Herbert
H. Richardson
Herbert H. Richardson, long-time director of the Texas Transportation Institute and the A&M System’s longest-serving CEO, has announced plans to retire at the end of August. Here, he shares his views on management, TTI, and advice for his successor.
You have held several top positions since joining the A&M System in 1984—dean and vice chancellor of engineering at Texas A&M, chancellor, and finally, director of TTI—making you the System’s longest-serving CEO. How would you describe your management philosophy?
I prefer to call it my leadership philosophy. Management optimizes things as they are; leadership provides vision for the future. Some of the elements of my leadership style include:
- Treat everyone with respect; encourage initiative and innovation, and reward integrity and performance.
- Encourage diversity in ideas, people and programs
- Recruit and develop personnel of superior intellectual ability and motivation who can work in teams, and whose potential for leadership exceeds that of their predecessors. [For some of us, the latter is pretty easy.]
- Delegate responsibility and authority, and encourage risk taking
- Involve colleagues and external constituencies in establishing strategic goals and initiatives for the organization.
- Encourage collaborations within the organization and with outside institutions having complementary strengths and missions. Such coalitions can compete “with unfair advantage.”
These principles have worked well for me throughout my career.
You have said that, “Unlike some other academic disciplines, transportation researchers often get to see the real-world effects of their work.” What is an example of this?
There are many. One example is traffic management centers such as TransStar in Houston and Transguide in San Antonio, which monitor traffic, identify and address incidents and manage congestion. TTI played a seminal role in research leading up to these centers.
Another is the roadside safety devices designed by TTI that have saved thousands of lives and injuries on our highways. When TTI staff go home at night, they know that their efforts have made a difference in the safety and quality of life of Texans; this is why so many nationally prominent professionals have chosen to spend their whole careers at TTI.
TTI is perhaps best known for its annual study, since 1982, of traffic congestion in major U.S. cities. What are some of the methods TTI researchers are studying that might someday alleviate congestion?
Congestion continues to grow in Texas and America. In 2003, congestion caused 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and wasted 2.3 billion gallons of fuel, for a total cost of more than $63 billion. Congestion is rapidly spreading from large- to medium-sized metropolitan areas.
While congestion is certainly going to increase, mitigation will require a variety of solutions, among which are: more capacity; however, we will not be able to build ourselves out of congestion; and greater efficiency. Also, through traffic management and traveler information systems; demand management through toll pricing and other incentives; and land development patterns that localize employment, recreation and residential areas.
You have said that TTI’s roadside safety program has been broadened and since 9/11 has moved into the area of facilities protection. What does this mean?
We have been working with the Department of State and industry in developing and testing protective devices for embassies and other public buildings and facilities such as nuclear power plants. The objective is to prevent intrusion by vehicles carrying explosives or other hazardous materials. Some of the tests are quite dramatic!
Since 1964, TTI researchers have studied car crashes at Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus. In this high-tech age, do you predict that computer simulations will ever replace the “real thing?”
One of the TTI Centers of Excellence is the Center for Transportation Computational Mechanics. This center has sophisticated finite element simulation capability and has demonstrated excellent correlation between simulation models and actual crash tests. Thus many alternative designs can be evaluated by computer, saving thousands of dollars that would have been spent on physical tests.
In the end, crash tests must be run to demonstrate that federal requirements are met, but the computer simulations reduce the need for tests to a minimum.
Every fall since 1926, TTI has co-hosted the annual Short Course with the Texas Department of Transportation. At the two-day meeting, researchers from TTI, other universities and transportation organizations from around the country present and discuss the very latest in transportation advances. What do you think accounts for the longevity and popularity of the Short Course?
Other than Aggie hospitality and the unmatched conference facilities at A&M, the Short Course reflects the long-standing partnership between TxDOT and TTI.
At this annual meeting TxDOT leaders, district engineers and other employees, consulting engineers and industry representatives convene with researchers from Texas universities to compare experiences, transfer knowledge and research results and learn about practical field experiences and successes. The longevity of the program attests to the value the participants have gained over the years.
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the National Defense Highway Act, which initiated the interstate highway system, the largest federal public works project ever seen in the United States. What are some of the highway system’s major impacts on American life?
In his 1963 memoir, Dwight D. Eisenhower, for whom the Interstate Highway System has been named, wrote “the interstate’s impact on the American economy—the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up—was beyond calculation . . . more than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America.”
In Texas, the interstate has contributed nearly $2.8 trillion to the state’s economy. And it has drastically reduced injuries and fatalities. It is estimated that the interstate has saved more than 18,000 lives and 1.1million injuries in Texas alone.
But also the interstate has made possible state and national connectivity that has brought the state and the nation together in a way never thought possible.
What can you say about the Trans Texas Corridor? Does it make sense?
The Concept of the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) was proposed by Governor Perry to improve international, interstate and intrastate movement of goods and people, and to address the anticipated future needs of Texas.
It is a bold concept involving a network of multi-modal corridors across the state. These corridors would include highways, railways, pipeline, and utilities in common rights of way. The first of the corridors, TTC35, runs from the Texas/Oklahoma state line to the Texas/Mexico border and/or the Texas Gulf Coast.
It is currently being planned and due for construction over the next 20 to 50 years. The route will roughly parallel the present interstate highway I35, and will relieve congestion on that route.
What do you think you’ll miss most about the A&M System once you retire?
Not the Texas Legislature and not the August heat!
Mostly the hundreds of committed, talented and caring people I have had the honor of working with. The think-big, can-do culture of Texas and Texas A&M is unmatched anywhere. But I do not intend to totally separate myself from A&M, even though I do not plan to work as hard as I have during my active career.
What advice would you give the next TTI director, if asked?
I would offer the following four points:
- Spend as much time as it takes to understand the current programs and people in TTI. Meet with each research and service group and one-on-one with as many of the staff as possible. Include the support staff, as they are crucial to a smoothly running organization, and to TTI’s image with outside constituencies.
- Establish a close relationship with the Texas Department of Transportation, TTI’s largest customer, at the senior level and at the level of the research program and the district engineers statewide.
- Similarly, establish relationships with key members of the Texas Legislature, ensuring that they understand the impact of TTI’s work both in their districts and beyond. Be available to provide facts and advice regarding transportation policy alternatives.
- With participation by TTI staff and external constituencies, initiate a strategic planning activity to identify critical issues and new opportunities for the Institute going forward. TTI cannot succeed in the future with “business as usual."
