Harmer Davis was a civil engineer known for founding the UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation and Traffic Engineering (ITTE). He received his Master’s degree in civil engineering from UC Berkeley in 1930, and taught at the university’s Department of Civil Engineering in the 1930s–1940s. He founded the ITTE in 1947, using a multifaceted model that combined research and teaching, and worked closely with the State of California’s highway department. In this interview, Davis discusses his early years at UC Berkeley, and development of the ITTE: its beginnings at Berkeley; staffing; creating an Extension and academic program; multidisciplinary research program; California State Automobile Association in the late 1940s and its support for the ITTE. This oral history includes a short interview with ITTE research economist Richard M. Zettel on the early days of the ITTE.