
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