Celebrating 10 Years of ITE Talks Transportation with Steve Kuciemba, ITE Executive Director and CEO and Host Bernie Wagenblast

Speaker A: Welcome to ITE Talks Transportation, a podcast from ite, a community of transportation professionals. Each month, we sit down with thought leaders and change makers who are shaping the future of mobility and driving transportation forward.

Speaker B: For this month's ITE Talks Transportation podcast, I'm going to turn the microphone around, as they say, and I'm going to interview the interviewer. We recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of ITE Talks transportation podcast with over 100 episodes, all led by the incredibly talented Bernie Wagonblass. So today, it is my pleasure to interview Bernie and learn a little bit about her thoughts as we pass this milestone anniversary. So, Bernie, welcome.

Speaker A: Thank you so much, Steve. Great to be on the podcast. I'm not used to saying that.

Speaker B: Now, I wasn't the CEO when the podcast began 10 years ago, but since you've been our host from the very beginning, I'm interested in learning a little history about launching this effort. And if you could share a few of your early stories, uh, of when we first launched this podcast 10 years ago now.

Speaker A: Sure. Well, your predecessor, Jeff Paniotti, um, he and I had been connected through something that the two of us were also involved with, the I, uh, 95 corridor coalition. And I saw that he was going to be joining ITE as the executive director. So I sent him a little note just congratulating him. And Jeff sent me back an email saying, hey, if you have any ideas, let me know. So I thought about it a bit. I had started in 2014, something called transportation Radio, which you see on the M microphone here, where my background was in radio. And I thought, well, maybe I can use some of those skills that I had developed in radio to do something in the new Internet age, which would be podcasting. So I decided that I would do that and just do it for the fun of it and to start cleaning up some of those rusty skills that have not been used for many decades. So I did a lot of interviews where I would do profiles of various state departments of transportation. So I had commissioners and secretaries of transportation from around the country that I was doing interviews with. So I already had a bit of experience underneath my belt. And I said to Jeff, what about doing a podcast? Jeff liked the idea, and that's how ITE Talks Transportation came to be.

Speaker B: It's pretty amazing, and, you know, the reach is quite incredible. Um, and it gives you an opportunity each month to really dive a little deeper into some of the many issues that we get to deal with here in transportation. How do you react to the fact that our podcast now has had nearly 150,000 downloads over the past decade. That's quite a reach.

Speaker A: That is amazing to me. And one of the things that I love about this is that somebody can be watching this from all corners of the earth. Uh, this is not limited. My background, as I said, was radio. So back in the day radio, you were pretty much limited to how far the signal reached. Uh, and if you were beyond that, too bad. You maybe could listen to a recording on a cassette. This can be done. I can interview people around the world, but they can also listen around the world. And that to me is amazing. To have that kind of opportunity to talk to people from all different cultures, all different experiences, and to hopefully provide something that would be both interesting and informative.

Speaker B: Well, I think you've definitely done that. And when I looked at those download statistics, not only was it, um, 150,000, but you're right, it covered the entire globe. There was downloads all over the world, in Asia, in Europe, in North America and South America. Uh, your reach is quite amazing. And the diversity of issues that we're able to cover. I mentioned there's been over 100 episodes so far and I took a look back through some of them and of course I've been an avid listener of this podcast since the early days as well, even before I became CEO. Uh, and, um, you know, one of the issues that we've covered a lot at ITE and it's natural because it's important to our industry and that topic is safety. You know this, it's really one of the most frequently engaged topic in our industry and reflected on our podcast as well. And you know, um, talk to me about some of your fondest memories when we talk about safety and some of our guests that might have discussed the topic of safety.

Speaker A: Oh, uh, there have been so many great guests and I'm sure I'm going to overlook some as I try to review 10 years of recordings. But two of the ones that stand out would be from the National Safety Council and the ntsb. Um, Jennifer Hamade, from the ntsb chairman, having an opportunity to interview her and to talk about transportation safety. And she covers all different modes of transportation at the ntsb, so we could really get into a lot. Obviously the focus tended to be more on highway roadway incidents, but she was a wonderful guest and really provided some insight. And the NTSB has to look at things from a non prejudice scientific point of view. Their investigations are very thorough. What they have to do to dig up that information is amazing. And just getting a little insight into what goes into that, uh, to me was just a fascinating experience.

Speaker B: Yeah. Jennifer, it's fun to listen to her speak, um, you know, in her presence, you know, and I can imagine doing an interview, uh, as well. I know one of my favorites was actually one of your early ones that you did. I think it was episode three or episode four, um, where, uh, you interviewed, um, Max. Okay, Beeline, I'm sure I'm murdering his name, uh, from Sweden, who. He was an early, early pioneer of Vision Zero. And I enjoyed listening to him talk to you about, you know, a lot of folks had challenged this goal that he wanted to put together, and he was ready to debate them and why it was so important that we have this goal of zero fatalities. And he provided a lot of great examples of how they've implemented in Sweden and how the general public has bought into it there. But he also talked about how other cities worldwide could have adopted that same goal. And I know I took a lot away, uh, from that particular interview. Which was one of your earliest ones yet. Pretty amazing.

Speaker A: Yeah. It was great hearing Mats talk about all that was going on. Because Vision Zero, almost everyone talks about Vision Zero now. There are initiatives that are taking place all over the world. But to talk about the early days, the skepticism that he had to deal with and to some extent still deals with that was very interesting because it wasn't something that he was backing down on. He was there to defend it. And even if it's not zero tomorrow, the idea is working toward that eventual goal.

Speaker B: Yeah. You mentioned National Safety Council too. I'm assuming that was. Lorraine Martin was, uh, also very, very passionate, uh, you know, about safety. And I know, I listened to that interview, and she was also a keynote speaker at one, um, of our more recent ITE annual meetings. Um, very passionate. That seems to be a common theme amongst many of the guests that we have, isn't it? They're very passionate about different topics.

Speaker A: Yeah. And that, that comes through. That's one of the things that I like about audio. I'm an audio biased person because of my background, but you can read a sentence from someone on a piece of paper or on a screen, but to hear them say it brings another level of, of insight into how they feel and what they really are passionate about. And that's what I love about audio is you can hear that, you can hear humor, you can hear a lot of things that don't necessarily always translate into a written piece that somebody wrote.

Speaker B: Right. I often tell people it's hard to tell emotion from an email, but when I listen to them. And obviously even more when you see them, because you have facial cues. But just listening, you can catch a lot. You know, another topic we've talked a lot about on the ITE um Talks transportation podcast is, is planning. You, uh, know, some might be surprised that the Institute of Transportation Engineers talks about planning, but, you know, the reality is planning, engineering and operations all have significant overlap in today's industry. And. And the confluence of those topics reflect that. And any notable memories that you have. When we talked about planning in the

Speaker A: past, one in particular stands out to me because of my own passion of riding my bicycle. I had done an interview, uh, about the AASHTO bike guide and to just talk about some of the things that are being done. You know, 25 years ago, there weren't that many bike lanes around. There wasn't a lot of infrastructure that was designed. It was kind of, well, here, good luck. Go out on the roads and see if you can avoid being hit by a car. Uh, and to find out a little bit more about that and to share some of my own experiences of riding around on two wheels was something that I really enjoyed doing and how that has to be incorporated into the planning efforts for roadways today. Even when you're talking about interstates, obviously we're not going to put bike lanes on an interstate highway, but there are things that you can do to enhance bike friendliness on overpasses and things of that sort. So even major highways still have elements of bike planning in them.

Speaker B: Well, uh, and I think that's just it. It's the overlap you, uh, know, like I said, between planning, engineering and operations. And I know one of my favorite episodes on planning was just a few years ago, it was a guest I helped recruit, uh, Steve Buckley, who he's both a planner and an engineer. And I know he led quite a. An interesting discussion about the value of collaboration between planning and engineering and how modern transportation decisions now require such coordination. And we had also had him as a keynote speaker at our virtual spring conference earlier that month. And he, along with Arizona, uh, DOT Director Jennifer Toth, uh, had fully explored this whole issue of collaboration between engineering and planning and breaking down those storied silos. You and I have been in the business a few years, and I think we've seen there are just a few silos out there, whether it's public or private sector. Those silos exist?

Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, without a doubt. And it's sometimes difficult to break them down because people have ways of doing things that they're comfortable with. And it can be uncomfortable trying something new that you're not familiar with.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And often it takes strong leaders to break down those silos. And leadership is probably another topic that we broach a lot of, uh, when it comes to our podcast. And, you know, we've had a lot of podcasts focus on, you know, leadership within the industry, leadership within ite, leadership within other organizations. And I know you've interviewed everyone from young professionals to elected leaders on our podcasts. And are there any specific people or messages you felt were noteworthy?

Speaker A: Well, one that. That I think of is Shellen Batt. When he was the FH WA administrator, you know, Shailen had at that point not only worked in the federal government, but he had also had experience heading a dot in Delaware. He had had experience in the private sector. So he had a lot of different background experiences that he brought to his job as the administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. So I thought that that interview was one of the ones that. That stands out. Another one that stands out in another area of leadership. I'd done an interview with Tamika Butler, who at the time worked for Tool Design, and she was their head of transportation and equity. And talking about equity and it's. There are many different aspects of equity in the transportation world. It can involve many things, but it also involves communities that sometimes. What was built in the 1950s and the 1960s wasn't necessarily done with an eye toward preserving neighborhoods. And now how do we make sure that when we're doing major projects that we are in touch with what the neighborhood needs are and what the people who live in those communities need and want? So that was another one that stood out.

Speaker B: That's such an important topic. And again, it brings the planning and engineering collaboration right to the forefront, um, that you have to start thinking about those decisions early in the process and communicating. I know Jennifer Toole, uh, the head of Tool Design, has often been a huge proponent of community engagement when you're doing these projects, uh, and often has a lot of great ideas, uh, on leadership as well. And again, I think your choice of Shailen, um, uh, is definitely one of my favorites. I've known him for a number of years. I've listened to him speak in many different settings. And he's just a joy to listen to because he really loves what he does. He really loves transportation profession. Uh, and the reason he's held all these different positions is because he really enjoys it. Uh, he, you know, he. He likes public service. He likes private service. He just likes Transportation, uh, in general, you know, you've got quite an incredible, ah, storied career as well. And you know, you and I met, um, right after you had finished your first stint as a radio traffic reporter. And then you were involved in this little thing called Transcom in the New York metropolitan area, which was a pretty massive collaborative effort between the public transportation operations, uh, in the New York area. Can, uh, you talk a little bit about the different arcs of your career and what you've seen evolve kind of within the transportation industry? Sure.

Speaker A: I never thought I would be working in transportation. I considered myself a radio person. But one of my first jobs after graduating college was at this new company called Shadow Traffic. They had this revolutionary concept at the time, this is the late 1970s, of providing traffic reports to multiple radio stations in a market. And back then you had a few stations that might have a helicopter in big cities that would cover traffic. And I had worked at one of the other radio stations in New York back before Shadow came along. And what the other radio stations that didn't have helicopters did is we listened and we wrote down what the helicopter pilot said, and that was become our traffic report. But Shadow was able to put a lot more resources into it. And that was my introduction to the world of transportation. I didn't think of it that way at the time. I just figured it was a radio gig and I was going to be doing other things in radio. But it turned out that that led to a whole career change. I went from there a short time after, worked for the New York City Department of Transportation. In fact, my boss at the time was Sam Schwartz, who was the first guest on ITE talks Transportation. He was the commissioner of traffic for New York City, DOT at the time. And then I joined the Port Authority of New York in New Jersey in this organization that you mentioned called Transcom.

Speaker B: And.

Speaker A: And we did something that had not been done elsewhere, where we were trying to coordinate and share information among all the different transportation and police agencies in the Tri State area, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. So we had an operations center back then. The way we shared information before the Internet worked through alphanumeric pagers. And that was, you know, there was again, resistance to the idea of sharing information. A lot of people, oh, if I have the information, then I have more power. So you had to convince people that it was worth sharing information with one another. And we, I think, managed to do that over time. It took a while. And during my time at, ah, Transcom, as I mentioned earlier, the time where I first got to know you. Another new organization called the i95 Corridor Coalition was created. And the idea behind that, I described it to local people as transcom, except on the Northeast scale, where at the time it was from Maine to Virginia. And all of the various dots and toll agencies and transit agencies would share information for major events that would affect other agencies up and down the corridor. And we could use resources like the variable message signs that existed or highway advisory Radio, some tools that you don't even see used much today that we could share that information among all these agencies. And it wasn't just the sharing of the information that was important, it was the building of relationships, uh, that really was key. That was the critical factor in both Transcom and the coalition were developing these relationships with people that you might only see at conferences. But here we were working on day to day activities and that really made a difference.

Speaker B: Uh, it really did. You know, Transcom was a model for many. And the i95 coalition, it exists today still 30 years later. Um, you know, I, I look back to those days and I think, wow, you know, that was, it was groundbreaking. But you also went on after Transcom and you continued providing transportation information. You and I both worked for a company called Smart Root Systems, where we were some of the early pioneers of providing, you know, um, websites with traffic information. Wow, that was a whole new thing, you know, that this whole world Wide web was brand new. I guess we're just showing our age now, but it was really brand new back then. And uh, um, we got to both work on some of those activities. And you've continued on now for the past couple decades, really representing, um, the whole daily, um, knowledge base of information, helping provide, you know, develop newsletters for organizations like aashto, doing our podcast, doing other activities for other state and local dots, and you've really become a fixture of transportation communications within our industry. It's quite impressive.

Speaker A: Well, thank you. I, when I was in school and we were studying the history of broadcasting, I had thought, wow, it really would have been cool to have been involved with radio in the 1930s when it was getting off the ground, or television in the 1950s. But I figured, well, there's not going to be any new media that are developed in my lifetime. Well, lo and behold, the 1990s come along. This thing called the Internet is becoming popular. Dial up AOL to connect to the Internet. And I decided that, well, here is my opportunity to be involved with a new medium right from the ground floor. And one of the things that I started way back in 1998, which I'm always proud to say I preceded Google being online. I started a newsletter called the Transportation Communications Newsletter, which I still do to this day. It's a daily newsletter and it's basically a compilation of information about transportation communications from around the world, every different mode of transportation. And it sort of brought me back to my roots of journalism, which is what I had started at in doing that. And because I did that, other people saw it. And like you say, I did it for. I still do it for aashto, its Canada, its Michigan, a lot of different organizations that I do newsletters for, obviously tailored to what their particular audience interests are. And then the podcast. So it's come full circle in many ways. And lately, you know, life continues to provide lots of surprises. And one of the surprises that I've had in the last few years that I never anticipated is getting involved with show business. Starting in 2009, I was asked to be one of the voices of the New York City subway. And through that, because almost everybody in the New York area rides the subway at one time or another. So all these millions of people knew my voice. And because of that, when people needed a subway voice, they call on me quite often. So I got to work with Lin Manuel Miranda and Issa Davis on an album that they did called Warriors. I got just a few weeks ago. I was in a Broadway show, Cat's, uh, the Jellicle Bull. I've done a TV show with Tracy Morgan. It's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I am doing all kinds of crazy stuff like this that I never ever anticipated and didn't even seek out. It just happened.

Speaker B: Well, uh, it's because you were the voice of the subway, you know, and that's. They all knew that. You know, it's great that you've been able to do these many different things. And I know this is our first podcast since I became CEO nearly three years ago now here at I. Can you believe it's almost been three years here at it? Time flies. So I guess before we close, I should at least let you ask one question. Um, uh, before we sign off here, since, uh, you are the normal interviewer.

Speaker A: Mhm. Well, we're going to have to do this, a more extended version of this in the future. But for right now, your background was sort of just the coin flip of what mine was, where you started in transportation as an engineer and ended up working in communications and things of that sort. So tell me a little bit about your arc when you And I first met you were working for the Maryland State Highway Administration, um, a young man on the rise at the time. And your career has taken a lot of interesting twists, uh, and turns as well.

Speaker B: It really did. And, and I was, I was at Maryland State highway at the right time, in the right place. They originally hired me because I had a human factors background. I, I'm actually, I'm an industrial engineer with a human factors background. And they wanted someone to work on an older driver signage program. And that's why I was originally hired. I'm not a civil engineer now. I know a lot about traffic engineering and all of that, but I'm, I'm much more focused on the person who, the people themselves. Uh, and five minutes after I arrived, so they say, that's when this new fangled thing called IVHS Intelligent Vehicle Highway System, the, uh, predecessor to what is today its Intelligent Transportation Systems, uh, it really became popular and I had to pivot because they needed me to pivot at State highway to focus more on its and operations. And uh, like you said, you and I met, I was helping launch the i95 corridor coalition on behalf of SHA, uh, along with our then administrator Hal Kassoff, who was one, uh, of the big bosses behind this whole thing. And uh, I really got a great, um, what I'll call a good foundation for my whole transportation career by working in the public sector, by working in an agency and working on the leading edge, uh, of something which you often don't hear public sector and leading edge in the same sentence. But I was very fortunate to be at that. And you know, I went from there to, you know, smart root systems or we did. As you know, you and I both worked together doing private sector travel information on tv, radio, Internet, all those. Um, I worked on staff at ITS America for a number of years, uh, which really gave me the first real exposure to nonprofit, uh, to working for an industry association, which was fascinating. And then I did the obligatory, you know, stint, uh, as a consultant, which I think everyone in their career does at some point, whether it's at the beginning or the end or the middle. Uh, I did 15 years with Parsons Brinkerhoff, then became WSP, uh, and I was able to continue on at an international level. While I was our national leader for a lot of activities. I interfaced with counterparts internationally and it allowed me to kind of keep this global footprint that I've always had. So when it came time for Jeff to retire, and Jeff and I, of course had been friends for many years and he recruited me to apply for his position. And I was fortunate enough to be selected by our international board. Uh, it just was kind of a natural next step for me to continue representing the industry. A little bit different portion of the industry from when earlier in my career. Uh, but I've really enjoyed the heck out of it. I really enjoy dealing with the members. You know, ITE has almost 19,000 members now globally, uh, in 76 different countries. Obviously the majority are in North America. But I really enjoy talking to the planners, the engineers, the operators, the data scientists, the practitioners that are our everyday member. And I've really had a good time this past three years and I look forward to what the next three years, uh, will, will throw at me. Mhm.

Speaker A: It's, you never know what's going to be coming up. Things that we're doing today, you and I never conceived of back in the mid-1990s and it doesn't seem like it was all that long ago.

Speaker B: It doesn't, it doesn't. And that's kind of the scary thing. But um, this has certainly been fun reminiscing, uh, about our past and more importantly, celebrating the 10 year anniversary of our ITE Talks transportation podcast. Congratulations to you on a great job for all that. Thank you for all the work you've poured into this medium. Uh, as you said, this newfangled medium called podcasting. Uh, you've really made it great. Uh, and thanks for helping make our podcast a longstanding success that it is.

Speaker A: Thank you so much, Steve. It has been a pleasure and I've enjoyed every moment of it.