1. Tell our readers about your background. How did you decide to go into the field of Transportation Engineering?……………….
2. Do you have a favorite local street? What makes it great?
I really love walking down A Street in Downtown Oxnard. There is a sense of place with all of the shops and restaurants. There are wide sidewalks for pedestrians, angled parking so you can stop and stay a while (with the added benefit of slowing cars down — a form of traffic calming) and, with slower speeds, a bicycle-friendly street, too. It’s the closest thing to a Complete Street that we have in Oxnard………..
3. What current projects are you working on in your city that are most exciting to you?
The City is working on a lot of exciting projects right now. We have arterial street maintenance projects, whole-neighborhood pavement overlays, and intelligent transportation system projects. The most exciting, though, is probably the Rice Avenue at Fifth Street Overhead…………..
4. How does transportation engineering contribute to making more livable communities?
Transportation, at its very basic core, is about access. Without streets and roads, there is an inability to get from point A to point B. That is why it is so important that we invest in our infrastructure, with funding sources like the Gas Tax (Senate Bill 1) and Measure O in the City of Oxnard………..
5. As our population ages, how will that impact mobility needs in your community?
The need for access doesn’t wane over time; it may even increase with age. That is where our transit operators become invaluable. When the population ages to the point where a driver doesn’t feel comfortable behind the wheel anymore, paratransit or dial-a-ride becomes crucial…………
6. What are some challenges you face in designing “streets for all ages/abilities” and “complete streets”?
The biggest challenge of complete streets is balancing the needs of all road users with a limited amount of space and funding. While we aspire to add bicycle and pedestrian to facilities to our major roads originally design to carry vehicle traffic, it is difficult, and sometimes unwise, to mix peds and bikes with vehicles……….
7. What is the biggest traffic related myth or misunderstanding you’d like to dispel?
I think the biggest traffic myth is that video detection cameras have the ability to record your face or your license plate………….
8. What transportation technologies will have the greatest impact in your city the next 2-3 years? How about in the next 10 years?
Technology in transportation is moving so fast it’s very hard to keep up! One of the greatest impacts over the next two-to-three years will be adaptive traffic signals. We will be able to program traffic signal corridors (such as Rose Avenue or Gonzales Road) to “adapt” to traffic in real-time to move more vehicles, reduce the number of stops and the amount of greenhouse gases generated. In the near future, technology will be available in and around Oxnard to tell your car (if it is so equipped) when the traffic signal will turn green and how long you have left to wait………….
9. What are some great projects from other cities (either in Ventura County or around the world) that inspire your work in Oxnard?
Any project that leverages technology and creativity to do more with less is always inspiring. The days of adding capacity to carry more traffic will soon be over as available land (and funding) becomes more scarce…………
10. Is there anything else you want our readers to know?…………
