Why this topic matters
Generative AI has become commonplace within transportation practice. Engineers and planners are using it to draft, summarize, analyze, visualize, and check their work. Our profession must grapple with how to use AI tools in a way that makes our work products stronger without putting at risk the thing our profession is built on: the public's trust that a qualified human stands behind every decision affecting their safety and mobility.
This Policy Starter Kit is intended for transportation professionals at every level of the organization, covering six key topics. Taken together, they are a foundation for using AI with confidence, a way to bring these tools fully into transportation practice while keeping the profession's accountability to the public intact.
The kit rests on a single idea, grounded in the ITE Canons of Ethics: AI is a tool, and the human stays accountable. A tool can accelerate the work, but it cannot hold a license, exercise professional judgment, carry liability, or answer to a client, a decision-maker, or a member of the public. Those responsibilities remain where they have always been. Every recommendation in the pages that follow is an application of that one principle to a specific part of practice. So, if you take nothing else from this kit, take this: AI changes how the work gets done, not who is responsible for it.
How to use this kit
The kit has six sections grouped into three focus areas: organizational governance, secure use, and practical use, which covers the remaining four topics.
- Governance — deciding deliberately who approves which AI uses, so your organization adopts these tools on purpose rather than by drift.
- Secure Use — keeping confidential and sensitive information protected, so efficiency never comes at the cost of client trust or data security.
- Preserving Apprenticeship — ensuring the next generation builds the judgment to direct these tools, rather than becoming dependent on them.
- QA/QC Procedures — adapting review so that AI's distinctive errors get caught before they reach a deliverable.
- Copyrighted Materials & Intellectual Property — using AI in ways that respect others' ownership and protect your own.
- Use Disclosure — disclosing its use when appropriate, starting the conversation around AI use early, and calibrating the detail of those discussions.
Each section stands on its own, so you can start anywhere and read them in any order. Each one opens with a brief summary of key takeaways, followed by case studies, checklists, and sample language.
A Quick Bite version of the Kit is accessible to ITE members on the AI GIG website.
Acknowledgements
This Generative AI Policy Starter Kit has been developed under the oversight of ITE’s Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Great Ideas Group (ITE AI GIG) (see Note 1).
Lead Authors
- Andy Kosinski, Fehr & Peers, Oakland, CA, USA
- Krystle Li, Fehr & Peers, Seattle, WA, USA
Co-Authors
- Ash Duong, Praxian Labs, Houston, TX, USA
- Ben McCulloch, TxDOT, Austin, TX, USA
- Eric Hill, MetroPlan, Orlando, FL, USA
- Zorica Fossum, WSP, Steamboat Springs, CO, USA
- Jon Kostyniuk, JK Traffic Solutions Inc., London, Ontario, Canada
- Nitesh Shah, Fehr & Peers, San Francisco, CA, USA
Contributors and Reviewers
- Emad Makarious, NYCDOT, New York City, NY, USA
- David Man, MTC, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Raj Ponnaluri, WSP, Tallahassee, FL, USA
- Marie Pantalone, Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, Eastern Pennsylvania, USA
- Jeff Lindley, Vienna, VA, USA
- Patrick Morrison, ITE
ITE AI GIG Leadership
- Chair: Venkat Nallamothu, Mead & Hunt, Inc., Washington, DC, USA
- Co-Vice Chair: Stephen Taylor, HNTB, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Co-Vice Chair: Ted Bailey, STV Inc., Olympia, WA, USA
- Secretary: Jon Kostyniuk, JK Traffic Solutions Inc., London, Ontario, Canada
ITE membership provided input via facilitated discussions with four ITE chapters (San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, San Diego, and Dallas), at the 2026 Joint ITE International and Great Lakes District Annual Meeting and Exhibition, and through responses to an online AI readiness survey, developed and published by the ITE AI GIG.
AI use disclosure
Portions of this document were drafted and/or copy edited with the assistance of generative AI tools, such as Claude and ChatGPT. All content was reviewed, verified, and approved by the authors, who are responsible for the findings and recommendations presented.