Graduate Together: Obama’s Commencement Speech speaks to transport professionals around the world

“Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 is an American television special that was simulcasted on the major television networks and online on May 16, 2020” (Wikipedia). As part of this, former President Barack Obama delivered the commencement speech. Its just over 7 minutes long. The transcript and recording are both available online.

I was really moved by it. The speech and speechmaker are magnets for superlatives. It reaches out to all young people completing their education, or a major milestone within their ongoing journey of lifelong learning. Yet it struck me that it was speaking out to my profession – to transport planning and the transport sector.

I encourage you to watch the recording or read the transcript and judge for yourself what messages it had for the transport profession.

In this article I’ve taken excerpts from the speech to try and illustrate why I think the speech is so profound and timely for the transport sector. If you are new to our profession – don’t be daunted: pay heed to Obama’s advice, stand tall and play your part in shaping a better future for transport and society.

“graduation marks your passage into adulthood - the time when you begin to take charge of your own life. It's when you get to decide what's important to you: The kind of career you want to pursue. Who you want to build a family with. The values you want to live by.”

I’ve never regretted choosing transport as my career (if indeed I did choose it rather than stumbling into it). I thrived on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) but I also had a taste for the humanities – a taste that grew and grew. I realised that what was most important to me was people and understanding and shaping the society in which we live. Transport is where the technical and social systems come together. Innovation is not the same as invention. Invention is the art of the possible. Innovation is turning invention into something that is adopted by society and shapes people lives (hopefully for the better). As Steve Jobs put it at his last Apple product launch in 2011, “‘It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough – that it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing”. If helping shape people’s lives is important to you then a career in transport has a lot of opportunity to offer and the transport profession in its widest sense is a great family to be part of.

“This pandemic has shaken up the status quo and laid bare a lot of our country's deep-seated problems -- from massive economic inequality to ongoing racial disparities to a lack of basic health care for people who need it. It's woken a lot of young people to the fact that the old ways of doing things just don't work; that it doesn't matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; and that our society and our democracy only work when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.”

There have been two unspoken ‘laws’ of transport: (i) you can’t have economic growth without motorised road traffic growth; and (ii) motorised road traffic will continue to grow (because it always has). The transport sector has in many ways been subservient to the god of economic growth. Policymakers speak of other goals but economic growth remains an overarching concern. As a result, our approach to transport planning and policymaking and to creation of new infrastructure has been to serve the pursuit of such growth. This has not been to the exclusion of other goals, but often it feels that such other goals are supplementary rather than primary. Yet over time we have come to realise that the way the transport system and its use has evolved has created significant social inequalities. This is epitomised by poorer neighbourhoods with least access to mobility being exposed to some of the highest levels of poor air quality as a result of wealthier parts of society consuming the mobility on offer passing through those neighbourhoods because they can afford to do so. It is also reflected in the effects of car dependence on land-use patterns - destinations people need have become harder to reach unless you own a car. COVID-19 is shining a further light on social inequality as lower paid workers most dependent upon public transport are more exposed to virus transmission because of their circumstances. We need a new generation of transport planners and decision makers to give social inequality the much greater importance it deserves so that we can begin shaping the future of mobility in a way that benefits everyone and not just the pursuit of economic growth.

“[This pandemic has] also pulled the curtain back on another hard truth, something that we all have to eventually accept once our childhood comes to an end. And all those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? Turns out that they don't have all the answers. A lot of them aren't even asking the right questions. So, if the world's going to get better, it going to be up to you.”

There are ‘ways of doing things’ in the transport profession – they are taught (and hopefully questioned) in universities, and proficiency in understanding and applying them in practice is a cornerstone of professional qualifications. This can lead the early career professional into thinking that ‘the profession’ knows what it is doing and has all the answers; that the way of doing things is the right way, has always been thus, and always will be. Yet this is not the case. As in other sectors, the transport profession has evolved ways of doing things (one hopes with the best of intentions). Such ways of doing things are a construct of an accumulation of professional insights and human judgements. They are not perfect and they are not immutable. As a colleague put it to me once, values of time used in economic appraisal of transport schemes are not like laws of physics. They are a result of assumptions professionals have made about what might be the best ‘way of doing things’. A characteristic of my own career has been to constructively challenge orthodox ways of thinking and doing. I’ve wanted to ask why the way of doing things is as it is and to question whether the logic stacks up and to see if other views and ways might be equally if not more appropriate. I think its reasonable to suggest now that transport professionals are increasingly aware that we don’t have all the answers and that we probably need to step back and consider whether we are asking the right questions. We need our new generation of transport professionals, especially, to make constructive challenge a core facet of the approach to their work.

“That realization may be kind of intimidating. But, I hope it's also inspiring. With all the challenges this country faces right now, nobody can tell you "no, you're too young to understand" or "this is how it's always been done." Because with so much uncertainty, with everything suddenly up for grabs, this is your generation's world to shape.”

This excerpt has most resonance of all for me. It may be nice to enter a profession where the textbooks and design manuals tell you how things are done, to learn from these how to do things and then get on and apply that learning. It can be unnerving to then discover that doubt is being cast over whether this is an entirely defensible or even appropriate way of doing things. Forecasting future traffic levels, building models to assess how best to accommodate traffic growth, doing economic calculations to make the economic case for the preferred solution and so on – there is lots to learn in just being able to do this and much skill involved in doing it ‘well’. But what if this is subject to challenge and you have a chance to question and change how things are done? Quite an intimidating prospect – and yet an invigorating one if you feel able to challenge the orthodoxy. Up to now, challenging the orthodoxy has been difficult for many because to speak out against the system risks exposure and isolation. Yet with so much uncertainty, everything really is now up for grabs. COVID-19 has amplified the fact that the ‘grown up’ transport professionals may not have got it right. They themselves in some cases are aware of this and are certainly conscious of orthodox transport planning now struggling to provide the right answers to the right questions. Early career transport professionals have perhaps an unprecedented opportunity to shape professional practice in the interests of shaping a better future for transport and society.

“do what you think is right. Doing what feels good, what's convenient, what's easy -- that's how little kids think. Unfortunately, a lot of so-called grown ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs, still think that way -- which is why things are so screwed up.”

This speaks strongly to the transport sector it seems to me. Let’s take the controversial topic of roadbuilding. The UK Government has announced its second Road Investment Strategy with ￡27bn for the next five years for the Strategic Road Network. Others are mounting a legal challenge against this. If you are in the business of building roads, do you get on and build more roads and celebrate more Government funding to do so – because it plays to your strengths, its what makes you feel good and is convenient? It’s a good way to get promoted within that paradigm. Or do you question the appropriateness of this investment and ask whether it is really the best answer or whether there may be another way? If it feels right to question then this seems professionally the right thing to do. Yet it can be very difficult to do what’s right without feeling vulnerable to reputational damage and missed opportunities. However, as Obama goes on to say:

“if you listen to the truth that's inside yourself, even when it's hard, even when its inconvenient, people will notice. They'll gravitate towards you. And you'll be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.”