I received my electronic ballot last night for voting in this year’s Midwestern ITE District election. Unfortunately, the system won’t let me go back to pull up bios and the district doesn’t have the candidate information on its website.
John Davis and Richard Coakley are running for the director position on the international board of directors. I’ve hung out with both of them, really like both of them, and they both have impressive resumes. I’m not going to weigh in on this race because I know either one of them would be great.
I am running against Mike Bittner for the Secretary/Treasurer position on the district board (this person then automatically move up the chain to be president). Below is the bio I sent in. If you received your electronic ballot yesterday or today, no matter which Mike you think will do a better job, I encourage you to vote!
Mike Spack, P.E., PTOE, Fellow of ITE for Midwestern ITE Treasurer/Secretary
President/Founder of CountingCars.com, Spack Consulting and Traffic Data Inc
Mike Spack has over 19 years experience working in the transportation industry, both in the public and private sectors. Currently, he runs a data collection company, a traffic engineering consulting firm, and a traffic counting product company. These companies have more than 1,500 clients spread across all 50 states and in over 40 countries.
Mike has led more than a thousand traffic engineering and data collection projects during his career, including work on all of the light rail transit projects in Minnesota. He has designed over eighty traffic signals and prepared several hundred traffic impact studies. Before starting Traffic Data Inc in 2001, Mike served as the staff traffic engineer for the city of Maple Grove, Minnesota.
In addition to his business activities, Mike has served as an Adjunct Professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Civil Engineering. His work is regularly published in the Minnesota Real Estate Journal as well as the University of Minnesota LTAP’s Technology Exchange. His industry leading blog, MikeOnTraffic.com, has been a forum for sharing traffic engineering tips and industry news since 2007. He is also the co-author of the Traffic Study Manual, a down-to-earth guide on how to prepare a successful traffic study.
Mike has been an active member of ITE since being a student member at the University of Minnesota. He served as the president of the North Central Section in 2005 and was on the board from 2001 through 2006. Mike was involved with initiating NCITE’s Professional Development committee in 2007 as well as the SimCap committee in 2014, serving as the first chairman of each committee. He has also been on the local arrangements committee for the last three MWITE conferences hosted by NCITE. Mike was honored with the NCITE Young Transportation Professional of the Year award in 2007 and the NCITE Past President’s Award for Transportation Professional of the Year in 2014.
As part of the Midwestern ITE District Board, Mike’s main objectives would be to:
- Strengthen the network of transportation professionals within the district to respond to the changing nature of our profession
- Promote best practices across the sections within MWITE
- Encourage student involvement in ITE
