2020 Minnesota TZD Webinar Series: Improving Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Through Corridor-Based Collaboration and Data Analysis

Thursday, November 12, 2020

About the Webinar

Robust pedestrian and bicycle crash data analysis, paired with active collaboration with the public, has proven to help inform decisions that improve the well-being of Minnesota’s people, environment, and economy. This process can lead to acceptance of safety improvements and treatments that all parties can support. In this webinar, attendees learned how various agencies are improving roadway safety through data and collaboration.

Webinar Recording & Materials

Moderator

Renae Kuehl, Principal, Traffic Safety/Research, SRF Consulting Group

Speakers

Jacob Bongard is a principal transportation engineer with Bolton & Menk. He began his career in 2009 and works on projects ranging from high-level planning studies to in-depth final design. Jacob enjoys solving challenging problems and seeing the impact our work can have on improving the way people safely and efficiently get from one place to another. He holds a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of North Dakota.

Jack Broz is the transportation engineer for the City of Richfield, Minnesota. Jack has managed projects ranging from concept development through final plans. Many of these projects required significant consensus-building with citizens and affected agencies and have resulted in construction cost savings of over $200 million. Effective utilization of design flexibility to address technical and stakeholder issues allowed the successful delivery of these projects.

Eric DeVoe is a senior researcher with the Office of Traffic Engineering at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. At the intersection of crash data and environmental justice, Eric works to distill complex data into effective safety plans and projects. He currently administers the Highway Safety Improvement Program. He holds a degree in economics and history from the University of Minnesota.

Brad Estochen is the traffic engineer for Ramsey County and is responsible for the traffic operations and safety along over 290 miles of county roads and over 300 traffic signals. Most people know Brad for his commitment to improving traffic safety through the Toward Zero Deaths program while he was the traffic safety engineer at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Early in his career, he was also involved in a variety of ITS projects, including working with General Motors to integrate their OnStar call center with 911 dispatching and working with 3M and the University of Minnesota on the testing and deployment of a SmartPlow that used technology to operate in low-visibility conditions.

Michael Petesch is the pedestrian and bicyclist data coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, where he manages and coordinates active transportation data efforts. Working with many partners across Minnesota, Michael uses his B.S. (UW Stevens Point) and master's degree (Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota) in environmental and transportation planning to make it safer, easier, and more convenient for people of all ages and abilities to walk, bike, and roll where they need to go.

Sonja Piper is a pedestrian and bicycle safety engineer with the Office of Traffic Engineering at the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Sonja’s role involves working with MnDOT project managers and local partners to find ways to make Minnesota a safer place for people walking and bicycling along and across state highways. Sonja earned her degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University and is a registered professional engineer in Minnesota. She has an over 20-year career working across government agencies and the private sector.

More Information

For more information about the webinar, please contact Linda Dolan at ldolan@umn.edu.