Institute for Transportation

Description

Please join Iowa LTAP, DOT, GTSB, and the Iowa Division of FHWA for an hour of discussions about various safety-related programs. Hear from the following speakers: Paul Lafleur at the FHWA will discuss the MUTCD update and the safe systems approach to safety; David Veneziano at LTAP will talk about its equipment loan and road safety assessment programs; Brandi Thompson at GTSB will summarize their Collaboration Crews; and Ashley Hochberger at the Traffic and Safety Bureau of DOT will present on their safety funding programs.

Speaker Bios

Paul LaFleur is a Safety and Transportation Engineer with the Iowa Division of the FHWA. He has been there for the past 6 years. He has worked at all levels of government over his 21 year career and the consulting industry. He is also an instructor for NHI’s Roadside Safety Design course.

Ashley Hochberger is the new Safety Planner in the Traffic and Safety Bureau at the Iowa Department of Transportation. After graduating Iowa State University, Ashley was a City of Ames Police Officer for 13 years. Her areas of expertise included data information and analysis, GIS mapping, and community outreach. Ashley is excited for her new role at the Iowa DOT and to continue her passion of improving safety on Iowa’s roads.

Brandi Thompson has been a Program Administrator with the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau since 2019. Prior to that, she spent 17 years working in pediatric injury prevention – with a primary focus on child passenger safety. It did not take long working at GTSB for Brandi to figure out that there was an entire army of traffic safety advocates statewide and that occupant protection is just one tiny piece of a much larger puzzle. She is thrilled to be a part of such important work and truly values the contributions of each and every stakeholder in traffic safety.

David Veneziano is Safety Circuit Rider with the Iowa Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) at the Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University. He has over 14 years of experience in various aspects of transportation research, including safety and operational analysis, winter maintenance applications, Intelligent Transportation Systems and remote sensing. In addition, his experience includes outreach and training activities for safety treatments, roadside safety, work zone flagging and safety, and roadway signing and marking. He has also led numerous road safety assessment efforts in Iowa over the past 6 years.