October 10, 2022 • 38 mins
Despite some Texas-sized mobility challenges and worldwide supply-chain obstacles, the guy in charge of the Texas Department of Transportation wants you to know he’s never been more optimistic about our transportation future.
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Episode Transcript
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Bernie Fette (host) (00:14):
Hello again.
This is Thinking Transportation-- conversations about how we
get ourselves and the things weneed from one place to another,
and why that's rarely as simpleas we might want it to be.
I'm Bernie Fette with the TexasA&M Transportation Institute.
With more than 81,000 miles ofstate maintained highways, Texas
(00:37):
has the most expansive suchnetwork in America.
Leading the department thattakes care of those roads is an
enormous job, and few peoplewould know that better than the
person holding the job now.
Marc Williams is the executivedirector of the Texas Department
of Transportation.
He joins us for this episode totalk about the lessons learned
(01:00):
from the pandemic, the mobilitychallenges that we face, and why
he feels so optimistic aboutwhat lies ahead.
Marc, thank you so much fortaking time to visit with us
today.
Marc Williams (guest) (01:12):
Thank you very much, Bernie.
Looking forward to ourconversation here.
Bernie Fette (01:15):
Well, let's start, if we could, with just a little
about your career path tobecoming the CEO of the Texas
Department of Transportation.
Maybe you could talk just alittle bit about how you got
where you are and what sort ofmentor support you had on your
path?
Marc Williams (01:32):
Well, I appreciate that question.
First of all, let me say that itis just a tremendous honor to be
able to serve the great womenand men of the Texas Department
of Transportation.
And in the time that I have beenin this role as executive
director, I've had theopportunity to get out and
travel the state.
We have 25 different districtoffices.
(01:53):
I've had the chance to visit allof them over the past roughly
year and about three months nowthat I've been executive
director, along with many of ourarea offices and maintenance
offices throughout the state ofTexas.
And to meet a good portion ofthe 12,500 women and men that do
the great work day in and dayout that TxDOT is involved with.
(02:14):
And that has just been atremendous honor and something
that I have really thoroughlyenjoyed doing.
But I certainly didn't set outto be executive director with
the Texas Department ofTransportation and hadn't really
even been thinking of working instate government when I started
out.
But every step along the way,I've just pursued and followed
(02:35):
my interests and passions andthings that I found exciting and
wanted to do and have allowedthose to evolve.
I started my career at the TexasA&M Transportation Institute and
was involved with trafficoperations and went from that
into urban planning and highwaycorridor planning, economics,
(02:56):
freight, project delivery, andhave really enjoyed each of
those areas.
But as my interest changed, Imoved into different things, but
also, I don't wanna give theimpression that you just sort of
put your boat in the water andlet it carry you where it may
take you.
Bernie Fette (03:12):
Right.
Marc Williams (03:12):
There were deliberate steps that I took
along the way.
I made a career choice to spendsome time in Kentucky early in
my career, and spent a goodportion of my career working
there and had an opportunity towork in state government and
then came back to Texas andworked in the private sector for
a period of time, but reallysought out an opportunity to
(03:33):
move back into state governmentand was blessed that an
opportunity to join TxDOT cameabout for me about 10 and a half
years ago.
And I took that and am fortunateto find myself in the position
that I'm at right now.
But, you know, along the way, interms of just mentors, I would
say that, you know, I've, I'vehad an opportunity to work very
closely with a number of stateagency heads, both in my time in
(03:55):
Kentucky and in my time now hereat TxDOT.
And I've tried to really, youknow, watch and learn from those
individuals and pick up some ofthe good habits that they
demonstrated along the way.
But the people that you workwith day in and day out, we're
very blessed.
I'm blessed to have a great teamat the Texas Department of
Transportation day in and dayout, and they have talents and
(04:17):
abilities that I certainly relyupon and look to, to kind of
help me do the job that I'mcalled upon as executive
director.
So it's a kind of a holisticvision in terms of how I've kind
of gone about my career andcontinued to do that even now.
Bernie Fette (04:30):
Right.
And you talked about things thatyou kind of discovered from the
very beginning, bit by bit andthings that you picked up along
the way.
I'm curious, we tend to think ofthis as a field where
engineering skills are paramount(and they're certainly
prominent) but you talked aboutpicking things up along the way.
What sort of other areas ofexpertise did you pick up along
(04:51):
that path, skills that maybe youdidn't even realize you might
need when you first started out?
Marc Williams (04:57):
Well, I think one of the big ones to me, and I did
start out with a bit of anappreciation for this, is just
writing and verbalcommunication, Uhhuh
, and being able towork hard and give attention to
communicating succinctly andcommunicating well and
understanding the importance ofbeing able to do that.
And when I was in school, I am agraduate of Texas A&M, I took a
(05:21):
number of classes in English andmaybe didn't fully appreciate it
at the time, but really havecome to appreciate how critical
it is for particularly people inthe engineering discipline to be
able to communicate oftentimesvery complex issues or issues
that were maybe very dialed intothe specific details of, and be
able to communicate that to a, abroader audience or an audience
(05:43):
that may not be as, uh, fullyinvolved in all of the aspects
of what goes into maintainingand operating and building a
transportation system and helpto communicate that well.
And so I think that wascertainly one area that I've
appreciated throughout mycareer.
But even now, you know, as youlook, where we're at as a new
organization and where theindustry is headed.
(06:04):
Information technology is agreat example.
And, uh,, we are sodependent upon our IT
information technology resourcesand what we do.
Data management is a big onetoo.
And then environmental sciencesand understanding how we build
and maintain our transportationsystems in a environmentally
(06:27):
responsible and communityresponsive manner is critical.
And so continuing to see ourindustry evolve and new tools
and uh, skill sets coming intothe fold.
Bernie Fette (06:39):
Right.
Well-rounded professionally aswell.
Marc Williams (06:42):
Right.
Bernie Fette (06:43):
Your mission, TxDOT's mission, it's very clear
and very prominent on yourwebsite: Connecting you with
Texas.
It's also very, yeah, it's alsovery succinct,
Marc Williams (06:53):
That's right.
Bernie Fette (06:53):
Which I'm guessing that's probably something else
that you can recall from thoseEnglish classes that you took at
Texas A&M.
Just four words, but they cansay a lot.
Marc Williams (07:03):
You're right.
Bernie Fette (07:03):
And I wonder if you'd share your thoughts by
expanding on that phrase and allthat you think it means.
Marc Williams (07:11):
Well, that was a mission statement that our
communications team, along withJames Bass, who was the
executive director prior to me,along with our executive team at
the time, really focused on howdo we look at our mission
statement and do exactly whatyou said, Bernie, make it
succinct and clear in what weare trying to communicate.
(07:33):
And connecting you with Texas isreally what we're about with the
Texas Department ofTransportation.
And the thing about that missionstatement, and if you go to the
website, you might notice thatthat mission statement kind of
changes a little bit in certainareas on our website where it
may say, connecting you withTexas safely.
Bernie Fette (07:52):
Yeah, I did.
Marc Williams (07:53):
Or connecting you with Texas efficiently.
And that also acknowledges thatthat mission means different
things to different people.
People look at theirtransportation needs in
different ways.
We're blessed to have a verybroad and diverse state, but
with that diversity comesdifferent needs and different
expectations relative to howtransportation can best serve
(08:16):
the population of Texas.
And our mission statement issimple but also adaptable to
help reflect that.
Bernie Fette (08:24):
And your answer just gave me another segue
because you were talking aboutchallenges, and that's one of
the things I was hoping that wecould talk about.
In working with a stateinfrastructure that's aging as
the state grows, growing notonly in population but also
growing in terms of needs formoving people and the everyday
(08:44):
products we use, what's thebiggest obstacle you face?
Marc Williams (08:49):
Well, as I think about those challenges and our
infrastructure and keeping upwith the population growth that
we see here in Texas, it iscertainly a challenge, but
probably the biggest hurdle isreally two areas.
One is just the cost., Quiteclearly, transportation
infrastructure is something thatis growing in cost.
(09:09):
We've certainly seen asignificant growth in the cost
of new construction over thepast year.
It's been really startling howmuch the cost required to
upgrade and maintain ourhighways has grown, driven by
international and nationaltrends related to inflation and
(09:29):
fuel costs and the availabilityof the products and the
materials that we need to buildand maintain our highways.
Bernie Fette (09:37):
And the rate of inflation for highway
construction products, if Iunderstand correctly, is rising
faster than the inflation ratefor everything else we use, it
seems.
Marc Williams (09:47):
It absolutely is because I think we're really
kind of at the bullseye, if youwill, of a number of different
factors that are influencinginflation.
I mentioned fuel costs.
I also mentioned theavailability and the supply of
materials, cement, uh, steel,aggregate, all of that is
(10:09):
playing into it.
Trucking costs are going up andthen just labor costs, labor
availability.
And the labor rates associatedwith that all have a compounding
effect that's very pronounced inthe cost of delivering and
maintaining our transportationinfrastructure.
And so that's a significantchallenge, not only for Texas,
but nationally andinternationally as well.
(10:31):
And keeping up with populationgrowth is a big part of that.
But much of our infrastructurefalls in our urbanized areas.
There are areas where roads andhighways were built years ago.
They've gone through severalexpansions and, uh, development
has occurred along thosehighways.
And being able to expand thosehighways further often is very
(10:54):
challenging.
And so that makes it even morecostly, especially when we put
in efforts to be as sensitive aswe can to the environment and
minimizing community impacts anddoing our best to reduce the
amount of right of way that wemay have to obtain to widen or
maintain our transportationinfrastructure.
Those, too, are challenges.
And those are importantchallenges.
Bernie Fette (11:15):
If we look at this as a kind of a two-sided coin
with you just addressing thechallenges on one side, and we
flip that coin and talk a littleabout the solutions, can you
talk a little about thesolutions, specifically to what
extent the solutions are aboutcapacity, how many miles of
roadway we have, and how much ofthe solution mix has to do with
(11:39):
how we use those roadways, howwe manage demand?
Can you talk a little aboutthat?
Marc Williams (11:43):
Mm-hmm.
Sure.
Well, you know, in terms ofmiles of highways, it's probably
not a surprise to anyone thatTexas has got more miles of
highways than any other state.
We've got over 81,000 that wemaintain on the state highway
system by the Texas Departmentof Transportation.
And those miles of highway areused to carry, uh, not only
(12:04):
people, but products and goodsthat people rely upon.
And we have to maintain theviability of our highway and
transportation system.
We have to recognize that thequality of our transportation
system, the quality of ourhighways, has done a lot for the
economy and the opportunity thatTexans enjoy.
(12:25):
But we realized too that withsome of the challenges that we
talked about previously, thatdoes make it more difficult for
us to go to expansion of ourhighways in certain areas.
And we have to work with otherstakeholders at times to, to
look at where there'sopportunities to provide other
choices.
You mentioned demand managementand some might feel that that
(12:47):
implies taking away orrestricting somebody's ability
to, you know, make certaintransportation choices.
I think it's mm-hmm.
flexibility indemand or providing travel
choices that, uh, we've got tocontinue to look at how we do
that and providing travelchoices.
It doesn't necessarily mean, youknow, removing certain choices
or, or making certain choicesless efficient.
(13:11):
We've gotta do our best tomaintain the choices that people
look to, to, for their travel.
But we have seen, you know,coming out of the pandemic, that
flexibility in demand hasoffered some benefits for the
transportation system.
Now when, you know, the pandemicdid in fact manage demand
because it shut everything down,there was no congestion at all
(13:34):
for a period of time.
But as we've come out of thepandemic period where it shut
down and restriction on whatpeople could do in certain
areas, and much of ouractivities have returned to
normal, there were some thingsthat we learned through that
process.
Flexibility associated withthings like work.
I think you're still seeing alot of the benefits of that in
(13:57):
some of the congestion levelsaround our transportation
system.
If you look at the data that theTexas A&M Transportation
Institute produces, we'reshowing now that our vehicle
miles of travel, the amount ofdistance that people are
traveling on our highways, theamount of travel that it's
occurring is above pre-pandemiclevels here in Texas.
(14:18):
It went, went back above thatquite a while back, So people
are traveling more, but thecongestion levels, while they've
returned and they've returnedsignificantly in many areas, are
not quite at the same levels asthey were before the pandemic.
They're not far off, but they'restill a bit away from that.
And I think what you're seeingis people are making the choice
(14:39):
and having the ability to makethe choice to travel at
different times and maybe tohave some flexibility to go to
different locations throughtheir work and daily activities.
And again, a lot of that wasbrought about through the
pandemic and some of theflexibilities that were learned
through that time.
We've continued to carry thatforward and that has offered, I
(15:02):
think, a measure of benefit forour transportation and mobility
even now.
Bernie Fette (15:07):
Yeah.
You mentioned the vehicle milestraveled, the, the travel volume
and the congestion levels.
Did how those numbers look onceeverything was analyzed surprise
you in any way?
Did you see that differencecoming?
Marc Williams (15:22):
There's been, you know, several things that have
surprised me.
And I would say that yes, to adegree that did surprise me how
much the travel habits didchange.
So that was certainly a lessonlearned.
You know, nobody could havepredicted what would've happened
when the period of the pandemicstarted.
But I certainly would say thatit is a bit of a surprise that
(15:42):
we have adapted, but I think,you know, we've adapted in a
positive way in that area.
And I think, again, that comesfrom people having an element of
choice about how they go abouttheir activities, go about their
work activities throughout theday, and not everybody feels
like they have to be at theoffice or at school at 8:00 AM
(16:03):
and leaving right at 5:00 PMand, and you've got a more
distributed peak period now thatis better using the available
capacity that we have on ourcritical highway infrastructure.
Bernie Fette (16:16):
So rush hour is being spread across a bigger
portion of the day, it soundslike.
Marc Williams (16:22):
Yes.
I think that's what we're seeing.
And I think our partners at TTIhave kind of validated that as
well.
Bernie Fette (16:28):
We were talking just a couple minutes ago about
challenges and solutions, whichI think relates to the action
that the Texas TransportationCommission took recently by
adopting a unifiedtransportation plan at a cost of
about$85 billion.
Can you tell us your views onwhat that level of investment
(16:50):
means for the people of thisstate?
Marc Williams (16:54):
Well, it is really an unprecedented level in
the UTP, the UnifiedTransportation Program.
For those that aren't familiarwith that particular document
here in Texas, that is our10-year plan of mostly highway
and transportation constructionthat we manage through the Texas
Department of Transportation.
And that includes both federaland state funding.
(17:19):
And just a few years ago, backin the 2015-2016 timeframe, that
10-year plan stood at around$38billion or so.
Bernie Fette (17:30):
Wow.
Marc Williams (17:30):
So it has now more than doubled in the period
of about just six to sevenyears.
Which is a, uh, remarkableamount of growth.
And it started back in the2014-2015 timeframe with the
passage of two ballotpropositions that were supported
by our Texas Legislature andGovernor Greg Abbott as well--
(17:53):
ballot measures that devotedsome of our oil and gas
severance fees and some of ourvehicle registration fees and
vehicle use related taxes totransportation.
And those were ballotpropositions that went to the
voters in Texas.
And those passed by over 80percent, each of them did, which
(18:14):
shows one, a great deal ofsupport from the citizens of
Texas for making investments inour transportation system and
addressing our highway needs.
And we have really been able toleverage those dollars and put
them to work.
And then add to that the recentpassage of the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act, whichadded an additional boost to our
(18:36):
revenues that we have to draw onhere in Texas, those have helped
us to create what is now an$85billion transportation program
to invest in projects associatedwith addressing congestion.
That's our Texas Clear LanesInitiative that has been
championed by our TransportationCommission Chairman Bruce Bugg
(18:58):
and, and also the governor.
Also making a really significantincrease in rural investment,
rural connectivity, and takingcare of the regions of the state
that produced-- as one of ourcommissioners likes to call it--
fuel, food and fiber for Texas.
Texas, it may surprise some, wehave the largest rural
(19:19):
population of any state in theU.S.
So we have huge urban areas inHouston and the Metroplex, but
we also have a large ruralpopulation in making investments
in that, making investments toserve directly within that rural
area, some of our energyproduction regions that have
seen a tremendous amount ofdemand placed on them through
trucking and other relatedactivities.
(19:42):
And when I say energy, it's notjust oil and gas, it's also wind
and solar energy that has asignificant impact on our
transportation system to growand meet the demands in those
areas.
And then another very importantcomponent that we invest in
through our UnifiedTransportation Program is
related to freight andinternational and national
(20:03):
trade.
We've got a 1,200-mile borderwith Mexico and about 28 border
crossings that serve that, alongwith the ports and the access to
the Gulf of Mexico.
We have some of the largestports in the nation that serve
imports and exports and exportsof energy product.
And so those have been, andcontinue to be some of the focus
areas of the Texas Department ofTransportation and our Texas
(20:27):
Transportation Commission inutilizing those resources and
those funds that we haveavailable through the Unified
Transportation Program.
Bernie Fette (20:36):
I really appreciate you bringing up the
freight topic because the wholeissue of supply chain
challenges, supply chainmanagement has been so prominent
in the wake of the pandemic.
I guess that that mm-hmm.
just added onemore challenge or one more task
on your very large job list forthe department and for the
(20:56):
state.
Marc Williams (20:57):
Right.
It certainly has.
And that's a stakeholder groupthat we engage with at a variety
of levels.
One, we have our FreightAdvisory Committee that has been
in existence now around 10years.
I was involved in the initialformulation of that and working
with those stakeholders acrossTexas in that area.
(21:18):
And then another reallyimportant area is the evolution
of freight in the area ofautonomous vehicles, AV freight.
Mm-hmm.
.
Mm-hmm.
and Texas isreally leading the nation in
that area relative to thedeployment and the testing and
soon to be full autonomousoperations serving the freight
(21:39):
industry here in this state.
And that's a really excitinggrowth area that's important for
not only the state of Texas, butspecifically for the Texas
Department of Transportation.
Bernie Fette (21:49):
There are a couple of other things I was really
hoping to get to in the limitedtime we have Marc, but since you
mentioned leadership in thefreight area, especially with
the automated vehicle freightmovement, what are some of the
other areas where you thinkTexas is in a leadership role
now or coming into one?
Marc Williams (22:09):
Well, we were talking, Bernie, about the
autonomous vehicle roles and,and a big part of that has been
just some of the enablinglegislation and a positive
regulatory environment thatreally fosters transportation
technology innovations coming tothe state.
And I think that in the bigpicture, Texas has been a leader
in just sort of setting aframework that encourages
(22:31):
companies that want to be partof that innovation, part of that
deployment of new technologieson our transportation system to
look to Texas as an environmentthat is going to welcome and
engage them in that area.
And I think that's been a reallybig part of some of the success
and, and the energy and theexcitement that we have seen in
(22:53):
that area.
But aside from just theautonomous vehicle side of it,
if we start looking at what itmeans to have a connected
transportation system that'sdriven by data mm-hmm.
, and I see that asan area that Texas is really at
the cutting edge of, uh, in manyrespects looking to lead the
(23:14):
nation.
It is the access and the use andthe distribution of data related
to the operations of ourtransportation system here in
the state of Texas is, and whatis going to make us successful.
When we talk about a connectedtransportation network, it's
that gathering and assembly ofdata and then the distribution
(23:34):
of that data and doing it inreal time to our metropolitan
planning partners and ourresearch organizations like the
folks at TTI and uh, also theCenter for Transportation
Research over at the Universityof Texas.
And utilizing resources like ourgeographic information systems
GIS, to understand thatgeospatially and to see what's
(23:57):
going on.
Bernie Fette (23:57):
Right.
Marc Williams (23:57):
And then to utilize artificial intelligence
to help understand that we'rerapidly getting to the point
where the quantity and theamount of the information that
we're gathering up is beyond theability of us as individuals to
see and look at and understandin real time.
But through artificialintelligence and computer
(24:18):
learning, we have the ability tolook for trends and to look for
patterns and to identify thoseissues early on.
And that's gonna be importantfor things like transportation
safety, and going back to whatwe talked about, giving people
choices, right.
People may make differentchoices if they're getting that
information in real time andable to understand, hey, there
(24:39):
are disruptions in our supplychain or in my daily commute and
travel patterns that I may wantto make those choices and make
those trips differently.
And we've gotta get thatinformation out and to get that
in real time.
And we're really seeing with thenew vehicle technology, just an
extraordinary growth in theavailability of things like
(25:01):
telematic data, which is notonly giving us speed and
location of cars, but it'sgiving us detail information on
things like how those vehiclesare operating.
Information like tractioncontrol, steering, braking, ride
quality, information that's justinvaluable for us to understand
(25:23):
what is going on in real time onour transportation system.
And to make decisions to respondto areas where maybe there may
be ice accumulation on roadwaysthat we'll need to get out and
respond to.
Or it's beginning to maybe giveus an early indication of a
deterioration in pavementcondition that if you know
(25:44):
anything about maintainingtransportation, our pavements on
our roadways, being able to getout there and address pavement
conditions early in thedeterioration process is a lot
more cost-effective than waitingfor significant cracking and
potholes to form where itbecomes much more costly to make
those repairs.
So that's one of the things thatI really see us leading the
(26:05):
nation in and and investing alot in the resources that we
have in that area.
Bernie Fette (26:10):
And you and your colleagues are working in this
field at a time when that's justemerging.
All that you talked about withthe new data sources that are
available, the automation mustbe a terribly exciting time for
you and your colleagues.
Marc Williams (26:23):
And it's great to see how much that's being
embraced throughout theorganization here with the Texas
Department of Transportation.
We have teams that work in allof these areas.
We've got individuals who arejust tremendously enthusiastic
about seeing where theseopportunities are.
Another area is in 3D design andbeing able to more clearly
(26:45):
visualize and, and see the workthat we're doing in a virtual
environment when it comes tobuilding and designing our
transportation systems, and thenbeing able to now transfer that
to 3D construction methodsthat's going to make us more
efficient in delivering thatinfrastructure.
Bernie Fette (27:04):
Possibilities that very few of us, I would guess
even had the slightest idea tobe dreaming about just a few
years ago, it seems.
Marc Williams (27:13):
Certainly, and I, and I've visited with some of
our younger engineers anddesigners that are part of this
transition to 3D design.
I've kind of told him on anumber of occasions, years from
now, when you're with TxDOT,you're gonna be talking to
individuals that are your ageand you're gonna be pointing
over to this set of paper designplans sitting on the shelf, and
(27:34):
you're gonna ask him, do you allknow what this is?
Yeah.
This is how we used to designroadways.
Bernie Fette (27:39):
Yeah.
And this could be youropportunity to look at those
young people like I sometimes doand say, you know, when I was
your age...
Marc Williams (27:47):
That's right.
It's a tremendously excitingtime in our industry.
Bernie Fette (27:52):
Okay.
This is another one of those twosides of the same coin
questions.
What are you most optimisticabout?
And conversely, what is it, ifanything, that keeps you up at
night?
Marc Williams (28:05):
That's a great question.
And if I think about that, what,in terms of most optimistic
about, I would easily say it'swhere we are at and where we're
going as an organization withthe Texas Department of
Transportation.
And also as an industry, we'vetalked about our challenges, but
as I look at the individualsthat are part of TxDOT, the
(28:26):
students and the women and menthat are coming into the
transportation industry, and asI have taken the time to visit,
uh, so many of our officesaround the state of Texas, I see
an optimism within thoseindividuals about where we are.
We've got newer and youngemployees that are rising to the
(28:47):
challenge that are being givenresponsibilities that are far
greater than what the employeesof 10 or 20 years ago would've
been given within ourorganization.
And some of that presents somechallenges, but it also is
tremendously encouraging to seethe, those individuals rising to
the occasion and meeting thosechallenges, stepping up, taking
(29:09):
on huge project managementresponsibilities and office
management responsibilities at arelatively early point in their
career.
And while that may come withsome level of risk that, you
know, if you grew up beingmentored by somebody who was
mentored by somebody else, andit took you maybe 20 years to
get to this point of finallyhaving these opportunities,
(29:31):
whereas now you're maybe gettingthose opportunities at six or
eight years or even youngerearlier into your career.
What I'm seeing is that one,we're meeting in rising to that
challenge, but we're alsogetting the benefit of gaining a
level of creativity andadaptability that we see when
(29:52):
somebody is really taking onthese challenges with a fresh
and a new perspective.
And that's what's helping tocertainly lead to a level of
optimism that I hold when Ithink about where we're at as an
organization and an agency.
And you know, what keeps me upat night, I really would say I
don't often lose sleep as Ioutlined in just my previous
comments, I've got confidence inour organization and I've got
(30:15):
confidence in our industry andwhere we're headed.
And TxDOT proves time and againthat we can adapt and meet any
challenge.
And I go back and I think aboutbig events like Hurricane Harvey
that we went through severalyears ago, or just two years
ago, the severe impact, uh,through a week-long snow and ice
(30:36):
event that covered the entirestate of Texas or what we did to
transition and to adapt duringthe period of the pandemic, we
continued to do that and toreinvent ourselves as an
organization and to rise tothese challenges.
So I got a lot of confidence inthe women and men of this
organization, and that helped menot lose too much sleep as CEO.
(30:57):
I have to have a little bit ofsleeplessness from time to time.
But I would say that by andlarge that those are relatively
few and far between because ofjust the great team that we have
with this organization.
Bernie Fette (31:08):
Last thing that I wanted to ask you about.
The rest of us can only imaginehow demanding your job must be.
One thing that I like to ask ofall of our guests on this show
is one that I'll pose to you.
What is it that motivates you toshow up for work every day?
Marc Williams (31:29):
Well, you know, I don't, I don't wanna sound too
canned, but I do love the workthat we get to do with the Texas
Department of Transportation.
I thoroughly enjoy the job.
It kind of goes back to myoriginal comment about, you
know, how I found myself asexecutive director of TxDOT.
It's pursuing the things that Ihave enjoyed.
(31:51):
You have to enjoy the work thatyou do, and I certainly do enjoy
being part of this field.
I enjoy working with the womenand men of this agency and also
engaging with the stakeholdersand the people that care about
transportation.
They see the impact that it hason their business and their
economy.
They rely upon it to move theirgoods and services and people.
And it is a subject matter thatI think a lot of people feel
(32:14):
very passionately about.
It affects everybody's life insome way, shape, or form,
regardless of where you are.
You're either traveling bytransportation or you're
receiving goods and services bytransportation.
And so it touches everyone'slife.
And just that calling and theopportunity that we have as an
agency that I have to workalongside the great team that we
(32:35):
have with TxDOT is really whatcertainly makes it easy for me
to get up and pursue the work ofthe day each day.
Bernie Fette (32:41):
Well, I can assure you that did not sound canned at
all, Marc.
And I don't and I don'tsee how it could have sounded
canned because I didn't includethat one on the list of
questions that I sent you.
So I'll have to confess that Iwas a bit on the sneaky side
there, but it was,
Marc Williams (32:58):
No, not at all.
Bernie Fette (32:58):
It was very genuine.
And, we appreciate your candor.
Any final thoughts before wewrap up?
Marc Williams (33:05):
Sure.
Bernie, you know, as I thinkabout leaving you with
something, and it is a bit of asobering comment, and that goes
to transportation safety.
And we talk about some of thethings that we learned and
gained coming out of thepandemic.
And one of the things that cameout of that pandemic was a
tremendous rise in our highwayfatalities, not just in Texas,
(33:28):
but nationwide.
Bernie Fette (33:29):
Yes.
Marc Williams (33:29):
Uh, it's, it's startling to see where we're at
today.
We had, in 2021, around 4,480individuals lost their lives on
highways in the state of Texas.
And those are all men, women,and children that were traveling
(33:50):
with someplace to go and theynever got there.
And their families and lovedones and friends, people that
knew them, missed them andgrieved for them.
4, 480-- that is thesecond-highest year on record.
You have to go all the way backto 1981 to find a year that was
more than that.
The vast majority of thefatalities that we see are due
(34:11):
to human decisions, speeding,Right.
Driving under the influence,distracted driving and not
wearing a seat belt.
All of those being choices thatsomebody is making.
And it's kind of staggering tothink about where we were as an
industry back in 1981, where webelieve we are today, and that
we find ourselves at that levelof fatalities on our highways
(34:34):
today.
And we've gotta do better inthat area.
To put it maybe in a differentframe of reference-- each day on
average at that number, we'relosing 12 lives every day.
And we have not seen a singledeathless day in Texas since
(34:59):
November 7th, 2000.
So I would imagine if you lookaround the campus of Texas A&M
University, where you're attoday, the majority of the
students that you see out thereweren't even born.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
.
And that's a long time to go.
And so we've gotta at least getto a point where we can end that
streak and then continue to workon a Vision Zero where we can
(35:21):
hopefully be able to eliminatefatalities on our highways at
some point in the future.
But an important part of that isgonna be each of us as
individuals sharing theimportance of just the decisions
that we make when we might getbehind the wheel.
Bernie Fette (35:36):
And what you say about the last time being at
that level of fatalities in thestate, going all the way back to
1981, seems especially notablegiven how many safety
improvements have been madeindustry-wide in, in terms of
both vehicles and roadsidesafety.
Marc Williams (35:53):
Right.
We have really had someextraordinary increases in the
safety of how we design andbuild roads and design and build
cars.
And I've made the commentbefore, our roadways didn't
change over the past two years.
Something else is driving thatchange.
And I think it's the decisionsthat we're making and how we're
choosing to operate our motorvehicles and the decisions that
(36:16):
we're making when we're in thosevehicles, that is something
that's affecting this outcome.
And so, uh, it is a huge pointof focus for us within the
agency and with our partners,both on the research end of
things, as well as in lawenforcement to kind of come
together and get us back on theright path when it comes to
transportation safety.
Bernie Fette (36:39):
Marc Williams, executive director of the Texas
Department of Transportation.
Marc, thank you so much for areally great conversation, and
thanks also for your service tothe people of Texas.
Marc Williams (36:52):
I appreciate it, Bernie.
Thank you.
Enjoyed the conversation today.
Bernie Fette (36:57):
The population in Texas is growing more than twice
as fast as it is nationally.
Hundreds of people move to thestate every day, and they're
bringing their cars and truckswith them, presenting
transportation planners with adaunting challenge.
In response, the statetransportation commission has
boosted mobility investment tomore than double what it was
(37:20):
less than a decade ago.
It's an investment that aims toback up a critical mission--
connecting people with theirstate.
Thank you for listening.
Please join us for our nextconversation, and if you would,
please give us a review,subscribe, and share this
episode.
(37:41):
Thinking Transportation is aproduction of the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute, amember of the Texas A&M
University System.
The show is edited and producedby Chris Pourteau.
I'm your writer and host, BernieFette.
Thanks again for listening.
We'll see you next time.
Hello again.
This is Thinking Transportation-- conversations about how we
get ourselves and the things weneed from one place to another,
and why that's rarely as simpleas we might want it to be.
I'm Bernie Fette with the TexasA&M Transportation Institute.
With more than 81,000 miles ofstate maintained highways, Texas
(00:37):
has the most expansive suchnetwork in America.
Leading the department thattakes care of those roads is an
enormous job, and few peoplewould know that better than the
person holding the job now.
Marc Williams is the executivedirector of the Texas Department
of Transportation.
He joins us for this episode totalk about the lessons learned
(01:00):
from the pandemic, the mobilitychallenges that we face, and why
he feels so optimistic aboutwhat lies ahead.
Marc, thank you so much fortaking time to visit with us
today.
Marc Williams (guest) (01:12):
Thank you very much, Bernie.
Looking forward to ourconversation here.
Bernie Fette (01:15):
Well, let's start, if we could, with just a little
about your career path tobecoming the CEO of the Texas
Department of Transportation.
Maybe you could talk just alittle bit about how you got
where you are and what sort ofmentor support you had on your
path?
Marc Williams (01:32):
Well, I appreciate that question.
First of all, let me say that itis just a tremendous honor to be
able to serve the great womenand men of the Texas Department
of Transportation.
And in the time that I have beenin this role as executive
director, I've had theopportunity to get out and
travel the state.
We have 25 different districtoffices.
(01:53):
I've had the chance to visit allof them over the past roughly
year and about three months nowthat I've been executive
director, along with many of ourarea offices and maintenance
offices throughout the state ofTexas.
And to meet a good portion ofthe 12,500 women and men that do
the great work day in and dayout that TxDOT is involved with.
(02:14):
And that has just been atremendous honor and something
that I have really thoroughlyenjoyed doing.
But I certainly didn't set outto be executive director with
the Texas Department ofTransportation and hadn't really
even been thinking of working instate government when I started
out.
But every step along the way,I've just pursued and followed
(02:35):
my interests and passions andthings that I found exciting and
wanted to do and have allowedthose to evolve.
I started my career at the TexasA&M Transportation Institute and
was involved with trafficoperations and went from that
into urban planning and highwaycorridor planning, economics,
(02:56):
freight, project delivery, andhave really enjoyed each of
those areas.
But as my interest changed, Imoved into different things, but
also, I don't wanna give theimpression that you just sort of
put your boat in the water andlet it carry you where it may
take you.
Bernie Fette (03:12):
Right.
Marc Williams (03:12):
There were deliberate steps that I took
along the way.
I made a career choice to spendsome time in Kentucky early in
my career, and spent a goodportion of my career working
there and had an opportunity towork in state government and
then came back to Texas andworked in the private sector for
a period of time, but reallysought out an opportunity to
(03:33):
move back into state governmentand was blessed that an
opportunity to join TxDOT cameabout for me about 10 and a half
years ago.
And I took that and am fortunateto find myself in the position
that I'm at right now.
But, you know, along the way, interms of just mentors, I would
say that, you know, I've, I'vehad an opportunity to work very
closely with a number of stateagency heads, both in my time in
(03:55):
Kentucky and in my time now hereat TxDOT.
And I've tried to really, youknow, watch and learn from those
individuals and pick up some ofthe good habits that they
demonstrated along the way.
But the people that you workwith day in and day out, we're
very blessed.
I'm blessed to have a great teamat the Texas Department of
Transportation day in and dayout, and they have talents and
(04:17):
abilities that I certainly relyupon and look to, to kind of
help me do the job that I'mcalled upon as executive
director.
So it's a kind of a holisticvision in terms of how I've kind
of gone about my career andcontinued to do that even now.
Bernie Fette (04:30):
Right.
And you talked about things thatyou kind of discovered from the
very beginning, bit by bit andthings that you picked up along
the way.
I'm curious, we tend to think ofthis as a field where
engineering skills are paramount(and they're certainly
prominent) but you talked aboutpicking things up along the way.
What sort of other areas ofexpertise did you pick up along
(04:51):
that path, skills that maybe youdidn't even realize you might
need when you first started out?
Marc Williams (04:57):
Well, I think one of the big ones to me, and I did
start out with a bit of anappreciation for this, is just
writing and verbalcommunication, Uhhuh
communicating succinctly andcommunicating well and
understanding the importance ofbeing able to do that.
And when I was in school, I am agraduate of Texas A&M, I took a
(05:21):
number of classes in English andmaybe didn't fully appreciate it
at the time, but really havecome to appreciate how critical
it is for particularly people inthe engineering discipline to be
able to communicate oftentimesvery complex issues or issues
that were maybe very dialed intothe specific details of, and be
able to communicate that to a, abroader audience or an audience
(05:43):
that may not be as, uh, fullyinvolved in all of the aspects
of what goes into maintainingand operating and building a
transportation system and helpto communicate that well.
And so I think that wascertainly one area that I've
appreciated throughout mycareer.
But even now, you know, as youlook, where we're at as a new
organization and where theindustry is headed.
(06:04):
Information technology is agreat example.
And, uh,
information technology resourcesand what we do.
Data management is a big onetoo.
And then environmental sciencesand understanding how we build
and maintain our transportationsystems in a environmentally
(06:27):
responsible and communityresponsive manner is critical.
And so continuing to see ourindustry evolve and new tools
and uh, skill sets coming intothe fold.
Bernie Fette (06:39):
Right.
Well-rounded professionally aswell.
Marc Williams (06:42):
Right.
Bernie Fette (06:43):
Your mission, TxDOT's mission, it's very clear
and very prominent on yourwebsite: Connecting you with
Texas.
It's also very, yeah, it's alsovery succinct,
Marc Williams (06:53):
That's right.
Bernie Fette (06:53):
Which I'm guessing that's probably something else
that you can recall from thoseEnglish classes that you took at
Texas A&M.
Just four words, but they cansay a lot.
Marc Williams (07:03):
You're right.
Bernie Fette (07:03):
And I wonder if you'd share your thoughts by
expanding on that phrase and allthat you think it means.
Marc Williams (07:11):
Well, that was a mission statement that our
communications team, along withJames Bass, who was the
executive director prior to me,along with our executive team at
the time, really focused on howdo we look at our mission
statement and do exactly whatyou said, Bernie, make it
succinct and clear in what weare trying to communicate.
(07:33):
And connecting you with Texas isreally what we're about with the
Texas Department ofTransportation.
And the thing about that missionstatement, and if you go to the
website, you might notice thatthat mission statement kind of
changes a little bit in certainareas on our website where it
may say, connecting you withTexas safely.
Bernie Fette (07:52):
Yeah, I did.
Marc Williams (07:53):
Or connecting you with Texas efficiently.
And that also acknowledges thatthat mission means different
things to different people.
People look at theirtransportation needs in
different ways.
We're blessed to have a verybroad and diverse state, but
with that diversity comesdifferent needs and different
expectations relative to howtransportation can best serve
(08:16):
the population of Texas.
And our mission statement issimple but also adaptable to
help reflect that.
Bernie Fette (08:24):
And your answer just gave me another segue
because you were talking aboutchallenges, and that's one of
the things I was hoping that wecould talk about.
In working with a stateinfrastructure that's aging as
the state grows, growing notonly in population but also
growing in terms of needs formoving people and the everyday
(08:44):
products we use, what's thebiggest obstacle you face?
Marc Williams (08:49):
Well, as I think about those challenges and our
infrastructure and keeping upwith the population growth that
we see here in Texas, it iscertainly a challenge, but
probably the biggest hurdle isreally two areas.
One is just the cost., Quiteclearly, transportation
infrastructure is something thatis growing in cost.
(09:09):
We've certainly seen asignificant growth in the cost
of new construction over thepast year.
It's been really startling howmuch the cost required to
upgrade and maintain ourhighways has grown, driven by
international and nationaltrends related to inflation and
(09:29):
fuel costs and the availabilityof the products and the
materials that we need to buildand maintain our highways.
Bernie Fette (09:37):
And the rate of inflation for highway
construction products, if Iunderstand correctly, is rising
faster than the inflation ratefor everything else we use, it
seems.
Marc Williams (09:47):
It absolutely is because I think we're really
kind of at the bullseye, if youwill, of a number of different
factors that are influencinginflation.
I mentioned fuel costs.
I also mentioned theavailability and the supply of
materials, cement, uh, steel,aggregate, all of that is
(10:09):
playing into it.
Trucking costs are going up andthen just labor costs, labor
availability.
And the labor rates associatedwith that all have a compounding
effect that's very pronounced inthe cost of delivering and
maintaining our transportationinfrastructure.
And so that's a significantchallenge, not only for Texas,
but nationally andinternationally as well.
(10:31):
And keeping up with populationgrowth is a big part of that.
But much of our infrastructurefalls in our urbanized areas.
There are areas where roads andhighways were built years ago.
They've gone through severalexpansions and, uh, development
has occurred along thosehighways.
And being able to expand thosehighways further often is very
(10:54):
challenging.
And so that makes it even morecostly, especially when we put
in efforts to be as sensitive aswe can to the environment and
minimizing community impacts anddoing our best to reduce the
amount of right of way that wemay have to obtain to widen or
maintain our transportationinfrastructure.
Those, too, are challenges.
And those are importantchallenges.
Bernie Fette (11:15):
If we look at this as a kind of a two-sided coin
with you just addressing thechallenges on one side, and we
flip that coin and talk a littleabout the solutions, can you
talk a little about thesolutions, specifically to what
extent the solutions are aboutcapacity, how many miles of
roadway we have, and how much ofthe solution mix has to do with
(11:39):
how we use those roadways, howwe manage demand?
Can you talk a little aboutthat?
Marc Williams (11:43):
Mm-hmm.
Well, you know, in terms ofmiles of highways, it's probably
not a surprise to anyone thatTexas has got more miles of
highways than any other state.
We've got over 81,000 that wemaintain on the state highway
system by the Texas Departmentof Transportation.
And those miles of highway areused to carry, uh, not only
(12:04):
people, but products and goodsthat people rely upon.
And we have to maintain theviability of our highway and
transportation system.
We have to recognize that thequality of our transportation
system, the quality of ourhighways, has done a lot for the
economy and the opportunity thatTexans enjoy.
(12:25):
But we realized too that withsome of the challenges that we
talked about previously, thatdoes make it more difficult for
us to go to expansion of ourhighways in certain areas.
And we have to work with otherstakeholders at times to, to
look at where there'sopportunities to provide other
choices.
You mentioned demand managementand some might feel that that
(12:47):
implies taking away orrestricting somebody's ability
to, you know, make certaintransportation choices.
I think it's mm-hmm.
choices that, uh, we've got tocontinue to look at how we do
that and providing travelchoices.
It doesn't necessarily mean, youknow, removing certain choices
or, or making certain choicesless efficient.
(13:11):
We've gotta do our best tomaintain the choices that people
look to, to, for their travel.
But we have seen, you know,coming out of the pandemic, that
flexibility in demand hasoffered some benefits for the
transportation system.
Now when, you know, the pandemicdid in fact manage demand
because it shut everything down,there was no congestion at all
(13:34):
for a period of time.
But as we've come out of thepandemic period where it shut
down and restriction on whatpeople could do in certain
areas, and much of ouractivities have returned to
normal, there were some thingsthat we learned through that
process.
Flexibility associated withthings like work.
I think you're still seeing alot of the benefits of that in
(13:57):
some of the congestion levelsaround our transportation
system.
If you look at the data that theTexas A&M Transportation
Institute produces, we'reshowing now that our vehicle
miles of travel, the amount ofdistance that people are
traveling on our highways, theamount of travel that it's
occurring is above pre-pandemiclevels here in Texas.
(14:18):
It went, went back above thatquite a while back, So people
are traveling more, but thecongestion levels, while they've
returned and they've returnedsignificantly in many areas, are
not quite at the same levels asthey were before the pandemic.
They're not far off, but they'restill a bit away from that.
And I think what you're seeingis people are making the choice
(14:39):
and having the ability to makethe choice to travel at
different times and maybe tohave some flexibility to go to
different locations throughtheir work and daily activities.
And again, a lot of that wasbrought about through the
pandemic and some of theflexibilities that were learned
through that time.
We've continued to carry thatforward and that has offered, I
(15:02):
think, a measure of benefit forour transportation and mobility
even now.
Bernie Fette (15:07):
Yeah.
You mentioned the vehicle milestraveled, the, the travel volume
and the congestion levels.
Did how those numbers look onceeverything was analyzed surprise
you in any way?
Did you see that differencecoming?
Marc Williams (15:22):
There's been, you know, several things that have
surprised me.
And I would say that yes, to adegree that did surprise me how
much the travel habits didchange.
So that was certainly a lessonlearned.
You know, nobody could havepredicted what would've happened
when the period of the pandemicstarted.
But I certainly would say thatit is a bit of a surprise that
(15:42):
we have adapted, but I think,you know, we've adapted in a
positive way in that area.
And I think, again, that comesfrom people having an element of
choice about how they go abouttheir activities, go about their
work activities throughout theday, and not everybody feels
like they have to be at theoffice or at school at 8:00 AM
(16:03):
and leaving right at 5:00 PMand, and you've got a more
distributed peak period now thatis better using the available
capacity that we have on ourcritical highway infrastructure.
Bernie Fette (16:16):
So rush hour is being spread across a bigger
portion of the day, it soundslike.
Marc Williams (16:22):
Yes.
I think that's what we're seeing.
And I think our partners at TTIhave kind of validated that as
well.
Bernie Fette (16:28):
We were talking just a couple minutes ago about
challenges and solutions, whichI think relates to the action
that the Texas TransportationCommission took recently by
adopting a unifiedtransportation plan at a cost of
about$85 billion.
Can you tell us your views onwhat that level of investment
(16:50):
means for the people of thisstate?
Marc Williams (16:54):
Well, it is really an unprecedented level in
the UTP, the UnifiedTransportation Program.
For those that aren't familiarwith that particular document
here in Texas, that is our10-year plan of mostly highway
and transportation constructionthat we manage through the Texas
Department of Transportation.
And that includes both federaland state funding.
(17:19):
And just a few years ago, backin the 2015-2016 timeframe, that
10-year plan stood at around$38billion or so.
Bernie Fette (17:30):
Wow.
Marc Williams (17:30):
So it has now more than doubled in the period
of about just six to sevenyears.
Which is a, uh, remarkableamount of growth.
And it started back in the2014-2015 timeframe with the
passage of two ballotpropositions that were supported
by our Texas Legislature andGovernor Greg Abbott as well--
(17:53):
ballot measures that devotedsome of our oil and gas
severance fees and some of ourvehicle registration fees and
vehicle use related taxes totransportation.
And those were ballotpropositions that went to the
voters in Texas.
And those passed by over 80percent, each of them did, which
(18:14):
shows one, a great deal ofsupport from the citizens of
Texas for making investments inour transportation system and
addressing our highway needs.
And we have really been able toleverage those dollars and put
them to work.
And then add to that the recentpassage of the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act, whichadded an additional boost to our
(18:36):
revenues that we have to draw onhere in Texas, those have helped
us to create what is now an$85billion transportation program
to invest in projects associatedwith addressing congestion.
That's our Texas Clear LanesInitiative that has been
championed by our TransportationCommission Chairman Bruce Bugg
(18:58):
and, and also the governor.
Also making a really significantincrease in rural investment,
rural connectivity, and takingcare of the regions of the state
that produced-- as one of ourcommissioners likes to call it--
fuel, food and fiber for Texas.
Texas, it may surprise some, wehave the largest rural
(19:19):
population of any state in theU.S.
So we have huge urban areas inHouston and the Metroplex, but
we also have a large ruralpopulation in making investments
in that, making investments toserve directly within that rural
area, some of our energyproduction regions that have
seen a tremendous amount ofdemand placed on them through
trucking and other relatedactivities.
(19:42):
And when I say energy, it's notjust oil and gas, it's also wind
and solar energy that has asignificant impact on our
transportation system to growand meet the demands in those
areas.
And then another very importantcomponent that we invest in
through our UnifiedTransportation Program is
related to freight andinternational and national
(20:03):
trade.
We've got a 1,200-mile borderwith Mexico and about 28 border
crossings that serve that, alongwith the ports and the access to
the Gulf of Mexico.
We have some of the largestports in the nation that serve
imports and exports and exportsof energy product.
And so those have been, andcontinue to be some of the focus
areas of the Texas Department ofTransportation and our Texas
(20:27):
Transportation Commission inutilizing those resources and
those funds that we haveavailable through the Unified
Transportation Program.
Bernie Fette (20:36):
I really appreciate you bringing up the
freight topic because the wholeissue of supply chain
challenges, supply chainmanagement has been so prominent
in the wake of the pandemic.
I guess that that mm-hmm.
on your very large job list forthe department and for the
(20:56):
state.
Marc Williams (20:57):
Right.
It certainly has.
And that's a stakeholder groupthat we engage with at a variety
of levels.
One, we have our FreightAdvisory Committee that has been
in existence now around 10years.
I was involved in the initialformulation of that and working
with those stakeholders acrossTexas in that area.
(21:18):
And then another reallyimportant area is the evolution
of freight in the area ofautonomous vehicles, AV freight.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
that area relative to thedeployment and the testing and
soon to be full autonomousoperations serving the freight
(21:39):
industry here in this state.
And that's a really excitinggrowth area that's important for
not only the state of Texas, butspecifically for the Texas
Department of Transportation.
Bernie Fette (21:49):
There are a couple of other things I was really
hoping to get to in the limitedtime we have Marc, but since you
mentioned leadership in thefreight area, especially with
the automated vehicle freightmovement, what are some of the
other areas where you thinkTexas is in a leadership role
now or coming into one?
Marc Williams (22:09):
Well, we were talking, Bernie, about the
autonomous vehicle roles and,and a big part of that has been
just some of the enablinglegislation and a positive
regulatory environment thatreally fosters transportation
technology innovations coming tothe state.
And I think that in the bigpicture, Texas has been a leader
in just sort of setting aframework that encourages
(22:31):
companies that want to be partof that innovation, part of that
deployment of new technologieson our transportation system to
look to Texas as an environmentthat is going to welcome and
engage them in that area.
And I think that's been a reallybig part of some of the success
and, and the energy and theexcitement that we have seen in
(22:53):
that area.
But aside from just theautonomous vehicle side of it,
if we start looking at what itmeans to have a connected
transportation system that'sdriven by data mm-hmm.
the cutting edge of, uh, in manyrespects looking to lead the
(23:14):
nation.
It is the access and the use andthe distribution of data related
to the operations of ourtransportation system here in
the state of Texas is, and whatis going to make us successful.
When we talk about a connectedtransportation network, it's
that gathering and assembly ofdata and then the distribution
(23:34):
of that data and doing it inreal time to our metropolitan
planning partners and ourresearch organizations like the
folks at TTI and uh, also theCenter for Transportation
Research over at the Universityof Texas.
And utilizing resources like ourgeographic information systems
GIS, to understand thatgeospatially and to see what's
(23:57):
going on.
Bernie Fette (23:57):
Right.
Marc Williams (23:57):
And then to utilize artificial intelligence
to help understand that we'rerapidly getting to the point
where the quantity and theamount of the information that
we're gathering up is beyond theability of us as individuals to
see and look at and understandin real time.
But through artificialintelligence and computer
(24:18):
learning, we have the ability tolook for trends and to look for
patterns and to identify thoseissues early on.
And that's gonna be importantfor things like transportation
safety, and going back to whatwe talked about, giving people
choices, right.
People may make differentchoices if they're getting that
information in real time andable to understand, hey, there
(24:39):
are disruptions in our supplychain or in my daily commute and
travel patterns that I may wantto make those choices and make
those trips differently.
And we've gotta get thatinformation out and to get that
in real time.
And we're really seeing with thenew vehicle technology, just an
extraordinary growth in theavailability of things like
(25:01):
telematic data, which is notonly giving us speed and
location of cars, but it'sgiving us detail information on
things like how those vehiclesare operating.
Information like tractioncontrol, steering, braking, ride
quality, information that's justinvaluable for us to understand
(25:23):
what is going on in real time onour transportation system.
And to make decisions to respondto areas where maybe there may
be ice accumulation on roadwaysthat we'll need to get out and
respond to.
Or it's beginning to maybe giveus an early indication of a
deterioration in pavementcondition that if you know
(25:44):
anything about maintainingtransportation, our pavements on
our roadways, being able to getout there and address pavement
conditions early in thedeterioration process is a lot
more cost-effective than waitingfor significant cracking and
potholes to form where itbecomes much more costly to make
those repairs.
So that's one of the things thatI really see us leading the
(26:05):
nation in and and investing alot in the resources that we
have in that area.
Bernie Fette (26:10):
And you and your colleagues are working in this
field at a time when that's justemerging.
All that you talked about withthe new data sources that are
available, the automation mustbe a terribly exciting time for
you and your colleagues.
Marc Williams (26:23):
And it's great to see how much that's being
embraced throughout theorganization here with the Texas
Department of Transportation.
We have teams that work in allof these areas.
We've got individuals who arejust tremendously enthusiastic
about seeing where theseopportunities are.
Another area is in 3D design andbeing able to more clearly
(26:45):
visualize and, and see the workthat we're doing in a virtual
environment when it comes tobuilding and designing our
transportation systems, and thenbeing able to now transfer that
to 3D construction methodsthat's going to make us more
efficient in delivering thatinfrastructure.
Bernie Fette (27:04):
Possibilities that very few of us, I would guess
even had the slightest idea tobe dreaming about just a few
years ago, it seems.
Marc Williams (27:13):
Certainly, and I, and I've visited with some of
our younger engineers anddesigners that are part of this
transition to 3D design.
I've kind of told him on anumber of occasions, years from
now, when you're with TxDOT,you're gonna be talking to
individuals that are your ageand you're gonna be pointing
over to this set of paper designplans sitting on the shelf, and
(27:34):
you're gonna ask him, do you allknow what this is?
Yeah.
This is how we used to designroadways.
Bernie Fette (27:39):
Yeah.
And this could be youropportunity to look at those
young people like I sometimes doand say, you know, when I was
your age...
Marc Williams (27:47):
That's right.
It's a tremendously excitingtime in our industry.
Bernie Fette (27:52):
Okay.
This is another one of those twosides of the same coin
questions.
What are you most optimisticabout?
And conversely, what is it, ifanything, that keeps you up at
night?
Marc Williams (28:05):
That's a great question.
And if I think about that, what,in terms of most optimistic
about, I would easily say it'swhere we are at and where we're
going as an organization withthe Texas Department of
Transportation.
And also as an industry, we'vetalked about our challenges, but
as I look at the individualsthat are part of TxDOT, the
(28:26):
students and the women and menthat are coming into the
transportation industry, and asI have taken the time to visit,
uh, so many of our officesaround the state of Texas, I see
an optimism within thoseindividuals about where we are.
We've got newer and youngemployees that are rising to the
(28:47):
challenge that are being givenresponsibilities that are far
greater than what the employeesof 10 or 20 years ago would've
been given within ourorganization.
And some of that presents somechallenges, but it also is
tremendously encouraging to seethe, those individuals rising to
the occasion and meeting thosechallenges, stepping up, taking
(29:09):
on huge project managementresponsibilities and office
management responsibilities at arelatively early point in their
career.
And while that may come withsome level of risk that, you
know, if you grew up beingmentored by somebody who was
mentored by somebody else, andit took you maybe 20 years to
get to this point of finallyhaving these opportunities,
(29:31):
whereas now you're maybe gettingthose opportunities at six or
eight years or even youngerearlier into your career.
What I'm seeing is that one,we're meeting in rising to that
challenge, but we're alsogetting the benefit of gaining a
level of creativity andadaptability that we see when
(29:52):
somebody is really taking onthese challenges with a fresh
and a new perspective.
And that's what's helping tocertainly lead to a level of
optimism that I hold when Ithink about where we're at as an
organization and an agency.
And you know, what keeps me upat night, I really would say I
don't often lose sleep as Ioutlined in just my previous
comments, I've got confidence inour organization and I've got
(30:15):
confidence in our industry andwhere we're headed.
And TxDOT proves time and againthat we can adapt and meet any
challenge.
And I go back and I think aboutbig events like Hurricane Harvey
that we went through severalyears ago, or just two years
ago, the severe impact, uh,through a week-long snow and ice
(30:36):
event that covered the entirestate of Texas or what we did to
transition and to adapt duringthe period of the pandemic, we
continued to do that and toreinvent ourselves as an
organization and to rise tothese challenges.
So I got a lot of confidence inthe women and men of this
organization, and that helped menot lose too much sleep as CEO.
(30:57):
I have to have a little bit ofsleeplessness from time to time.
But I would say that by andlarge that those are relatively
few and far between because ofjust the great team that we have
with this organization.
Bernie Fette (31:08):
Last thing that I wanted to ask you about.
The rest of us can only imaginehow demanding your job must be.
One thing that I like to ask ofall of our guests on this show
is one that I'll pose to you.
What is it that motivates you toshow up for work every day?
Marc Williams (31:29):
Well, you know, I don't, I don't wanna sound too
canned, but I do love the workthat we get to do with the Texas
Department of Transportation.
I thoroughly enjoy the job.
It kind of goes back to myoriginal comment about, you
know, how I found myself asexecutive director of TxDOT.
It's pursuing the things that Ihave enjoyed.
(31:51):
You have to enjoy the work thatyou do, and I certainly do enjoy
being part of this field.
I enjoy working with the womenand men of this agency and also
engaging with the stakeholdersand the people that care about
transportation.
They see the impact that it hason their business and their
economy.
They rely upon it to move theirgoods and services and people.
And it is a subject matter thatI think a lot of people feel
(32:14):
very passionately about.
It affects everybody's life insome way, shape, or form,
regardless of where you are.
You're either traveling bytransportation or you're
receiving goods and services bytransportation.
And so it touches everyone'slife.
And just that calling and theopportunity that we have as an
agency that I have to workalongside the great team that we
(32:35):
have with TxDOT is really whatcertainly makes it easy for me
to get up and pursue the work ofthe day each day.
Bernie Fette (32:41):
Well, I can assure you that did not sound canned at
all, Marc.
And I don't
canned because I didn't includethat one on the list of
questions that I sent you.
So I'll have to confess that Iwas a bit on the sneaky side
there, but it was,
Marc Williams (32:58):
No, not at all.
Bernie Fette (32:58):
It was very genuine.
And, we appreciate your candor.
Any final thoughts before wewrap up?
Marc Williams (33:05):
Sure.
Bernie, you know, as I thinkabout leaving you with
something, and it is a bit of asobering comment, and that goes
to transportation safety.
And we talk about some of thethings that we learned and
gained coming out of thepandemic.
And one of the things that cameout of that pandemic was a
tremendous rise in our highwayfatalities, not just in Texas,
(33:28):
but nationwide.
Bernie Fette (33:29):
Yes.
Marc Williams (33:29):
Uh, it's, it's startling to see where we're at
today.
We had, in 2021, around 4,480individuals lost their lives on
highways in the state of Texas.
And those are all men, women,and children that were traveling
(33:50):
with someplace to go and theynever got there.
And their families and lovedones and friends, people that
knew them, missed them andgrieved for them.
4, 480-- that is thesecond-highest year on record.
You have to go all the way backto 1981 to find a year that was
more than that.
The vast majority of thefatalities that we see are due
(34:11):
to human decisions, speeding,Right.
Driving under the influence,distracted driving and not
wearing a seat belt.
All of those being choices thatsomebody is making.
And it's kind of staggering tothink about where we were as an
industry back in 1981, where webelieve we are today, and that
we find ourselves at that levelof fatalities on our highways
(34:34):
today.
And we've gotta do better inthat area.
To put it maybe in a differentframe of reference-- each day on
average at that number, we'relosing 12 lives every day.
And we have not seen a singledeathless day in Texas since
(34:59):
November 7th, 2000.
So I would imagine if you lookaround the campus of Texas A&M
University, where you're attoday, the majority of the
students that you see out thereweren't even born.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And that's a long time to go.
And so we've gotta at least getto a point where we can end that
streak and then continue to workon a Vision Zero where we can
(35:21):
hopefully be able to eliminatefatalities on our highways at
some point in the future.
But an important part of that isgonna be each of us as
individuals sharing theimportance of just the decisions
that we make when we might getbehind the wheel.
Bernie Fette (35:36):
And what you say about the last time being at
that level of fatalities in thestate, going all the way back to
1981, seems especially notablegiven how many safety
improvements have been madeindustry-wide in, in terms of
both vehicles and roadsidesafety.
Marc Williams (35:53):
Right.
We have really had someextraordinary increases in the
safety of how we design andbuild roads and design and build
cars.
And I've made the commentbefore, our roadways didn't
change over the past two years.
Something else is driving thatchange.
And I think it's the decisionsthat we're making and how we're
choosing to operate our motorvehicles and the decisions that
(36:16):
we're making when we're in thosevehicles, that is something
that's affecting this outcome.
And so, uh, it is a huge pointof focus for us within the
agency and with our partners,both on the research end of
things, as well as in lawenforcement to kind of come
together and get us back on theright path when it comes to
transportation safety.
Bernie Fette (36:39):
Marc Williams, executive director of the Texas
Department of Transportation.
Marc, thank you so much for areally great conversation, and
thanks also for your service tothe people of Texas.
Marc Williams (36:52):
I appreciate it, Bernie.
Thank you.
Enjoyed the conversation today.
Bernie Fette (36:57):
The population in Texas is growing more than twice
as fast as it is nationally.
Hundreds of people move to thestate every day, and they're
bringing their cars and truckswith them, presenting
transportation planners with adaunting challenge.
In response, the statetransportation commission has
boosted mobility investment tomore than double what it was
(37:20):
less than a decade ago.
It's an investment that aims toback up a critical mission--
connecting people with theirstate.
Thank you for listening.
Please join us for our nextconversation, and if you would,
please give us a review,subscribe, and share this
episode.
(37:41):
Thinking Transportation is aproduction of the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute, amember of the Texas A&M
University System.
The show is edited and producedby Chris Pourteau.
I'm your writer and host, BernieFette.
Thanks again for listening.
We'll see you next time.
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