ITS California has created the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Committee to help promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through education and growth opportunities for our members, transportation professionals and in our communities.
As a community specializing in transportation, we strive to be as diverse as the members and communities we serve. Our different perspectives lead to different policy and engineering outcomes and we value this diversity. The results and comments received from this survey will help ITS CA formulate a strategic plan related to diversity and inclusion, and develop appropriate actions. This work will happen in 2021. Responses are anonymous and only aggregate data will be shared with ITS, and not all data collected may be used.
If you would like to participate in supporting this effort or would like to give specific non-anonymous feedback, please feel free to contact DEI committee chair Mark Jensen (mjensen@camsys.com).
ITS CA strongly condemns the year-long surge of racially-motivated violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We stand by our transportation professionals, many with an AAPI heritage, who are directly affected as they seek to improve the spaces and services used by all communities.
While our mission is to educate all sectors on the merits of technology in transportation and connect our members, we also have a duty to speak up when we see these biases and injustices to a community that has done so much for the transportation industry. We will continue to create an inclusive community for people of all backgrounds, including Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
ITS CA continues to work towards inclusivity for all existing and future members and we welcome your continued feedback. We have a responsibility to engage our members, colleagues, and communities from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds; our DEI efforts reflect that responsibility.
Please consider joining us in this effort. If you have any ideas for future topics, programming, or policy changes, please email us at its-caadmin@itscalifornia.org.
Respectfully,
With the grave loss of countless Black lives, we reflect as an organization on this industry’s role in confronting racial inequality and injustices. As transportation professionals, we must acknowledge and better understand how the transportation industry has contributed to the creation and proliferation of structural barriers disproportionately impacting communities of color. As we aim to drive the transformative power of technology in transportation, we acknowledge that a focus on racial equity will allow transportation systems to combat the systematic oppression of our disadvantaged populations.
While our mission is to educate all sectors on the merits of technology in transportation and connect our members, we also have a duty to understand our biases and educate the industry on the potential adverse impacts of our work. We vow to become shepherds of change by highlighting the impacts of transportation projects and policies on built environments in Black and Brown communities.
Within our organization, we will continue to educate ourselves and give attention to addressing historical, institutional, and societal inequality. We commit to do the following:
Create an inclusive space for Black, Indigenous and People of Color within our organization through the means of membership, leadership roles and session speakers
Broaden our outreach and partnership efforts to organizations committed to equity
Include topics related to the intersectionality of equity and transportation technology in our programming
In pursuit of our mission, we recognize that diversity and inclusion are markers of a thriving transportation industry and economy. We have a responsibility to engage our members, colleagues, and communities from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds so they are included in shaping our future. ITS California is committed to anti-racism and will take action to create meaningful change within our industry now and in the future.
Please consider joining us in this effort. If you have any ideas for future topics, programming, or policy changes, please email us at its-caadmin@itscalifornia.org.
Respectfully,