Sep 27, 2026 · 20 min · 11 segments
In this episode of ITE Talks Transportation, longtime ITE member Dan Hardy, PE, PTP, reflects on his 40-year career and the…
Dan HardyGuest
Bernie WagonblastHostSo tell me a little bit about how your career path has shaped your approach to transportation planning.
I always kind of feel like I'm a dinosaur when I say, well, when I was studying this stuff back in the last millennium.
And so, yeah, I'm very lucky because I kind of grew up knowing what I wanted to do.
Remember my left shoe, my right shoe, I should learn these words, which is left and what's right.
And I understood that left turns were challenging because of cross traffic and right turns weren't, there was a left turn green arrow.
I also think there's a childhood book that's a classic Margaret Wise Brown book from the 1940s called Red Light, Green Light.
And you know, it's the classic, all the animals come out of their different homes and run around all day long and the traffic lights control them.
And of course, the last picture in the book is your classic kid's book, The Child Lying in Bed.
And so I think that, you know, I didn't think it at the time, but years later, I kind of said, I probably influenced me.
And I do think, like, as I kind of talk to people about what should you be thinking about as your career, that there's a classic Venn diagram that's got three circles on it.
It's what are you passionate about? What are you good at? What is it that society needs and values? And if you can find something in the center of those three circles, and it's tough for a lot of people, that's where your sweet spot really is.
So tell me a little bit about how your career path has shaped your approach to transportation planning.
I always kind of feel like I'm a dinosaur when I say, well, when I was studying this stuff back in the last millennium.
And so, yeah, I'm very lucky because I kind of grew up knowing what I wanted to do.
Remember my left shoe, my right shoe, I should learn these words, which is left and what's right.
And I understood that left turns were challenging because of cross traffic and right turns weren't, there was a left turn green arrow.
I also think there's a childhood book that's a classic Margaret Wise Brown book from the 1940s called Red Light, Green Light.
And you know, it's the classic, all the animals come out of their different homes and run around all day long and the traffic lights control them.
And of course, the last picture in the book is your classic kid's book, The Child Lying in Bed.
And so I think that, you know, I didn't think it at the time, but years later, I kind of said, I probably influenced me.
And I do think, like, as I kind of talk to people about what should you be thinking about as your career, that there's a classic Venn diagram that's got three circles on it.
It's what are you passionate about? What are you good at? What is it that society needs and values? And if you can find something in the center of those three circles, and it's tough for a lot of people, that's where your sweet spot really is.
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