An Open Letter to District and Section Leadership--

TO: Midwestern District Board, Illinois Section Board, MOVITE Section Board, NCITE Section Board, Wisconsin Section Board

FROM: Steve Manhart, P.E., PTOE, Midwestern District Director

RE: Transportation Certification Update

DATE: February 23, 2007

Just a few years ago, transportation professionals questioned the worth of any additional certification beyond the professional engineer license or AICP certification. Now, the Professional Traffic Operation Engineer (PTOE) certification has become an accepted and respected recognition of qualifications.

To date, total applications for the PTOE certification since the beginning of the program have surpassed 2,125 and there are more than 1,700 certified PTOEs worldwide. In the Midwestern District alone, we have 275 PTOEs.

Certification opportunities are on the rise. The PTOE, Traffic Operations Practitioner Specialist (TOPS) and Traffic Signal Operations Specialist (TSOS) certification exams are set to be offered on March 24, 2007. On that date, the Transportation Professional Certification Board (TPCB) will also be offering a new certification exam – the Professional Transportation Planner (PTP) certification exam.

Certification requirements, fees and exam schedule are posted on the updated TPCB website, http://www.tpcb.org/ . You will also find the listing of the seven March 24 exam locations, which includes one in the Midwestern District (Chicago), one close by (Dallas), and one at the ITE Technical Conference in San Diego. Please note that the application deadline has been extended to March 9, 2007, for these exams.

Preparation assistance for these exams is available on the TPCB website. There are online practice exams for all four certification programs and they are hosted on ITE’s learning.com website. The cost of the practice exams has been lowered to $10 per exam. Copies of the TSOS and TOPS Refresher course reference and the PowerPoint slide set with instructor notes are available for purchase. Soon, complete recordings of the PTOE/TOPS/TSOS web refresher courses and will be offered for self-study.

I encourage you to talk up these certification programs. Consider setting the example for your section. Encourage peers and subordinates to apply to take one or more of the exams. Remind everyone there is still time to sign up for the March 24 exams at any of the seven locations. The TPCB has pledged to expedite applications as they come in.

Together, we can post a record number of people sitting on one day taking the TPCB certification exams. Help us meet the goal to have more than 50 sit for the new Professional Transportation Planner exam.

Thanks!