This 89th episode of Thinking Transportation is a landmark event. Host Bernie Fette, who is retiring from service to the state of Texas after more than 30 years, is passing the podcast hosting baton to Allan Rutter, TTI's Freight Practice Leader. Included in his decades of transportation-related employment, Allan served as Federal Railroad Administrator under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2004. Allan interviews Bernie about his many years of experience as a journalist, media expert, podcaster, and innovative storyteller for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute regarding all things transportation.
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Allan Rutter (00:14):
Howdy, everyone.
Welcome to ThinkingTransportation, conversations
about how we get ourselves andthe stuff we need from one
place to another. I'm AlanRutter with the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute.
Regular listeners willrecognize that mine is not the
normal voice starting the other88 episodes of this podcast.
That voice belongs to BernieFette, who will be shifting
(00:37):
places in our conversationtoday as he is the guest on
today's show. After 34 yearswith the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute,Bernie will be retiring from
state service at the end ofAugust and starting his own
shop in Asheville, NorthCarolina. If I do my job well,
you're really gonna enjoylearning more about the person
most in front of this podcast.
(01:00):
Bernie, welcome.
Bernie Fette (01:02):
You're in my chair, Allan. I'm
sorry, I couldn't resist.
Seriously though, thank you. Iam really delighted that we
could do this and nomisunderstanding here. I know
it's your chair now.
Allan Rutter (01:15):
There you go. The baton has been passed. Let's do
a little get to know you,Bernie. Where did you grow up?
Bernie Fette (01:24):
Munster, Texas.
Very small town in North Texas.
You were about to say?
Allan Rutter (01:29):
I know where Munster is.
Bernie Fette (01:31):
Not many people do. That puts you on a fairly
exclusive list. If you're notfrom there, you're not likely
to know where it is, but it'sabout 85 miles northwest of
Fort Worth, just south of theOklahoma border. Very small
town, so small that you canwalk into just about any
establishment--whether that'schurch, the bank--and you were
(01:54):
virtually guaranteed to knowpretty much everyone in there;
and also very likely that youwould be related to at least
half of them. My high schoolgraduating class was a grand
total of 28 people.
Allan Rutter (02:08):
Holy moly . So we're talking Single-A?
Bernie Fette (02:12):
Yes, Single-A.
And since you've brought upthat reference, if you played
high school football as I did,you played both offense and
defense. You didn't really havea choice.
Allan Rutter (02:23):
Yeah, boy. A graduating class that size.
Yeah . The high school that Iattended outside of Austin was
a two A school at the time.
It's now five a and previousstate champion and all that
kind of stuff for peopleoutside of the State of Texas.
That's nomenclature associatedwith the University
Interscholastic League. Andthat distinguishes the school
sizes so that similarly sizedschools compete against each
(02:46):
other.
Bernie Fette (02:47):
Yeah.
Allan Rutter (02:47):
So, growing up in North-Central Texas or North
Texas, basically, how did youend up at Texas A&M?
Bernie Fette (02:56):
Well, it's easy to end up there whenever you
have two older brothers whoboth enrolled at that school
and graduated from that school.
So I followed their lead andenrolled, joined the Corps of
Cadets just as they did,majored in journalism. Worked
for the student newspaper for acouple of years. Great place to
learn because you learn bymaking mistakes. And when you
(03:18):
work for a newspaper and youmake a mistake, you make that
mistake in front of thousandsof people. So, in addition to
being a great place to learn,it's also a great place to keep
your ego in check. My fatherstarted the newspaper in my
hometown in 1936 and editedthat paper for almost 50 years.
And so I suppose that'sprobably where I get it, the
(03:40):
inclination toward being astoryteller, because that's,
that's what my dad was.
Allan Rutter (03:45):
So journalism was the family trade?
Bernie Fette (03:49):
Yes, it was.
Allan Rutter (03:51):
What kind of work did you do when you got out of
A&M?
Bernie Fette (03:55):
Well, I worked for that same weekly newspaper
with my dad and my brother forabout a year, and then worked
for a daily newspaper for a fewyears after that. So, my
background is definitely rootedin the news business, both at
the weekly publication rate aswell as daily.
Allan Rutter (04:14):
So how'd you learn about TTI and how did you
come to join the agency?
Bernie Fette (04:20):
Well, my path to TTI was not what I would call
an intentional one. I had areally great job working in
city government, publicrelations, and thought that it
might be a good idea for me toget some varied experience by
going to work as a marketingvice president at a new bank in
town. It turns out that wasprobably the dumbest career
(04:42):
decision of my entire life. Igot laid off from that job
after a year and found anopening at TTI. I thought at
the time, "Hmm, transportationresearch, I suppose that that
will do until I find somethingthat's actually interesting."
And as it turns out, it's beenincredibly interesting, much
(05:06):
more so than I expected. I'vehad quite a few chances to
advance to other jobs to leave,including working for one of
the biggest PR firms in theworld. But I stayed with TTI
for 34 years now. So, maybe youcan see that my path to TTI was
not at all intentional, butit's been a very fortunate one.
Allan Rutter (05:28):
Well, the good news about making career
choices when you're young isthe consequences are less dire.
You can sort of afford to makesome interesting choices.
Bernie Fette (05:38):
Yeah. Or you can afford to screw up.
Allan Rutter (05:41):
There you go. So let's talk a little bit about
what being a media guy at TTIhas been like, now I've only
been at TTI for about 10 years,but in those 10 years I've
noticed at least two big thingsin two buckets. One, you
respond to media inquiriesasking for TTI experts on
(06:02):
transportation topics in thenews, and two, you reach out to
the media to help explaintransportation research that's
being conducted at TTI.
Bernie Fette (06:11):
Mm-Hmm, .
Allan Rutter (06:12):
So is that summary fair?
Bernie Fette (06:15):
Yeah, I think that's a fair description.
Allan Rutter (06:17):
So what's the overall proportion of those two
directions of information flowinternal to external and the
opposite?
Bernie Fette (06:25):
It has definitely shifted over the couple of
decades that we've had a mediarelations effort at TTI. I'd
say we do more of theresponding now than we used to,
but it was just the opposite acouple of decades ago, going
back to the 1990s. That's whenTTI was doing its first work in
(06:47):
quantifying in measuringtraffic congestion. And I
remember having a conversationwith Tim Lomax at the time. He
was the guy leading thatresearch, and I told him, you
know, we could probablygenerate a lot of media
interest, a lot of publicityfor the agency, for the
research that you'redoing--which we did. And, of
course, at that time that waspre-Internet. So our early
(07:09):
years of that effort involved alot of media outreach all over
the country that wasaccomplished by telephone, fax
machines, and overnightpackages. That's how we got the
reports to people is by sendingthem via overnight delivery. We
started building relationshipswith newspapers and wire
(07:31):
services when there were farmore of both of those
organizations and alsobroadcast networks all over the
country. And when we had thoserelationships growing, we
started talking to those samereporters about the other
things that TTI was doing. Sowhen there were transportation
developments in the news, theywould know, they could contact
(07:53):
us for insight on thosedevelopments, whether that was
a particular trend in crashesor when a bridge fell into a
river, they knew that theycould contact TTI and find an
expert that could offer someinsight and some context to
whatever event was in the news.
So again, when we started, wewere initiating most of the
contact with the media, but nowit's much more the media
(08:17):
initiating contact with us. Buteither way, I think it's been
really important that we dorespond to those inquiries from
the media. Two reasons forthat. One, it's smart business.
I think it's an important partof how TTI can establish itself
as an expert source ofknowledge. It's a wise
(08:40):
marketing strategy, in otherwords. And two, I really think
that we have an obligation toanswer questions about the work
that the agency does becausethe money that we use to do
that work does not belong tous. That money belongs to the
public, it belongs to thetaxpayers. And for my own brief
(09:05):
little time on my soapbox here,I'll just say that I think that
we need to be responsive toquestions with that reality in
mind. And since I'm on asoapbox, I'll just stay there
for just a moment becausethere's one other thing I think
that's important about thispart of what we do. I think
that that responsive nature isespecially important with
touchy subjects like climatechange and how we finance, how
(09:29):
we pay for highways.
Transportation produces moregreenhouse gases than any other
source. And I think it's goodthat we talk more about what
the consequences of that arefor the planet that we leave
behind to our children andtheir children and our
transportation system needswork; roads and bridges need to
(09:52):
be replaced. And sooner orlater, I hope that there is
more conversation, morediscussion about the fact that
the gas tax is currently afinancing model that isn't
necessarily working all thatwell from coast to coast. I
hope that we can driveconversations in the future on
(10:12):
important issues like those.
Allan Rutter (10:15):
Well, speaking of important subjects in
transportation, can you talk alittle bit about how things
have changed over time in termsof what kinds of topics
interest the media the most?
Bernie Fette (10:28):
Uh , yeah. I mentioned the Urban Mobility
Report a bit earlier. And, inthat same category, there's the
Texas Most Congested RoadwaysReport, which is done also
every year. One of those looksat the congestion levels at a
city level. The other looks atgridlock at a more confined
(10:49):
roadway section level. And bothof those, I think, have gained
a consistent following andconsistent interest in the news
media because they representdirect commuter/traveler
experience. Gridlock, or justthe driving conditions in
general--but especially withregard to congestion--those are
(11:10):
things that we all face, all ofus who travel commute in a ny
way from day t o d ay. Anotherthing that I think has gotten a
lot of attention and increasedamount of attention is traffic
safety in all its many forms.
Distracted driving, impaireddriving. We have seen the crash
(11:32):
rate and the fatality rate inthis country shrink
progressively over a number ofyears. So, in terms of how much
we travel, the number of peoplewho are getting hurt in crashes
and who are dying in crashes,the rate of those conditions is
shrinking, which is good news.
But the frequency of thosecrashes and deaths continues to
(11:55):
hover around 38-, 39-, 40,000deaths a year. And so with
statistics like that, I thinkthat traffic safety issues in
general are always going to beof interest to the news media
because they're of interest tothe people who are out there on
the roads traveling.
Allan Rutter (12:13):
Yeah, I think given the fact that so many
people drive makes them expertson transportation operations
and the fact that everybodyelse is a bad driver and but
what this information providesthem is a way of validating are
things getting better or arethey getting worse and are
things safer or are theyimproving? The good news is we
have a lot more information toprovide that kind of feedback.
Bernie Fette (12:34):
Yeah. And on the topic of safety, I wanna also
mention the traffic safetyculture study that's done by
the agency every year, which Ithink speaks to what you were
just saying about not onlyabout what's happening out
there on the roads, but whatthe perception of the drivers
(12:56):
on the roads is, and the extentto which they assume
responsibility for those safetyconditions.
Allan Rutter (13:04):
Well, let's talk a little bit about the media
itself and how that's changedover time. In my own
peripatetic career, I've been aconsumer and a subject of
transportation reporting, andI've noticed changes in both
the people who are doing it andthe practices in reporting
about transportation and print,radio, and television. What are
(13:26):
some of the changes injournalism in the decades that
you've been watching this interms of transportation as a
subject matter, how have thingschanged, both in how the news
gets reported and how thechanges in the news business
itself affect howtransportation gets reported?
Bernie Fette (13:44):
Well, in the industry that you and I work in
and have worked in for so manyyears, one thing I noticed
that's particularlydiscouraging is the loss of so
many transportation reportersthroughout the United States.
It used to be that every majornewspaper in this country had
someone who was dedicated tocovering the transportation
(14:06):
beat, transportation news. AndI think you can count 'em on
one hand now, and that'sdisappointing and sad, I think,
not only for people like us whowork in this industry, who work
in the transportation field,but it's also sad because it's
a microcosm of what's happenedwith the entire news industry
(14:27):
compared with the conditions,say, 20 years ago. We have far
fewer reporters in thisbusiness in the news gathering
and news reporting business,but they're having to cover the
same volume of stories in manycases, and that means less time
spent on the stories thatreally deserve it. It's not
(14:48):
just the loss of transportationreporters that's alarming. It's
the shrinking size of newsroomsin general. And I think it's
easy for us to lose sight ofwhy that's a big deal, because
what's happened to thenewspaper industry is really
sad. And it's also, I think, abit dangerous. I've always
(15:11):
subscribed and , and you'regonna hear this coming from I
think most people who grew upin the newspaper business, but
I've always subscribed to thephilosophy that democracy
operates best in an environmentwhere people are well-informed
on the issues of the day. Newsorganizations are becoming
fewer in number, there'sgreater consolidation of news
(15:36):
organizations, more broadcastoutlets as an example, being
owned by fewer corporateowners. And the news reporting
staffs are also shrinking. Sothe predictable outcome, it's
not at all surprising that yourisk having a decline in
credible news content. Severalof my college professors when I
(15:58):
was in journalism school saidthis, and I've heard it
repeated many times since then,journalists write the first
draft of history. I think it'sa vitally important job,
especially if we actually planto learn from that history.
Allan Rutter (16:13):
I think there's a couple of things about that,
Bernie, that sort of strike me.
Again, being a consumer of theproduct and a similar age,
historically we've seen whereparticularly major urban areas,
part of that scale of what'shappening at both local TV and
t he newspapers is there's alot of competition. Y ou h ad
(16:34):
at least two or three dailies.
You had TV stations with prettyrobust local reporting.
Bernie Fette (16:41):
Yeah.
Allan Rutter (16:41):
So, you know, part of the desire to get the
news out there was to scoop thepeople next to you.
Bernie Fette (16:48):
Yeah.
Allan Rutter (16:49):
It was sort of a competitive practice. I think
also one of the things I'mhearing is as the news business
has changed, part of what we atTT I have to be equipped to do
is to almost educate the peoplethat we're talking to a little
bit about what the industryitself is. As we talk about a
particular story, it's to putit in a larger context about,
and here's how thetransportation world works.
Bernie Fette (17:09):
Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that
because that broader context isso important, not only for the
story that they might becovering that day, but for the
story that comes two weekslater, two months later, and
(17:31):
they call you back again tocontinue the conversation that
you may have started. So,that's why I think it's so
important. That's a very goodpoint.
Allan Rutter (17:39):
So speaking about this sort of news business and
things changing over time, howhas the pandemic changed how
the media reports ontransportation, or has it?
Bernie Fette (17:50):
Oh yeah, definitely. And I think that
the biggest example of that isfound in the same technology
that we started using formeetings in our line of work.
Whenever the shutdown happenedand all of a sudden we couldn't
travel and get in the sameconference rooms together. We
were using Zoom or MicrosoftTeams or Google Meet, whatever
(18:11):
software, whatever platform youwould choose. A couple of
decades ago, a TV station or anetwork, when they covered a
big story like our UrbanMobility Report, they wanted
somebody in the studio thatthey could get on camera or if
not in studio, they wanted toget a person on screen via
satellite. And having thatperson's face on the screen
(18:34):
added credibility to the newspackage that they were working
on. But with the COVIDshutdown, suddenly every
interview was gonna be done viaZoom. And as those newsrooms
have continued to shrink, as Iwas mentioning earlier, the
budget constraints make Zoom avery, very affordable
alternative. So I think that'sprobably the biggest change
(18:55):
that I've noticed in recentyears.
Allan Rutter (18:58):
And if anything, that means that the
opportunities for researchersat TTI to be seen, to be heard
isn't restricted by how closewe might be to a TV station.
Bernie Fette (19:10):
Right, exactly.
Allan Rutter (19:13):
So at the top, I mentioned that this is episode
89 of Thinking Transportation.
You've been the host since thisbegan. Is that right?
Bernie Fette (19:22):
I have, yes.
Allan Rutter (19:24):
Take me back to the conversations that led to
the start of this endeavor. Howwas it that TTI decided to do a
podcast?
Bernie Fette (19:35):
Well, almost four years ago, Terri Parker had the
idea that we should exploredoing a TTI podcast to expand
our outreach for the agency andbroaden our reach to different
constituent groups. So, we didour homework and talked to a
lot of people who hadexperience in that field. I
thought my role would belimited to just doing the
(19:56):
background preparation for eachepisode, but then at some point
learned that my bosses intendedfor me to be the host as well,
which I did not see coming.
Allan Rutter (20:05):
So, so you got volunteered for this.
Bernie Fette (20:08):
I guess you could say that. I remember telling my
bosses, telling Terri andRichard Cole, I don't think I'm
cut out to be a podcast host.
That's the reason I got intonewspapers, because I would not
have to be on the air. And theysaid, "Well, respectfully, we
happen to disagree." And sothere you go. We launched the
show in February, 2021 with theCOVID-19 pandemic in full
(20:31):
swing. And, after a few months,reached the point in our
audience reach where we werethe Number One
transportation-related podcast;we still have that number one
spot, 88 episodes later,hopefully 89 episodes later.
And just a few days ago, we hitthe 25,000 mark for episode
(20:53):
downloads. So that's how we gotour start.
Allan Rutter (20:56):
It's pretty impressive. And of course, the
job is Big Al, don't screw thisup,. Now, starting a
podcast, particularly for anorganization like ours, which
has, let's be honest, a lot ofengineers, that's a pretty big
leap. It sounds like it was.
Let's try it and see if itworks. What was sort of the,
the backstory as you getunderway doing this, how are
(21:19):
people thinking as you'restarting?
Bernie Fette (21:22):
We hoped at the time that we started that this
would be a way for us toshowcase the expertise of our
research staff by giving them aplatform that would afford them
more time to explore topics, toexplain topics to an audience
that was largely a lay audiencewithout the time constraints
(21:46):
that exist in broadcast mediainterviews or media interviews
of any kind, because thoseopportunities have their limits
in terms of space, whether it'sspace on a computer screen or
space on the airwaves. But wehoped that that would give our
staff an opportunity and aplatform to explore topics that
(22:07):
were relevant to people whotravel every day or who depend
on transportation for otherreasons, like shipping, and to
give them an opportunity forthat platform so that we could
more widely demonstrate andadvertise our staff's
expertise. And it seems to haveworked out well in that regard.
Allan Rutter (22:27):
So now, what's surprised you the most about
this podcast as you've beendoing it--both about the
podcast and about your hosting?
Bernie Fette (22:36):
Honestly, I'm surprised that I've hosted it
for this long because Ireally did think at some point
we would've taken a broad lookand said, "Okay, it's somebody
else's turn who can take thebaton now and see if we can
grow our audience even bigger?"And so no pressure, Big Al, but
I'm passing the baton to you.
So it's your turn to help theshow grow and help our reach
(22:56):
grow.
Allan Rutter (22:58):
You've talked a little bit about how initially
the podcast has made animpression in terms of the
transportation industry. Whatare some of the ways that
that's affected both influenceon the part of TTI and our
influence within the industry?
How has the podcast been ameans of doing both of those
things?
Bernie Fette (23:18):
Well, when we started, we didn't really know
what success would look like.
How do you know you're winningif you don't know how to keep
score?
Allan Rutter (23:27):
There you go .
Bernie Fette (23:27):
But a few months after we started, we learned
again that we had the NumberOne transportation show on
Apple Podcasts , more listenersthan any other show on the
subject of transportation. Andwe've been able to hold onto
that spot ever since. I thinkthat there's a couple of
reasons for that. One is that,if you listen to the other
(23:51):
podcasts, all of which areserving an important purpose
and reaching a very relevantaudience in their own way, I
think that the quality of ourproduction stacks up really
well. And we've got ChrisPourteau to thank for that
because what comes across afterwe do what you and I were
referring to earlier as the"sausage making ," I think that
(24:14):
the show comes across veryprofessionally and very
thoroughly and can leave a verymeaningful impression on our
audience. And I think that wecan also attribute some of our
growth to the fact that we'vebeen able to host some very
interesting guests who can talkabout things to our audience in
ways that they can understandand can appreciate more how the
(24:38):
work that we do has a directrelation and a direct impact on
their lives, whether they'rerelying on transportation to
get themselves somewhere or toget the things that they need,
you know, from shippers totheir doorstep. We've also had
some very prominent guests fromoutside of our agency. When you
(25:00):
can account among your guests,people like Mark Williams, the
executive director of the TexasDepartment of Transportation
and Shailen Bhatt, the head ofthe Federal Highway
Administration--having guestslike that on your show can
really help you build yourshow's credibility and expand
your audience.
Allan Rutter (25:20):
And it honestly gets back to something you
mentioned at the beginning ofthe episode, which is our job
as a public agency, how do weexplain the value of what we do
and the value of the subjectthat we're involved in?
Everybody drives everybodyorders stuff and all the stuff
that they buy at some point oranother was involved in the
transportation system. So, partof our doing our job of
explaining the value of theinvestment that people have
made in our institute istelling the stories about the
kinds of things we do and whyit matters. Now, you mentioned
that you were thinking earlyon, "Gee, at what point does
somebody else suggest somebodyelse to do this? In terms of
thinking about your sea legsand sort of getting comfortable
with this--for selfishreasons--how long did it take
until you got to the point of,"Ah, I think I know how to do
this?"
Bernie Fette (25:35):
Um , I'll let you know..
Allan Rutter (26:19):
Eighty-nine episodes in...
Bernie Fette (26:21):
I'm not sure that I can recall exactly when I got
more comfortable with hostingduties. But you're a pro, Alan
. I'm expecting that you'll begood by day after tomorrow.
Allan Rutter (26:31):
There you go.
Well, no pressure. Now, Bernie,you are talking to us from
Asheville, North Carolina,where you have recently moved.
Tell me a little bit about howyou chose that particular
place, how it attracted youbeyond the increasingly
temperate climate.
Bernie Fette (26:50):
Yeah, it's 22 degrees cooler here than it is
where you are. No offense, nottrying to rub it in or
anything. So my partner, Susanand I knew we wanted to
relocate. We just weren't surewhere we really liked northern
New Mexico, and we wereactually leaning in that
direction because we wereworking with a realtor there in
(27:10):
the Albuquerque-Taos-Santa Fearea. But her brother really
encouraged us to at least checkout Asheville. And so I
thought, okay, let's visitAsheville and that'll be my due
diligence; and then we can comehome to Austin and start
planning our move to NewMexico. It didn't turn out that
(27:31):
way, obviously, because lastJuly, a little over a year ago,
we visited for the first time,and actually our first
impression of the place wascolored by the fact that our
luggage was lost--and how, howan airline can lose luggage on
a direct flight I'm not reallysure, but it happened. So we
had that experience, and thefirst night we were here just
(27:52):
before midnight, had a bearjust outside our Airbnb
rummaging through the garbagecan. But all that aside, by the
second day, we were convincedthat we'd found our home, and
the day after that, we foundour house.
Allan Rutter (28:07):
Wow.
Bernie Fette (28:07):
We were here for four days, and the last day
that we were here, we werehiking in the clouds on the
Blue Ridge Parkway and taking abreak now and then to receive
calls from our realtor who wasnegotiating the purchase price.
She said she would have usunder contract before we set
foot on the plane back toAustin, and she did.
Allan Rutter (28:26):
Wow.
Bernie Fette (28:26):
So a year later, here we are. Susan's from an
Air Force family,
Allan Rutter (28:30):
So she's used to relocating.
Bernie Fette (28:32):
Exactly. She's lived in multiple states and
countries, and I, on the otherhand, have lived in three
cities in my life, and theyhave all been in Texas. So, we
were both ready for anadventure, ready for a new
chapter, and we do love ithere--mountains, the weather,
the music, there's a very easypace and energy. To borrow a
(28:55):
word that's commonly used fromwhere we moved from this place
is a little bit "weird." Mostpeople will tell you that
Asheville today is what Austinwas like 30 or 40 years ago,
and I am perfectly okay withthat.
Allan Rutter (29:08):
Well, speaking of somebody who moved to Austin at
about that same sort oftimeframe, that kind of has
some appeal now, tell me what'sgonna be happening in this new
venture?
Bernie Fette (29:20):
Well, Bernie Fette Public Relations now
exists officially at 34 WallStreet, suite 804 in downtown
Asheville. We are in thebusiness--or I should say I
because it's a staff of one--Iam in the business of helping
brands lead and succeed throughthe power of words, images, and
(29:41):
audience connections. I'm doingwriting in a variety of
applications from web to videopodcasting and brand
journalism. Basically, the samekind of work I've been doing
for TTI for more than threedecades. I'm just doing it now
as a small business person.
Allan Rutter (29:58):
Well, let me ask the question you've asked us at
the conclusion of our podcastover the years, what's
motivated you to keep showingup for work at TTI over those
many years?
Bernie Fette (30:11):
I would say that there are two things. I
mentioned one of them earlierwhen I named some of the
remarkable colleagues that I'vebeen blessed to work with. I'll
add to that list. Kelly West Ijust mentioned, Chris Pourteau,
Richard Cole, Terri Parker . Ihave had some really amazing
(30:32):
experiences working for ourTransportation Policy Research
Center when I was able to dosome work with Cathy Reilly and
Ginger Gooden, who both gave mea very long leash in terms of
communicating and tellingstories about the work that our
researchers were doing toinform the state legislature.
(30:55):
I've been thrilled to work on anumber of video projects with
David Martin, Clyde, Hance,Vicky Nelson--immensely
creative people who helped mefeel really excited to come to
work every day. The secondthing that's motivated me is
the reminder that we're in thepublic service business. George
H. W. Bush gets credit for thisline, but I know it's been said
(31:16):
by many people before andsince; but I associate it with
him because when the BushSchool was getting started at
Texas A&M, you could see theseT-shirts all over campus of the
students who were attendingclasses there. And the back of
the T-shirt said, "Publicservice is a noble calling."
Very simple, very meaningfulmessage, I thought, and I
(31:39):
believe that it is, and thatstatement is something I've
always had in my thoughtswhenever I've advised or
coached our staff on how tohandle interviews with the news
media to remember that becausewe're in public service, and I
know I said this before, butthe money that funds our
research is not ours. It's thepublic's money, and we have an
(32:01):
obligation to be open andtransparent about how we're
investing it. If we'reinvesting it for the purpose of
improving people's lives in howthey get around and how they
get the stuff that theyneed--which I believe we
are--then I think that weshould be proud to tell that
story.
Allan Rutter (32:18):
Well, let me ask something that was not on the
list of questions, but itstrikes me that would be a good
time to do this. Having been atthe wheel of this for this many
episodes, is there anythingyou'd like to say to the people
who have been listening as youhand the baton, or the chair,
to somebody else?
Bernie Fette (32:40):
I hope the conversations can continue to
expand, and I hope that thoseconversations will include some
of the topics that I mentionedearlier, the ones that in some
circles can be a littlesensitive, but it's because of
their importance that they areso sensitive. And I hope that
(33:04):
this podcast and the experiencethat you have with your guests
going forward will serve toinform and expand those
conversations so that wecan--as a community, as a
state, as a country--finddirections that will benefit us
and the people who come longafter we're gone. Well, that's
(33:28):
certainly a high mark to meetand... No pressure.
Allan Rutter (33:33):
There you go.
Well, Bernie, thanks forallowing me to press you into
doing this, which I think isgonna allow for a at least
slightly smoother transitionfor our podcast audience. I
very much appreciate it.
Bernie Fette (33:47):
Thanks, Allan.
It's been delightful. I reallyappreciate it.
Allan Rutter (33:51):
People are hardwired for stories. It's how
we organized and sharedvaluable information before we
invented written language, andthen expanded replication and
literacy of those writtenwords. Part of the popularity
of this podcast medium is thatit gives us time to share
stories instead of soundbites.
(34:12):
Bernie Fette has been helpingmy colleagues at TTI share
stories for more than threeyears on this platform. Stories
about what they do, whatthey've learned, how they've
solved problems, and why any ofit matters to anyone else. To
our many listeners, I requestyour patience as I grow into
this job and help the manytransportation experts at, or
(34:34):
connected to, the Texas A&MTransportation Institute tell
their stories. Thanks forlistening. Please take just a
minute to give us a review,subscribe, and share this
episode, and please join usnext time for another
conversation about gettingourselves and the stuff we need
from point A to point B.
(34:56):
Thinking Transportation is aproduction of the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute, amember of The Texas A&M
University System. The show isedited and produced by Chris
Pourteau. I'm your new host,Allan Rutter. Thanks again for
listening. See you next time.
Howdy, everyone.
Welcome to ThinkingTransportation, conversations
about how we get ourselves andthe stuff we need from one
place to another. I'm AlanRutter with the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute.
Regular listeners willrecognize that mine is not the
normal voice starting the other88 episodes of this podcast.
That voice belongs to BernieFette, who will be shifting
(00:37):
places in our conversationtoday as he is the guest on
today's show. After 34 yearswith the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute,Bernie will be retiring from
state service at the end ofAugust and starting his own
shop in Asheville, NorthCarolina. If I do my job well,
you're really gonna enjoylearning more about the person
most in front of this podcast.
(01:00):
Bernie, welcome.
Bernie Fette (01:02):
You're in my chair, Allan
sorry, I couldn't resist.
Seriously though, thank you. Iam really delighted that we
could do this and nomisunderstanding here. I know
it's your chair now.
Allan Rutter (01:15):
There you go. The baton has been passed. Let's do
a little get to know you,Bernie. Where did you grow up?
Bernie Fette (01:24):
Munster, Texas.
Very small town in North Texas.
You were about to say?
Allan Rutter (01:29):
I know where Munster is.
Bernie Fette (01:31):
Not many people do. That puts you on a fairly
exclusive list. If you're notfrom there, you're not likely
to know where it is, but it'sabout 85 miles northwest of
Fort Worth, just south of theOklahoma border. Very small
town, so small that you canwalk into just about any
establishment--whether that'schurch, the bank--and you were
(01:54):
virtually guaranteed to knowpretty much everyone in there;
and also very likely that youwould be related to at least
half of them. My high schoolgraduating class was a grand
total of 28 people.
Allan Rutter (02:08):
Holy moly . So we're talking Single-A?
Bernie Fette (02:12):
Yes, Single-A.
And since you've brought upthat reference, if you played
high school football as I did,you played both offense and
defense. You didn't really havea choice.
Allan Rutter (02:23):
Yeah, boy. A graduating class that size.
Yeah . The high school that Iattended outside of Austin was
a two A school at the time.
It's now five a and previousstate champion and all that
kind of stuff for peopleoutside of the State of Texas.
That's nomenclature associatedwith the University
Interscholastic League. Andthat distinguishes the school
sizes so that similarly sizedschools compete against each
(02:46):
other.
Bernie Fette (02:47):
Yeah.
Allan Rutter (02:47):
So, growing up in North-Central Texas or North
Texas, basically, how did youend up at Texas A&M?
Bernie Fette (02:56):
Well, it's easy to end up there whenever you
have two older brothers whoboth enrolled at that school
and graduated from that school.
So I followed their lead andenrolled, joined the Corps of
Cadets just as they did,majored in journalism. Worked
for the student newspaper for acouple of years. Great place to
learn because you learn bymaking mistakes. And when you
(03:18):
work for a newspaper and youmake a mistake, you make that
mistake in front of thousandsof people. So, in addition to
being a great place to learn,it's also a great place to keep
your ego in check. My fatherstarted the newspaper in my
hometown in 1936 and editedthat paper for almost 50 years.
And so I suppose that'sprobably where I get it, the
(03:40):
inclination toward being astoryteller, because that's,
that's what my dad was.
Allan Rutter (03:45):
So journalism was the family trade?
Bernie Fette (03:49):
Yes, it was.
Allan Rutter (03:51):
What kind of work did you do when you got out of
A&M?
Bernie Fette (03:55):
Well, I worked for that same weekly newspaper
with my dad and my brother forabout a year, and then worked
for a daily newspaper for a fewyears after that. So, my
background is definitely rootedin the news business, both at
the weekly publication rate aswell as daily.
Allan Rutter (04:14):
So how'd you learn about TTI and how did you
come to join the agency?
Bernie Fette (04:20):
Well, my path to TTI was not what I would call
an intentional one. I had areally great job working in
city government, publicrelations, and thought that it
might be a good idea for me toget some varied experience by
going to work as a marketingvice president at a new bank in
town. It turns out that wasprobably the dumbest career
(04:42):
decision of my entire life. Igot laid off from that job
after a year and found anopening at TTI. I thought at
the time, "Hmm, transportationresearch, I suppose that that
will do until I find somethingthat's actually interesting."
And as it turns out, it's beenincredibly interesting, much
(05:06):
more so than I expected. I'vehad quite a few chances to
advance to other jobs to leave,including working for one of
the biggest PR firms in theworld. But I stayed with TTI
for 34 years now. So, maybe youcan see that my path to TTI was
not at all intentional, butit's been a very fortunate one.
Allan Rutter (05:28):
Well, the good news about making career
choices when you're young isthe consequences are less dire.
You can sort of afford to makesome interesting choices.
Bernie Fette (05:38):
Yeah. Or you can afford to screw up
Allan Rutter (05:41):
There you go. So let's talk a little bit about
what being a media guy at TTIhas been like, now I've only
been at TTI for about 10 years,but in those 10 years I've
noticed at least two big thingsin two buckets. One, you
respond to media inquiriesasking for TTI experts on
(06:02):
transportation topics in thenews, and two, you reach out to
the media to help explaintransportation research that's
being conducted at TTI.
Bernie Fette (06:11):
Mm-Hmm,
Allan Rutter (06:12):
So is that summary fair?
Bernie Fette (06:15):
Yeah, I think that's a fair description.
Allan Rutter (06:17):
So what's the overall proportion of those two
directions of information flowinternal to external and the
opposite?
Bernie Fette (06:25):
It has definitely shifted over the couple of
decades that we've had a mediarelations effort at TTI. I'd
say we do more of theresponding now than we used to,
but it was just the opposite acouple of decades ago, going
back to the 1990s. That's whenTTI was doing its first work in
(06:47):
quantifying in measuringtraffic congestion. And I
remember having a conversationwith Tim Lomax at the time. He
was the guy leading thatresearch, and I told him, you
know, we could probablygenerate a lot of media
interest, a lot of publicityfor the agency, for the
research that you'redoing--which we did. And, of
course, at that time that waspre-Internet. So our early
(07:09):
years of that effort involved alot of media outreach all over
the country that wasaccomplished by telephone, fax
machines, and overnightpackages. That's how we got the
reports to people is by sendingthem via overnight delivery. We
started building relationshipswith newspapers and wire
(07:31):
services when there were farmore of both of those
organizations and alsobroadcast networks all over the
country. And when we had thoserelationships growing, we
started talking to those samereporters about the other
things that TTI was doing. Sowhen there were transportation
developments in the news, theywould know, they could contact
(07:53):
us for insight on thosedevelopments, whether that was
a particular trend in crashesor when a bridge fell into a
river, they knew that theycould contact TTI and find an
expert that could offer someinsight and some context to
whatever event was in the news.
So again, when we started, wewere initiating most of the
contact with the media, but nowit's much more the media
(08:17):
initiating contact with us. Buteither way, I think it's been
really important that we dorespond to those inquiries from
the media. Two reasons forthat. One, it's smart business.
I think it's an important partof how TTI can establish itself
as an expert source ofknowledge. It's a wise
(08:40):
marketing strategy, in otherwords. And two, I really think
that we have an obligation toanswer questions about the work
that the agency does becausethe money that we use to do
that work does not belong tous. That money belongs to the
public, it belongs to thetaxpayers. And for my own brief
(09:05):
little time on my soapbox here,I'll just say that I think that
we need to be responsive toquestions with that reality in
mind. And since I'm on asoapbox, I'll just stay there
for just a moment becausethere's one other thing I think
that's important about thispart of what we do. I think
that that responsive nature isespecially important with
touchy subjects like climatechange and how we finance, how
(09:29):
we pay for highways.
Transportation produces moregreenhouse gases than any other
source. And I think it's goodthat we talk more about what
the consequences of that arefor the planet that we leave
behind to our children andtheir children and our
transportation system needswork; roads and bridges need to
(09:52):
be replaced. And sooner orlater, I hope that there is
more conversation, morediscussion about the fact that
the gas tax is currently afinancing model that isn't
necessarily working all thatwell from coast to coast. I
hope that we can driveconversations in the future on
(10:12):
important issues like those.
Allan Rutter (10:15):
Well, speaking of important subjects in
transportation, can you talk alittle bit about how things
have changed over time in termsof what kinds of topics
interest the media the most?
Bernie Fette (10:28):
Uh , yeah. I mentioned the Urban Mobility
Report a bit earlier. And, inthat same category, there's the
Texas Most Congested RoadwaysReport, which is done also
every year. One of those looksat the congestion levels at a
city level. The other looks atgridlock at a more confined
(10:49):
roadway section level. And bothof those, I think, have gained
a consistent following andconsistent interest in the news
media because they representdirect commuter/traveler
experience. Gridlock, or justthe driving conditions in
general--but especially withregard to congestion--those are
(11:10):
things that we all face, all ofus who travel commute in a ny
way from day t o d ay. Anotherthing that I think has gotten a
lot of attention and increasedamount of attention is traffic
safety in all its many forms.
Distracted driving, impaireddriving. We have seen the crash
(11:32):
rate and the fatality rate inthis country shrink
progressively over a number ofyears. So, in terms of how much
we travel, the number of peoplewho are getting hurt in crashes
and who are dying in crashes,the rate of those conditions is
shrinking, which is good news.
But the frequency of thosecrashes and deaths continues to
(11:55):
hover around 38-, 39-, 40,000deaths a year. And so with
statistics like that, I thinkthat traffic safety issues in
general are always going to beof interest to the news media
because they're of interest tothe people who are out there on
the roads traveling.
Allan Rutter (12:13):
Yeah, I think given the fact that so many
people drive makes them expertson transportation operations
and the fact that everybodyelse is a bad driver and but
what this information providesthem is a way of validating are
things getting better or arethey getting worse and are
things safer or are theyimproving? The good news is we
have a lot more information toprovide that kind of feedback.
Bernie Fette (12:34):
Yeah. And on the topic of safety, I wanna also
mention the traffic safetyculture study that's done by
the agency every year, which Ithink speaks to what you were
just saying about not onlyabout what's happening out
there on the roads, but whatthe perception of the drivers
(12:56):
on the roads is, and the extentto which they assume
responsibility for those safetyconditions.
Allan Rutter (13:04):
Well, let's talk a little bit about the media
itself and how that's changedover time. In my own
peripatetic career, I've been aconsumer and a subject of
transportation reporting, andI've noticed changes in both
the people who are doing it andthe practices in reporting
about transportation and print,radio, and television. What are
(13:26):
some of the changes injournalism in the decades that
you've been watching this interms of transportation as a
subject matter, how have thingschanged, both in how the news
gets reported and how thechanges in the news business
itself affect howtransportation gets reported?
Bernie Fette (13:44):
Well, in the industry that you and I work in
and have worked in for so manyyears, one thing I noticed
that's particularlydiscouraging is the loss of so
many transportation reportersthroughout the United States.
It used to be that every majornewspaper in this country had
someone who was dedicated tocovering the transportation
(14:06):
beat, transportation news. AndI think you can count 'em on
one hand now, and that'sdisappointing and sad, I think,
not only for people like us whowork in this industry, who work
in the transportation field,but it's also sad because it's
a microcosm of what's happenedwith the entire news industry
(14:27):
compared with the conditions,say, 20 years ago. We have far
fewer reporters in thisbusiness in the news gathering
and news reporting business,but they're having to cover the
same volume of stories in manycases, and that means less time
spent on the stories thatreally deserve it. It's not
(14:48):
just the loss of transportationreporters that's alarming. It's
the shrinking size of newsroomsin general. And I think it's
easy for us to lose sight ofwhy that's a big deal, because
what's happened to thenewspaper industry is really
sad. And it's also, I think, abit dangerous. I've always
(15:11):
subscribed and , and you'regonna hear this coming from I
think most people who grew upin the newspaper business, but
I've always subscribed to thephilosophy that democracy
operates best in an environmentwhere people are well-informed
on the issues of the day. Newsorganizations are becoming
fewer in number, there'sgreater consolidation of news
(15:36):
organizations, more broadcastoutlets as an example, being
owned by fewer corporateowners. And the news reporting
staffs are also shrinking. Sothe predictable outcome, it's
not at all surprising that yourisk having a decline in
credible news content. Severalof my college professors when I
(15:58):
was in journalism school saidthis, and I've heard it
repeated many times since then,journalists write the first
draft of history. I think it'sa vitally important job,
especially if we actually planto learn from that history.
Allan Rutter (16:13):
I think there's a couple of things about that,
Bernie, that sort of strike me.
Again, being a consumer of theproduct and a similar age,
historically we've seen whereparticularly major urban areas,
part of that scale of what'shappening at both local TV and
t he newspapers is there's alot of competition. Y ou h ad
(16:34):
at least two or three dailies.
You had TV stations with prettyrobust local reporting.
Bernie Fette (16:41):
Yeah.
Allan Rutter (16:41):
So, you know, part of the desire to get the
news out there was to scoop thepeople next to you.
Bernie Fette (16:48):
Yeah.
Allan Rutter (16:49):
It was sort of a competitive practice. I think
also one of the things I'mhearing is as the news business
has changed, part of what we atTT I have to be equipped to do
is to almost educate the peoplethat we're talking to a little
bit about what the industryitself is. As we talk about a
particular story, it's to putit in a larger context about,
and here's how thetransportation world works.
Bernie Fette (17:09):
Yeah, I appreciate you mentioning that
because that broader context isso important, not only for the
story that they might becovering that day, but for the
story that comes two weekslater, two months later, and
(17:31):
they call you back again tocontinue the conversation that
you may have started. So,that's why I think it's so
important. That's a very goodpoint.
Allan Rutter (17:39):
So speaking about this sort of news business and
things changing over time, howhas the pandemic changed how
the media reports ontransportation, or has it?
Bernie Fette (17:50):
Oh yeah, definitely. And I think that
the biggest example of that isfound in the same technology
that we started using formeetings in our line of work.
Whenever the shutdown happenedand all of a sudden we couldn't
travel and get in the sameconference rooms together. We
were using Zoom or MicrosoftTeams or Google Meet, whatever
(18:11):
software, whatever platform youwould choose. A couple of
decades ago, a TV station or anetwork, when they covered a
big story like our UrbanMobility Report, they wanted
somebody in the studio thatthey could get on camera or if
not in studio, they wanted toget a person on screen via
satellite. And having thatperson's face on the screen
(18:34):
added credibility to the newspackage that they were working
on. But with the COVIDshutdown, suddenly every
interview was gonna be done viaZoom. And as those newsrooms
have continued to shrink, as Iwas mentioning earlier, the
budget constraints make Zoom avery, very affordable
alternative. So I think that'sprobably the biggest change
(18:55):
that I've noticed in recentyears.
Allan Rutter (18:58):
And if anything, that means that the
opportunities for researchersat TTI to be seen, to be heard
isn't restricted by how closewe might be to a TV station.
Bernie Fette (19:10):
Right, exactly.
Allan Rutter (19:13):
So at the top, I mentioned that this is episode
89 of Thinking Transportation.
You've been the host since thisbegan. Is that right?
Bernie Fette (19:22):
I have, yes.
Allan Rutter (19:24):
Take me back to the conversations that led to
the start of this endeavor. Howwas it that TTI decided to do a
podcast?
Bernie Fette (19:35):
Well, almost four years ago, Terri Parker had the
idea that we should exploredoing a TTI podcast to expand
our outreach for the agency andbroaden our reach to different
constituent groups. So, we didour homework and talked to a
lot of people who hadexperience in that field. I
thought my role would belimited to just doing the
(19:56):
background preparation for eachepisode, but then at some point
learned that my bosses intendedfor me to be the host as well,
which I did not see coming.
Allan Rutter (20:05):
So, so you got volunteered for this.
Bernie Fette (20:08):
I guess you could say that. I remember telling my
bosses, telling Terri andRichard Cole, I don't think I'm
cut out to be a podcast host.
That's the reason I got intonewspapers, because I would not
have to be on the air. And theysaid, "Well, respectfully, we
happen to disagree." And sothere you go. We launched the
show in February, 2021 with theCOVID-19 pandemic in full
(20:31):
swing. And, after a few months,reached the point in our
audience reach where we werethe Number One
transportation-related podcast;we still have that number one
spot, 88 episodes later,hopefully 89 episodes later.
And just a few days ago, we hitthe 25,000 mark for episode
(20:53):
downloads. So that's how we gotour start.
Allan Rutter (20:56):
It's pretty impressive. And of course, the
job is Big Al, don't screw thisup,
podcast, particularly for anorganization like ours, which
has, let's be honest, a lot ofengineers, that's a pretty big
leap. It sounds like it was.
Let's try it and see if itworks. What was sort of the,
the backstory as you getunderway doing this, how are
(21:19):
people thinking as you'restarting?
Bernie Fette (21:22):
We hoped at the time that we started that this
would be a way for us toshowcase the expertise of our
research staff by giving them aplatform that would afford them
more time to explore topics, toexplain topics to an audience
that was largely a lay audiencewithout the time constraints
(21:46):
that exist in broadcast mediainterviews or media interviews
of any kind, because thoseopportunities have their limits
in terms of space, whether it'sspace on a computer screen or
space on the airwaves. But wehoped that that would give our
staff an opportunity and aplatform to explore topics that
(22:07):
were relevant to people whotravel every day or who depend
on transportation for otherreasons, like shipping, and to
give them an opportunity forthat platform so that we could
more widely demonstrate andadvertise our staff's
expertise. And it seems to haveworked out well in that regard.
Allan Rutter (22:27):
So now, what's surprised you the most about
this podcast as you've beendoing it--both about the
podcast and about your hosting?
Bernie Fette (22:36):
Honestly, I'm surprised that I've hosted it
for this long
we would've taken a broad lookand said, "Okay, it's somebody
else's turn who can take thebaton now and see if we can
grow our audience even bigger?"And so no pressure, Big Al, but
I'm passing the baton to you.
So it's your turn to help theshow grow and help our reach
(22:56):
grow.
Allan Rutter (22:58):
You've talked a little bit about how initially
the podcast has made animpression in terms of the
transportation industry. Whatare some of the ways that
that's affected both influenceon the part of TTI and our
influence within the industry?
How has the podcast been ameans of doing both of those
things?
Bernie Fette (23:18):
Well, when we started, we didn't really know
what success would look like.
How do you know you're winningif you don't know how to keep
score?
Allan Rutter (23:27):
There you go .
Bernie Fette (23:27):
But a few months after we started, we learned
again that we had the NumberOne transportation show on
Apple Podcasts , more listenersthan any other show on the
subject of transportation. Andwe've been able to hold onto
that spot ever since. I thinkthat there's a couple of
reasons for that. One is that,if you listen to the other
(23:51):
podcasts, all of which areserving an important purpose
and reaching a very relevantaudience in their own way, I
think that the quality of ourproduction stacks up really
well. And we've got ChrisPourteau to thank for that
because what comes across afterwe do what you and I were
referring to earlier as the"sausage making ," I think that
(24:14):
the show comes across veryprofessionally and very
thoroughly and can leave a verymeaningful impression on our
audience. And I think that wecan also attribute some of our
growth to the fact that we'vebeen able to host some very
interesting guests who can talkabout things to our audience in
ways that they can understandand can appreciate more how the
(24:38):
work that we do has a directrelation and a direct impact on
their lives, whether they'rerelying on transportation to
get themselves somewhere or toget the things that they need,
you know, from shippers totheir doorstep. We've also had
some very prominent guests fromoutside of our agency. When you
(25:00):
can account among your guests,people like Mark Williams, the
executive director of the TexasDepartment of Transportation
and Shailen Bhatt, the head ofthe Federal Highway
Administration--having guestslike that on your show can
really help you build yourshow's credibility and expand
your audience.
Allan Rutter (25:20):
And it honestly gets back to something you
mentioned at the beginning ofthe episode, which is our job
as a public agency, how do weexplain the value of what we do
and the value of the subjectthat we're involved in?
Everybody drives everybodyorders stuff and all the stuff
that they buy at some point oranother was involved in the
transportation system. So, partof our doing our job of
explaining the value of theinvestment that people have
made in our institute istelling the stories about the
kinds of things we do and whyit matters. Now, you mentioned
that you were thinking earlyon, "Gee, at what point does
somebody else suggest somebodyelse to do this? In terms of
thinking about your sea legsand sort of getting comfortable
with this--for selfishreasons--how long did it take
until you got to the point of,"Ah, I think I know how to do
this?"
Bernie Fette (25:35):
Um , I'll let you know.
Allan Rutter (26:19):
Eighty-nine episodes in...
Bernie Fette (26:21):
I'm not sure that I can recall exactly when I got
more comfortable with hostingduties. But you're a pro, Alan
. I'm expecting that you'll begood by day after tomorrow.
Allan Rutter (26:31):
There you go.
Well, no pressure. Now, Bernie,you are talking to us from
Asheville, North Carolina,where you have recently moved.
Tell me a little bit about howyou chose that particular
place, how it attracted youbeyond the increasingly
temperate climate.
Bernie Fette (26:50):
Yeah, it's 22 degrees cooler here than it is
where you are. No offense, nottrying to rub it in or
anything. So my partner, Susanand I knew we wanted to
relocate. We just weren't surewhere we really liked northern
New Mexico, and we wereactually leaning in that
direction because we wereworking with a realtor there in
(27:10):
the Albuquerque-Taos-Santa Fearea. But her brother really
encouraged us to at least checkout Asheville. And so I
thought, okay, let's visitAsheville and that'll be my due
diligence; and then we can comehome to Austin and start
planning our move to NewMexico. It didn't turn out that
(27:31):
way, obviously, because lastJuly, a little over a year ago,
we visited for the first time,and actually our first
impression of the place wascolored by the fact that our
luggage was lost--and how, howan airline can lose luggage on
a direct flight I'm not reallysure, but it happened. So we
had that experience, and thefirst night we were here just
(27:52):
before midnight, had a bearjust outside our Airbnb
rummaging through the garbagecan. But all that aside, by the
second day, we were convincedthat we'd found our home, and
the day after that, we foundour house.
Allan Rutter (28:07):
Wow.
Bernie Fette (28:07):
We were here for four days, and the last day
that we were here, we werehiking in the clouds on the
Blue Ridge Parkway and taking abreak now and then to receive
calls from our realtor who wasnegotiating the purchase price.
She said she would have usunder contract before we set
foot on the plane back toAustin, and she did.
Allan Rutter (28:26):
Wow.
Bernie Fette (28:26):
So a year later, here we are. Susan's from an
Air Force family,
Allan Rutter (28:30):
So she's used to relocating.
Bernie Fette (28:32):
Exactly. She's lived in multiple states and
countries, and I, on the otherhand, have lived in three
cities in my life, and theyhave all been in Texas. So, we
were both ready for anadventure, ready for a new
chapter, and we do love ithere--mountains, the weather,
the music, there's a very easypace and energy. To borrow a
(28:55):
word that's commonly used fromwhere we moved from this place
is a little bit "weird." Mostpeople will tell you that
Asheville today is what Austinwas like 30 or 40 years ago,
and I am perfectly okay withthat.
Allan Rutter (29:08):
Well, speaking of somebody who moved to Austin at
about that same sort oftimeframe, that kind of has
some appeal now, tell me what'sgonna be happening in this new
venture?
Bernie Fette (29:20):
Well, Bernie Fette Public Relations now
exists officially at 34 WallStreet, suite 804 in downtown
Asheville. We are in thebusiness--or I should say I
because it's a staff of one--Iam in the business of helping
brands lead and succeed throughthe power of words, images, and
(29:41):
audience connections. I'm doingwriting in a variety of
applications from web to videopodcasting and brand
journalism. Basically, the samekind of work I've been doing
for TTI for more than threedecades. I'm just doing it now
as a small business person.
Allan Rutter (29:58):
Well, let me ask the question you've asked us at
the conclusion of our podcastover the years, what's
motivated you to keep showingup for work at TTI over those
many years?
Bernie Fette (30:11):
I would say that there are two things. I
mentioned one of them earlierwhen I named some of the
remarkable colleagues that I'vebeen blessed to work with. I'll
add to that list. Kelly West Ijust mentioned, Chris Pourteau,
Richard Cole, Terri Parker . Ihave had some really amazing
(30:32):
experiences working for ourTransportation Policy Research
Center when I was able to dosome work with Cathy Reilly and
Ginger Gooden, who both gave mea very long leash in terms of
communicating and tellingstories about the work that our
researchers were doing toinform the state legislature.
(30:55):
I've been thrilled to work on anumber of video projects with
David Martin, Clyde, Hance,Vicky Nelson--immensely
creative people who helped mefeel really excited to come to
work every day. The secondthing that's motivated me is
the reminder that we're in thepublic service business. George
H. W. Bush gets credit for thisline, but I know it's been said
(31:16):
by many people before andsince; but I associate it with
him because when the BushSchool was getting started at
Texas A&M, you could see theseT-shirts all over campus of the
students who were attendingclasses there. And the back of
the T-shirt said, "Publicservice is a noble calling."
Very simple, very meaningfulmessage, I thought, and I
(31:39):
believe that it is, and thatstatement is something I've
always had in my thoughtswhenever I've advised or
coached our staff on how tohandle interviews with the news
media to remember that becausewe're in public service, and I
know I said this before, butthe money that funds our
research is not ours. It's thepublic's money, and we have an
(32:01):
obligation to be open andtransparent about how we're
investing it. If we'reinvesting it for the purpose of
improving people's lives in howthey get around and how they
get the stuff that theyneed--which I believe we
are--then I think that weshould be proud to tell that
story.
Allan Rutter (32:18):
Well, let me ask something that was not on the
list of questions, but itstrikes me that would be a good
time to do this. Having been atthe wheel of this for this many
episodes, is there anythingyou'd like to say to the people
who have been listening as youhand the baton, or the chair,
to somebody else?
Bernie Fette (32:40):
I hope the conversations can continue to
expand, and I hope that thoseconversations will include some
of the topics that I mentionedearlier, the ones that in some
circles can be a littlesensitive, but it's because of
their importance that they areso sensitive. And I hope that
(33:04):
this podcast and the experiencethat you have with your guests
going forward will serve toinform and expand those
conversations so that wecan--as a community, as a
state, as a country--finddirections that will benefit us
and the people who come longafter we're gone. Well, that's
(33:28):
certainly a high mark to meetand... No pressure
Allan Rutter (33:33):
There you go.
Well, Bernie, thanks forallowing me to press you into
doing this, which I think isgonna allow for a at least
slightly smoother transitionfor our podcast audience. I
very much appreciate it.
Bernie Fette (33:47):
Thanks, Allan.
It's been delightful. I reallyappreciate it.
Allan Rutter (33:51):
People are hardwired for stories. It's how
we organized and sharedvaluable information before we
invented written language, andthen expanded replication and
literacy of those writtenwords. Part of the popularity
of this podcast medium is thatit gives us time to share
stories instead of soundbites.
(34:12):
Bernie Fette has been helpingmy colleagues at TTI share
stories for more than threeyears on this platform. Stories
about what they do, whatthey've learned, how they've
solved problems, and why any ofit matters to anyone else. To
our many listeners, I requestyour patience as I grow into
this job and help the manytransportation experts at, or
(34:34):
connected to, the Texas A&MTransportation Institute tell
their stories. Thanks forlistening. Please take just a
minute to give us a review,subscribe, and share this
episode, and please join usnext time for another
conversation about gettingourselves and the stuff we need
from point A to point B.
(34:56):
Thinking Transportation is aproduction of the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute, amember of The Texas A&M
University System. The show isedited and produced by Chris
Pourteau. I'm your new host,Allan Rutter. Thanks again for
listening. See you next time.
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