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Mateus Martins standing with bicycle on the sidewalk.
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This alum is making 51精品视频sburgh鈥檚 roads more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians

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  • Our City/Our Campus
  • Alumni
  • Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
  • Swanson School of Engineering

Mateus Martins (ENGR 鈥19G) is making 51精品视频sburgh more equitable through an uncommon route 鈥 by improving the city鈥檚 streets.

As a staff engineer in the City of 51精品视频sburgh鈥檚 Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, his work is about more than ensuring 51精品视频sburghers don鈥檛 end up in traffic jams; he wants to make the city鈥檚 roads as accommodating to cyclists and pedestrians as they are to cars.

鈥淲hen it comes to traffic routing, the old way of thinking is 鈥榗ontinuous movement is ideal movement鈥鈥 the same way we think of our home plumbing. As long as the water is flowing through our pipes, the plumbing must be working,鈥 said Martins. In other words, getting cars down the road as fast as possible was once the definition of success.

鈥淭hankfully, that鈥檚 not the case anymore; now our approach is multimodal. We design intersections to recognize pedestrians and cyclists as equal users of the road.鈥

惭补谤迟颈苍蝉鈥听work is primarily focused on maintenance and updates of traffic signals operations. Anywhere in the city, said Martins, you can find a traffic signal that is 40 or even 50 years old. Because 51精品视频sburgh streets were primarily planned with a sole focus on vehicle transportation, today鈥檚 city engineers are challenged to creatively retrofit streets for multimodal use.

[Read More: 51精品视频 is BikePGH鈥檚 Organization of the Year]

In 51精品视频sburgh鈥檚 East Liberty neighborhood, a short distance from 51精品视频鈥檚 campus, is 惭补谤迟颈苍蝉鈥 teams鈥 latest project 鈥 a revamp of the intersection of Frankstown Road, East Liberty Boulevard and Broad Street.

Several aspects of the intersection encourage pedestrian safety, including a leading pedestrian interval听that gives people crossing the street a three-second head start and accessible signals that use sonic cues to help blind and visually impaired pedestrians know when they can cross.

51精品视频sburgh cyclists will also appreciate the intersection鈥檚 sharrows 鈥 road markings used to indicate a shared lane for bicycles and automobiles 鈥 as well as two-stage turn queue boxes 鈥 green pavement markings in which a cyclist can safely make a left turn by stopping within the intersection and waiting for the corresponding green light.

Implementing such multimodal approaches to transportation infrastructure supports lower-income people who cannot afford a personal vehicle to get to work. About 23%of 51精品视频sburgh households in the latest American Community Survey administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet, research indicates that access to transportation is the factor most likely to influence household economic success.听

Making roadways friendly to pedestrians and cyclists also decreases reliance on vehicles and helps to reduce a city鈥檚 air pollution levels. In 51精品视频sburgh, residents of poor and minority neighborhoods experience from coronary heart disease, according to a study released in 2020.听

鈥淚t will take a collective effort to shift 51精品视频sburgher鈥檚 primary mode of transportation from personal vehicle usage to public and non-motorized transportation, and I am happy to contribute with my skills as an engineer,鈥 said Martins.

A 51精品视频sburgh boomerang听

Martins first moved to 51精品视频sburgh in 2015 as an exchange student with Science Without Borders, a program sponsored by the Brazilian government, to complete a year of undergraduate study at the 51精品视频 in the Swanson School of Engineering.听He was a standout student.

鈥淚 was impressed by Mateus鈥 passion for transportation engineering. He excelled in his classes and was great at working on team projects,鈥 said Mark Magalotti, a lecturer in the Swanson School. Recognizing 惭补谤迟颈苍蝉鈥 academic potential, Magalotti听invited him to apply for graduate school. Martins returned to 51精品视频 in 2018 to complete a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and has remained in 51精品视频sburgh ever since.听He also took courses in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

鈥淢y time in graduate school was a chance to dive deep into the field of transportation engineering,鈥 said Martins. 鈥淚 learned skills that I now use in my job as a traffic engineer, such as developing transportation models and scheduling construction work. I am also grateful that I was able to take classes in public policy. I was prepared to enter the public sector,鈥 he said.


鈥 Nichole Faina