Making the Case for Transportation Language Reform: Removing Bias

• Published in: ITE journal Vol. 87; no. 1; p. 41
• Main Author: Lockwood, Ian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Institute of Transportation Engineers 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Automobile drivers; Automobiles; Bias; Concerts; Culture; Engineers; Gender; Highways; Judgments; Language; Manuals; Per capita; Professionals; Roads & highways; Society; Traffic control; Transportation; Transportation engineering; Transportation planning; Wear; United States > US
• ISSN: 0162-8178

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), the Irish novelist and playwright, wrote "Words are the clothes that thoughts wear." Throughout history and in many fields, the use of language has influenced how ideas have been received by adorning thoughts with words that carry subjective meaning. Strategically assigning words to ideas can challenge or perpetuate biases, attitudes, and public opinion, and ultimately influence policies and culture. The field of transportation engineering and planning has its own biased language. Much of the technical vocabulary regarding transportation and traffic engineering was developed between 1910 and 1965. The foreword of the Highway Capacity Manual, first published in 1965, states, "Knowledgeable professionals, acting in concert, have provided the value judgements needed to, and have established the common vocabulary. Notice the acknowledgment of making "value judgments" and the purposeful development of a "common vocabulary." The period prior to 1965 was the golden age of the automobile in the US.