(Photos © J. Maus)
The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) has selected City of Portland Traffic Engineer Rob Burchfield as Public Sector Professional of the Year at its annual awards meeting in New York City last week.
According to a statement from the APBP, Burchfield was honored, “for his contribution to the field demonstrated by methodical testing and implementation of innovative bicycle facility designs in the City of Portland.”
Burchfield was specifically recognized due to his work on bike boxes, the new bikeways through the Rose Quarter Transit Center (which seem to be working quite well), and his leadership in “developing visionary pilot project plans” to install Portland’s first cycle track and buffered bike lanes.
When Portland first installed bike boxes back in early 2008, Burchfield was forced to defend the facilities because they were not yet approved as traffic control devices by the Federal Highway Administration.
Burchfield has helped push PBOT to install innovative (for America) bike facilities in large part because of his exposure to world-class bikeway networks in northern European cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Most recently, Burchfield has spearheaded a multi-city initiative to establish new best practices for bicycle and pedestrian facility design (more on that effort later).
Congratulations, Rob!
Congratulations!! That’s one more colored flag for “weird” Portland on the World Cycling Map.
Out of curiousity, has there ever been a traffic engineer that has won that award?
Congratulations, Rob! This award is very well deserved. Portland is immeasurably fortunate to have such a capable and innovative traffic engineer who is so sincerely dedicated to safe facilities for everyone (no matter how they travel).
I second the “well deserved”!
Before hearing of this award I had just written an email describing Rob as the “best traffic engineer in the country.” Now that’s been validated.
As someone who works with Rob, and who’s also aware of what’s going on nationally to advance bicycle transportation, I can tell you that this recognition is well deserved. We’re very fortunate to have Rob here in Portland.
Congratulations Rob, And the the whole team of traffic engineers at PDOT who have and continue to worked on improving the bike friendly infrastructure here in Portland. This is a great team effort and the whole team should share this honor.
Way to go, Rob! And thanks for the new treatment through PSU. I ride the cycle track on my commute home and am really liking it a bunch.
Keep up the great innovation!
Congratulations, Rob! I was in the building when it happened, and I was proud to be a Portland resident when I was told about it. Great work keeping Portland on the front edge in the US! You have a lot of supporters out there around the country.
Congrats Rob,
Portland, Oregon, and really our nation are improved for having Rob do the work he does, and for being who he is!
This is well deserved recognition.
Thanks for helping to make my ride safer! Keep up the good work.
Rob, keep up the great work! You and your team at the City of Portland are keeping Portland at the forefront of bicycle innovation – and at the top of the list of cities that are safe to get around in, by any mode.
Congratulations Rob. It’s a well deserved award. You are advancing the very concept of transportation engineering.
Congrats, Rob, on the well-deserved recognition.
PBoT’s been fortunate to have evolved a progressive traffic engineering culture in the course of the past 2 decades, and Rob’s been instrumental in cultivating it.
Congrats on this well-deserved recognition! It’s been a pleasure to see Rob at work over the years – we are certainly lucky he lives and works in our city.
Congratulations, Rob – your efforts to guide traffic planning in Portland have not only been heroic, they’ve been an inspiration for so many other places in the US and abroad. It’s good to see you get the recognition you so richly deserve!