The Richards Transportation Initiative at Penn Launch Event

On October 17th, 2025, Transportation Initiative at Penn (TRIP) hosted a launch event focused on practical applications for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the transportation industry featuring over twenty senior executives
from across the public and private sectors. Key topics discussed included:

• How public agencies can create a culture of innovation
• Opportunities to accelerate the adoption of technologies that have tangible impacts on operations, maintenance, and safety
• Bridging research and practice
• Managing transparency and privacy while deploying new technologies
• The role well executed public-private partnerships can play in driving better outcomes in transportation
• AI’s potential impacts on the workforce
• How to responsibly deploy AI in public agencies
• Lessons learned on how to lead an organization in a time of rapid technological change

Key Insights

While the conversation was wide ranging, touching on everything from high-level leadership lessons to deep technical challenges, the panelists identified several insights that are applicable both in the transportation sector and for any organization looking to adapt in a rapidly evolving technological environment.

1. Organizations of all sizes need to be “scrappy”
   There is not one right way to integrate new technologies into a complex organization, so it is essential to find an entry point that matches organizational needs, ethics, and capabilities and iterate quickly.
    
2. Leaders need to make dedicated time and space for innovation
   Time is a limited resource in all organizations, but particularly in public agencies that are often under-resourced and responsible for safety critical operations which require constant attention. Executives need to create an incentive structure and specifically designated opportunities for their teams to pursue new, innovative, projects.
    
3. Public agencies NEED to steal the best ideas from each other and be honest about their failures
   The success, and failures, of emerging transportation technologies are all too often hidden away within public agencies or fail to jump across siloed sectors. Executives at all levels and in related, but often disconnected, industries like highways, transit, and aviation, need more opportunities to frankly discuss what innovations are, and are not, delivering value to their stakeholders.
    
4. Trust is essential to innovation
   Even the best innovations will fail if the public, your board, or staff do not trust the underlying technologies or the way the organization procures, implements, or manages them. Public sector leaders need to be open and honest with all their stakeholders, be prepared to take accountability for failures, and be effective storytellers for non-technical and technical audiences alike.
    
5. Great research can’t just sit on the shelf
   Public sector leaders are hungry for technical insights that only the academic community can provide on a wide range of tech and innovation issues. However, the incentive structures for researchers, time demands on executives, and cultural mismatches often slow the process of translating research into practice. More frequent and deeper engagement between the research and practice community is essential to accelerating technology deployment in the transportation sector to ensure the continued development of safer, more efficient, and equitable systems.

Participants

• Tejas Agarwal, Founder, SahayAI
• Eugénie Birch, Co-Director, Penn Institute for Urban Research
• Carlos Braceras, CEO, Utah Department of Transportation
• Michael Carroll, Deputy Managing Director, City of Philadelphia OTIS
• Randy Clarke, CEO, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
• Mark Compton, CEO, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
• Garrett Eucalitto, Secretary, Connecticut Department of Transportation
• Rich Farr, Executive Director, Rabbittransit
• Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, National Practice Consultant and Senior Vice President, HNTB
• Shanté Hastings, Secretary, Delaware Department of Transportation
• Debra Johnson, General Manager and CEO, Regional Transportation District
• Nadine Lee, CEO, Dallas Area Rapid Transit
• Leigh Palmer, Vice President, Google Public Sector
• Leslie Richards, Director, Transportation Initiative at Penn
• Megan Ryerson, Chair, Department of City and Regional Planning
• Atif Saeed, CEO, City of Philadelphia Department of Aviation
• Liz Smith, Transit and Surface Transportation Market Lead, Northeast Region, AtkinsRéalis
• Jeff Stade, Co-Founder, Jawnt
• Sabrina Sussman, Chief Program Officer, Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County
• Marie Therese Dominguez, Commissioner, New York State Department of Transportation
• Susan Wachter, Co-Director, Penn Institute for Urban Research