The Next Great Frontier

China is rising as the world’s next great superpower…what does that mean for T&DI?

by Eva Lerner-Lam, M.ASCE
President, Transportation and Development Institute of the ASCE

The People’s Republic of China is now rising from centuries of foreign domination and decades of self-imposed isolation from the rest of the world.  The 1.3 billion people in this 5,000-year-old civilization are re-entering the global arena at the start of the 21st century with hard-earned hope and high expectations.  It is a place where newly-defined economic freedoms dance an awkward tango with traditional, restricted personal liberties.  It is an economic engine that has produced double-digit growth every year for nearly 15 years.  And it is nothing less than the Next Great Frontier for the world’s best transportation engineers and planners.

There are five persons in China for every one person in the United States; yet the land area of each of the two nations is nearly identical.  Can China learn from the West the lessons of suburban sprawl and design their communities to be smarter and more sustainable?  What are the implications of China building its highways according to Western highway design concepts that preclude rail transit from highway rights-of-way and pedestrian accessibility to commercial developments at highway interchanges?  Can sustainability principles be built into the design, operation and maintenance of China’s new transport networks?  Must everyone own and drive a car in order to get to school, work or play?  Can Intelligent Transportation Systems help?  What about innovative land use planning and development strategies that encourage mixed use and multi-modal accessibility for all types of travel? 

For decades, more than a billion Chinese people have longed to live the kind of life we in the West have worked hard to ensure for ourselves and our children:  enough food to eat, a comfortable home, a good education, affordable medical care, meaningful, well-paying jobs with a future.  Now, these things are within their grasp.  What role can and should T&DI play in this fast-evolving arena?

T&DI can and should be a “go-to” resource for its members to gain knowledge and access to opportunities in China.  We can do this by initiating and supporting international conferences, workshops, seminars, technical tours and publications on topics integral to China’s transportation and development.

T&DI can and should develop tools for its members to understand how to better engage with Chinese transportation and development professionals.  We can do this by initiating and supporting efforts to develop knowledge-sharing tools such as a “Chinese-English/English-Chinese Glossary of Transportation and Development Terminology” and a directory of transportation and development agencies and professional associations in China.

T&DI can and should collaborate with other Western agencies and professional associations to leverage collective efforts to explore and engage transportation and development professionals in China.  We can do this by reaching out to agencies and professional associations to coordinate and cooperate in joint activities that will help our members gain broader knowledge and insights into transportation and development in China.

China is emerging with determination and energy, and the impacts resulting from its transportation and development decisions will affect not only its own destiny, but that of the much of the rest of the world as well.  Indeed, T&DI has a significant role to play for its members to understand and engage in that process. 

This is the last President’s Letter I will write.  As I leave the presidency of this Institute, I look back with enormous pride at the accomplishments of our members and their leaders.  We have done a great deal, and under the strong leadership of Lou Cohn and the rest of T&DI’s leadership, the Institute is poised to continue to grow and provide our members with tried-and-true, proven products and services as well as fresh, new professional development opportunities.  I thank my colleagues on the Board, Marsha Anderson, Lou Cohn, Kam Movassaghi, Larry Mugler, Bob Stevens and Mike Walton, for their dedication and commitment to the mission of the Institute, and welcome Thomas McGean and Chris Hendrickson as new Governors.  I am also very grateful for the tireless efforts of T&DI’s Staff Director, Jon Esslinger and staff members Andrea Baker and Rob Bowman for their outstanding service to the Institute as administrative support personnel.  ASCE Board Directors Randy Over and Stan Caldwell been important supporters of our efforts, and we appreciated their frequent attendance at our Board of Governors’ meetings and events.

Finally, I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to three former Governors of the Institute, Bob Costigan, Essam Radwan and Kumares Sinha, for their foresight, wisdom and leadership in helping to define and launch T&DI.  It has been a great honor and privilege for me to serve in their footsteps.

Respectfully yours,