Larry Ehl Suspends Publication: Thanks for a Job Well Done

By Jenise Fryatt and Mitchell Beer

The new year brought the announcement that Larry Ehl, crusading publisher of Transportation Issues Daily (TID), will be suspending his popular daily blog and weekly newsletter to become Chief of Staff for the Port of Seattle Commission.

With more than 2,000 subscribers and 4,100 Twitter followers in every U.S. state, TID has been an invaluable source of news and insight on all modes of transportation, aggregating a stunning array of content on transportation policy, funding, and investment.

On January 6, Ehl reported that he’d been pulled away by an opportunity that was “too good to resist—a chance to join and lead a team, to work on complicated challenges, and be in the midst of national and regional policy issues.”

With its focus on “the positive [transportation] achievements and innovations of public agencies and the private sector,” and its commitment to “explaining the needs and benefits of transportation investment in kitchen-table language,” TID earned widespread respect and was cited frequently in Beltway publications.

“TID started off as an unproven concept, launched on a hunch. Would there be interest in an email/web-based publication covering all transportation modes? That was non-partisan? That was opinion-free (well, almost always)? That was NOT anti-roads, anti-bikes, anti-transit, or anti-something?” Ehl wrote. “You answered yes.”

Even if Ehl’s new professional endeavor takes him out of publishing, we hope he won’t be too far away. At IBTTA, we’ve appreciated the journalistic rigor and professionalism he brought to his publications. And as we ramped up our own social media presence, we always knew we could confidently share his well-researched, timely, relevant posts on the tough issues facing transportation infrastructure. IBTTA wishes Larry every success.

photo credit: Mario Inoportuno via photopin cc via Flickr Creative Commons 1/8/14