From the District Director

Edward Soldo, P.Eng., FITE Canadian District Director, ITE director@cite7.org The first day of spring came and went and, unfortunately for some parts of the country, winter would not let go. As I write this in mid-April, I’m watching light snow falling in Southern Ontario while our members in Manitoba are enjoying a record snowfall and school closures. Despite the wintery weather, our spring events continue.

The ITE Spring Conference “Innovations that Work” was held successfully in March with over 700 virtual participants. It provided members with a great learning opportunity about the latest transportation trends. The ITE International Board of Direction (IBOD) also had a virtual check-in meeting in March.

The focus of this CITE TransportationTalk is on diversity and inclusion and hence I wanted to provide the membership with some background on what ITE is undertaking in this area. In 2019, ITE adopted a Diversity and Inclusion Policy which is available on ITE’s website at: www.ite.org/membership/ diversity-and-inclusion.

ITE believes that differences in background and experience enrich the culture and experiences of ITE for our membership as they do for the communities in which we live and work. Our personal experience and identity shape how people see the world and greater inclusion will provide a more thoughtful, open, and integrated sharing of ideas and experiences across the entire global membership. The greater diversity of ideas and experiences will help us to be in a position to tackle transportation’s biggest challenges and to develop the preparedness and resilience that ITE will need to address future challenges that cannot be currently defined.

The ITE Diversity and Inclusion Committee has launched an Inclusion Portal to provide an avenue for members to share an idea, concern, or suggestion to enhance inclusion in ITE. It is available as a tab on the ITE website. In addition, I would encourage members to join the ITE Diversity & Inclusion e-Community.

The April edition of the ITEjournal was also focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and I would encourage you to read through the various articles as they provide many great insights on these topics and provides some background on the new Equity Committee that ITE has launched. The goal of this new committee is to develop tools, advocate, educate and set a leadership example in our profession making transportation equity a priority and changing the future of mobility for all users.

The Canadian District Annual Conference is coming up at the end of May in Vancouver, I look forward to interacting with many of you there. The ITE Annual Meeting is in New Orleans, LA from July 31 to August 4, the conference theme is “Investing in Our Future”. I am looking forward to the various sessions to gain insights on the ever changing landscape of our transportation profession. I hope to see many of our District members there; I am sure there is a place or two along Bourbon Street to catch up and chat.

Keep well, stay safe and if you have any questions regarding ITE, please contact me at esoldo@ cite7.org on Twitter @EdwardSoldo.

April 2022

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Edward Soldo, P.Eng., FITE Canadian District Director