For this installment of Stories from the Field, Berkeley SafeTREC’s Jarah Crowner chatted with Edgar Hernandez, Senior Transportation Planner for Caltrans: California Department of Transportation. Hernandez talks about his inspiration for working in active transportation and why community engagement is vital for success in active transportation programs.
What is your current role?
I am the Active Transportation Planner for Caltrans District 6, serving Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and Kern Counties. As the active transportation coordinator, I work with our internal units and local partners to identify active transportation needs and project concepts in our communities. I also work with our local partners to identify funding for active transportation and complete streets projects.
What inspired you to work in active transportation?
Growing up, I was involved in sports, so fitness has been a part of my lifestyle for some time now. Aside from lifting weights, I like to incorporate walking, hiking, or biking into my fitness routine. More recently, during my college years, there was a period when I did not have a vehicle, so I had to rely on walking, biking, or transit. This exposed me to some of the challenges that some users are exposed to when they walk, bike, or use transit. It also made me think about others who may not have the financial means to own a vehicle and the difficulties they have on a regular basis. Therefore, improving conditions for walking, biking, or using transit to better accommodate travel needs of the communities is what inspired me to work in active transportation.
How does your work with the program encourage safety for people that walk, bike, or roll for transportation?
Our Planning department started a walk assessment initiative in our District back in 2021. Since then, we have done many walks assessment in communities across our District. Walk assessments are a great tool to gather more detailed information about roadway, pedestrian, or transit conditions on the state route(s). Walk assessments also provide an opportunity to engage with community members and other stakeholders that can help identify potential enhancements into planning documents or conduct further analysis along the corridors. This engagement with residents and other stakeholders helps gather valuable community feedback, resulting in projects that reflects community ideas.
What are the key elements of a successful active transportation project or program?
Understanding the needs of the community is important for project development. Therefore, the grass roots approach to our community engagement has been a great success for our district.
What lessons or valuable takeaways did you gain from a recent active transportation project or program?
Our staff attended back to school events in August of 2023. From this, I learned that the student population can be very invested in their community as well. In general, often times it is only adults attending community meetings. But the student population can also provide great insights and recommendations as to what they would like to see in their communities. Therefore, it is important to include student population in community engagement as well.
If you had a superpower and could change anything, what would the future of active transportation safety look like?
I would create a mini city with no vehicles. Roads would be designed for walking and bicycling travel only. There would be bikes that can accommodate multiple people at once, like the ones we see at beaches. There would be a lot of trees for shade while walking or biking. All the necessary amenities such as grocery stores, commercial, and other points of interests would be within walking or biking distances.
This Stories From the Field interview was conducted in collaboration with UC Berkeley SafeTREC. The opinions and perspectives expressed are those of the interviewee and not necessarily those of SafeTREC.
