The site is managed by Dr. Gene Hawkins, PhD, PE, and Kelly Laustsen, PE.
Dr. Gene Hawkins, PhD, PE
“One day in the late 1980s, I was rummaging through my parent’s garage and came across a 1948 MUTCD that my father used when he was a student at the Yale Bureau of Highway Traffic in the mid-1950s. While perusing that document, I found that Stop signs were yellow, highway centerlines could be white, and green guide signs did not exist. It was an eye-opening experience that led me to begin collecting old traffic engineering books.”
Gene is a second-generation traffic engineer and is one of the country’s premier experts on the MUTCD. He has a large library of historical MUTCD publications. He is a senior principal engineer at Kittelson LLC and a retired professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is a former chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Traffic Control Devices Committee and is the current chair of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
Gene may be contacted at ghawkins@kittelson.com.
Kelly Laustsen, PE
When Kelly was a kid, she was fascinated with highways and when stuck in traffic, she wanted to know why. She wanted to walk to school and ride her bike to the local ice cream shop. While attending the University of Virginia, these early interests merged with her passion for the environment and desire to work with people, and led her to transportation engineering.
Kelly enjoys a broad array of transportation projects, but is most passionate about research, legal services, and developing new engineers and planners.
Kelly may be contacted at klaustsen@kittelson.com.