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A lot of professions and organizations have an unspoken code, one that says, \u201cWe may air our disagreements internally, but to the rest of the world, we present a united front.\u201d The police and the military, for example, tend to be this way. Families are often this way. This code can engender a really powerful sense of solidarity, which isn\u2019t always a bad thing.\nBut do civil engineers need a code like that? And what happens when speaking out for badly needed reform offends those who see it as an unjust provocation, attack on their livelihood, or even an act of betrayal?\nIn our of our most important Strong Towns Podcast episodes of all time, and #9 in our Greatest Hits series, Strong Towns founder and president Chuck Marohn discusses his own experience with these attitudes, in an incident which occurred in early 2015.\nWho Represents the Engineering Profession?\nChuck Marohn is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the state of Minnesota. He is also a vocal advocate who has been extremely critical of aspects of the engineering profession, including in particular the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Chuck has called ASCE the leader of the Infrastructure Cult for its relentless advocacy for more money for civil engineering projects, no matter the cost to society.\nIn early 2015, a fellow licensed engineer in Minnesota filed a complaint against Marohn\u2019s engineering license. This complaint did not allege that Marohn was not a competent engineer. Rather, it was filed over a policy disagreement. It alleged that Marohn had violated a state statute by writing and saying things, here at Strong Towns, that served to \u201cdiminish public confidence in the engineering profession.\u201d\nLet\u2019s get this straight: a Professional Engineer (PE) license is a big deal. The licensing test is extremely difficult and rigorous. Most civil engineers, Marohn included, take great pride in their PE title.\nAnd yet, criticizing ASCE does not, and should not in anyone\u2019s minds, equate to criticizing the engineering profession.\nNo Incentive to Do Things Differently\nASCE is unlike many professional organizations, in that it engages in routine political advocacy. ASCE advocates in the public sphere for things that will produce more money for more projects for more engineers\u2014getting more things built out of concrete and asphalt and steel.\nMarohn argues strongly that this mindset\u2014more is better\u2014is a deeply harmful dogma within the profession at a time when most American cities and towns suffer both a public-safety crisis (because our streets are too wide and induce unsafe driving) and a fiscal solvency crisis (because our streets are too wide, our development pattern is too spread out, and we have built far too much infrastructure).\nThe ASCE actively promotes the overbuilding of unnecessary and even harmful infrastructure. As an example, Marohn cites the often-used term \u201cfunctionally obsolete bridges,\u201d heard in debates about how much state and federal money is needed for infrastructure repairs. Many of these, it turns out, are simply one-lane bridges in rural areas, which are not actually in danger of falling down\u2014but the \u201cstandard\u201d says they should be two-lane.\nBecause of the way engineering contracts work\u2014often as a percent of construction cost\u2014there is little to no incentive to cut costs. There is little to no incentive to do things in a profoundly more frugal way. There is little to no incentive to question industry design standards for things like street widths, if doing so would also mean losing out on project funding.\nIn our cities and towns, our wide streets are killing people. Design could save lives. When you get into that conversation, some engineers get very upset. And one of those people, in 2015, got upset enough to challenge Chuck Marohn\u2019s license.\nSpoiler alert: The complaint went nowhere\u2014the state licensing board found \u201cno violation\u201d and recommended no further action. And a lot of people spoke up in defense of Chuck and Strong Towns, i