Category: Observations

  • Be radical in your actions, not just your words.

    This week I had a long discussion at KALX about how meaningless the term hipster is. Basically the trend setters are out there doing things, expressing themselves, and living their culture. They are too busy making it happen for themselves to call themselves a hipster, in fact they will tell you they aren’t if you call…

  • How can you innovate without research?

      Yesterday I went down to Google HQ to see Secretary Foxx hold a fireside chat with Erich Schmidt to discuss DOT’s new 30-year plan Beyond Traffic.  I’ve never been to an event like this before, and it seemed the audience was industry more than the usual transportation wonks (though we were there).  There was a…

  • All slow pop songs sound the same? On Fair Use and some such.

    Have you heard Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me”? You must have. It’s all over the place. Everybody loves it. (Even if you can’t really dance to it.) Some people pointed out the chorus sounds a lot like another ubiquitous pop song of yesteryear – Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”. Not sure? check this out:…

  • How to gracefully fix a mistake.

    People make mistakes. I think it’s in the definition of being human. The important thing is how you respond to it. Do you deny everything? Do you fix it? Do you ignore the problem? There are lots of different ways a person or organization could approach the situation. Often with vendors, it seems they go…

  • The Future of Handbooks: More about electronic and print resources

      This post started off where I get most of my inspiration: Twitter. After helping a grad student find resources about trip generation in urban areas which included referencing ITE’s Trip Generation Manual, I tweeted: You know what would be awesome? If the @ITEhq Trip Generation Manual was available electronically. Traffic engineers would rejoice! —…