From Two Wheels to TYLin: Allison's Blueprint for Pedestrian-Friendly Futures
Three key pillars — Approachable People, Proven Capabilities, and Global Experience — are the foundation of the TYLin brand and the reason for our success.
Rooted in her childhood experiences in Arizona, Allison's career in active transportation focuses on creating walkable environments with emphasis on pedestrian comfort. As a project manager at TYLin, she leads a tight-knit team, emphasizing people-centric designs. Her friendly and empathetic approach enables her to build meaningful client connections and navigate challenges gracefully. Committed to community-oriented engineering, Allison underscores the significance of diverse teams for well-rounded perspectives and effective solutions in her career advice.
What or who inspired your pursuit of a career in transportation engineering?
Growing up as a latchkey kid in Arizona, I often had to navigate a suburban environment with no ability to drive and very little of my own money. This led me to being extremely dependent on my bicycle in both my academic and social career which continued all the way through college. As I got older with more opportunities to travel, I realized that some places were much more comfortable to get around without my car than others and that I could help to create that feeling in my community.
What keeps you motivated at this point in your career?
I am motivated by seeing beautiful, walkable environments grow and flourish. I am also encouraged by innovative products and practices which allow cities to experiment with incremental changes. I think pedestrian comfort is an evolving cultural attitude that requires different practices in every neighborhood to empower the unique community that lives there.
What industry trend will impact your field the most significantly in the next decade?
Cities are becoming denser, and, for a variety of reasons, fewer young people are driving. Many current city designs are falling behind this trend, thus becoming dangerous environments for non-vehicle users who may not have another option to commute.
What impact do you hope to make in the next five years of your career?
In the next five years, I hope the construction of some of my more context-sensitive current projects will be completed, so I will be able to point to their success with future clients to ease any concerns of creating environments where cars are permitted but not the focus.
If provided $1M investment to solve a major challenge within transportation, what problem would you tackle?
As far as permanent solutions are concerned, $1M won’t have a significant impact on most projects. However, $1M could provide the materials to set up a community quick-build project like the work of Better Block. I was able to participate in one of their projects a few years ago and was impressed by their ability to completely transform a space into a community center and to bring the community together to do it.
What has been the defining moment of your experience at TYLin?
My entire career has been at TYLin, so it has been filled with defining moments. I’ve learned what kind of projects I like to build and how to manage client expectations. I’ve been able to build a social team in my office through our local fun committee and come together on charity projects that impact our community. I’ve been supported by my managers when I find a project solution in another city that meets project planning goals and provide the back up and expertise to expand client engineering standards.
What have been the skills/strengths that have helped you succeed most in your career thus far?
I’m extremely friendly and personable and that allows me to make good connections with clients and empathize with their concerns. Those friendly connections with clients help when the project is on track but they’re most important when things go awry. I also use these skills in interactions with the public on behalf of my clients, where I find most people just want to feel heard and acknowledged.
What are your professional goals? Where do you see yourself at TYLin in 5 years?
I see myself as a project manager within a close-knit team of varying expertise who can collaborate on projects to provide the most effective designs that put people first.
Recently, TYLin unveiled a new brand position – Connecting people, places and ideas. How does this apply to the work you do?
My job is all about connecting people to places in ways that are comfortable and community-oriented. As I become more involved in city planning, I am learning to be more open to community feedback and shaping those ideas for engineering solutions. This requires a great deal of patience to shape concepts into digestible formats for people who are not experts in the things I know. It also requires humility to understand that at the end of the day, I am not a member of this community, and the people within it should be the driving force for change.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to others about their careers?
Build your teams to include people with different experiences and strengths than you have. It is always easier to have 10 copies of yourself, but by maintaining a diverse team whom are comfortable sharing ideas, you have a more well-rounded perspective of the problem and can deliver a more effective solution.