More to Come
After a long, gratifying, and globe-trotting career, Vukan Vuchic thrives in retirement.
To say Vukan R. Vuchic, Ph.D., excelled in his professional life would be quite an understatement.
Vuchic built himself into an expert in global public transport, specializing in light-rail transit, to the point of working as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding the planning, design, and operation of transport systems. He also advised the planners and builders of cities around the world—from Beijing to Rome to Philadelphia—to help make urban environments more accessible and livable for residents. He also spent decades teaching generations of engineering students as a professor with the University of Pennsylvania, where founded the school’s Transportation Systems Engineering program.
“My contribution is that a city should not be car based,” he says. “There’s a collision that happens between cars and people. In a livable city that’s designed to be pedestrian friendly and people can take public transit, that’s the big difference. Even in New York City, the situation has changed quite a bit in recent years. Things are changing here, but we’re still behind where we need to be.”
Vuchic retired in 2010, and he has found ways to thrive in retirement in much the same way he shined in his career. Even though he is into his 90s, he continues to share his expertise by lecturing and mentoring students who share an interest in his areas of expertise.
Cultivating a happy retirement requires several key ingredients. While financial independence and a plan for ongoing health care are essential, a recent Kiplinger report suggests it behooves a retiree to achieve balance in terms of how they spend their time—personal exploration vs. social connection, leisure time vs. purposeful engagement, independent travel vs. guided experiences, healthy living vs. enjoying life’s indulgences, and financial security vs. sharing wealth.
Vuchic, now a resident of Rose Tree Place in Media, devotes his time to much more than professional pursuits. A prolific writer throughout his life, he previously published his so-called “Transit Trilogy”—Urban Transit Systems and Technology, Urban Transit Operations, Planning, and Economics, and Transportation for Livable Cities. The self-professed “student of history” continues to write—about his family, and how World War II upended the lives of people living in his native Serbia—often while listening to classical or country music, from his home.
“It’s very friendly here, and it’s close to downtown Media and Philadelphia,” he says of Rose Tree Place. “There are a dozen people here with whom I talk to a lot, there are all kinds of programs, and the community is nicely maintained.”
Vuchic emigrated from Serbia to the United States in 1961; he became a U.S. citizen seven years later.
“As a teenager I somehow heard about the United States, and I wanted to go and live there,” he says. “I was very ambitious, and I wanted to be a good professional, have a good family, and live in a free country. I worked very hard and had a number of goals, and in many ways I exceeded them. … I have had a fulfilling professional and international life, a wonderful wife and four children, and I get to live in a place that prizes freedom. We are very happy.”
Photo courtesy of Watermark Retirement Communities
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life, August 2025.
