Sarah Goodyear’s recent article details both the rarity of a woman—in this case Robin Hutcheson—leading a large municipal transportation agency, as well as the ongoing evolution of Salt Lake City’s transportation network.
On the outlier represented by Hutcheson: “Pretty much every job in the transportation profession, from mechanics to road engineers, from truck drivers to airline pilots, has traditionally been dominated by men.” Goodyear quotes Marcia Ferranto, president and CEO of Women’s Transportation Seminar, to make the point that recruiting and retaining more women to the transportation field is in the interest of everyone: “There's a real crisis going on globally in transportation workforce development…We need to attract more people to transportation.”
Goodyear shares an anecdote in the article, however, of Hutcheson consistently shifting the focus away from herself, and onto Salt Lake City. With that in mind, following are some of the recent, sweeping changes in a city with an autocentric infrastructure and culture. “This is a car culture, no mistaking it,” says Goodyear, who also cites statistics that only 20 percent of the city’s cyclists are women.
