so the transportation system of the
future this is something we’ve been
thinking about for as long as we’ve been
traveling always imagining the things
being faster more convenient but what
does that future transportation system
look like to you
well you might think about the current
system places you travel frequently that
frustrate you
maybe there’s that section of road where
you’ve thought if only they would make
the road a little bit wider add another
Lane make the green light just a little
bit longer for me things would work so
much better well your view as a traveler
is often through the windshield of your
vehicle or maybe from the seat of your
bicycle looking out at all those things
that get in your way well as a
transportation engineer my views a
little bit different I’m looking up
above who down at everybody traveling
trying to figure out where everybody
wants to go and if I made that road a
little bit wider I might just be
funneling you to a bigger bottleneck
downstream or if I make the light green
light longer for you I’m making the red
light longer for somebody else maybe
doing backups in that other direction so
what happens is this cycle where
travelers express their frustration
transportation engineers do listen we go
back to our offices we run our models we
look at the available resources that we
have and the time that we have to
construct things and we come back with
solutions that don’t feel that
satisfying most of the time so it’s no
wonder that people are always looking to
the future for something better well to
understand our transportation system we
actually have to think about it through
time so let’s walk back in time and
think about the roads that we’re using
now they were often developed first it’s
footpaths may be bridle trails making
way for carriages wagons eventually
bicycles tramways and then finally the
automobile each of these ways of
traveling requires something different
from their roads different widths so
take for instance tramways they’re
really limited by the grade the type of
hill that they can climb right so when
they encounter significant Hills they
have to zigzag their way up or go
diagonally
to the top of the hill so here in
Spokane we had a really extensive
tramway system this map the green lines
showing the tramways in 1929 extending
all the way in the north to Franklin
Park and down in the south to 37th
Avenue so you know when it encountered
in the southern part the South hild it
had to zigzag its way up to get through
well this was in 1929 which was the
maximum extent of the tramway system and
just seven years later that Troy system
was gone and that space taken over by
the increasing number of automobiles but
many of you who live in Spokane could be
driving those roads today and wonder
what in the world were they thinking
right but you know so we’re left with
these cities that are adapting to new
ways of travel over time well as Spokane
got larger the outer areas were
developed around automobiles so those
streets are often straighter and wider
and they carry a lot of traffic just to
get you to the bottlenecks at the
Central City
these older roads we often can’t replace
due to you know funding constraints but
also we don’t often want to replace them
because this is a lot where a lot of our
history and character of our older
cities reside so as transportation
engineers we’re constantly adapting to
these new ways to travel always trying
to look to the future to figure out what
people are going to be doing sometimes
the way that we happens really quickly
take companies like uber and lyft in
just the last five years they’ve risen
to pretty strong prominence in our
cities giving people more mobility than
they had before
allowing some people to forego the cost
of owning an automobile but at the same
time they’re taking trips away from
trips that would have been done by
walking biking or taking the bus
other times we see technology coming
that we know is going to make a little
impact but it never really takes off
so now we’re left with what’s coming
what is this future of transportation
well you’ve probably been hearing a lot
about self-driving or autonomous cars I
mean these are vehicles where the
driving maneuvers and driving decisions
are done by your vehicle’s technology as
opposed to human drivers this might be
something that you’ve thought I really
want to go out and buy one of those
thank you for all the things all the
things that you could be doing instead
of driving maybe reading a book the
newspaper legally sending texts and
emails or maybe you’ve looked at that
technology and thought that it was
something that you didn’t really need
something you weren’t willing to pay
extra money for regardless of your
personal thoughts on the technology
obviously an engineer and not an actor
here so regardless of your personal
thoughts on this technology it’s coming
right if you think about private
companies that rely on transportation
for their businesses maybe you know in
industry or farmers who need to get
their goods to market or companies like
uber and lyft whose ability to expand
their system is limited by the number of
drivers they can recruit right these
companies are willing to be early
adopters of this technology and that
reduces the price for all of us as we
buy new cars in the future that
technology will be in those vehicles now
we have to decide how we’re going to use
them so what would you do differently if
you had a self-driving car would you
send the car out to go pick up your kids
from soccer without you
I think I’m does that work if I just let
it lay them obviously it’s not staying
in my ear would you send the car out and
then maybe go out on your own shopping
trip later where those two trips used to
be combined right if you had a meeting
downtown would you just have the car
instead of paying for parking we just
have the car go around the block until
your meeting was over maybe sending that
car back so somebody else in your
household can make a trip right so the
technology has the impact right of
making things considerably different so
is it a good impact or a bad well
certainly we have to think about the
people who make their living as drivers
now those jobs will be gone but maybe
there’s some opportunities as well so
maybe we could take those parking spots
all those parking surface parking lots
and turn them into open space maybe we
could take the parking garages and
convert them into affordable housing or
new businesses there are lots of
challenges and there’s lots of
opportunities with this technology but I
think is how we address these as a
region requires us maybe to think a
little bit differently about
transportation so back to our view so
instead of thinking about just all the
impediments in your way as you’re
driving down the road maybe think a
little bit more about why you’re in the
car in the first place what influences
the number of trips that you make is
that where you live where you work where
you play right so one thing to think
about or an example of it is driving our
kids to school this is something 20 30
years ago was relatively rare but now is
commonplace why are we driving our kids
to school is it because the school was
built too far away from our neighborhood
or maybe there’s a street between us our
house and the school that doesn’t feel
safe having our kids cross or what about
shopping our stores have gotten really
really large well they may be good for
you no choice and price it also means
that we can’t walk bike or send our kids
out to buy a gallon of milk the way our
communities are developed are
intrinsically linked to our
transportation system yet we’ve always
sort of fundamentally viewed them as two
separate systems I
how we travel in ten years from now will
be different than the way we’re
traveling now the technology that’s
coming is just too great for it to be
otherwise but I think we have to as a
region start talking about the
communities and how we want to live and
start viewing the technology that’s
coming as opportunities for developing
those communities let’s not just
incrementally change our transportation
system and be continued to be frustrated
with the outcome instead let’s think
about the communities that support the
way we want to live and using that
technology to build those communities
and then I think finally we can have the
transportation system of the future that
we’ve been dreaming of thank you
[Applause]
future this is something we’ve been
thinking about for as long as we’ve been
traveling always imagining the things
being faster more convenient but what
does that future transportation system
look like to you
well you might think about the current
system places you travel frequently that
frustrate you
maybe there’s that section of road where
you’ve thought if only they would make
the road a little bit wider add another
Lane make the green light just a little
bit longer for me things would work so
much better well your view as a traveler
is often through the windshield of your
vehicle or maybe from the seat of your
bicycle looking out at all those things
that get in your way well as a
transportation engineer my views a
little bit different I’m looking up
above who down at everybody traveling
trying to figure out where everybody
wants to go and if I made that road a
little bit wider I might just be
funneling you to a bigger bottleneck
downstream or if I make the light green
light longer for you I’m making the red
light longer for somebody else maybe
doing backups in that other direction so
what happens is this cycle where
travelers express their frustration
transportation engineers do listen we go
back to our offices we run our models we
look at the available resources that we
have and the time that we have to
construct things and we come back with
solutions that don’t feel that
satisfying most of the time so it’s no
wonder that people are always looking to
the future for something better well to
understand our transportation system we
actually have to think about it through
time so let’s walk back in time and
think about the roads that we’re using
now they were often developed first it’s
footpaths may be bridle trails making
way for carriages wagons eventually
bicycles tramways and then finally the
automobile each of these ways of
traveling requires something different
from their roads different widths so
take for instance tramways they’re
really limited by the grade the type of
hill that they can climb right so when
they encounter significant Hills they
have to zigzag their way up or go
diagonally
to the top of the hill so here in
Spokane we had a really extensive
tramway system this map the green lines
showing the tramways in 1929 extending
all the way in the north to Franklin
Park and down in the south to 37th
Avenue so you know when it encountered
in the southern part the South hild it
had to zigzag its way up to get through
well this was in 1929 which was the
maximum extent of the tramway system and
just seven years later that Troy system
was gone and that space taken over by
the increasing number of automobiles but
many of you who live in Spokane could be
driving those roads today and wonder
what in the world were they thinking
right but you know so we’re left with
these cities that are adapting to new
ways of travel over time well as Spokane
got larger the outer areas were
developed around automobiles so those
streets are often straighter and wider
and they carry a lot of traffic just to
get you to the bottlenecks at the
Central City
these older roads we often can’t replace
due to you know funding constraints but
also we don’t often want to replace them
because this is a lot where a lot of our
history and character of our older
cities reside so as transportation
engineers we’re constantly adapting to
these new ways to travel always trying
to look to the future to figure out what
people are going to be doing sometimes
the way that we happens really quickly
take companies like uber and lyft in
just the last five years they’ve risen
to pretty strong prominence in our
cities giving people more mobility than
they had before
allowing some people to forego the cost
of owning an automobile but at the same
time they’re taking trips away from
trips that would have been done by
walking biking or taking the bus
other times we see technology coming
that we know is going to make a little
impact but it never really takes off
so now we’re left with what’s coming
what is this future of transportation
well you’ve probably been hearing a lot
about self-driving or autonomous cars I
mean these are vehicles where the
driving maneuvers and driving decisions
are done by your vehicle’s technology as
opposed to human drivers this might be
something that you’ve thought I really
want to go out and buy one of those
thank you for all the things all the
things that you could be doing instead
of driving maybe reading a book the
newspaper legally sending texts and
emails or maybe you’ve looked at that
technology and thought that it was
something that you didn’t really need
something you weren’t willing to pay
extra money for regardless of your
personal thoughts on the technology
obviously an engineer and not an actor
here so regardless of your personal
thoughts on this technology it’s coming
right if you think about private
companies that rely on transportation
for their businesses maybe you know in
industry or farmers who need to get
their goods to market or companies like
uber and lyft whose ability to expand
their system is limited by the number of
drivers they can recruit right these
companies are willing to be early
adopters of this technology and that
reduces the price for all of us as we
buy new cars in the future that
technology will be in those vehicles now
we have to decide how we’re going to use
them so what would you do differently if
you had a self-driving car would you
send the car out to go pick up your kids
from soccer without you
I think I’m does that work if I just let
it lay them obviously it’s not staying
in my ear would you send the car out and
then maybe go out on your own shopping
trip later where those two trips used to
be combined right if you had a meeting
downtown would you just have the car
instead of paying for parking we just
have the car go around the block until
your meeting was over maybe sending that
car back so somebody else in your
household can make a trip right so the
technology has the impact right of
making things considerably different so
is it a good impact or a bad well
certainly we have to think about the
people who make their living as drivers
now those jobs will be gone but maybe
there’s some opportunities as well so
maybe we could take those parking spots
all those parking surface parking lots
and turn them into open space maybe we
could take the parking garages and
convert them into affordable housing or
new businesses there are lots of
challenges and there’s lots of
opportunities with this technology but I
think is how we address these as a
region requires us maybe to think a
little bit differently about
transportation so back to our view so
instead of thinking about just all the
impediments in your way as you’re
driving down the road maybe think a
little bit more about why you’re in the
car in the first place what influences
the number of trips that you make is
that where you live where you work where
you play right so one thing to think
about or an example of it is driving our
kids to school this is something 20 30
years ago was relatively rare but now is
commonplace why are we driving our kids
to school is it because the school was
built too far away from our neighborhood
or maybe there’s a street between us our
house and the school that doesn’t feel
safe having our kids cross or what about
shopping our stores have gotten really
really large well they may be good for
you no choice and price it also means
that we can’t walk bike or send our kids
out to buy a gallon of milk the way our
communities are developed are
intrinsically linked to our
transportation system yet we’ve always
sort of fundamentally viewed them as two
separate systems I
how we travel in ten years from now will
be different than the way we’re
traveling now the technology that’s
coming is just too great for it to be
otherwise but I think we have to as a
region start talking about the
communities and how we want to live and
start viewing the technology that’s
coming as opportunities for developing
those communities let’s not just
incrementally change our transportation
system and be continued to be frustrated
with the outcome instead let’s think
about the communities that support the
way we want to live and using that
technology to build those communities
and then I think finally we can have the
transportation system of the future that
we’ve been dreaming of thank you
[Applause]
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