Director's Corner

Team Caltrans: Let’s roll up our sleeves – we have work to do

Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin

Toks Omishakin

Greetings to all of you, my new colleagues. I appreciate the warm welcome I have received since I was sworn in as Caltrans’ director on Oct. 23, and I look forward to the great things that we will accomplish in the coming years.

Right off the bat I witnessed this department’s top-notch emergency response in the face of major wildfires and a major PSPS (public safety power shutoffs) event.

Our great teamwork extends beyond our department. We continue to make sure that Cal Fire and other emergency-services agencies have full access to state-maintained roads to assist with evacuations and move essential resources into place. We work with the CHP and other partners to temporarily close roads where wildfires and smoke pose risks to our fellow citizens. We use Caltrans QuickMap, changeable message signs and other tools at our disposal to keep motorists informed about road closures and detours.

Throughout the state, Caltrans employees are doing exemplary work this wildfire season. I would like to thank you for the professionalism you have shown under sometimes very difficult conditions.

Two days after being sworn in, I was interviewed on the roof of the Caltrans Headquarters building, overlooking the state Capitol, and briefly discussed some of my long-term goals for the department. If you have not seen that, here is a link to that five-minute discussion.

Basically, I want us to solidify our position as the best transportation department in the country, in every facet. This will include:

  • Providing Californians and visitors with choices in mobility. We want to make it easier and more reliable for people to get around without always resorting to driving a car. We cannot merely encourage more walking, bike-riding and transit-taking. We must build and maintain a multimodal infrastructure that makes multiple traveling options attractive.
  • Addressing the negative impact that transportation has on the environment. Forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions are from the transportation sector. A multimodal infrastructure will go a long way toward addressing that problem, but there are many other things we also can do to lessen our environmental footprint.
  • Focusing on safety. On average, 10 people are killed each day on our state transportation system. This includes more than two bicyclists or pedestrians each day. We must do everything we can to bring down these numbers. We need to take tangible steps to improve safety – for our workforce as well as for the general public. That will entail being innovative, bold and proactive, traits that have contributed to our department’s greatest achievements since we broke ground on our first project in 1912.

Working together and in close partnership with communities and other agencies, we can make our state’s transportation system better than ever. The challenges are many, but I am confident that we will overcome them. We have to overcome them, and we will. That is the Caltrans way.