Transportation engineers can be intimidating. They are hard to oppose. When a member of the general public shows up at local meeting to express concern over a project – for example, their quiet local street being widened as if it were a highway – they more often than not find themselves verbally outgunned by the project engineer.

There are a handful of ways engineers deflect criticism. Chief among them is to resort to quoting industry standards. Having a huge budget and all the clout that comes with it doesn’t hurt either. There are, however, a number of reliable threads that I’ve heard engineers use time and again.

This last summer I wrote a series that looked at child pedestrians being killed in automobile collisions, the finale of which included this line:

The engineering profession -- with a growing number of notable exceptions -- employs a systematic approach to design prioritizing the fast and efficient (but not safe) movement of automobiles over everything else. As a general rule, engineers show a conscious indifference to pedestrians and cyclists, misunderstanding their needs where they are not disregarded completely. This is the very definition of gross negligence.

Some engineers on Reddit took exception to this assertion. I’ve gone back over their critiques and identified the five most common lines I’ve heard engineers use to deflect criticism.

1. You don’t have a valid opinion if you’re not a licensed engineer.

Getting an engineering license is not easy. You have to get a rather challenging undergraduate degree, work as in an apprentice role for a number of years and then pass a difficult test. Engineering societies have helped establish and enhance licensing requirements in all fifty states.

There is some logic to this. We certainly want the people who design and build critical infrastructure to know what they are doing. But too often licensing is a way to protect a profession from criticism, stifle dissent and deflect uncomfortable realities. From the Reddit thread:

twinnedcalcite: Not always, a civil engineer could be a urban planner but an urban planner may not be an engineer or architect.

1wiseguy: It's easy to second-guess somebody else's work when you don't actually have to take any responsibility.

Transportation engineering is, as they say, not rocket science. One does not need an engineering license to be taken seriously on any topic that would come before a local elected body.

2. There isn’t enough money to do what should be done.