It’s been said that journalists are responsible for writing the first draft of history. As the transportation writer for the Houston Chronicle, Dug Begley has been crafting that city’s mobility story for more than a decade.
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Bernie Fette (host) (00:14):
Hello again.
This is Thinking Transportation.
Conversations about how we getourselves and the things we need
from one place to another.
I'm Bernie Fette with the TexasA&M Transportation Institute.
In the newspaper business, therearen't as many transportation
(00:34):
writers as there once were.
In fact, across the country,their numbers have been
shrinking for many years.
But not in Houston.
10 years ago, Dug Begley went towork as the transportation
reporter for the HoustonChronicle, and since that time
he's been telling stories aboutthe agencies who provide
(00:54):
transportation systems and thetravelers who use them in one of
America's biggest and fastestgrowing cities.
He joins us for this episode ofThinking Transportation, to
share some observations thatonly a person with his unique
vantage point might be able tooffer.
Thank you for doing this, Dug.
(01:15):
I know it might feel just a bitforeign to be the person
fielding the questions insteadof the person that's asking
them.
How long have you been theChronicle's transportation
writer, and for the benefit ofthose who haven't read your
resume or perhaps don't followyou on Twitter, excuse me, for
(01:35):
the benefit of those who don'tyet follow you on Twitter,
because surely after thispodcast, they will.
Maybe tell us a little about thejob path that got you to this
point.
Dug Begley (guest) (01:45):
Um, I've been here in Houston about 10
years.
I came here as thetransportation reporter.
For five years prior to that, Iwas the transportation reporter
at the Riverside PressEnterprise, which coincidentally
is owned by Belo that owns theDallas Morning News.
Mm-hmm.
And a good friendof mine that sadly recently
(02:06):
passed away, MichaelLindenberger was the
transportation reporter inDallas and had for the Morning
Morning news.
Yeah.
For the Morning News for a fewyears.
And then he went on to be theD.C.
business reporter for the DMN.
He went to their editorialboard.
He came to our editorial boardas the deputy opinion editor,
and then went on to the KansasCity Star as the vice president
(02:27):
of opinion.
But when Michael was thetransportation reporter in
Dallas, Riverside, which wastheir smaller paper but owned by
the same company, had an openingand somehow some way, Michael
had struck up a conversationwith the managing editor there
at the time and told him like,Hey, I got a friend that's in
(02:48):
Arkansas.
He's done, not necessarilytransportation, but he's been
covering cities and regions witha bent on some growth and
development and things likethat.
Yeah.
And so, so I went out toRiverside after two, three years
in Arkansas, both inFayetteville and Fort Smith, but
(03:09):
I covered city government andthen sort of a wider region of
Oklahoma for the Fort SmithTimes-Record.
So it's just been transportationI've been doing about 15 years.
But if you go back, a lot ofgovernmental reporting, a lot of
growth and development reportingis inherently transportation
(03:30):
reporting.
Bernie Fette (03:31):
Right.
Well, it's a good thing thatMichael turned you on to that
opportunity, and I can alsorecall having a number of
conversations with him over theyears.
His passing was certainly a lossfor the profession of
journalism.
Dug Begley (03:43):
Absolutely.
I mean, and he had just been afantastic reporter.
I've known Michael for 25 years.
He and I went to collegetogether at the University of
Louisville.
And Michael, I don't know ifI've had five full-time jobs in
my career, Michael is probablysomewhat responsible for at
least three of them.
Bernie Fette (04:02):
Okay.
Apart from simply building yourskill set as a writer and a
reporter at those variousplaces, what do you think it is
about those earlier years thatpositioned you well for the gig
you're in now?
Dug Begley (04:13):
There are reporters that can sort of carve out a
niche or an expertise or justsort of a broad topic, and I
don't mean necessarilytransportation, the environment,
immigration, whatever.
It's just the reporters caninherently be writers.
Some of them have a lean towardspolitics.
(04:34):
Some of them have a lean towardsbusiness, sports, whatever.
And I think that where I've beenfortunate is that I have an
interest in math that isn'tenough to actually be good at
math, but understanding how it'sapplied.
And so if you're a reporter whodoesn't really like dealing with
(04:55):
spreadsheets, if you don't likedealing with charts, if you
don't like dealing with moneyand numbers, you know you're
probably gonna drift intoanother type of reporting.
Right.
There may be a few of us thatsort of bridge all of those
gaps.
And where I'm lucky is thatreally, I don't know enough
about anything to be an expert,but I know enough about money
(05:17):
and politics and engineering andhow to tell a story and how to
talk to regular people and howto distill complex information
down for some simple tasks.
And the beauty of that is thattransportation is a nice space
for that.
Bernie Fette (05:32):
Yeah.
Dug Begley (05:33):
That maybe not everybody else would gravitate
towards.
There are probably a lot of mycoworkers that having my beat
may be considered punishment tothem.
Okay.
Whereas I getting drifted intoone thing like elections or
okay.
Things like that may be lessblissful for me because I can
(05:56):
pick and choose.
The beauty of transportationreporting, to me, at least, what
I'm blessed to be able to dohere in Houston is that I can
generally do all sorts of thingsas I choose to do them within
the necessity of what the topicsare.
So earlier today, I was talkingto the Houston Public Works and
(06:20):
a city official about plans toredo a roundabout.
Mm-hmm.
, Well, that's asimple thing.
It's gonna take them a fewhundred thousand dollars,
they're gonna redo theroundabout, but it's a big deal
to the people who drive throughit.
Right.
It's also a big deal that someof the project has to do with
pedestrian safety.
It has to do with cyclists andconnectivity to one of the major
(06:40):
parks.
Bernie Fette (06:40):
Lots of moving parts.
Yeah.
Dug Begley (06:42):
Well, and also lots of disparate points of view that
are coming together.
Bernie Fette (06:45):
Exactly.
Dug Begley (06:45):
That to me is the appealing thing about doing
these types of stories.
Bernie Fette (06:50):
You mentioned Houston, of course, where you
are.
I'm wondering, is there anythingabout Houston that makes your
beat particularly unique orinteresting or maddening?
Dug Begley (07:02):
I think that any major metro area has its own
quirks.
Mm-hmm.
, but there arealso a lot of similarities.
Like that's not to dismissHouston, but you could drop me
in Dallas, in Austin, in L.A.,In Phoenix and Denver.
And generally that job can besimilar if people choose to do
(07:24):
it in the way they want it done,and the where the interest lies,
Chicago, D.C., New York, you'regonna have a different type of
job because of the use oftransit and because the density
may be different.
But Houston, I think, is in aninteresting place now because of
where the conversations arestarting to go.
(07:45):
It's a city that was built afterthe second World War.
It's a very auto-centric city.
That's not gonna changeovernight, but a lot of those
conversations, even in thedecade I've been here, have
changed in terms of tone, interms of where investment is
being made in terms ofrethinking streets within the
urban core versus streets in thesuburban areas, and who uses
(08:11):
them, how they're used, howwe're all gonna get about and
how you move from these nodes,which Houston is probably, I
would say, one of the moreinteresting places to have the
conversation of where you'retalking about nodes and major
centers that you have downtown,uptown, Texas Medical Center,
(08:32):
Pearland, Sugarland, Woodlands,and Conroe.
Mm-hmm.
That all have thisgravitational pull.
Mm-hmm.
, like some numberof moons circling Jupiter.
They're all pulling on eachother, but they're all pulling
from each other as well.
Mm-hmm.
,
Bernie Fette (08:51):
You mentioned several cities.
You mentioned Phoenix, New York,Atlanta, several other major
cities.
There was a time, not really allthat long ago, it seems when all
of the major papers in theUnited States had a person
assigned to the transportationbeat, maybe even more than one.
(09:12):
Mm-hmm.
But that's no longer the case.
Why do you think that'shappening?
Dug Begley (09:19):
I think that there is some of a pullback into
understanding where newspapers,especially if we're talking
about just the major metrodailies.
Mm-hmm.
, some of them haverestructured.
Some of them are smaller thanthey used to be in terms of the
number of staff.
And a lot of places have chosento eliminate that as a job.
(09:40):
I don't know that they'veeliminated it as a beat, but it
may be a situation wheresomebody has that beat and
another beat.
Bernie Fette (09:49):
Right.
So the emphasis may not be whatit once was.
Dug Begley (09:53):
Well, the emphasis may be the same, but it may be
spread across multiple peopletoo.
Having a overwhelming,all-encompassing single
transportation person and havingseven reporters that are
thinking about it.
There are pluses and minuses toboth of those.
Bernie Fette (10:10):
And it may be an impression that I was under the,
just wasn't perhaps accuratebecause I've been observing from
a particular vantage pointtalking to you and other
transportation writers from timeto time without having any data
to back this up or any hard datato back this up.
It just seems like there arefewer of them than there used to
(10:30):
be.
At the same time that newsroomsaround the country, whether it's
newspapers or broadcast, seem tobe shrinking in numbers of
journalists that they employ.
Dug Begley (10:41):
I think that's true, but also with transportation and
a few other topics.
Mm-hmm.
, do you count in,or how do you account for the
rise of some of the web-basedinstitutions that may be looking
at it nationally?
Right.
CityLab, which was its own thingfor a while, but it's now part
of Bloomberg.
Right.
(11:02):
Is a vast resource of qualifiedtransportation reporters.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That are doing things.
I think there are peoplededicated to CityLab.
I think CityLab takes a lot offreelancing in as well.
I have no earthly idea.
I just get that from what Iread, it seems that sometimes
there's freelancers andsometimes they're staff
reporters and they're alsoleveraging the fact that
(11:22):
Bloomberg has tens and hundredsof reporters in various places.
Mm-hmm.
, mm-hmm.
talking aboutinteresting things.
Streets blog.
Bernie Fette (11:30):
Right.
Dug Begley (11:31):
Is fantastic for that.
Right.
There are a number of blogs orjournalism online that deal with
transportation and the topic oftransportation.
The Verge has great.
The Verge transportationreporting, depending on what you
choose to use for the job.
Transportation has moved toother sectors.
(11:54):
Like I believe the Los AngelesTimes has a transportation
reporter that is fantastic.
Mm-hmm.
.
They also have, I believe, anautomotive reporter, but it is
attached to their business desk.
Bernie Fette (12:05):
Yeah.
Dug Begley (12:06):
Washington Post has a number of transportation
reporters doing a number oftransportation things like Ian
Duncan covers federal policy.
Yeah, yeah.
Because DOT is all there.
Yeah.
Justin George does a fantasticjob covering Wilma.
Bernie Fette (12:20):
Yeah.
And you've got Katie Shaver.
Dug Begley (12:22):
And, and you've got Katie Shaver, you've got Lori
Aratani, I mean like they've gota deep bench of reporters that
do both the local stuff for theDMV area.
Also the federal policy and alsowma cuz they have one of the
great public transportationsystems that has both challenges
and opportunities.
Bernie Fette (12:40):
Yeah.
So part of this is theincreasingly overlapping nature
of transportation and how someof those beats are
correspondingly overlapping aswell.
Dug Begley (12:50):
Sure.
Transportation reporters, Ithink bring a lot of their own
method.
It's part of the beauty of it tome that yeah, they bring a lot
of their own methodology.
They bring a lot of their ownpreferences because we have the
luxury of being able to choosesometimes where our focal points
are and those change.
Bernie Fette (13:08):
Yeah.
And you're talking about a lotof changes in the news industry.
There have also been some prettysignificant changes in the
transportation world.
How have those changes on bothof those fronts affected how you
do your job, how you report ontransportation?
Dug Begley (13:27):
I've done a lot more reporting on bicycling as
bicycling has become much moreinteresting in a topic of
discussion here in Houston, forexample.
Mm-hmm.
, I did a lot moreof questions of the environment
and the applicability of NEPAand CEQA, the Cal, sorry, the
National Environmental PolicyAct and California Environmental
(13:50):
Quality Act that affectedtransportation projects in
Southern California.
Because there was a lot more ofa discussion of the
environmental toll of a freewayproject in the Inland Empire of
California than there is talkinghere about I-69 through
Sugarland.
Mm-hmm.
.
So the topics always are gonnago with wherever I think, and
(14:14):
wherever the public is havingthat discourse.
Mm-hmm.
, what thedifference is, is that two
things that sort of come tomind.
Number one, a lot of theagencies that are responsible
for transportation, responsiblefor improving transportation for
upkeep and maintenance oftransportation have vastly more
(14:37):
ability because of technology.
Mm-hmm.
, specificallysocial media, to inform people
without needing me, frankly.
And the user, the commuter, thetraveler has much more
information at their fingertips,real time.
(14:58):
Mm-hmm.
than I ever can beresponsible for providing in an
up-to-date way.
I don't have to write 170 wordsbecause they're gonna shut down
a freeway or a tollway and thentell you on Friday morning so
that you know not to go there onthe weekend because you are
going to get in your car, you'regonna plug your phone into your
(15:21):
car and then all of a suddenGoogle Maps is gonna do the same
thing for you when you need toknow that.
Mm-hmm.
.
So it changes what we produceand it changes where I need to
focus my resources.
Bernie Fette (15:36):
Yeah.
You've mentioned just in thelast couple of minutes, the
transportation agencies, thosepeople who build and maintain
our transportation systems, andyou've also mentioned the
travelers, the commuters, peoplewho use those systems.
I'm wondering what you thinkreally stands out about those
two perspectives, the providersof the service and the users of
(16:00):
the service, and how thoseperspectives might align, how
they might differ that you'venoticed.
Dug Begley (16:06):
I'm understanding the question properly.
I think that there are outcomesthat providers are responsible
for and methods that providerscommonly utilize.
Mm-hmm.
, that the generalpublic and the traveling public
often don't know.
Mm-hmm.
.
And there are just simple thingsthat the general public notices
(16:31):
that the providers strugglesometimes to hear because of the
methods for that.
And that's on a nontransportation topic, but is a
good example of that.
If you ask people in line tovote whether or not it's hard
for them to vote, you are onlygetting a sample size of people
(16:53):
who actually successfully got toa polling place.
Right.
How do you get people who didn'tvote or don't want to vote or
don't care to vote because it'sinconvenient or because for
whatever reason, how do youcapture those people?
That conversation sometimes Ithink can be illustrative of
(17:14):
some of the choices that wemake.
But at the same time, the peoplewho are not engaged in the topic
come at it sometimes with lessof an understanding of the full
round of how this is done.
Bernie Fette (17:26):
What you're pointing out there actually
feeds into something else I washoping to ask you about, which
is about a month ago there was apoll done by the Texas Lyceum
that you may have seen theresults of.
Among other things, the resultsof that poll showed a sharp drop
in the percentage of Texans whothink that democracy is the best
(17:46):
form of government.
A number of national polls areshowing similar results in the
last few years.
For the most part, it's ourgovernments that provide
transportation systems.
And just to complicate matters alittle bit more, more polls that
I've read are showing a declinein the share of people who have
faith in mainstream newsreporting.
Mm-hmm.
(18:07):
, Where do youthink that those two things
together leave us?
Dug Begley (18:13):
I have no earthly idea where a lack of faith
leaves us in the level of trustthat we have for one another or
for institutions.
I think that there is the, thereality of it is, is that we
live in a society from aninformation standpoint where you
(18:36):
can choose your information.
Mm-hmm.
.
Mm-hmm.
.
And that inherently comes withsilos and differences that are
not traversible.
There are people that argue thatwe don't necessarily choose our
own perspectives anymore.
We choose our own facts.
Bernie Fette (18:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's confirmation bias inmany cases.
Dug Begley (19:01):
Right.
But also there's where youchoose to look and where you
choose to blind yourself.
Yes.
In a lot of perspectives.
Mm-hmm.
.
And I think for that reason youare going to have some
difficulty in maintaining auniversally agreed to point of
view or goal even.
Mm-hmm.
That like it,whether it's a, esprit de corps
(19:22):
or whatever, you are gonna havea challenge in saying that we
all want to go here.
Right.
And we're gonna do it this way.
Bernie Fette (19:31):
It's been said that journalists are responsible
for writing the first draft ofhistory.
So Dug, no pressure.
Right?
Dug Begley (19:42):
First draft's gonna be really misspelled, man, I can
tell you.
Yeah.
.
Bernie Fette (19:45):
Okay.
That's a pretty loftyaspiration.
But as a friend of mine mightsay, it has the added benefit of
being true.
Dug Begley (19:51):
Fair.
Bernie Fette (19:51):
Uh, yeah.
Any thoughts about how the finaldraft of transportation history
might line up with your firstdraft?
Other than the misspellings?
Dug Begley (20:05):
?
Other than the misspellings?
I think that there are a lot ofchoices inherent in
transportation.
And what I would like is forthat first draft to give people
an understanding of where theirofficials and bureaucrats and
(20:25):
neighborhoods and even eachother were coming from when they
made the choices they made.
And historically, none of thoseoutcomes often come to pass
exactly as they were predicted.
But those choices are the mileposts for what happens next.
Mm-hmm.
.
And so if you look at, case inpoint here in the Houston area,
(20:50):
there was a choice made to widenInterstate 10 outside Loop 610
all the way to virtually Katy.
And then eventually past Katy toBrookshire.
And now they're working onBrookshire to the Brazos River.
And I'm sure that after thatit's Brazos River to Sealy is
already completed.
Sealy to Columbus, Columbus towhatever is past Columbus.
(21:11):
All of a sudden you have threelanes in each direction to San
Antonio.
And those are the choices thatare being made to continually
move that on and on and on.
But here in Houston, in order todo some of that widening, a rail
line was removed.
And now 15 years later, thereare people who question, well
(21:32):
man, I really wish we'd had thatrail line.
Now others will say, look, wewere confronted with crippling
problems when it came tocongestion.
We knew that much of our growthwas going westward.
We did the thing that people andtravelers and everyone wanted us
to do.
You can see where those choiceswere made and you can see the
(21:56):
outcomes of those choices.
More people use that freeway nowthan ever before.
It is much more effective thanit would be if it wasn't as wide
as it is now.
But it's as wide as it is nowand it's still feeding a beast.
And it's getting more and morecongested and more and more
travel is going on along it.
And if you had made a differentchoice 15 years ago, we don't
(22:20):
know what it would look like,but we know that whatever it
looked like would be where weare now.
Those choices are weekly, dailyin some cases.
Some of'em obviously are moreimportant than others.
The I-45 through Houston, forexample, will be the next great
choice.
Those choices are what, 30 yearsfrom now future Dug Begley, who
(22:46):
will hopefully is much healthierand thinner, will look back and
write how that choice was a goodthing.
That choice was a bad thing.
That choice was the greatestchoice that Houston made when it
came to mobility or that choiceis what destroyed downtown and
all sorts of things.
Bernie Fette (23:03):
Yeah.
Was there any experience thatyou had as a journalist that
made you think, maybe I shouldhave gone into--blank-- instead
of this newspaper thing?
This is your opening to tell afavorite war story.
No need to name names other thanyours.
Dug Begley (23:19):
Right, right.
I don't know that there's a timewhere I've thought like, oh wow,
I should have gone intosomething else that isn't
related to frankly being pissedoff about some idiot decision.
Mm-hmm.
, that put me in afrustrating point of view about
my job or my company or whateverstory I was working on at the
time.
(23:39):
I will say that like there ismore of a beauty to journalism
that I think-- I had a boss, TomLinley, I worked for in
Jeffersonville, Indiana.
I worked actually for MichaelLindenberger as well there.
But Tom Linley, who was theeditor and publisher of this
little paper in Jeffersonville,Indiana once sort of, I think
distilled it the best way I'veever heard, is that the beauty
(24:02):
of journalism is that if youhave a really bad day and we put
out a terrible paper, that's anembarrassment to all of us.
We get to wipe the slate cleancuz there's another paper coming
out in 24 hours.
Mm-hmm.
.
But if you have a really goodday, the challenge of it is,
yeah, that's great and all, butyou get to wipe the slate clean
(24:22):
cuz there's another paper comingout in 24 hours.
Mm-hmm.
Now when thatpaper comes out is immaterial
because we've, so muchof it is online, so much of it
is information that is in aimmediacy.
Yeah.
But the premise still applies.
The fact that the story is aninteresting story.
You do the best you can and thenyou move on.
(24:44):
Right.
And that's not to be cavalier orcrass about it.
There are stories that willconstantly come up and topics
that will constantly come up.
But we're just trying to dothis, man.
I mean like it's sort of a keepgoing and keep going and keep
going and there will always begood stories and there will be
stories that you just have tosort of shove in your outbox.
Yeah.
Cuz they're necessary to do.
Bernie Fette (25:06):
Yeah.
On the subject of what you justsaid, keep going and keep going.
What, what is it that keeps youshowing up to work every day?
Dug Begley (25:14):
Paycheck mainly.
No, I'm joking.
Bernie Fette (25:15):
I know, but I get that answer to a lot of the
times that I ask this question.
So you get paycheck and...
Dug Begley (25:22):
The fact that I can go out and like do something
that is interesting and get paidfor it.
I mean that's the wonderment ofthis is I get to go ask people
questions.
I get to ask people about theirlives.
I get to ask people about thechoices they're making and why
they're making those choices andwhat prompted them to make those
choices and try to tell aninteresting yarn.
(25:44):
Mm-hmm.
In some cases.
And then magically I'm givenmaterials to go do that and time
to go do that, that a lot ofpeople don't have the luxury of.
And some of it is just sort ofmundane.
It can be very mundane.
And then sometimes it can beincredibly interesting.
I mean, the easy one to panderto the good people of TTI is,
(26:06):
there is a lot of sciencebehind, you know, barriers and
how to properly protect peoplefrom very large, fast-moving
vehicles, both from a statedepartment and diplomacy and
security and all sorts ofthings.
Right.
But really, it's just real coolsometimes to watch people crash
an ice cream truck.
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
(26:26):
There's an element of that.
Yeah.
And people do have, sometimes,sometimes there are a myriad of
ways to make a living injournalism.
Can't remember if it was when Itook the job in Riverside or
when I took the job here that mymother once asked if I was the
one in the, the helicopter.
And it, it took me a while tolike understand that.
(26:47):
Like, no, I'm not the guy that'son the radio that gives the
traffic report in the morning.
It's 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 AM.
Like, that's not, it'sdifferent.
Bernie Fette (26:55):
Right.
We've been visiting with DugBegley, veteran transportation
writer at the Houston Chronicle.
I expected that you'd be sharinginsights that we couldn't get
anywhere else, Dug.
And I'm happy to say that Ithink I've been right about
that.
So thank you very much forhaving this conversation.
We really appreciate it.
Dug Begley (27:16):
Not a problem.
I'm happy to do it.
Bernie Fette (27:20):
It's been said that journalists are responsible
for writing the first draft ofhistory.
To do a good job of that, firstand foremost, they need to be
good storytellers.
They need to understand moneyand politics and engineering.
It also helps to know a lotabout human behavior.
But that's not all.
(27:40):
Speed limits, impaired driving,self-driving cars, traffic
congestion, buses and trains,bicycles and pedestrians, and so
much more.
In one way or another,transportation touches the life
of every person, every day.
And so for a transportationreporter, there will always be
(28:01):
something to write about,especially at a time when both
transportation and the newspaperindustry are navigating historic
changes.
Thanks for listening.
Please take just a minute togive us a review, subscribe and
share this episode, and we hopeyou'll be back next time for our
(28:23):
conversation with Laura Ryan,who will join us to reflect upon
her recently completed six-yearterm as a member of the Texas
Transportation Commission.
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.
(28:45):
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 getourselves and the things we need
from one place to another.
I'm Bernie Fette with the TexasA&M Transportation Institute.
In the newspaper business, therearen't as many transportation
(00:34):
writers as there once were.
In fact, across the country,their numbers have been
shrinking for many years.
But not in Houston.
10 years ago, Dug Begley went towork as the transportation
reporter for the HoustonChronicle, and since that time
he's been telling stories aboutthe agencies who provide
(00:54):
transportation systems and thetravelers who use them in one of
America's biggest and fastestgrowing cities.
He joins us for this episode ofThinking Transportation, to
share some observations thatonly a person with his unique
vantage point might be able tooffer.
Thank you for doing this, Dug.
(01:15):
I know it might feel just a bitforeign to be the person
fielding the questions insteadof the person that's asking
them.
How long have you been theChronicle's transportation
writer, and for the benefit ofthose who haven't read your
resume or perhaps don't followyou on Twitter, excuse me, for
(01:35):
the benefit of those who don'tyet follow you on Twitter,
because surely after thispodcast, they will.
Maybe tell us a little about thejob path that got you to this
point.
Dug Begley (guest) (01:45):
Um, I've been here in Houston about 10
years.
I came here as thetransportation reporter.
For five years prior to that, Iwas the transportation reporter
at the Riverside PressEnterprise, which coincidentally
is owned by Belo that owns theDallas Morning News.
Mm-hmm.
(02:06):
passed away, MichaelLindenberger was the
transportation reporter inDallas and had for the Morning
Morning news.
Yeah.
For the Morning News for a fewyears.
And then he went on to be theD.C.
business reporter for the DMN.
He went to their editorialboard.
He came to our editorial boardas the deputy opinion editor,
and then went on to the KansasCity Star as the vice president
(02:27):
of opinion.
But when Michael was thetransportation reporter in
Dallas, Riverside, which wastheir smaller paper but owned by
the same company, had an openingand somehow some way, Michael
had struck up a conversationwith the managing editor there
at the time and told him like,Hey, I got a friend that's in
(02:48):
Arkansas.
He's done, not necessarilytransportation, but he's been
covering cities and regions witha bent on some growth and
development and things likethat.
Yeah.
And so, so I went out toRiverside after two, three years
in Arkansas, both inFayetteville and Fort Smith, but
(03:09):
I covered city government andthen sort of a wider region of
Oklahoma for the Fort SmithTimes-Record.
So it's just been transportationI've been doing about 15 years.
But if you go back, a lot ofgovernmental reporting, a lot of
growth and development reportingis inherently transportation
(03:30):
reporting.
Bernie Fette (03:31):
Right.
Well, it's a good thing thatMichael turned you on to that
opportunity, and I can alsorecall having a number of
conversations with him over theyears.
His passing was certainly a lossfor the profession of
journalism.
Dug Begley (03:43):
Absolutely.
I mean, and he had just been afantastic reporter.
I've known Michael for 25 years.
He and I went to collegetogether at the University of
Louisville.
And Michael, I don't know ifI've had five full-time jobs in
my career, Michael is probablysomewhat responsible for at
least three of them.
Bernie Fette (04:02):
Okay.
Apart from simply building yourskill set as a writer and a
reporter at those variousplaces, what do you think it is
about those earlier years thatpositioned you well for the gig
you're in now?
Dug Begley (04:13):
There are reporters that can sort of carve out a
niche or an expertise or justsort of a broad topic, and I
don't mean necessarilytransportation, the environment,
immigration, whatever.
It's just the reporters caninherently be writers.
Some of them have a lean towardspolitics.
(04:34):
Some of them have a lean towardsbusiness, sports, whatever.
And I think that where I've beenfortunate is that I have an
interest in math that isn'tenough to actually be good at
math, but understanding how it'sapplied.
And so if you're a reporter whodoesn't really like dealing with
(04:55):
spreadsheets, if you don't likedealing with charts, if you
don't like dealing with moneyand numbers, you know you're
probably gonna drift intoanother type of reporting.
Right.
There may be a few of us thatsort of bridge all of those
gaps.
And where I'm lucky is thatreally, I don't know enough
about anything to be an expert,but I know enough about money
(05:17):
and politics and engineering andhow to tell a story and how to
talk to regular people and howto distill complex information
down for some simple tasks.
And the beauty of that is thattransportation is a nice space
for that.
Bernie Fette (05:32):
Yeah.
Dug Begley (05:33):
That maybe not everybody else would gravitate
towards.
There are probably a lot of mycoworkers that having my beat
may be considered punishment tothem.
Okay.
Whereas I getting drifted intoone thing like elections or
okay.
Things like that may be lessblissful for me because I can
(05:56):
pick and choose.
The beauty of transportationreporting, to me, at least, what
I'm blessed to be able to dohere in Houston is that I can
generally do all sorts of thingsas I choose to do them within
the necessity of what the topicsare.
So earlier today, I was talkingto the Houston Public Works and
(06:20):
a city official about plans toredo a roundabout.
Mm-hmm.
It's gonna take them a fewhundred thousand dollars,
they're gonna redo theroundabout, but it's a big deal
to the people who drive throughit.
Right.
It's also a big deal that someof the project has to do with
pedestrian safety.
It has to do with cyclists andconnectivity to one of the major
(06:40):
parks.
Bernie Fette (06:40):
Lots of moving parts.
Yeah.
Dug Begley (06:42):
Well, and also lots of disparate points of view that
are coming together.
Bernie Fette (06:45):
Exactly.
Dug Begley (06:45):
That to me is the appealing thing about doing
these types of stories.
Bernie Fette (06:50):
You mentioned Houston, of course, where you
are.
I'm wondering, is there anythingabout Houston that makes your
beat particularly unique orinteresting or maddening?
Dug Begley (07:02):
I think that any major metro area has its own
quirks.
Mm-hmm.
Like that's not to dismissHouston, but you could drop me
in Dallas, in Austin, in L.A.,In Phoenix and Denver.
And generally that job can besimilar if people choose to do
(07:24):
it in the way they want it done,and the where the interest lies,
Chicago, D.C., New York, you'regonna have a different type of
job because of the use oftransit and because the density
may be different.
But Houston, I think, is in aninteresting place now because of
where the conversations arestarting to go.
(07:45):
It's a city that was built afterthe second World War.
It's a very auto-centric city.
That's not gonna changeovernight, but a lot of those
conversations, even in thedecade I've been here, have
changed in terms of tone, interms of where investment is
being made in terms ofrethinking streets within the
urban core versus streets in thesuburban areas, and who uses
(08:11):
them, how they're used, howwe're all gonna get about and
how you move from these nodes,which Houston is probably, I
would say, one of the moreinteresting places to have the
conversation of where you'retalking about nodes and major
centers that you have downtown,uptown, Texas Medical Center,
(08:32):
Pearland, Sugarland, Woodlands,and Conroe.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
They're all pulling on eachother, but they're all pulling
from each other as well.
Mm-hmm.
Bernie Fette (08:51):
You mentioned several cities.
You mentioned Phoenix, New York,Atlanta, several other major
cities.
There was a time, not really allthat long ago, it seems when all
of the major papers in theUnited States had a person
assigned to the transportationbeat, maybe even more than one.
(09:12):
Mm-hmm.
But that's no longer the case.
Why do you think that'shappening?
Dug Begley (09:19):
I think that there is some of a pullback into
understanding where newspapers,especially if we're talking
about just the major metrodailies.
Mm-hmm.
Some of them are smaller thanthey used to be in terms of the
number of staff.
And a lot of places have chosento eliminate that as a job.
(09:40):
I don't know that they'veeliminated it as a beat, but it
may be a situation wheresomebody has that beat and
another beat.
Bernie Fette (09:49):
Right.
So the emphasis may not be whatit once was.
Dug Begley (09:53):
Well, the emphasis may be the same, but it may be
spread across multiple peopletoo.
Having a overwhelming,all-encompassing single
transportation person and havingseven reporters that are
thinking about it.
There are pluses and minuses toboth of those.
Bernie Fette (10:10):
And it may be an impression that I was under the,
just wasn't perhaps accuratebecause I've been observing from
a particular vantage pointtalking to you and other
transportation writers from timeto time without having any data
to back this up or any hard datato back this up.
It just seems like there arefewer of them than there used to
(10:30):
be.
At the same time that newsroomsaround the country, whether it's
newspapers or broadcast, seem tobe shrinking in numbers of
journalists that they employ.
Dug Begley (10:41):
I think that's true, but also with transportation and
a few other topics.
Mm-hmm.
rise of some of the web-basedinstitutions that may be looking
at it nationally?
Right.
CityLab, which was its own thingfor a while, but it's now part
of Bloomberg.
Right.
(11:02):
Is a vast resource of qualifiedtransportation reporters.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That are doing things.
I think there are peoplededicated to CityLab.
I think CityLab takes a lot offreelancing in as well.
I have no earthly idea.
I just get that from what Iread, it seems that sometimes
there's freelancers andsometimes they're staff
reporters and they're alsoleveraging the fact that
(11:22):
Bloomberg has tens and hundredsof reporters in various places.
Mm-hmm.
Streets blog.
Bernie Fette (11:30):
Right.
Dug Begley (11:31):
Is fantastic for that.
Right.
There are a number of blogs orjournalism online that deal with
transportation and the topic oftransportation.
The Verge has great.
The Verge transportationreporting, depending on what you
choose to use for the job.
Transportation has moved toother sectors.
(11:54):
Like I believe the Los AngelesTimes has a transportation
reporter that is fantastic.
Mm-hmm.
They also have, I believe, anautomotive reporter, but it is
attached to their business desk.
Bernie Fette (12:05):
Yeah.
Dug Begley (12:06):
Washington Post has a number of transportation
reporters doing a number oftransportation things like Ian
Duncan covers federal policy.
Yeah, yeah.
Because DOT is all there.
Yeah.
Justin George does a fantasticjob covering Wilma.
Bernie Fette (12:20):
Yeah.
And you've got Katie Shaver.
Dug Begley (12:22):
And, and you've got Katie Shaver, you've got Lori
Aratani, I mean like they've gota deep bench of reporters that
do both the local stuff for theDMV area.
Also the federal policy and alsowma cuz they have one of the
great public transportationsystems that has both challenges
and opportunities.
Bernie Fette (12:40):
Yeah.
So part of this is theincreasingly overlapping nature
of transportation and how someof those beats are
correspondingly overlapping aswell.
Dug Begley (12:50):
Sure.
Transportation reporters, Ithink bring a lot of their own
method.
It's part of the beauty of it tome that yeah, they bring a lot
of their own methodology.
They bring a lot of their ownpreferences because we have the
luxury of being able to choosesometimes where our focal points
are and those change.
Bernie Fette (13:08):
Yeah.
And you're talking about a lotof changes in the news industry.
There have also been some prettysignificant changes in the
transportation world.
How have those changes on bothof those fronts affected how you
do your job, how you report ontransportation?
Dug Begley (13:27):
I've done a lot more reporting on bicycling as
bicycling has become much moreinteresting in a topic of
discussion here in Houston, forexample.
Mm-hmm.
and the applicability of NEPAand CEQA, the Cal, sorry, the
National Environmental PolicyAct and California Environmental
(13:50):
Quality Act that affectedtransportation projects in
Southern California.
Because there was a lot more ofa discussion of the
environmental toll of a freewayproject in the Inland Empire of
California than there is talkinghere about I-69 through
Sugarland.
Mm-hmm.
So the topics always are gonnago with wherever I think, and
(14:14):
wherever the public is havingthat discourse.
Mm-hmm.
things that sort of come tomind.
Number one, a lot of theagencies that are responsible
for transportation, responsiblefor improving transportation for
upkeep and maintenance oftransportation have vastly more
(14:37):
ability because of technology.
Mm-hmm.
without needing me, frankly.
And the user, the commuter, thetraveler has much more
information at their fingertips,real time.
(14:58):
Mm-hmm.
up-to-date way.
I don't have to write 170 wordsbecause they're gonna shut down
a freeway or a tollway and thentell you on Friday morning so
that you know not to go there onthe weekend because you are
going to get in your car, you'regonna plug your phone into your
(15:21):
car and then all of a suddenGoogle Maps is gonna do the same
thing for you when you need toknow that.
Mm-hmm.
So it changes what we produceand it changes where I need to
focus my resources.
Bernie Fette (15:36):
Yeah.
You've mentioned just in thelast couple of minutes, the
transportation agencies, thosepeople who build and maintain
our transportation systems, andyou've also mentioned the
travelers, the commuters, peoplewho use those systems.
I'm wondering what you thinkreally stands out about those
two perspectives, the providersof the service and the users of
(16:00):
the service, and how thoseperspectives might align, how
they might differ that you'venoticed.
Dug Begley (16:06):
I'm understanding the question properly.
I think that there are outcomesthat providers are responsible
for and methods that providerscommonly utilize.
Mm-hmm.
often don't know.
Mm-hmm.
And there are just simple thingsthat the general public notices
(16:31):
that the providers strugglesometimes to hear because of the
methods for that.
And that's on a nontransportation topic, but is a
good example of that.
If you ask people in line tovote whether or not it's hard
for them to vote, you are onlygetting a sample size of people
(16:53):
who actually successfully got toa polling place.
Right.
How do you get people who didn'tvote or don't want to vote or
don't care to vote because it'sinconvenient or because for
whatever reason, how do youcapture those people?
That conversation sometimes Ithink can be illustrative of
(17:14):
some of the choices that wemake.
But at the same time, the peoplewho are not engaged in the topic
come at it sometimes with lessof an understanding of the full
round of how this is done.
Bernie Fette (17:26):
What you're pointing out there actually
feeds into something else I washoping to ask you about, which
is about a month ago there was apoll done by the Texas Lyceum
that you may have seen theresults of.
Among other things, the resultsof that poll showed a sharp drop
in the percentage of Texans whothink that democracy is the best
(17:46):
form of government.
A number of national polls areshowing similar results in the
last few years.
For the most part, it's ourgovernments that provide
transportation systems.
And just to complicate matters alittle bit more, more polls that
I've read are showing a declinein the share of people who have
faith in mainstream newsreporting.
Mm-hmm.
(18:07):
together leave us?
Dug Begley (18:13):
I have no earthly idea where a lack of faith
leaves us in the level of trustthat we have for one another or
for institutions.
I think that there is the, thereality of it is, is that we
live in a society from aninformation standpoint where you
(18:36):
can choose your information.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And that inherently comes withsilos and differences that are
not traversible.
There are people that argue thatwe don't necessarily choose our
own perspectives anymore.
We choose our own facts.
Bernie Fette (18:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's confirmation bias inmany cases.
Dug Begley (19:01):
Right.
But also there's where youchoose to look and where you
choose to blind yourself.
Yes.
In a lot of perspectives.
Mm-hmm.
And I think for that reason youare going to have some
difficulty in maintaining auniversally agreed to point of
view or goal even.
Mm-hmm.
(19:22):
or whatever, you are gonna havea challenge in saying that we
all want to go here.
Right.
And we're gonna do it this way.
Bernie Fette (19:31):
It's been said that journalists are responsible
for writing the first draft ofhistory.
So Dug, no pressure.
Right?
Dug Begley (19:42):
First draft's gonna be really misspelled, man, I can
tell you.
Yeah.
Bernie Fette (19:45):
Okay.
That's a pretty loftyaspiration.
But as a friend of mine mightsay, it has the added benefit of
being true.
Dug Begley (19:51):
Fair.
Bernie Fette (19:51):
Uh, yeah.
Any thoughts about how the finaldraft of transportation history
might line up with your firstdraft?
Other than the misspellings?
Dug Begley (20:05):
Other than the misspellings?
I think that there are a lot ofchoices inherent in
transportation.
And what I would like is forthat first draft to give people
an understanding of where theirofficials and bureaucrats and
(20:25):
neighborhoods and even eachother were coming from when they
made the choices they made.
And historically, none of thoseoutcomes often come to pass
exactly as they were predicted.
But those choices are the mileposts for what happens next.
Mm-hmm.
And so if you look at, case inpoint here in the Houston area,
(20:50):
there was a choice made to widenInterstate 10 outside Loop 610
all the way to virtually Katy.
And then eventually past Katy toBrookshire.
And now they're working onBrookshire to the Brazos River.
And I'm sure that after thatit's Brazos River to Sealy is
already completed.
Sealy to Columbus, Columbus towhatever is past Columbus.
(21:11):
All of a sudden you have threelanes in each direction to San
Antonio.
And those are the choices thatare being made to continually
move that on and on and on.
But here in Houston, in order todo some of that widening, a rail
line was removed.
And now 15 years later, thereare people who question, well
(21:32):
man, I really wish we'd had thatrail line.
Now others will say, look, wewere confronted with crippling
problems when it came tocongestion.
We knew that much of our growthwas going westward.
We did the thing that people andtravelers and everyone wanted us
to do.
You can see where those choiceswere made and you can see the
(21:56):
outcomes of those choices.
More people use that freeway nowthan ever before.
It is much more effective thanit would be if it wasn't as wide
as it is now.
But it's as wide as it is nowand it's still feeding a beast.
And it's getting more and morecongested and more and more
travel is going on along it.
And if you had made a differentchoice 15 years ago, we don't
(22:20):
know what it would look like,but we know that whatever it
looked like would be where weare now.
Those choices are weekly, dailyin some cases.
Some of'em obviously are moreimportant than others.
The I-45 through Houston, forexample, will be the next great
choice.
Those choices are what, 30 yearsfrom now future Dug Begley, who
(22:46):
will hopefully is much healthierand thinner, will look back and
write how that choice was a goodthing.
That choice was a bad thing.
That choice was the greatestchoice that Houston made when it
came to mobility or that choiceis what destroyed downtown and
all sorts of things.
Bernie Fette (23:03):
Yeah.
Was there any experience thatyou had as a journalist that
made you think, maybe I shouldhave gone into--blank-- instead
of this newspaper thing?
This is your opening to tell afavorite war story.
No need to name names other thanyours.
Dug Begley (23:19):
Right, right.
I don't know that there's a timewhere I've thought like, oh wow,
I should have gone intosomething else that isn't
related to frankly being pissedoff about some idiot decision.
Mm-hmm.
my job or my company or whateverstory I was working on at the
time.
(23:39):
I will say that like there ismore of a beauty to journalism
that I think-- I had a boss, TomLinley, I worked for in
Jeffersonville, Indiana.
I worked actually for MichaelLindenberger as well there.
But Tom Linley, who was theeditor and publisher of this
little paper in Jeffersonville,Indiana once sort of, I think
distilled it the best way I'veever heard, is that the beauty
(24:02):
of journalism is that if youhave a really bad day and we put
out a terrible paper, that's anembarrassment to all of us.
We get to wipe the slate cleancuz there's another paper coming
out in 24 hours.
Mm-hmm.
But if you have a really goodday, the challenge of it is,
yeah, that's great and all, butyou get to wipe the slate clean
(24:22):
cuz there's another paper comingout in 24 hours.
Mm-hmm.
is information that is in aimmediacy.
Yeah.
But the premise still applies.
The fact that the story is aninteresting story.
You do the best you can and thenyou move on.
(24:44):
Right.
And that's not to be cavalier orcrass about it.
There are stories that willconstantly come up and topics
that will constantly come up.
But we're just trying to dothis, man.
I mean like it's sort of a keepgoing and keep going and keep
going and there will always begood stories and there will be
stories that you just have tosort of shove in your outbox.
Yeah.
Cuz they're necessary to do.
Bernie Fette (25:06):
Yeah.
On the subject of what you justsaid, keep going and keep going.
What, what is it that keeps youshowing up to work every day?
Dug Begley (25:14):
Paycheck mainly.
No, I'm joking.
Bernie Fette (25:15):
I know, but I get that answer to a lot of the
times that I ask this question.
So you get paycheck and...
Dug Begley (25:22):
The fact that I can go out and like do something
that is interesting and get paidfor it.
I mean that's the wonderment ofthis is I get to go ask people
questions.
I get to ask people about theirlives.
I get to ask people about thechoices they're making and why
they're making those choices andwhat prompted them to make those
choices and try to tell aninteresting yarn.
(25:44):
Mm-hmm.
In some cases.
And then magically I'm givenmaterials to go do that and time
to go do that, that a lot ofpeople don't have the luxury of.
And some of it is just sort ofmundane.
It can be very mundane.
And then sometimes it can beincredibly interesting.
I mean, the easy one to panderto the good people of TTI is,
(26:06):
there is a lot of sciencebehind, you know, barriers and
how to properly protect peoplefrom very large, fast-moving
vehicles, both from a statedepartment and diplomacy and
security and all sorts ofthings.
Right.
But really, it's just real coolsometimes to watch people crash
an ice cream truck
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
(26:26):
There's an element of that.
Yeah.
And people do have, sometimes,sometimes there are a myriad of
ways to make a living injournalism.
Can't remember if it was when Itook the job in Riverside or
when I took the job here that mymother once asked if I was the
one in the, the helicopter
And it, it took me a while tolike understand that.
(26:47):
Like, no, I'm not the guy that'son the radio that gives the
traffic report in the morning.
It's 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 AM.
Like, that's not, it'sdifferent.
Bernie Fette (26:55):
Right.
We've been visiting with DugBegley, veteran transportation
writer at the Houston Chronicle.
I expected that you'd be sharinginsights that we couldn't get
anywhere else, Dug.
And I'm happy to say that Ithink I've been right about
that.
So thank you very much forhaving this conversation.
We really appreciate it.
Dug Begley (27:16):
Not a problem.
I'm happy to do it.
Bernie Fette (27:20):
It's been said that journalists are responsible
for writing the first draft ofhistory.
To do a good job of that, firstand foremost, they need to be
good storytellers.
They need to understand moneyand politics and engineering.
It also helps to know a lotabout human behavior.
But that's not all.
(27:40):
Speed limits, impaired driving,self-driving cars, traffic
congestion, buses and trains,bicycles and pedestrians, and so
much more.
In one way or another,transportation touches the life
of every person, every day.
And so for a transportationreporter, there will always be
(28:01):
something to write about,especially at a time when both
transportation and the newspaperindustry are navigating historic
changes.
Thanks for listening.
Please take just a minute togive us a review, subscribe and
share this episode, and we hopeyou'll be back next time for our
(28:23):
conversation with Laura Ryan,who will join us to reflect upon
her recently completed six-yearterm as a member of the Texas
Transportation Commission.
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.
(28:45):
I'm your writer and host, BernieFette.
Thanks again for listening.
We'll see you next time.
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