FROM THE DISTRICT DIRECTOR
Welcome to 2024! I hope that everyone enjoyed a chance to relax and take some time off over the holidays. I am happy to be home after some busy meetings in Washington, D.C. at our winter ITE Board of Direction Meetings. “Change” was the word of the day at our IBOD meeting as it was the first meeting for our new ITE International President, John Davis, as well as our new Executive Director Steve Kuciemba and Chief Technical Officer Matt Hardy. The Canadian contingent welcomed Steve by presenting him with his official Canada toque over the weekend. ITE International has a new Strategic Plan, one that will guide our
Edward Soldo, P.Eng., FITE Canadian District Director, ITE director@itecanada.org
actions for the next 3 years, which focuses on three main pillars, our membership, our leadership in technical knowledge and organizational excellence. This plan will help achieve our mission of advancing transportation knowledge and practices for the benefit of society and be the transportation organization of choice for our membership. A number of Informational Reports and Technical Briefs have come out
over the last few months on various topics, such as the Centering Transit Access, Speed, and Reliability in Quick-Build Complete Streets Projects and Case Studies of Equity in Transportation Practices. I would encourage you to take the time to review ITE’s Resources webpage as many new publications and initiatives are being produced by ITE through the various Technical Committees and Councils. The January 2024 edition of the ITE Journal has many interesting new articles and information as well. While in Washington, I had the opportunity to meet up with our Canadian members who are participating in the LeadershipITE program. Congratulations to Erica Bayley and Julia Salvini for being selected to the Class of 2024. The program was established to grow and empower leaders within our ITE community and I would highly encourage all members to consider applying in future years. ITE International has announced its newest Honorary Members. It is the highest recognition of notable and outstanding professional achievement presented by ITE. This year’s list included three new members, Kumares Sinha, Dalene J. Whitlock and our Canadian Bruce Belmore. This is a well-deserved recognition for all three; it is an exclusive award as only 94 members have been honoured since 1933 when the first Honorary Member was selected. Bruce joins H. Robert Burton, Samuel Cass, H. Allen Swanson, Stan Teply and Alf Guebert, all great leaders in our transportation industry, as the only Canadian Honorary Members. Many of you will know Bruce Belmore, International President in 2019 and Canadian District President in 2008-2009. I have had the pleasure of working with him on the ITE Canada Executive and over the years he has been a great colleague, mentor and friend. Congratulations, Bruce!
3
TRANSPORTATION TALK