Skip to main content

Transportation survey – industry on the move

US technology company AirSage has conducted what it says is the first in an annual look at the transportation industry and the professionals in it – with some interesting findings. Just released as an eBook, the AirSage Annual Transportation Industry Survey: an Industry on the Move, provides an insight into how US-based transportation planners and traffic engineers peers view the industry, their organisations, private versus government jobs, gender and age issues and more. Conducted During May and June 2013
August 19, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
US technology company 6178 AirSage has conducted what it says is the first in an annual look at the transportation industry and the professionals in it – with some interesting findings.

Just released as an eBook, the AirSage Annual Transportation Industry Survey: an Industry on the Move, provides an insight into how US-based transportation planners and traffic engineers peers view the industry, their organisations, private versus government jobs, gender and age issues and more.

Conducted During May and June 2013, the company questioned 126 respondents on a variety of issues from how practitioners keep up with industry trends/news to how they use social media, from what motivates them to go to work to where they see the industry should go versus where it will go, and more. Among the transportation planners surveyed, the study found:

•    21 per cent of respondents ages 18 to 28 cited working with different generations as a top concern
•    86 per cent prefer to get their news the old fashioned way (trade associations and newsletters, networking at smaller or local events, and traditional news sources such as The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, etc.) and only 16 per cent use social media as a primary news source
•    28 per cent  of planners polled were female and 43 per cent of them say there are a number of quiet/hidden challenges for women
•    65.4 per cent of those under 29 and 26.7 per cent of 29-35 year-olds were strongly in favour of new technology, while 81.4 per cent of over 57 year-olds were highly sceptical of it

AirSage says peer-to-peer perspectives, like those captured in this survey, provide a valuable lens through which transportation planners can evaluate their careers, their industry and multi-discipline projects.

“As a technology company that provides data to the transportation industry, we want to understand what professionals in every segment of the transportation industry are thinking, so we can improve our products and services,” said Cy Smith, CEO and Founder of AirSage. “And, we have a social responsibility to provide insights, particularly technology-driven insights, to the industry. The result is the First Annual Transportation Industry Survey.”

Other findings featured in the eBook include: perspectives on government entities versus private corporations; views on technology and how innovative the industry is; insights into how transportation planners view budget challenges and bureaucracy; and the future of housing, infrastructure, transportation planning and urban/suburban sprawl.

“Today’s professionals must keep current in new and emerging technologies to recommend the most cost-effective, site-specific solutions,” said Thomas W Brahms, executive director and CEO, 5667 Institute of Transportation Engineers. “In addition, we need to encourage new partnerships between the public and private sectors to develop collaborative solutions for transportation needs at all stages: planning, design, implementation and maintenance.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Debating the future development of ANPR
    July 31, 2012
    What future is there for automatic number plate recognition? Will it be supplanted by electronic vehicle identification, or will continuing development maintain the technology's relevance? In recent years, digitisation and IP-based communication networks have allowed Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to achieve ever-greater utility and a commensurate increase in deployments. But where does the technology go next - indeed, does it have a future in the face of the increasing use of, for instance, Dedi
  • Brake, IAM concerned at government figures on UK drink-drive habit
    August 7, 2015
    Brake, the road safety charity, and the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), have responded to the latest government figures which they say show Britain is still failing to adequately tackle its drink drive problem. A final estimate shows 240 people were killed by drivers over the legal drink drive limit in 2013, while provisional estimates suggest at least that number were killed in 2014. However, the number of people seriously injured in drink drive crashes did fall by eight per cent to 1,100 from 20
  • Enforcement cuts distracted driving dramatically
    April 17, 2012
    The government of Indonesia says it is working to reduce the number of road deaths in the country by 50 per cent by 2020 and by 80 per cent by 2035. To achieve this, the government will be upgrading the road infrastructure as well as introducing a road safety programme that will run over a ten-year and 25-year plans, starting this year. The programme will be overseen by the National Planning Development Board with involvement of the national police as well as the public works, transportation, national educa
  • Electronic vehicle registration ensures payment
    February 2, 2012
    Like most countries, Bermuda recognised that it was losing revenue through non-compliance with vehicle registration regulations and was equally concerned about vehicles that were not properly insured or put through annual inspections. Indeed, the tiny island state, with a population of around 65,000 people and some 30,000 vehicles, estimated it was losing more than US$1.4 million per year in tax-based revenue since approximately 8 per cent of vehicle owners were cheating the system.