By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator, UFTI
How does a student go from environmental engineering and plant science to developing an interest in transportation engineering? For Bryan Weiksnar, it all began through community involvement – attending a Gainesville Vision Zero meeting.
“I learned that UF had won two contracts related to Vision Zero work, including one in Gainesville and one in Key West, and I wanted to get involved,” Weiksnar said. “At this point I was interested in transportation but heading down a different career path.”
Weiksnar was in the second half of his environmental engineering undergraduate degree at UF and learned that one of the key pillars of modern engineering is that designs should be planned with vulnerable populations in mind, such as children and the elderly. As he progressed through his studies, he kept noticing significant gaps in transportation related to the vulnerable.
“This is well understood by transportation professionals, yet the problem persists, and I had to understand why,” he said.
This question opened a new academic path for Weiksnar – one that led him to pursue graduate studies in the UF Department of Civil Engineering, specifically in the transportation program.
“I was attracted to UF for civil engineering for a few reasons: UF has an excellent reputation for engineering, UF was home to the STRIDE Center – a USDOT research organization tasked with finding novel ways of reducing congestion – and I attended UF as an undergrad and still lived in town,” Weiksnar said.
He was also drawn to the program because of the work of his doctoral program advisor, Siva Srinivasan, Ph.D., a professor in the department’s transportation group. Srinivasan’s work includes transportation safety, policy evaluation, planning, travel demand modeling and forecasting, micromobility, and the travel impacts of new information and communications technologies.
“Bryan approached me to discuss graduate study opportunities with a lot of passion about traffic safety,” Srinivasan said. “I am glad that he is pursuing a Ph.D. in this area with me, and I look forward to all his contributions to the transportation profession.”
As a graduate student, Weiksnar is now working on understanding how transportation systems affect vulnerable road users with a focus on safety. He wants to identify the crash risk factors in the built environment and how roads can be better designed to protect this population of travelers. He is also interested in how emerging technologies such as e-scooters can safely operate within a city.
As for the future, Weiksnar hopes to translate his academic and research skills into real-world impact.
“I most look forward to expanding my skills in the field of transportation engineering and contributing a small piece of novel knowledge to humanity,” he said.