Thanks to everyone who attended our virtual Annual Awards and Social. The annual awards give us an opportunity to recognize the outstanding professionals that lead our community of transportation engineers and planners and the great work that happens in Northern Alberta.

NextGEN Star: Suliman Gargoum

Suliman Gargoum holds a PhD degree in the applications of sensor technology in transportation infrastructure design and management and an MSc in traffic safety. Suliman has contributed over 30 peer reviewed research papers published in transportation journals.

Upon completing his PhD in 2018, Suliman co founded Nektar 3D, an Edmonton-based tech company that specializes in the use of LiDAR and photogrammetry to support transportation projects. Nektar 3D has helped consultants, as well as municipalities, on projects such as the 50th Street widening, the Valley Line LRT project and neighbourhood renewal projects in the City of Edmonton.

During his time at the University of Alberta, Suliman played a key role in supporting the revival of the ITE Student Chapter and served in many different executive roles including President. During his time leading ITEUA, the chapter was awarded the CITE Student Chapter Activities Award. Suliman was also the co-chair of the first CITE Student Leadership Summit held in Edmonton in 2018.

This award recognizes Suliman’s strong technical expertise, plus the significant contributions he has made to the transportation engineering and planning industry at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, and beyond.

Project of the Year – Safe Mobility Strategy

For project of the year, the Awards Selection Committee was pleased to recognize two projects

For the first project, the City of Edmonton and Toole Design developed the Safe Mobility Strategy through a combination of analysis, research, and engagement to continue the City of Edmonton’s efforts to achieve Vision Zero through safe and livable streets in Edmonton.

The Safe Mobility Strategy changes the conversation in two critical ways:

• it explicitly ties traffic safety to the vision and goals of the City of Edmonton; and
• it builds upon the traditional disciplines of the 5 Es by integrating equity and empathy principles in its development.

This project had numerous innovative approaches including:

• Thorough analysis of crash data.
• The development of a High Injury Network which visually represents the location of high crash corridors.
• Application of Gender-Based Analysis Plus, this was the first city-wide transportation initiative to use that approach.
• Equity analysis was central to this project and included a quantitative analysis of equity factors that helped to ensure the lived experiences of all Edmontonians are considered and improved through implementation of the Strategy.

To continue to grow into a city built for people, this strategy will support the City of Edmonton, community, and partners to tackle widespread issues that contribute to crashes, including street design and the deep-rooted cultural norms around traffic and mobility. The Safe Mobility Strategy will allow the City of Edmonton to make significant progress toward its goal of Vision Zero by 2032.

Project of the Year – Shared Streets and Lane Closures

City of Edmonton Traffic Operations, along with numerous internal partners, worked to implement over 28 kilometres of lane closures and shared streets to safely accommodate people walking and biking as people adjusted to the realities of the pandemic. This initiative was rapidly developed and implemented over a period of just two months.

Combined with the lessons learned from other jurisdictions along with the City’s current practices, an Edmonton approach was developed which included:

• a defensible data driven approach to identify routes and route types
• Manufacturing custom traffic and educational signage, which was manufactured while battling global material shortages
• engagement targeting advocacy groups, community leagues, business improvement area representatives and Edmonton’s Federation of Community Leagues
• education through on-street signage, a public service announcement, media stories, social media, and blogs, along with positive enforcement by City of Edmonton Peace Officers
• Evaluation in which the City of Edmonton partnered with the University of Alberta on a study utilizing a computer monitoring system to analyze video footage to measure the effectiveness and safety of some of the expanded walking and cycling paths.

The temporary shared streets and lane closures effectively supported people’s ability to physically distance outside and will likely have ripple effects on Edmonton’s planning and road use for years to come.

Awards Selection Committee

We would like to acknowledge this year’s award committee of NACITE past presidents, which included:

• Dallas Karhut (chair)
• Daniel Vriend
• Erin Toop
• Bruno Peters
• Dean Cooper
• Peter Kilburn
• Rod Peacock