Abstract
This paper reviews the astounding growth of vehicular travel over the past century, the consequent provision of more and better roads, and the improvement in traffic operations through advancement of the technical aspects of traffic engineering. The author advocates that in the future, non-technical skills like management, leadership, financial acumen, communication, negotiation/arbitration, public relations, political survival and vision will become more important to traffic engineers than technical skills. The paper goes further to explain the need for and benefit from each of these skills, as well as the key role of the transportation manager in helping traffic engineers acquire them.