FHWA Illinois division administrator ready to enter the arena of futuristic transportation

In life, you have two choices: sit in the stands or step into the arena. For Arlene Kocher, Federal Highway Administration’s Illinois division administrator, the choice is simple — it’s the latter.

Kocher, who started her new gig earlier in February, has a vision for her Springfield staff: help state departments of transportation succeed.

“Their success is what makes our success,” said the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumna who received a bachelor’s in general engineering and later a professional engineer license.

High priority for Illinois Department of Transportation is sustainable funding — a need Kocher takes quite seriously.

“My role is to help them position themselves so that they can take advantage of that additional funding, whether it comes from the federal side or the state side,” she said.

A new asset management plan utilizing “transportation performance measures” for decision making should help with that.

“That’s one of the biggest things from a holistic standpoint — to help IDOT continue to grow in that area so they can make data-driven decisions to support preserving the assets we already have,” said the former FHWA Minnesota Division Administrator.

Such efforts will allow both transportation agencies to hone in on their No. 1 priority — safety.

“(It’s) trying to be a partner and help all of the agencies make decisions that will allow them to maintain their assets and keep the public safe,” Kocher said.

Well, that and continuing a relationship with IDOT’s research arm — UIUC’s transportation research center, ICT.

“ICT has filled that (research) gap in more ways than one, providing the vehicle and the workforce to do the research and carry (it) out in areas that is important to IDOT and (its) future, as well as providing support for innovations IDOT wants to pursue,” Kocher said.

Perhaps the most exciting innovation on the docket is ICT Director Imad Al-Qadi’s proposed Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track (I-ACT) — a high-speed connected and autonomous vehicle track near ICT’s current facility on the decommissioned Chanute Air Force Base — expected by 2021.

“I think it’s great,” Kocher said. “It’s important that Illinois enters the arena and works to prepare all of us on how this (autonomous vehicles) can affect us and what it is we need to be looking at and looking for as we build new infrastructure and think about how autonomous vehicles will be a part of that.”

Her favorite part? Drone integration.

“I love the fact that (with) I-ACT the track has got some inner modal components — that you’ve got the drone interaction to try and understand not only autonomy as a vehicle, but the autonomy of delivery and how that will also interact with the inner-modal loading and unloading,” she said. “It’s a very well-rounded laboratory that you’re (ICT) proposing.”

Kocher’s bird’s-eye view has already spotted a question that will come with autonomous vehicle integration: how to navigate both autonomous and traditional vehicles on the road together?

“That transition phase is going to be the trickiest part,” Kocher said.

While she assures these conversations will land on the national table for discussion, Kocher says, in the meantime, it’s wise to keep channels of communication open with others already steering towards such uncharted territory.

“I think that’s what’s going to be important for everybody — to continue to have the conversation about what’s working, what they’re struggling with, and how other people are tackling it,” she said.

That open-door policy for vehicle integration discussions isn’t Kocher’s only congenial approach to implementing the future of transportation. She hopes to do the same when it comes to legislative change.

“It’s always an interesting push and pull because there are times when the states really want the federal government to step in and set some specific standards about how autonomous vehicles are going to communicate,” she said. “They want us to say, ‘Yes, you have to have a driver even though you don’t have a steering wheel,’ or ‘you have to have a steering wheel.’”

What Kocher, FHWA, and even the U.S. Department of Transportation fear is that too many constraints will “stifle” innovation.

“We’re trying to play the role where we are allowing an atmosphere of innovation so that we can see what this really can become,” she added. “I think right now we all have kind of a narrow view of what autonomous vehicles are and how they operate. There could be a much broader view that we’re missing.”

While such innovative transportation is still years away from integration, Kocher couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of this moment in transportation history.