HOME BASE
Wilson, North Carolina
After a career that has wandered through more cities and systems than a sane person would put on one résumé.
During COVID, Steve moving was on everyone’s bingo card.
STEVE • IKE • TUCKER • WILSON
Transportation is my career.
Getting there is the fun part.
Transit leader, roadgeek, airport geek, Amtrak rider, traveler, Eagle Scout, LEGO enthusiast and lifelong student of how people — and places — connect.
INTERSTATESITW
R • R • R
ABOUT STEVE
A career that never followed a straight line.
Professional life, transportation obsession, Scouting, dogs, LEGO and family history all live here without pretending they are unrelated.
MINI BIO
Steven R. Beck
Transit leader. Eagle Scout. Western Illinois University alumnus. Roadgeek, rail fan and airport geek. LEGO builder, dog dad and traveler who firmly believes getting there is part of the story. Illinois roots; Wilson, North Carolina home base.
Family status: Oldest child for 42 years. Then, all of a sudden, I needed therapy for being my father’s middle child. Still my mother’s oldest. No therapy required for that.
THE LONGER VERSION
More than a résumé.
I was born in 1975 to Robert and Deborah Beck in Rochelle, Illinois. I attended Lincoln School, Rochelle Junior High and Rochelle Township High School, graduating in 1993.
Scouting became a major part of my life beginning in first grade with Pack 552. In 1987 I joined Troop 312, where I earned Eagle Scout. I later returned as the final Scoutmaster of Troop 312 and helped two young men earn Eagle Scout.
I graduated from Kishwaukee College in 1998 and Western Illinois University in 2000, then returned for my master’s degree, finally finishing in 2011 after a transportation internship. During college I was recognized in Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges and inducted into Rho Phi Lambda.
My first career began with the Boy Scouts of America in 2001. After leaving professional Scouting and spending a few years figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up, I returned to graduate school.
Then transportation found me.
I began driving a bus for Laidlaw in 2007, became a supervisor with First Transit in 2009, and became a General Manager with Durham School Services in 2012. From there came transit systems, startups, moves, executive roles and considerably more mileage than any sensible career path should require.
SITW is personal too: Steve, Ike, Tucker & Wilson. It is the professional side of my life and the guy who can spend entirely too much time studying an interchange, airport terminal, transit map or highway sign.
BACKGROUND
Illinois roots
Western Illinois University, Scouting, transit and enough Midwest road mileage to have opinions about practically every route shield.
THE MOTTO
Leave it better.
Work, communities, organizations, people, and occasionally a website.
TRANSIT LEADERSHIP
Moving people is the career.
Operations, service delivery, workforce leadership, startups, labor relations and the real-world work of making schedules actually happen.
WITH GRATITUDE
Jude Kiah — Mentor
For the guidance, friendship, confidence and occasional reality check throughout my career. Many people teach you how to do a job. A true mentor helps you become the leader you were meant to be. Thank you, Jude.
General Manager
Community transportation, paratransit, Medicaid and county service delivery.
Director of Transportation
Large-scale fixed-route operations with hundreds of operators and frontline leaders.
General Manager
Transit operations, startups, contract performance, service redesign and system improvement.
Leadership style
Accountability, direct communication, measurable service and fixing the problem instead of admiring it.
ROADS • RAILS • RUNWAYS
The collection is mostly mileage.
Not everything worth collecting fits on a shelf.
🛣️
ROADS
Roadgeek
Primary Interstates, 3DIs, complete routes, partial routes and occasional designation nonsense.
🚆
RAILS
Amtrak
Illinois corridor trains, sleeper trips, stories and one telephone pole that was not on the itinerary.
✈️
RUNWAYS
Airport Geek
Airports visited, terminal opinions and rankings absolutely nobody commissioned.
ROADGEEK
Interstates I've Driven
A living log of the pavement I've personally put tires on — primary Interstates, 3DIs, branches and one designation under protest.133Driven / Ridden Routes
0Complete
0Partial
03-Digit / Branch
No routes match that filter.
Editorial policy remains unchanged: Wyoming receives no unnecessary 3DI without compelling evidence and adult supervision.
RAIL GEEK
Amtrak finally gets its own damn section.
Stations are easier to understand than a giant map, and the stories are the interesting part anyway.
ROUTES RIDDEN
Illinois Zephyr • Carl Sandburg • California Zephyr • Southwest Chief
From Illinois corridor trips to a bucket-list sleeper trip west — plus the Southwest Chief from Galesburg to Chicago.
Chicago UnionNapervilleMendotaKewaneeGalesburgMacombQuincyHoldregeDenver
THE STORIES MATTER
Denver was the bucket-list trip.
A sleeper with Dad, moving my things from Colorado back to Illinois.
And then there was the Chicago trip that did not make it to Chicago because the train encountered a telephone pole. That one was not on the bucket list.
AIRPORT GEEK
Runways, terminals & connections.
50 airports & aviation locations visited. Search by city, state/territory, country, airport name or code.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial • Atwood Park • 1991
Eagle Scout Project — Troop 312, Rochelle, Illinois
SCOUTING & SERVICE
A pretty important part of the story.
DEDICATED TO
Norvin L. Moss, Scoutmaster
W. Dale Bearrows, Assistant Scoutmaster
Two men whose leadership, guidance and example helped shape not only the Scout I became, but the man and leader I became afterward. Thank you for helping show me the way.
Eagle ScoutAtwood Park service project, 1991.
Illinois Eagle Scout Report to the GovernorSelected council representative.
JCPenney Golden Rule AwardRecognition tied to the Eagle project.
Honorary State DirectorCommerce & Community Affairs for a day.
LIFE OUTSIDE TRANSIT
The dogs get billing too.
Because a personal site that skips Ike, Tucker and Wilson would be objectively defective.
2010–2024 • DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Ike Beck
Ike did not hide his opinions. If he was mad at you, he ignored you. If he wanted attention, subtlety was not part of the process: he climbed into my lap and smacked me in the face with his paw.
Mom said “no,” and Ike listened. I said “no,” and Ike apparently heard, “Challenge accepted.” He escaped, visited the neighbors, begged for treats and returned as though absolutely nothing unusual had happened.
At work he sat on the desk, watched everyone and quickly learned who would feed him and who would not. A friend at the Illinois Department of Transportation simply referred to him as HR. The title stuck.
Management structure: Mom outranked Ike. Ike outranked Tucker. The neighbors were treat vendors. Steve was management on paper.
Little Ike
Before HR had officially taken over.
Home
Ike at home, where he belongs.
🐕
Tucker
Senior management, professional cuddler and current senior statesman of the household. Compensation package primarily consists of treats.
🐕🦺
Wilson
Younger division. Specializes in unauthorized departures and perimeter testing.
IKE'S LEGACY
Still supervising.
Some titles are permanent. Director of Human Resources remains one of them.
FAMILY HISTORY
Roots & surprises
Genealogy, family stories and the chapter that included finding an older sister at 46.
TRAVEL
Planes, trains & automobiles
Trips are better when getting there becomes part of the story.
HOME
The collection problem
Some people decorate. Steve acquires things with route numbers, airport codes, Scout history or several thousand plastic bricks.
THE BRICK ZONE
Okay, yes. There are LEGO.
Architecture, vehicles, oversized builds and the ongoing belief that there is always room for one more set.
FEATURED OBSESSION
Some people collect souvenirs.
Steve builds them.
Roads, rails, runways and buildings make considerably more sense once they have been reduced to several thousand interlocking plastic pieces.
GALLERY
Minions
Because apparently one Minion was never going to be enough.
GALLERY
Everyone Is Awesome
Pretty self-explanatory.
ARCHITECTURE
Skylines & landmarks
Because apparently visiting a city is not enough. It should also occupy shelf space afterward.
MORE BUILDS
The table was free once
The larger the set, the more convincing the argument that it counts as home décor.
ROADS • RAILS • RUNWAYS • AND APPARENTLY SHIPS
CRUISES
Because sometimes the road less traveled is water — and every trip seems to come with a story, a witness, or Jeff.
⚓ Royal Caribbean preferred • Carnival was given one chance
THERE IS ALWAYS A STORY
This is a travel log, not a ship encyclopedia.
It is the collection of trips, places, people and moments I actually remember — which, in my world, is considerably more entertaining.
Royal Caribbean became the cruise line of choice. Carnival got one cruise. That was sufficient research.
The Cruise Log
May 2008
🚢
The First Cruise
CarnivalFirst Cruise
Who went: Steve, Jeff Dodd and Phillip Bryan.
The cruise that started the sea-going chapter and established a very clear cruise-line preference.
Official retrospective: Carnival SUCKS. We tried it. Research completed.
January 2010
🏝️
Haiti — Two Weeks Before the Earthquake
Royal CaribbeanHaiti
Who went: Steve and Jeff Dodd.
The trip included the Bahamas, Jamaica and Haiti. After helping Jeff move, we went on a cruise that included Haiti. Two weeks later, the devastating 2010 earthquake struck.
That timing turned what had simply been a vacation memory into something I would always look back on differently.
2011
🌈⛴️
Pride on Lake Michigan
ChicagoPride RideAl & Ms. Lucy Foozie
Who went: Steve, Al and Ms. Lucy Foozie.
A Pride boat ride on Lake Michigan. Not a traditional ocean cruise, but a boat, Chicago, Pride and this group absolutely qualifies as a travel story.
Sept. 19, 2015
🎂🚢
My 40th Birthday Cruise
Royal CaribbeanOasis of the Seas40th Birthday
Who went: Steve, Jeff Dodd and Al Stout.
I sailed from Fort Lauderdale on Oasis of the Seas.
Itinerary: Nassau, St. Thomas and Sint Maarten. Jeff upgraded us to a two-story loft suite.
There are ordinary birthday trips, and then there is turning 40 in a two-story suite on Oasis.
Oct. 18–26, 2025
👑🎂
My 50th Birthday Cruise
Royal CaribbeanOasis of the SeasRoyal Suite50th Birthday
Who went: Steve, Jeff, Al and Jason.
Back aboard Oasis of the Seas, sailing from Fort Lauderdale.
Itinerary: Curaçao, Aruba, Cabo Rojo (Dominican Republic) and CocoCay. This time the accommodations were a Royal Suite.
Forty established the standard. Fifty made absolutely no attempt to lower it.
⚓ Where the Ships Took Me
The birthday cruises, Caribbean ports and a few stories that earned permanent map status.
Schematic map • approximate port placement • not to scale
40TH BIRTHDAY • 2015Fort Lauderdale → Nassau → St. Thomas → Sint Maarten → Fort Lauderdale
50TH BIRTHDAY • 2025Fort Lauderdale → Curaçao → Aruba → Cabo Rojo → CocoCay → Fort Lauderdale
2010Haiti — visited just two weeks before the devastating earthquake.
2011 PRIDE RIDE • CHICAGOAl and Ms. Lucy Foozie get an honorary map entry. Lake Michigan is a little far north to squeeze honestly onto a Caribbean map.
40th Birthday • 2015
50th Birthday • 2025
Earlier cruise history
THE JEFF FILES
Every trip needs witnesses.
🍽️
The Dining Room Incident
Jeff went to the maître d’. Whatever happened in that conversation worked, because the main dining room service for the rest of the cruise was spectacular.
Conclusion: do not underestimate Jeff when dining standards are involved.
🥂
Jeff’s Other Travel Damage
Jeff deserves credit for helping turn me into an Amtrak business-class and five-star-hotel snob.
Airplane first class, however, was entirely my own mistake. Once experienced, coach became considerably less charming.
Current Cruise Line Rankings
Preferred
👑 Royal Caribbean
Would cruise again. Has earned repeat business.
Dignity-Free Zone
🛟 Carnival
One cruise. Enough data was collected. No dignity has been allocated.
CONTACT
Say hello.
Professional inquiries, transit conversations, roadgeek arguments, airport opinions, or a compelling case for why an Interstate designation actually makes sense.
Looking for my cell phone number?
Nice try. I manage a transit operation. Enough people already have it. :-)
Even my mother won’t give you my cell phone number.
LinkedInNice try. I manage a transit operation. Enough people already have it. :-)
Even my mother won’t give you my cell phone number.