A huge opportunity for transportation reform will

A huge opportunity for transportation reform will present itself in the next decade as many current planners and engineers in the field prepare for retirement, according to a recent paper by the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. The Federal Highway Administration, for example, estimates that approximately 45 percent of its employees will be eligible for retirement by 2010. The Rockefeller Institute of Government estimates similar figures for state and local governments. The paper calls for reformers to develop tools to help the next generation of transportation practitioners respond to smart growth. The Funders Network, founded in 1999, is a group representing some of the nation’s largest charitable foundations, which focuses on identifying barriers to smart growth and how these barriers can be overcome. (See New Urban News March 2001.)