William R. “Dick” McCasland recently passed away. Known for his generosity of spirit and his willingness to share his expertise with colleagues and students, McCasland was one of the most highly respected and knowledgeable professionals in traffic engineering. McCasland conducted Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) earliest research on freeway operations, providing a practical and innovative approach to day-to-day freeway traffic problems.
McCasland served for many years on the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and received TTI’s first TRB award. McCasland opened TTI’s first satellite office, developed the Texas Department of Transportation interagency research program and pioneered many of the traffic management concepts now called “Intelligent Transportation Systems.” He was also directly involved in many innovations in the Houston area, including ramp metering, freeway lane restriping for increased capacity, HOV lanes, accident investigation sites and motorist assistance patrols. He retired from TTI in August 2000.
“Those of us that were fortunate to work alongside Dick, learn from him and just enjoy being in his company understand that the TTI Houston office would not even exist today had he not had the vision for it in 1963,” notes TTI Senior Research Engineer Darrell Borchardt. “As one of the early pioneers in freeway operations research, he was well respected nationally for his work. Besides being the best engineer that I ever had the honor to work with, he was also an outstanding individual, athlete and man of character.”
TTI’s Director Emeritus Dr. Charley Wootan called him “a true gentleman and a shining example of what we all should strive to attain, both personally and professionally.”