Welcome to Between Two Points

Introduction

We all know the saying.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

But is it?

As someone who works in transportation, where projects, policy, and perspectives regularly collide, I’ve found the answer is often no.

Yes, much of our work begins with a clear objective. A need is identified. Goals are established. A path forward emerges. Yet rarely does the journey follow the route we anticipated when we first set out.

From that observation, an idea was born.

Why We’re Here

Between Two Points is a place to share the journey as we explore the winding path between ideas and outcomes.

We should celebrate accomplishment.

A new road opens.

A budget is adopted.

A strategic plan becomes policy.

Those milestones matter. They represent progress, often made possible through years of effort.

What interests me, however, is not the ribbon cutting.

It is the journey that made the ribbon cutting possible.

We rarely have the capacity to examine the path that produced the outcome. More often, we’re busy doing the work itself.

However, that examination is where we learn. It is where we begin to understand what worked, what didn’t, and how the recipe can be improved.

The uncertainty.

The disagreement.

The false starts.

The difficult conversations.

The moments when progress stalled, priorities shifted, or the future seemed unclear.

In transportation, we spend a great deal of time focused on destinations. We identify needs, establish goals, and develop plans intended to move people and communities from one point to another. Yet anyone who has worked in planning, design, consulting, public administration, or elected leadership knows that the most interesting part of the story rarely occurs at either end of the journey.

It happens somewhere in between.

I’ve spent my career navigating different parts of the transportation profession. Along the way, I’ve learned that successful projects are rarely the product of technical expertise alone.

Data matters.

Planning matters.

Design matters.

Policy matters.

But transformative outcomes often depend on something far more difficult to measure.

Alignment.

Persistence.

Leadership.

The ability to move people, organizations, and communities toward a shared goal despite uncertainty, competing priorities, and imperfect information.

Those challenges exist everywhere.

They appear when a region attempts to improve safety.

When communities debate growth and development.

When planners pursue a long-term vision.

When policymakers confront disruptive forces.

When agencies try to transform ideas into action.

Transportation simply happens to be the laboratory where I’ve learned to observe them.

These observations led to the creation of Between Two Points.

Between Two Points explores transportation, policy, safety, leadership, and the broader forces that shape how change occurs.

But the deeper questions often extend beyond transportation itself.

Why do some ideas gain momentum while others stall?

How is consensus built?

How do leaders create change without formal authority?

Why do communities embrace some solutions and resist others?

What happens between identifying a problem and solving it?

Those questions fascinate me because they rarely have simple answers.

The purpose of Between Two Points is not to advocate for a particular agenda or present every issue as settled fact. Instead, it is a place to work through complicated questions, challenge assumptions, and share observations from an ongoing journey of learning.

Some conclusions may reinforce my current views.

Others may challenge me to confront and shift my own position.

That’s part of the process.

Because meaningful change is rarely linear.

Projects aren’t.

Organizations aren’t.

Communities aren’t.

People aren’t.

Perhaps that’s why the phrase between two points continues to resonate.

Not because the shortest distance between them is a straight line.

But because the most important lessons are often found along the winding path that connects them.

That’s where this publication lives.

And that’s where this conversation begins.

A Personal Milestone

It seems appropriate to launch Between Two Points on a day of personal significance.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of my first day working in transportation.

A quarter century later, I find myself reflecting less on milestones and more on the journeys that connected them.

The projects.

The people.

The lessons learned.

The assumptions challenged.

The ideas that succeeded, and those that didn’t.

Looking back, the path was anything but straight.

Which may be the most fitting introduction possible to a publication called Between Two Points.

I look forward to sharing that journey, and continuing the exploration, with you.

Looking Ahead

The topics ahead will range from transportation safety and public policy to planning, leadership, governance, and change.

Some discussions will focus on emerging challenges. Others will revisit long-standing assumptions.

Not every answer will be obvious.

Not every conclusion will be permanent.

But each exploration will begin in the same place:

A question.

And a willingness to follow the evidence wherever it leads.