From Bike Lanes to Freight Trains, CA Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin (’22) Thinks in Connections
In February of 2022, as the country was still recovering from the supply chain shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Toks Omishakin as the state’s fourth Secretary of Transportation.
That May, Omishakin helped strike down a decades-old plan to widen the 710 Freeway, one of the country’s busiest freight corridors—and defended his dissertation, completing his PhD in engineering management at UT’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE).
With the US government’s heavy investment in highways stretching back to the 1950s, Omishakin’s focus on other aspects of the transportation industry stands out. It is also what drew Omishakin to the ISE doctoral program.
“Transportation is ultimately a tool that helps people achieve what they want to achieve: to play, to worship, to access upward mobility at school or work,” Omishakin said. “If your city only has highways and you don’t have sidewalks, public transit, dedicated freight routes, rail, or an airport, you have a dysfunctional system. It’s like laying out all the pieces of a car without putting them together.”