The practitioner behind the blueprint
Kevin Comstock - Transportation Technologist. Author. System Expert.
Kevin Comstock has spent more than four decades working with transportation systems, starting with traffic signal equipment and growing into ITS, TSMO, telecommunications, systems engineering, smart city programs, and technology leadership.
50 Years
Family & Roots
Kevin and his high school sweetheart, Lisa, have been married for five decades. Together they raised three children and now celebrate five grandchildren.
A Career That Started at the Cabinet
Kevin Comstock
Director of ITS & TSMO, Technology and Innovation, KCI Technologies, Inc. · ITE Fellow
Kevin’s career began with hands-on work in traffic signal systems. His first cabinet installation was in Hayward, California, in 1987.
That early experience stayed with him.
Over the years, his work expanded into intelligent transportation systems, traffic operations, telecommunications, systems engineering, smart infrastructure, and technology-enabled mobility. He has worked with transportation agencies and organizations at different stages of technology adoption, giving him a practical view of what happens between an idea, a deployment, and years of operation.
Kevin served as Smart City Director for the City of Chattanooga before retiring from the city in 2022. His work there included the East M.L. King Boulevard Smart Corridor, pedestrian analysis using LiDAR and AI-based sensing, CTwin, governance and policy alignment, and collaboration among transportation agencies, technology companies, universities, utilities, national laboratories, and community organizations.
Today, Kevin serves as Director of ITS & TSMO, Technology and Innovation at KCI Technologies.
His work has continued to focus on a problem that is easy to overlook during a technology project: someone has to live with the system after the project team is gone.
That experience became the foundation for Systems Stewardship.
From Signal Cabinets to Connected Systems
Experience & Recognition
Transportation technology has changed substantially since Kevin installed his first signal cabinet. His career has followed that change, while keeping a practical connection to the systems themselves.
40+ Years
ITS, TSMO & Transportation Technology
Experience spanning traffic signal systems, intelligent transportation, telecommunications, systems engineering, operations, smart infrastructure, and technology leadership.
ITE Fellow
Institute of Transportation Engineers
Kevin is a Fellow of ITE, recognizing his contributions and experience within the transportation profession.
Smart City Director
City of Chattanooga
As Smart City Director, Kevin worked on transportation and technology initiatives that connected infrastructure, data, operations, research, and community objectives.
50 Years
With Lisa
Kevin and Lisa have been together since high school. They raised three children and now enjoy time with their five grandchildren
What Kevin Has Learned Along the Way
Areas of Expertise
Kevin’s experience covers a broad part of the transportation technology lifecycle. A few areas have remained particularly important throughout his work.
Lifecycle Governance & TSMO
Transportation systems need attention after deployment. Kevin’s work looks at the decisions, operating practices, resources, and organizational responsibilities that keep those systems useful over time.
Smart Infrastructure & Connected Systems
Signals, roadside equipment, sensors, communications, traffic management centers, software, and connected vehicle technologies increasingly depend on one another. Kevin has worked across these systems and the interfaces between them.
Systems Engineering
Complex transportation systems require more than individual components that work well on their own. Requirements, architecture, interfaces, testing, validation, configuration, and change management all matter once those components have to operate together.
Public-Sector Technology Leadership
Technology decisions in a public agency rarely stay within the technology department. They affect operations, budgets, policy, staff, procurement, maintenance, and the public. Kevin’s experience includes working across those responsibilities rather than treating them as separate conversations.
A Practical Philosophy
The ribbon-cutting is easy to point to. The harder part comes later.
- ● Who maintains the system?
- ● Who understands how it works when the people who designed it have moved on?
- ● What happens when a piece of technology reaches the end of its useful life?
- ● How does a new platform connect to something that was installed ten years earlier?
Those questions rarely fit neatly into a project schedule.
They still have to be answered.
Kevin’s view is that agencies need to think about those responsibilities while systems are being planned and designed, not after problems begin appearing in the field. Operations, maintenance, cybersecurity, configuration, staffing, funding, and future changes are part of the system’s lifecycle.