Will Reid on Fixing Tennessee's Traffic Woes
Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Will Reid breaks down what TDOT actually does beyond paving roads, from operating ferries to inspecting 20,000 bridges to being the state's largest real estate buyer. Reid, the first employee to become commissioner in TDOT's history, explains how his department delivers projects at twice the national average and why people judge their government by the quality of their commute.
About Will Reid
Will Reid serves as the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, leading one of the state’s largest and most impactful agencies. A Memphis native and licensed engineer, Reid has spent more than two decades in transportation engineering and became the first TDOT employee in history to rise through the department and become commissioner.
Since joining TDOT in 2014, Reid has helped lead major infrastructure initiatives across Tennessee, focusing on safety, congestion relief, long-term planning, and innovation. His leadership blends private-sector experience with a deep commitment to public service and the people of Tennessee.
Keeping Tennessee Moving
Reid’s work centers on the systems Tennesseans rely on every day, from highways and bridges to emergency response and traffic management. As Tennessee experiences rapid growth, his focus is on building transportation solutions that keep people moving safely, efficiently, and reliably.
He also believes education and transparency matter just as much as infrastructure itself. Whether explaining traffic solutions, responding to winter storms, or planning for the future of autonomous freight, Reid emphasizes meeting people where they are and helping Tennesseans understand the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Resources
Tennessee Department of Transportation
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Carli Patton: Welcome to Signature Required. It is intended for Tennesseans by Tennesseans.
Spencer Patton: Commissioner Will Reid of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, welcome to Signature Required.
Will Reid: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Spencer Patton: This topic is one that is super near and dear to Carli and I's heart. The whole name of the podcast, Signature Required, comes from our transportation background. When you send something important and you want to make sure it's received, you send it signature required.
Carli and I's entire entrepreneurial history has been in the FedEx and last-mile delivery space. So it is a real treat to get to have you on this podcast in particular.
Will Reid: Thank you. I'm excited about being here.
Spencer Patton: So most people that have a basic understanding of TDOT, the Tennessee Department of Transportation, [00:01:00] I think if you ask them to go more than an inch or two deeper than that, as far as, like, what does TDOT do, maybe let's just start there, because I think people would pretty readily say probably pave roads.
Yeah. They deal with traffic and engineering, and then if you get beyond that, I think you'd probably start to lose a lot of people. So what is it that TDOT does?
Will Reid: So we have a very diverse system that we're over in Tennessee. To give you an example, and you mentioned some of the things most people associate us with.
So we have 1,200 centerline miles of interstate in Tennessee, over 33,000 lane miles are, uh, on our network, and I'll get to that in a minute. Our network versus local network, there is a distinction there, and that's often something people don't realize. We also, and m- m- pe- a lot of people probably don't know, we operate two ferries.
Hey, okay. We still have two ferries on the Cumberland River. Where are
Carli Patton: they
Will Reid: on the Cumberland? They're... Yeah, they're on the Cumberland. So we still operate two ferries. We have 70 [00:02:00] general aviation airports that we're over. We have all of the class, uh, the, the Class 1 railroads are located in Tennessee.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: So we are also one of the largest purchasers of real estate in the entire state. If you think about the right of way that we acquire for all of our projects, we have a full division that does nothing but buy real estate. So give you an example, we got a ton of projects in the hopper right now. We have some that have 250 tracts of right of way on them.
Wow. So think about buying your house 250 times-
Spencer Patton: Yeah. Wow ...
Will Reid: before you can get a project let to contract. 250 real estate transactions on one project. So that's a lot of, you know, the things we do. We inspect, uh, all the bridges in Tennessee, whether they're ours or not. There's 20,000 bridges in Tennessee.
Wow. We inspect all of those at least every two years. Wow. So there's a lot of things that go on. Uh, we test a lot of materials. We have a whole division in, in TDOT that tests all of the aggregate, all the rock that goes into asphalt. We test the asphalt cement. We test concrete, steel. [00:03:00] So it's a lot more than just what you see out there, which I think is, uh, probably pretty interesting to, to many of your listeners.
Carli Patton: A lot more than potholes.
Will Reid: A lot more than potholes, but that's a big part of what we do, too. I
Carli Patton: know it is. We
Will Reid: talked about
Carli Patton: that before. I know, yeah.
Spencer Patton: See, that's exactly what I was hoping to just uncork, because immediately the assumption is it's roads. Mm-hmm. But the transportation network, I mean, you talked about it's waterways and rail and bridges.
I mean, all these things that are more than interstate.
Will Reid: That's right. Well, being, y- y'all being in logistics, you understand that, that it is... The, the word system's really, really important. Mm-hmm. It's, you know, the highways are the arteries- Mm-hmm ... obviously, but rail, air, water, we have all of those in Tennessee.
Mm-hmm. It makes us very unique. The other thing that makes us super unique is we are within g- is our geography. The freight, the amount of things- Mm-hmm ... that move through this state, y'all know this- [00:04:00] Mm-hmm ... we are within a day's drive of half of the entire United States.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: That makes us a hub when it comes to moving people and goods across the country, not just the region, but across the country.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm. Can you talk just a bit about, while we're talking scope, the size of the department, and just employees, budget? Like, just try to help contextualize this so we can understand, 'cause that's a lot of responsibility in a lot of spaces.
Will Reid: Yeah, so our, our yearly budget's about $3 billion. Right. 2.9 billion.
We have 3,200 employees, and we have employees in every county, all 95 counties of the state.
Spencer Patton: Wow.
Will Reid: We're divided into four regions, uh, just in general. Uh, and I don't know why they numbered it this way, but it goes backwards from West Tennessee, that's region four, which is Tennessee River to, to Memphis.
Region three is where we're sitting right now in Middle Tennessee. Region two is, uh, Chattanooga and the Upper Cumberland, and then region one is Knoxville. Each of those regions are almost like mini DOTs in and of themselves. They all have 6 to [00:05:00] 700 employees, and like I said, we have, we have brick-and-mortar and people in every county in this state.
Spencer Patton: Hmm. So let's talk just a little bit about your story for a second- Yeah ... before... We have a lot of questions that we've got to ask you, and some of them are sophisticated and fancy questions- ... and some of them, uh- Most of them- ... you're just gonna have to shake your head- Yeah ... and be like, "Oh, my gosh. Okay, we gotta cover these, too."
Mm-hmm. So we got 'em all for you. Bear with us. But before we go there- Who's Commissioner Whit Wheat?
Will Reid: Yeah. Yeah. So I, um, I'm originally a, I'm a Memphis native. I actually grew up in Bartlett, Tennessee. Um, uh, went to Bartlett High School, uh, went to the University of Memphis, where I, uh, got a degree in civil engineering.
I'm a licensed engineer. Uh, been practicing, uh, transportation engineering for a- going on 26 years now. Spent the majority of my career in the private sector. Spent 16 years in the private sector before, uh, coming to TDOT. But my wife and I, we have two children. Um, just a little shout-out, my daughter Grace is graduating from Franklin High School, going on to UAH.
R- [00:06:00] Really, really proud of her. My son is a freshman at, uh, at Franklin High School, and my wife, who's an engineer also, which is interesting, 'cause we're both always right. Oh,
Spencer Patton: wow.
Will Reid: You know, so we have to balance that. But she, she works for a non-profit. Uh, she's been a huge supporter of mine. Als- She's also a native Memphian.
Back in 2011, we decided, uh, I was working for a company that was based out of Nashville. We got an opportunity to move here, moved here with that company, and then what led me to TDOT was back in 2014, uh, one of the former commissioners, who was former Mayor of Franklin, John Schroer, a dear friend of mine, was commissioner of the department at the time and was looking to bring some private sector flavor to the department.
Mm. And I had a friend that I worked with in the private sector that had gone to work for TDOT, and she recruited me. She's now deputy commissioner at TDOT, and one of my dearest friends and, and best colleagues. Um, she recruited me to come to depart- to the department in 2014. I came in as director of construction, and I had these ideas that, you know, you always hear about government this and government that.
Yeah. And, you know, I was like, "I'm, you know, I'm gonna, I'm [00:07:00] gonna bring a business mindset to the department. We're gonna run it like a business." And some of that is true, and we can get into that, but anyway, I, I'd always had the desire for public service. Mm. Okay? And I love transportation engineering. I love what I do, but that was the opportunity to come in and, and serve the public.
So came in as director of construction, worked my way up. Uh, most recently, I was named chief engineer, uh, a year- or, uh, four years ago now. Spent three years in that role, and then, um, when Commissioner Ely decided to retire, I got the opportunity, uh, thankfully, Governor Lee gave me the opportunity to be commissioner, and, and I came to find out, uh, I was the first employee to become commissioner of the department in its history.
Wow. Um, which I'm, I'm extremely, uh, proud of, but more so humbled. I feel like I, I represent 3,200 people that work really hard to provide a great value to the citizens of Tennessee and the people traveling here, so it's a, um, I'm very fortunate and very blessed.
Carli Patton: Mm. Mm. Tell me a little bit, coming from the private sector, you've always had a [00:08:00] heart for public service.
Mm-hmm. For people that have only done one or the other, what- Is the blessing of each, and how are they different- Uh ... a little bit?
Will Reid: The blessing is perspective.
Carli Patton: Mm.
Will Reid: Um, actually, I've, I followed a similar path to, to my dad. My dad, uh, who was in the financial industry most of his life, went to work, uh, in the...
He went to work for private sector out of college, and then, and then got a chance to work in government in Shelby County there in Memphis, and, um, spent four or five years there and then went back to the private sector. And he said it was... When I was trying to make this decision to go to TDOT, he said it was one of the best things he did because he, he gained the perspective of the difference between those two worlds- Mm-hmm
that you mentioned. And they are different. When you're, where in, when you're in a for-profit role versus a government service role, they, the, the things that, that drive you, the things that you're measured on, they are different. But the s- what's the same is, um, people have a passion for that, that, um, both are necessary.
And there are things that you can do in the public [00:09:00] sector that are similar to the private sector, but one of the things I learned is when you hear people talk about running government like a business, you can do that to a degree, but you have to understand that the, your goals are different, you know? Um, it's, it's, it's, you're not judged on a P&L statement as much as you are, you know, the satisfaction of the taxpayers or good public policy or all those things.
B- so what I've learned is there are things that you can bring from one world to the next, and when you put those together, I've... A lot of my leadership team has private sector experience. We've melded that with the career institutional knowledge of people in state government, and h- it has allowed us to do things that, that other DOTs across the country are actually looking at and saying, "How in the world did y'all do that?"
Mm. As, as an example, we're, we are delivering our legislative program- Mm ... projects listed in the governor's program, at 100%. The national average is 50. Mm.
Spencer Patton: Mm.
Will Reid: And we've done that 'cause we focused on things that work in the private sector as far as how we, [00:10:00] we set metrics for people to deliver projects on time.
Carli Patton: Mm. Mm. And I'm curious, when you're in transportation engineering, you're always impacting the public, right? Mm-hmm. There's never a project you're working on that is just internal, for the most part. But I would imagine that when you move to this role, the public scrutiny is ratcheted up quite a bit. What has that been like, to move from the private sector, where you know you're doing excellent work, to working your way up through TDOT, and now you're the guy- It-
and people wanna tell you every time there's a pothole in their neighborhood?
Will Reid: Yeah, and friends and family are
Carli Patton: the-
Will Reid: Yeah. ... are the, are, are usually the loudest. No, it's, you know, um, it makes you wanna do better.
Carli Patton: Mm.
Will Reid: It makes you want to serve better. It's, it's hard to deal with. If you're a driven, if you're driven p- if you, if you take that personally, it, it can be very difficult because a lot, there is a lot of that.
But I, I do think what- The way I address it is you take the time to, uh, to [00:11:00] educate people that wanna know what all goes into it. I mean, I, I'm, I'm here to tell you, I'm, I'm extremely lucky. We have some of the most fantastic people at TDOT. I have, um, I have been extremely impressed over my career at TDOT with how much these, these public servants care about the citizens of Tennessee.
Yeah. You know, um, so I think you just, you have to, when those things come up, you, you take the opportunity to educate people on what goes into it. And, um, you know, tha- that, that's the way I think w- y- people become advocates for- Mm-hmm ... for what you're trying to do as far as managing a transportation system to work better.
And a lot of times people have good ideas. Mm-hmm. Okay? You can gain insight from, from what people are saying. There's nobody, um, in my experience, when it comes to managing traffic, uh, there's very few people that know, uh, how things work more so than the people that use it every day.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm. That's
Carli Patton: fair.
Spencer Patton: When you think about Butch Ealy, the [00:12:00] commissioner that preceded you, I can think personally, like I know a lot of our listeners probably don't know his story, don't know anything about him, but when I think about someone that I would not want to have to follow as commissioner- ... he would be at the top of the list because he is incredibly gifted in so much institutional knowledge.
He's charismatic. Like, there's just not a lot of things that the governor didn't trust him to do. Mm-hmm. Um, so for someone that has never met Butch Ealy, can you just talk a little bit about how you might describe him? Uh, and then maybe secondly, just talk a little bit about how your leadership style, um, compares and contrasts with the legacy that Butch has left, uh, in the department.
Will Reid: Yeah, so one of the interesting things is when, when, uh, B- Butch actually hired me as chief engineer, um, we hit it off ri- right out of the [00:13:00] gate- Yeah ... because we both shared the desire to bring that private sector flavor to make government work better, um, which I think, uh, has also been demonstrated by our boss, Governor Lee.
He's done an amazing job, uh, of that. So we sh- we valued a lot of the same things. We valued wanting to take the, the state of Tennessee from a transportation perspective to another level. So we, we fit together- Yeah ... very, very quickly. I was, uh, I had obviously more knowledge on the operational, uh, characteristics of the department.
He had the vision of putting the state in a position from a transportation perspective to, uh, to generate additional revenue- Mm ... to address the issues that we have. He had that vision. He had the- Mm ... the political acumen. Um, and he also had experience in the industry- Mm ... which, um, again, he, he trusted me to do a lot of things with the day-to-day running of the department.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: And he was out there making sure that elected officials knew the challenges we had. Mm. [00:14:00] It worked very, very well, and I learned a ton from him on that side of it, 'cause at the end of the day, we are a, you know, we're a public agency. There's inherently a political piece to that, and, um, but he... You know, one of the things about, about Butch, and again, one of the things we share, he's genuine.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: What you see is what you get. He's gonna tell you, um, you know, how things, uh, uh, how he sees things. He, he has the utmost respect for everybody that, that he meets, and I mean, he just- the way he carries himself is an example, not just for me, but for all of us. But we, we just, we hit it off and complemented each other very well.
Spencer Patton: Mm. That makes a lot of sense. I, I can really see CEO characteristics, vision casting, strategy, and why you as the engineer, the one that's like, "Okay, Butch maybe just went and promised a whole lot of things- ... and now I'm the guy that's gotta- Yeah ... figure out how to do that," I can particularly appreciate that.
Yep. And, and now, you know, you're in that spot- Right ... of, of having to vision cast and, and really go through. As, as you think about, [00:15:00] um, 'cause I think this is also, it's a little in the weeds, but I think the timing is important, is that we're at the very tail end of Governor Lee's time as governor. Uh, he's term limited, and for those not following the cycle, uh, we're gonna have a new governor in- Mm
eight or nine months from now. How does that impact you from your ability to vision cast and kind of think about something that goes beyond the administration of Governor Lee?
Will Reid: So I appreciate the question because I talk to my staff and my leadership team about this very topic all the time. Yeah. Um, many of them, as I mentioned, came to the private sector.
They didn't spend a career in TDOT. Mm. And we're all very, very close, and one of the things we talk about is putting the things in place for the department, how it works, how we do business, um, the funding that we get, all of that, that's going to extend generations beyond us.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: It's very important- Mm
that we keep our, our eye on that prize, that we, we [00:16:00] get the department ready to address the challenges that are headed our way. And, and back to Governor Lee, let me say this. In my 26 years in working in Tennessee in transportation, there has not been a more impactful governor and general assembly when it comes to funding transportation than the one that we have right now.
Mm. As a, as a matter of scale, since 2023, this governor has put nearly $5 billion into transportation. Our yearly heavy construction budget averages about 1.3 billion statewide.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: So since 2023, he's put almost $5 billion. The general assembly for the first time under his, under, uh, the, the leadership of, of Speaker Sexton as well as, as, um As Lieutenant Governor McNally, they have for the first time put recurring money from the general fund into transportation.
So it truly is historic the amount of emphasis they have put on... They have seen the growth that we're all experiencing. We're here in Williamson County. I mean, we, we know that that growth is [00:17:00] exploding. They have put dollars towards that. It's truly extord- extraordinary. I know y'all have had, uh, guests that have talked about the Choice Lanes program and all the things going on.
That's a monumental shift in funding transportation in Tennessee going forward. So I think these are things that are put in place that are gonna stand the test of time, regardless of, of who the next governor is. As far as what that means for me and, and, and our folks at TDOT, uh, TDOT will continue, regardless of what happens, TDOT will continue to thrive, because I think we've put the things in place that are gonna make us a premier transportation agency.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Carli Patton: Yeah, and I read in research for this podcast that you are, it's the first time that there is a 10-year plan. Mm-hmm. Correct? Tell me a little bit about that and what you guys are thinking about.
Will Reid: So historically, we are, we're a pay-as-you-go state, okay? Yeah. So we only spend, we're one of only, I think, the number fluctuates between five and six states- Mm-hmm
that are, that are debt-free. We're one of those. Mm-hmm. We only spend what we take in. So over the years- literally [00:18:00] thousands of projects have been started or worked on- Sure ... and they competed for funding every year. And there's always this push/pull about, you know, so-and-so wants this project or that project- Sure
or we need this. And they're all needs. They're all great projects. It got to the point where we had to say, "Okay, look, we've got a finite amount of dollars. We have got to reprioritize everything that's in the hopper" And what we, what we did was we took those dollars and, and we prioritized thousands of projects.
We look at safety, we look at congestion, we look at investments that we've made in that corridor already, whether we were buying right away or whatever, and we reprioritized all those. And then we took the dollars that we had, just like you do your checkbook, your budget every, every month, right? We, we put all those projects in there.
We took money off the top for maintenance- Mm-hmm ... which you mentioned, Paula, we can talk about maintenance. We took... 'Cause we're gonna... I say this all the time: we are, we are not gonna go put in a swimming pool if the house needs painting.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm. We're
Will Reid: gonna paint the house first. Mm-hmm. Okay? So we take money off the top for maintenance, and then everything that was left, we prioritized all those projects, and we put them in a [00:19:00] 10-year plan, and we show...
We developed a schedule for each of them. So we could show the public, we could show elected officials, local mayors, everyone, this is what your dollars buy. There's a... Every dollar that comes to us assigned to a project or a program, and this is what it's gonna look like over the next 10 years. Now, that plan's dynamic.
Mm-hmm. But one of the things that's interesting, I mentioned earlier, other states looking at us. Other states, they ask me all the time, "How'd y'all do that?" I mean, 'cause, you know, everybody, everybody wants a project. And I said, "Well, you know, I think it's our responsibility to be transparent about- Mm-hmm
this is what your money buys." Mm-hmm. And, and if there's, there's other things that we need, that's another conversation we need to have. I'll leave that to the policymakers, but I think it's important for us to, to, as practitioners, give the facts, here's what the money buys, and here's what we're gonna spend it on, and then the public will hold us accountable for that.
Carli Patton: I love that so much, 'cause I think so often roads and infrastructure, it's what you do every day. It's what we've done, so it sounds simple. Like, everyone should know that there's priorities and limitations. But for most people, [00:20:00] they're not thinking about... They're trying to balance their own checkbook. Sure.
They're not trying to figure out how TDOT does theirs, and they don't understand why their community's not maybe getting the nod when other people are. And so I think that transparency just helps keep everyone on the same page and keeps maybe even the complaining down. 'Cause I know for me, when... If you just tell me what's gonna happen, I can be really patient.
Mm-hmm. It's just when you don't feel like you're heard or seen- Right ... that people... And to that end, I imagine a huge part of your job is navigating that tension between what they call the booming areas, right? Mm-hmm. Like this tourism bust, Williamson County, nobody can buy a house in Williamson County right now, all the rest, with the more rural areas.
How are you navigating that tension?
Will Reid: Yeah, it's a great question. So it's... We got a huge, um- The diversity across the state- Yeah ... is immense. Like you said, Williamson County is very different, let's say, from Lake County in upper- Sure ... northwest T- northwest Tennessee. Um, we have to be scalable. I tell our people all the time, "Meet, meet the people where they [00:21:00] are."
The, the needs of and wants of someone in downtown Franklin is going to be different from, you know, another rural area of Tennessee. In, in general, most people in urban areas worry about congestion, connectivity- Mm ... that kind of thing, development. In rural areas, it's about connectivity. Mm. Connectivity to interstates, connectivity to healthcare, um, those kind of thing- And economic development.
Mm-hmm. That runs... That's a pretty common thread throughout the state. So we have to be scalable, and, and you have to listen. You know, you have to, you have to hear from, from local mayors, local officials, uh, citizens on what's important to them. We, um... I'm a, I'm a big proponent with, with my staff about, uh, as I said, meeting people where they are and understanding what, what it is that they're, uh, that they're most concerned about.
It could be, you know, in a rural area, a, a lot of times it's about a turn lane or a signal at a school.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: You know, 'cause there's a safety issue there. Uh, in, in the urban core of Middle Tennessee, it's, you know, when are you gonna [00:22:00] fix potholes, and when are you gonna... When am I not gonna have to sit in traffic on I-24 or I-65?
Yeah. Or when are you gonna fix the June Lake Interchange that you just, just built? You know, um, so again, it's, it's, it's very diverse. Mm. It's a, it's a very diverse question. But you, you have to get out there, roll up your sleeves, spend time in those communities to understand what it is that is important to them.
Spencer Patton: Mm. Mm-hmm. So, Commissioner, we have a segment that we do called No Dumb Questions. Yeah. And normally this is, like, a five-minute segment. This is gonna be... I- if it gets in less than 15 minutes, then we did well, 'cause Carli and I just- Yeah ... were talking ahead of time- We brainstormed ... that we have questions for you.
Okay. And so we're gonna try to get through as many of these as possible. Yeah, sure. Uh, but some of these are just gonna be wild, off-the-wall questions, but you're trapped here, and it'd be really awkward if you left. Yeah. And so we got you for this one. Let's do it. We're gonna call an Uber- Yeah. Let's do it
and have you transferred, yeah. That's right. Uh, all right. So I'll start off with, uh, one that's not too terribly [00:23:00] dumb. This'll, this'll just be, you just brought it up, the traffic outlook for the state of Tennessee. You could kind of focus that on Middle Tennessee if you wanted, but what is the traffic outlook as the Commissioner for the Department of Transportation?
Do... Is there a hope for the future, or are we gonna be in major kind of 65, 24 traffic just as far as the eye can see?
Will Reid: No, there's always hope.
Spencer Patton: Okay.
Will Reid: There's always hope for the future. All
Spencer Patton: right, then we need that hope. This is-
Will Reid: We need hope so bad. So- So we are... So the 24 choice lanes is a perfect example of another way other than the conventional widening- Mm-hmm
to address a transportation problem. Okay? Um, the reality is, uh, there is not enough money available to build our way out of congestion. Mm-hmm. Not to mention the fact that, you know, just the real estate impacts, all those things, the time it takes to build. So we, our, our portfolio of options has to be expanded.
[00:24:00] That includes how do we use technology to maximize throughput in corridors that we already have? You saw that on I-24 before ch- choice lanes came along with the Smart Corridor. Actually partnering with Vanderbilt to do research on what causes, uh, traffic congestion. Mm. All those things. We are constantly looking at what is a better mousetrap- Mm
to be able to use the assets that we have to get more throughput. Part of that is gonna be conventional- Mm ... widening. That's always gonna be a tool, but your listeners can rest assured that one of the things we spend a lot of time on is, how do we get the most out of the tools that we have to improve congestion?
And one of the things that people probably don't think about, um, is, that impacts that a lot, is local land use decisions.
Carli Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: So we as the Department of Transportation, we don't dictate local land use. So when, when developments get zoned and things like that, and you have tremendous amount of housing units come in, we're seeing that in middle Tennessee, right?
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, um, that's traffic that goes onto the system. [00:25:00] You know, those decisions that are made at the local level greatly impact our congestion on our network. Mm. So being able to have those conversations and make smart decisions at the local level directly impacts people's commute time. So to, uh, uh, there, there is absolutely hope.
Um, there are, uh, things out there on the horizon with connecting and t- autonomous vehicles, autonomous freight. Y'all are in the- Yep Mm-hmm ... logistics world. We're actually doing a smart freight corridor study right now, uh, between Memphis and Blue Oval City, looking at, at, uh, autonomous freight vehicles and how that's gonna, uh, play into our system.
So there are a, there are a ton of things that we're not, we're not gonna sit there and let this problem get so bad that- Mm ... that we can't, we can't get ahold of it. We don't wanna have traffic problems. You know, I also think about it this way. Um, we live in a great state with low taxes, high quality of life- Mm
great education options for our children, um, safety. There's a reason people wanna be here.
Spencer Patton: [00:26:00] Yeah. Mm.
Will Reid: People are moving here, businesses are moving here because it's a, a, it's a great environment to do all of those things. So, um, for us, that just presents an opportunity. How do we move those people around faster, safer, more reliably?
Mm-hmm.
Carli Patton: What is the efficacy of a rumble strip? I don't understand the things on the side of the highway. Are they for drunk drivers so that they wake up? Are they to remind trucks that they're out of their lane? What is the purpose of the thing that annoys the tar out of me when I accidentally drive
Will Reid: over it?
So it wasn't a dumb question because you just answered it It's as simple as that. It's a reminder for somebody that is going out of their lane, whether they have fallen asleep or they're looking at their cellphone or whatever the case may be. It's, "Hey, you're somewhere you shouldn't be."
Carli Patton: So it's literally to annoy me 'cause I shouldn't be on it in the first place.
Will Reid: Well, I would say that,
Carli Patton: or it's to- He's too nice to say it, though ... it's to get,
Will Reid: it's to get your attention.
Carli Patton: Yes. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Can you tell me [00:27:00] w- the exact width or why the width is for bike lanes what it is? Because we live on some of these two-lane roads, and I don't, I don't know if bikes have just gotten bigger, but I swear if I actually tried to go by a biker in a bike lane, I am gonna clip their handlebars and I am gonna go to prison.
Will Reid: So there is a, there is a tremendous amount of, um, ba- or, uh, desire to use the real estate that we have on our highways. I'm
Carli Patton: sure that's true.
Will Reid: Okay? Whether it's bikes, peds, cars, transit, there's a finite amount of real estate and there's a tremendous amount of competition for it. Uh, those bike lanes should be at least four to five feet wide, um, that some...
There's some places in the county we live in that they're not there. Um, but again, I'll just say it like this. There's a tremendous amount of competition- ... for that, for that width, and it presents a real challenge for [00:28:00] us from a safety standpoint.
Carli Patton: Sure.
Will Reid: Um, the, the safest thing to do is to not have those modes at all.
We don't wanna do that, obviously, right? Mm-hmm. Then the safest thing to do is have positive separation between vehicles and bikes that in, in the form of a barrier of some kind. That's not always feasible either, so we look at, at speeds and, and things like that. It is a constant back and forth to jockey for and compete- Bet
for real estate. I mean, you see it in downtown areas all the time.
Carli Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: You know, whether it's peds, you know, we got scooters, which is a whole nother issue.
Carli Patton: Oh, yeah. We've got- Can we even talk about the scooters? Those things are death traps. I'm, like, such a mom. I'm like, "They need to come with helmets."
Yeah. What is happening?
Will Reid: You know, being in this job, I get a text every time there's an incident- Oh ... on our entire network, and my phone goes off constantly. And having a daughter that's fixing to go to college, um, that is, I'll say, one of the drawbacks of this job- Yeah ... is knowing what you know. I mean, peo- people need to understand just how [00:29:00] dangerous- Yeah
highways can be-
Carli Patton: Yeah ...
Will Reid: with, I mean, uh, all the things that are competing for your attention, whether it's- Mm-hmm ... a cellphone or, you know, people you're riding with or, God forbid, the impairment and all those things. I mean, we can... And I'll tie this back to your question. Engineering is one of, one of only a few things we can do.
We can't engineer human befa- behavior.
Carli Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: Okay? Mm. We can engineer a wide enough roadway to address the vehicles that are gonna use it. We can engineer safety, uh, hardware on the side of the road to protect different things, whether it be light poles or whatever. We can't engineer human behavior.
Carli Patton: Mm-hmm.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: So one of the ways we address that is with education.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: You know, we've got to get the word about- word out. We're coming up on construction season. For all your listeners, if you see p- people working on the roads, please slow down and move over. Mm-hmm. We've lost 113 TDOT workers in our history on our highways.
Spencer Patton: Hmm.
Will Reid: I don't want to have 114.
Carli Patton: Hmm.
Will Reid: Mm-hmm. So as construction season ramps up, and it's not just our people, you see highway patrol, you see [00:30:00] first responders, slow down and move over. I tell people all the time, you know, what if s- if you're sitting in your office working and somebody comes driving by you at 70 miles an hour, how do you, how do you think that would feel?
You'd probably be pretty nervous. Hmm. The majority of our people deal with that every day. Mm-hmm. So just slow down.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: Move over.
Spencer Patton: Yeah. Yeah. Commissioner, in the '90s, there was a big rage about carpooling, and why that was gonna save the environment and solve traffic, and we saw these HOV lanes- Mm-hmm
come everywhere where, for people not familiar, the HOV lanes are on the highway on the left lane, where you're supposed to have two people in the vehicle in order to get to travel in that lane. Kind of feels like to me that while the sign is there, it's long since been an abandoned philosophy. Is the HOV lane kind of a dead thing now that it's not, it's just a failed experiment, or is it really something that actually still matters?
Will Reid: I think it, uh, the answer to that is it depends. Okay. Um, enforcement's a huge part of that.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: Okay? [00:31:00] Um, you know, that's where particularly it w- here in Middle Tennessee on a lot of our interstate facilities, we have very narrow inside shoulders. Mm-hmm. That presents a safety risk for enforcement- Mm-hmm
officials that are, that are pulling a violator over. Oh,
Spencer Patton: I see. Yeah.
Carli Patton: I've always wondered that.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Carli Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: So it's, um... But I- I'll, I'll answer your question more directly. I believe it's old technology and old thinking. Okay. Okay? There are areas around the country where it works, where it's able to be enforced.
Yeah. I think, um, and I, I, I would say that our friends at the USDOT are- Mm-hmm ... some of them are coming around to this idea that, you know, that, that HOV lanes, their, their time to some degree has passed, but I will say, it, it still is a very good, um, application in some areas where it's able to be enforced, and there's actually some states that look at, uh, at hot lanes, where they're actually, um, HOV, but there're actually, uh, user fees associated with them as well.
So it can be, uh, effective technology. For us here in Tennessee, it's not been that widely adopted- [00:32:00] Yeah ... and you just articulated what I see every day. You know? Um, so I, I think that, I think that it's, it's something that, I don't know if necessarily it's a failed experiment, but I think it's old technology is what I'll say.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Carli Patton: I remember the first time I was pregnant- was Zoe getting in an HOV lane. I'm, I'm two people. You can't get me. Like, I loved that loophole, and now that daughter, we're teaching her how to drive. Uh-huh. So our first kid is about to drive, and you said, it's like you've seen everything. We're over here, like, I, I don't know.
Every intrusive thought I have right now is fear around my kid driving. Do you have words for parents like us? What is the one or two things that you wish everyone teaching their new driver would tell them?
Will Reid: So I'm, I'm, I'm going through the exact same thing y'all are. Yeah. Um, uh, my youngest, my son is 16 and, and getting ready to drive, and, um, I had the same thing with Grace, my older child.
I mean, the biggest thing is stay off your phone. [00:33:00] Mm-hmm. Yeah. And look, I've been guilty of that, too.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: You know, I mean, we all are so busy, and information is available instantaneously. Yeah. You know, and we all wanna look at it. Um, distracted driving's a huge issue. Mm-hmm. So, um, I would say to, to remind them to be, to be vig- vigilant- Mm-hmm
with that, to the, you know, um, uh, that would be my advice. But, you know, I think it, it, it's, it's like anything else, parenting. Y'all know that you're spending time with them and doing your best to, to raise them right and, and lay that foundation is the most important thing. Mm-hmm. And then, um, I guess we have to let them grow up, don't we?
Carli Patton: Do we? Okay, are you on Life360- Yes ... with your kids? Okay, it's super controversial amongst parents. Do we, don't we? Do we trust our kids? I am a full-fledged 360 adopter, so- Yeah ... glad to know that you're with me. Yeah, we are,
Will Reid: we are on that, too.
Carli Patton: Yeah. Trust but verify.
Will Reid: Yes. Yes.
Spencer Patton: All right, Commissioner, I still got a couple more to go, and then- All right
you're almost through it. Lay it, lay it on me. All right? So here in Tennessee, we run down a lot of animals [00:34:00] on the road. Oh, my gosh. There's a lot of roadkill that I see on the side, and I do wonder, like, once it gets drug off to the side, whose responsibility is it to deal with that? And where does all of that go?
Because- We, we
Will Reid: do that.
Spencer Patton: Yeah. All right. We, we- There's a good, like, Jeff Foxworthy joke about eating roadkill. Yeah. And I, I'm confident that that's not being served up at a TDOT barbecue,
Will Reid: but- No, not, not, um- No, we do, um, self included, we have a lot of, we have a lot of outdoorsmen at TDOT, and it's interesting, some of the, some of the deer we see that, that are- Okay.
Okay ... are killed on the side of our roads. Full disclosure. But yeah, yeah. Yeah. Full disclosure. Yeah. But no, we do. We, we take care of the, the, uh- Yeah ... animal carcasses that are on the side of the road. We take those to- Yeah ... landfills. We have areas across the state where we, we take care of those. We actually have a, we have a c- a road patrol code in our, uh, in our maintenance management system where folks log their time actually doing that.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's, again- Yeah ... one of the things that, that we do that a lot of people don't realize. Uh-huh. We, uh, we pick up dead animals on the side of the road. That's
Spencer Patton: right. Wow. I, I got two more for you. So this comes from a [00:35:00] transportation background. Every 18-wheeler on the road, trailer, tractor, is licensed in the state of Indiana.
And there's a business guy and a competitor in me in Tennessee that's like, "You know, I've had to license a lot of 18-wheelers in Indiana." And I can't even tell you why that was what our company did, but we just... Everyone was plated in Indiana, the apportionment plates. And I know this is, gets a little in the weeds, but is that something competitively that Tennessee could take away from Indiana, or do we not want any part of that?
Will Reid: You know, that's a great, great question, and he, he's gonna kill me for this, but I'm gonna suggest that, um, Commissioner Long with the Department of Safety- ... um, who's also a dear friend, former sheriff Williamson County, he's our commissioner of the Department of Safety. He would probably, he would probably know more about that- Okay
than I would. But I, that's a- We need to get
Carli Patton: him in here ...
Will Reid: I was gonna say, that's... And he's gonna kill me for this. Yeah. But, um, great guy, by the way. Just awesome human. We, we- We're coming for you ... we, um, you know, de- uh, highway patrol falls under Department of [00:36:00] Safety, and we work with those folks- Mm-hmm ... all the time.
Mm-hmm. Um, our help operators work with them all the time. So, um, again, Jeff Long's great, but that would be a great question for Jeff. That's good. That's an interesting thought.
Spencer Patton: It, it's, it's that, that private sector piece in me that I just, it bothers me that Indiana gets all that. And so, okay, last question, you brought it up really early, is the eminent domain aspect.
So when you are having to expand roads, whether they're in cities in particular, but even on interstates, you are having to acquire property. Yes. You mentioned it before, like you might have 250 real estate transactions. Yeah. There are, I'm confident, people that say, "Commissioner Reid, I appreciate you, but over my dead body would I- Sure
willingly sell this." So how does it actually happen? How is someone treated fairly, but at the same time you get to acquire the property in order for the greater public good? Can you just- Yeah ... kind of walk that through?
Will Reid: That's a great question. There's an extremely s- [00:37:00] prescriptive proce- process that's laid out in the Uniform Act about how we, uh, yes, we have the ability to go out and, and get that property.
But it's... This word, the word that, that, y- y- if you go, you have to go out and make a fair market, a fair, uh, market value offer to those folks. Mm. Um, and you can negotiate. You know, you get appraisals. It's all very open and transparent. And they have the, um, they have the ability to say yes or no, and if they say no, they can go to the condemnation process.
And conden- condemn, condemnation, it's a scary word, but what I tell people is it's really there to protect- the homeowner. It's to give them a forum to go before a judge, before a court, and make a fair decision on what that property is worth. It's still not an easy process because t- Yeah ... to me, that's one of the most sacred things we do.
These, this is people's private property. Yeah. Our first objective is avoidance- Mm-hmm ... if possible.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Will Reid: We want to avoid things, whether it's, you know, mitigating the impacts to someone's property, historic things, environmental issues. [00:38:00] We look at all of those. Acquiring property is a ve- to us, is a, and particularly to me, is a very sacred thing.
And I tell people that process is there to protect them. Mm. The Uniform Act process is there to protect their rights, and obviously there's the need for that, that property for the public good. But I think, I think it's how you go about it and making sure that, that citizens understand their rights under the Uniform Act- Yeah
is extremely important.
Spencer Patton: Yeah. That, that makes a lot of sense 'cause I, I've seen a lot of widening projects and, you know, sometimes, like I think about going out to Nolensville and some of the expansion that's there, and, you know, it doesn't impact somebody's house, but somebody's yard goes from, you know, 40 feet deep to 20 feet deep.
Mm. And I look at it and say, "Wow, you know, that, that would be a lot right on my door." Sure. And so it's interesting to hear about that process of how that goes through and some of those more nuances. Is there a, a whole department that you deal with that- Yeah, we- ... that's just acquiring?
Will Reid: We have an entire right of way division that- Yeah
is full of folks that [00:39:00] are experts in all matters real estate- Yeah ... and policy when it comes to the Uniform Act. But, you know, like, um, whether it's someone's yard or, or a business- Mm ... they often get compensated for damages to that, you know, or projected, uh, damage over the course of the life of their business.
So- Yeah ... that's, that's also... And also as part of... If, if we were to, uh, unfortunately, if we were have to, have to relocate somebody, we assist in the relocation of get- finding that person another place to live. Wow. You know, again, that doesn't address the, um- The more personal side of it, whether it's the, the memories of their house and things like that, that's the unfortunate side of things.
But that's where I said we, we try to, uh, deal with those as respectfully and, um, as thoughtfully as we can on every project.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Carli Patton: What do you... You've said a couple of times, and I really applaud this, the, the need for education around- Mm-hmm ... whether it be that or what you're doing on the roadways or people need to move over.
There's a lot of things that the public needs to know about what you're doing. How do [00:40:00] you go about educating so many different people, but it differs whether you're on the I-65 corridor versus Shelby County versus other places. How do you even go about that?
Will Reid: Multiple ways. Um, we have standard policies in place internally.
We have a public involvement plan- Mm-hmm ... for every single project we do, okay? So we have public involvement guidelines, and I tell people, "Those are minimums," okay? If you have a community group that wants to meet, we're gonna try to figure out a way to, you know, whether, whether federal law says we have to or not, we're gonna try to find a way to make sure to meet those people where they are- Mm-hmm
as I mentioned earlier. Uh, we've gotten more involved on social media. Mm. Which, for me, I'm a Gen X-er. I'm kind of on that edge. Um, you know, some of the stuff I, I d- I don't spend all my whole life on Facebook or anything like that. But, um, we have a whole depart- comms department that is putting out information about, about how things work at TDOT.
A lot of the things that we're talking about, how a pothole forms- Mm ... or how a roundabout works, or, you know, the- Can
Carli Patton: you c- can you reair that, please? [00:41:00] Yeah. Like, every day.
Will Reid: Yeah. And we've got- You're not supposed
Carli Patton: to stop ...
Will Reid: we've gotten a ton of... My daughter, who's going to, you know, a senior in high school, she lo- she watches our Instagram stuff all the time.
She knows more about what's on it than I do.
Spencer Patton: That's a good daughter right there. Yeah. Yeah. Watching the Department of Transportation Instagram. That's super loving. Yeah. That's a
Will Reid: good daughter. You know, but, but what that's telling me is this is the way these folks are consuming information. Yep. Yeah, yeah.
That's why we have a department of communications professionals that are advising me on this is how, to your point, we can reach more people. We can tell them what w- what we're doing and use that, use that media to be, uh, to provide education for folks.
Carli Patton: Who gets to, like, write the text that's on the signs over the highways?
'Cause sometimes they're a little chippy, and I really appreciate that. Th- they are a little zesty- It, like, gives me- ... some time to time ... it gives me joy when they're a little sassy. So who, uh... Is it you? Are you, like- No, no. ... up at night in your journal- It's- ... thinking about puns?
Will Reid: So it's quite controversial, actually- Oh, I'm sorry
believe it or not. No, no, it's great question. So there are, there are, um, uh... Traffic engineers out there believe that, [00:42:00] um, uh, the one thing you don't wanna have is words up there all the time because people- Distraction. Well, distraction, and people will begin to ignore them.
Carli Patton: Okay.
Will Reid: You know, so it's the, kind of the thought that if something's up there all the time, people aren't gonna read them all the time.
So it's like when something does pop up, you want them to be able to read it. There's another school of thought that we've got this form of media out there that we want to be able to use to inform people, why are we not using it more? Mm-hmm. Then there's a school of thought that, you know, if we've got the ability to say something catchy or funny that people can remember, then maybe that's gonna help educate.
So that's a... I will tell you, in my time at the department, that has been an evolution- ... um, based on who the commissioner was and what the thoughts-
Carli Patton: Ooh, I hit, I hit one without even meaning to.
Will Reid: Yeah. I love that. So, um, you know, I'm, I take the approach there that, um, I want to work within, within what the policy is, but any chance I get to have something that's memorable for people that can- Sure
whether it's make the difference in somebody paying attention in traffic or [00:43:00] give a piece of information that's useful to people, I'm gonna err on the side of that.
Carli Patton: Mm. Mm.
Spencer Patton: Uh, can you talk about the Yellow Help Truck program? And I, I just find that unique in the state of Tennessee, and, and probably most people don't know about it.
Will Reid: I, I'd love to. It's one of our most successful programs. Uh, it started over 20 years ago, and, uh, the Help Program is a motorist assistance program that, uh, everything from managing an incident, a major wreck on a, on a interstate or state route, to filling somebody's car up with gas if they run out, changing a tire.
Mm. Uh, we've had them perfor- we've had them perform life-saving maneuvers on pe- CPR, um, all kinds of things. Um, it is a, uh, it is one of our most popular, if not our most popular program. Mm. Um, y- we have, there, other states have them. Uh, they call them different things. Um, I'm really excited about the fact that this year we were able to expand that.
I mentioned a lot of the money that's come to TDOT through this governor and this general assembly. We, uh, kicked off our Rural [00:44:00] Service Patrol, which is an extension of Help. So prior to this year, the Help Program operated in the urban areas of Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville. It was just, uh, an urban core that, that, that they focused on.
We've now been over, we've added over 800 miles of interstate on our rural, rural routes- Mm ... rural interstates and state routes, to be able to provide that same level of assistance. And just for your listeners, so we've, we've rolled out in two, two, uh, regions already. Region two is Chattanooga, and then we rolled it out in region four in West Tennessee.
In both cases, the first two days- We averaged over 100 incidents per region- Wow ... that we responded to. Yeah. That tells you right there how critical it is to get people back moving in traffic again. Secondary crashes are some of the most deadly. You think about somebody that's on the side of the road changing a tire, somebody comes over a hill, the, the, the really bad things [00:45:00] that can happen.
Yeah. The quicker we can get them back moving and into traffic- Mm-hmm ... the better the odds are for everybody traveling on that facility that we don't have a secondary crash. Yeah. The other thing, in rural areas, speeds are faster.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: Further distance to hospitals. Most of the times, the injuries are more severe.
This is a needle mover for the state. Mm-hmm. This is taking the success we've had, those urban help operators, applying that to the rural areas. As you can tell, I'm excited about it. Yeah. I'm really fired up. It's one of the, it's one of the ways we interact with our customers on a daily basis the most, and those are some of the best people you will ever meet.
I mean, they- Yeah ... they do everything. They help us manage snow and ice incidents, they help us manage traffic incidents. They work directly with THP. Um, when my son was in kindergarten, I had a group of them come out, and they did a touch a truck with our k- with his kindergarten school. Aw. And they all got to climb all over the tru- I mean, it's just, it's a, it's a great service that, um...
It's like I t- I told people last week in our press event when we rolled it out, I said, "This is [00:46:00] for y'all. This is for- Mm ... the traveling public of Tennessee, as well as people traveling through here." It's, it's a great program. We're excited about expanding it.
Spencer Patton: And is there any charge to it? Is it appropriate to, to tip these individuals when they help you?
I mean, like, they're, they're, like, it's kind of having a potentially life-saving moment, but essentially a day-saving moment- Sure ... where you've got a flat tire, you're in a dangerous situation. Like, how do you say thank you-
Will Reid: Just say thank you ... to these
Spencer Patton: people? Yeah. Oh,
Will Reid: man. Because there's a lot of people that don't-
Spencer Patton: Yeah
Will Reid: just say thank you. These folks are putting their lives on the line-
Spencer Patton: Yeah ...
Will Reid: all the time. They're putting themselves in harm's way to help somebody get back in traffic or, or in some cases, life-saving. Tell them thank you. These people are dedicated. That's, that's what they, that's what they really wanna hear.
Yeah. They wanna know that they're appreciated for what they do. And, um, yeah, just say thank you.
Spencer Patton: That's amazing.
Carli Patton: And do you flag them down? Do you call them? Do they just happen upon you?
Will Reid: Call 511.
Carli Patton: Okay.
Will Reid: Call 511, and help will, uh... So also, you can call, uh, THP has a hotline. I don't, [00:47:00] I can't remember it right off the, uh, top of my head.
We'll get it for you. Tennessee Highway Patrol. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, but their dispatch and our help dispatch are all connected.
Carli Patton: Oh.
Will Reid: Okay? So if you call 511 or THP's, the, someone will be dispatched to help you, and the same is gonna be true for the Rural Service Patrol. So 511, uh, we will get somebody there.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
Mm. That's great.
Carli Patton: We gotta tell Zoe. That's like the first thing you gotta tell them, 511, help on the way. Yep.
Spencer Patton: Commissioner Reid We just went through a historic winter storm. We had, on our street alone, three days where we could not get out of our street, like in our community, because of the trees laying across the road, and it just looked like a war zone.
Can you just put that in perspective of what your life was like during that season? And just any numbers that can just kinda contextualize how significant of a cleanup event you all had?
Will Reid: So, um, I guess the first thing I'd say is that was a, [00:48:00] for me, there was about a 13-day stretch there where, um, we kinda had a command post set up in Region Three, our facility out off Centennial, and it was 13 days round the clock of logistics- Yeah
if you will, of moving assets, uh, across the state to be able to manage that. But let, let me, let me step back a bit. Um, it was historic in terms of we stopped counting trees. We were- When we... I mean, it was just thousands and thousands of trees across the state on our network. We stopped counting that. But the amount of fuel and, and hours that our folks put in in plowing, um, what I think folks need to know is, um, we prepare for that every year.
Every year we prepare for snow and ice season. We budget for that, and we prepare on a statewide level. So, um, something that folks may not know or realize is We focus on interoperability from Memphis to Mountain City. So all of our trucks, [00:49:00] um, all of our equipment, all of our people are trained the same way.
If, if a, uh, if a hose goes out on a backhoe or a skid steer in Nashville, the same hose from Chattanooga fits it. Oh,
Spencer Patton: yeah.
Will Reid: We get to that level of detail in the interoperability of our equipment. In this particular winter storm, we had folks from as far east as Hawkins County- Mm-hmm ... here working in Middle Tennessee.
We had folks from Memphis working here. We had folks from Chattanooga working here. We train our staff to be mobile, and assets that we can move around. We, we honestly got a... Believe it or not, we got a little bit lucky in that event that it wasn't all the way across the state. It was mainly- Mm-hmm
regions three and four, West Tennessee and Middle Tennessee- Yeah ... that got hit. So, um, we actually brought in our operations director from region two in Chattanooga. He became the logistics manager, and sat in region three, and was managing crews all over Middle and, and West Tennessee- Mm ... so that the guy that is his counterpart here in Nashville could manage his crews.
Wow. So we had [00:50:00] people out from all over the state converged on this area. We had a plan to... W- we actually detail every year, depending on the kind of event it is, as to how we're gonna treat it. Mm. If it's one to three inches of snow, are we gonna use this much salt, calcium chloride, this many trucks on a route?
We have GPS on all our vehicles. We monitor those. We can see where they've been. I sat, I sat at my computer and actually made a call to, uh, the region three director and said, "Hey, a section of Highway 70 in Cheatham County, it's always this little gap that never gets hit." Mm. "We gotta hit that. It hasn't been hit yet."
Yeah. So I can see when the trucks- Wow ... have been there. It's a, uh, it's truly a team effort that- Yeah ... that we train for. One of the things we do with those operation staff, we have, um, operate... We have a competition every year. We have a statewide rodeo where our operators compete against one another from every region, every district.
The best of those represent the state against 12 other states in the Southeast. Yeah. I'm happy to say that you, in [00:51:00] Tennessee, have the best operators in the Southeast. We have won back-to-back championships. We plan to win a third again this year. We've won, won 11 out of 20 years. Mm. We've been doing that.
That's amazing. Um, these are the folks that helped during Winter Storm Fern.
Spencer Patton: Yes.
Will Reid: The best of the best that, um, when it was time to step forward, they said, "Yes, I'll go." They work 24/7. Uh, we run shifts all the time. Um, those, those folks did an amazing job on a historic event. Couldn't be prouder of
Spencer Patton: them. Mm.
So Commissioner, if you have 30 seconds to give a message to whoever our next governor is about- your budget. Yeah, yeah. Uh, I know that, I think there's 22 different departments in the state of Tennessee that are all gonna be knocking on that door- Sure, sure ... saying, "Hey, we could use some budget love right here."
What is gonna be your message to the governor of why [00:52:00] transportation should receive meaningful budget- Yeah ... moving forward?
Will Reid: Uh, I think that one of the things we talked about here is how transportation touches everybody every day. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I believe that roads, uh, people often judge the performance of their government by the condition of their roads.
We've been very- That's true. Mm-hmm ... we've been very successful, uh, in a- in historically of having very good roads in the state of Tennessee. We're consistently ranked as one of the top states. But we mentioned already earlier, the growth.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Will Reid: We have exponential growth. You don't stay that way if you don't invest those dollars.
We have to keep up with the growth that we're seeing. It's also an economic driver. We, uh, we have been very blessed here to have businesses that wanna move- Mm-hmm ... tourist attractions, diversity of a, of, uh, across the state, whether it's outdoor activities, sports, otherwise. To be able to keep that momentum- Mm-hmm
we've got to invest in transportation.
Spencer Patton: Yeah. Mm-hmm. I like that [00:53:00] line a lot. It's, people judge the quality of their government by the quality of their commute. That's a good, that's a good line right there. That's gonna resonate with someone that has to deal with the inevitable political reality of managing something as emotional- Yeah
as transportation. Yeah. Okay. So, Commissioner, the way we land each podcast is I have a couple fill-in-the-blank questions for you. Mm-hmm. So, uh, it's, uh, a, a phrase with a blank at the end, and if you'll finish it with a, a word or a short phrase. Uh, the only instruction is if you'll just repeat the prompt back to me- Okay
and then fill it in, would, would be great.
Will Reid: Okay.
Spencer Patton: Okay? All right. Um, number one, the biggest misconception people have about TDOT is blank.
Will Reid: Hmm. The biggest misconception people have about TDOT is complacency.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm.
Carli Patton: Hmm.
Spencer Patton: That's good. [00:54:00] Number two, when I drive Tennessee roads as commissioner instead of engineer, I notice blank.
Will Reid: When I drive Tennessee roads as commissioner instead of engineer, I see opportunity.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm. Number three, something I am proud of that I don't always get to talk about is blank.
Will Reid: Something that I'm proud of and don't always get to talk about is family.
Spencer Patton: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And the last one, in 10 years from now- The biggest change people will see on Tennessee roads is blank.
Will Reid: 10 years from now, the biggest change people will see on Tennessee roads is progress.
Spencer Patton: Hmm. Commissioner Reid, thank you for coming in and taking [00:55:00] a ridiculously complicated topic of transportation- Yeah ... that most everybody thinks or assumes is simple. And you did a great job of keeping it to where it's accessible, where everyone can say, "Oh, wow, I see why that would be complicated.
I can see that would be tough." But also not glossing over that there are deeply complicated engineering decisions, material decisions, personnel decisions that go into something that we as Tennesseans, as Americans, feel that we have a right to, which is a smooth commute. And I just appreciate your role as commissioner and the distinction that you have of being the only commissioner that has come up through the ranks in the department.
That's a really special honor that I'm [00:56:00] confident whoever our next governor is for the state of Tennessee will be really happy to be able to marry that institutional knowledge and private sector experience that, that, that you bring. So we wish you the best of luck, uh, not only for your own, uh, career and success, uh, but also for, uh, this state, uh, and Carli and I's commute.
Uh, we do that- Thank you ... uh, we wish you the best.
Will Reid: Well, thank y'all for, for bringing this issue to light and, and taking the time. I, I, I think it's really great that we're having this conversation, so thank y'all for having me.
Spencer Patton: Yeah.
of Transportation. I love talking about planes, trains, automobiles- Yeah ... and all that it takes in order to keep this state moving. We're one of the really few states that have major interstate [00:57:00] overlaps- Mm ... where you've got 65 and 40, and those are two of the most trafficked interstates in the entire United States intersect here in Tennessee.
And so that has all kinds of implications for how vital it is for this state to get transportation right.
Will Reid: Mm-hmm.
Spencer Patton: Uh, he gave a great phrase that people evaluate their government based upon the quality of their commute.
Will Reid: Mm-hmm.
Spencer Patton: And that is a really true statement. There are not many elected officials that stay in their role long when people are snared in brutal traffic everywhere they go.
Carli Patton: I mean, we even brought it up when we interviewed Mayor O'Connell about roads and snow and all of that. I mean, every elected official needs to care about TDOT and what they do. And I think what's really interesting, as I was sitting here thinking about it, there are few things that elicit as much emotion as traffic.[00:58:00]
Will Reid: Yeah.
Carli Patton: And I think it really comes down to, as humans, at least me, when I'm doing my mom math, I'm like, "Okay, if dinner's gonna be at this time, then I need to have everyone picked up by this time." And you're really... I mean, I'm planning out our afternoons and evenings within five-minute gaps of trying to make sure everybody gets where they need to go.
And when you hit, like right now, there's trees down all the time, and it's a multi-minute delay, or you hit a traffic stop, and there's so much delay, I don't have that budgeted in our family's evening. Yeah. And I know the hanger that our teenagers will have if I don't get dinner at this time and that, and so there is a unique emotion when you are sitting helpless- Yeah
in traffic, knowing your afternoon or evening is gonna be derailed. Um, and he has to really deal with that emotion in a tangible, engineer-brained way of how do I prioritize what needs to be done when?
Spencer Patton: Yeah, all we got is our time. And so when time is being [00:59:00] relatively involuntarily-
Carli Patton: Siphoned away ...
Spencer Patton: yeah, taken from you for a reason that's not worth spending it on, that's certainly why it becomes one of the more emotional aspects of what people deal with in transportation.
Like I say about a lot of our guests that are deep in a specialized area, that most people would guess that the Tennessee Department of Transportation deals with roads, and it wouldn't go much beyond that. And we learned about ferries and rail and airports and all sorts of things that, I mean, they're, they're a real estate.
I mean, they are the largest real estate acquirer in the state of Tennessee. Mm-hmm. So just all the things that he has to deal with, with 3,200 employees, yet he's able to Make it simple [01:00:00] and clear in the education really shows that someone has a mastery and a command over a topic, and his leadership and selection to be commissioner over that department makes a lot of sense to me.
I can see that fit. Also, as someone that has spent a fair amount of time seeing the prior commissioner, Butch Ely, who is just a hilarious guy that is so charismatic and a great visionary, I can really see how the two of them complement one another for so many years.
Carli Patton: I just loved how much he wanted to educate people because it's one of the reasons I love what we do here is if I had woken up, let's just be totally transparent.
If I woke up and was like, here is a list of seven podcasts, I want to learn about traffic today. It's probably not the thing. I'm going to listen to a parenting podcast or something. But people that trust us and know this brand know we're bringing the education and the stories about stuff that you never thought you needed to know.
And it's something I [01:01:00] love so much because now I understand. And now we know who to pester when a pothole needs to be filled. Just kidding. But I think it's important that we are educated on the issues that impact us every day instead of just getting mad when we are delayed. Understanding the why behind really takes the pressure off.
