In a “fireside chat” held at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 2025 Safety Summit and Peer Exchange in New Orleans, Garrett Eucalitto (above at right) – commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation and AASHTO’s 2024-2025 president – explained that safety improvements can’t be undertaken with a “one size fits all” approach.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
“Safety has always been a high priority of mine and has been the focus as AASHTO president – especially in terms of making infrastructure changes to encourage safer transportation behaviors,” he said.
“But as I’ve interacted with the public and elected officials, often times I will hear that while they appreciate many of our safety initiatives at CTDOT, they tell me, ‘That won’t work in my community.’”
That’s why Eucalitto believes state DOTs – indeed, the industry as a whole – can’t take a “one size fits all approach” when it comes to making transportation safety improvements.
“It’s about using technology and infrastructure to provide solutions tailored to the needs of our communities, all of our system users, and our workers,” he said. “It’s about encouraging everyone to think outside the box, to look at how communities similar to theirs in other parts of the country address safety issues.”
This is also why Eucalitto has been focused on taking a “whole of AASHTO approach” to safety during his time as AASHTO’s president.
“This is where AASHTO comes into play, because it is an organization that is national in scope, that has a platform for reaching out and bringing different safety solutions to the table,” he stressed. “Because safety can’t be just the focus of highway safety officers or the highway patrol. Every part of the state DOT needs to work towards improving safety.”
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