The traffic engineering profession in the United States has evolved significantly during the past 25 years. Whereas the focus in the late 1990s and early 2000s was on maximizing roadway capacity to accommodate vehicle movement, reducing delays and improved Levels of Service (LOS) for motorists, the past decade has seen a marked shift toward supporting environmentally sustainable multimodal transportation that includes public transit and active transportation modes like walking and biking. Even more recently, the profession has begun to elevate safety needs by developing and implementing various Vision Zero plans, and it has recognized the importance of transportation equity to improving the overall health and economy by mitigating the effects of historical discriminatory transportation

practices on poor and marginalized communities.

 

Jeff Parker (P.E., PTOE) is currently a Vice President of Traffic Engineering at WSP, a global consulting corporation, based in their Washington, DC office. Prior to serving in this role at WSP, Mr. Parker worked at RK&K, where he began his career in 1998. Mr. Parker earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and has been a registered professional engineer since 2002 and a certified Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE) since 2005. He is a registered P.E. in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Mr. Parker is active in several professional organizations including the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS), and is currently serving as Vice President of the Washington, DC chapter of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO). Mr. Parker will be discussing key milestones along his personal career path as a traffic engineer. He will share information about several projects that worked on or managed that he feels exemplify the many ways that traffic engineering positively impacts the communities in which we live, work, and play. Mr. Parker will also highlight some of the engineering-related professional development and community outreach that he has been privileged to perform recently for WTS and COMTO, with the hope that those attending the seminar will find some inspiration for furthering their own careers.