Transportation Safety Leader Jay Aber Joins HDR

April 16, 2024

Jay Aber

Jay Aber, P.E., PTOE, a nationally recognized innovative leader in the transportation safety industry, has joined HDR's traffic engineering practice.

Aber, based in Kansas City, will build upon HDR's commitment to progressive transportation safety, Complete Streets and multimodal planning solutions across all modes of transportation.

"Jay's dedication to helping clients identify, prioritize and implement solutions to create safer and more equitable transportation systems is inspirational," said Bernie Arseneau, HDR's highways and roads director. "His approach involves using the right technology and leveraging data to customize solutions that holistically address a community's safety needs, increase accessibility and improve quality of life for all."

With more than 16 years of experience in transportation engineering and planning, Jay is a recognized leader on Vision Zero, an initiative aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries for all road users. He worked as project manager on the Bay Area Vision Zero Action Plan and Data System, where he helped develop a comprehensive safety data system with on-demand online dashboards for Bay Area agencies. He also led a team to create a plan identifying ways to reduce road dangers in Vision Zero Action plans for Miami-Dade County, Florida; Kansas City; and Omaha, Nebraska.

As project manager and adviser, Aber has developed numerous comprehensive plans to increase traffic, bicycle, pedestrian and transit safety. He has also been involved with multimodal corridor studies covering more than 75 miles of roadways, comprehensive planning efforts for cities, metropolitan planning organizations, and state departments of transportation, as well as conceptual and final design for many Complete Streets construction projects across the country.

"I'm excited to join HDR, the best team of engineers, planners and scientists in the industry. I'm looking forward to tackling the problems of today and the future using tried-and-true best practices and innovative approaches," Aber said. "I want to do my part to make great things possible by advancing a safe systems approach to traffic and urban design in communities around the world."