Wayne Emington, Transportation Safety Program Manager

Wayne Emington, Transportation Safety Program Manager

What is your name and job title?  

Wayne Emington, Transportation Safety Program Manager, Park Facility Management Division (PFMD) Transportation Program

What does your job involve?

Simply put, saving lives. The end result of everything I do is oriented around an enjoyable visitor experience, absent transportation related fatalities and serious injuries, preserving unimpaired the natural and cultural resources of the National Park Service. As the person at NPS with the primary responsibility for the Transportation Safety Program, I spend my days partnering with internal and external safety stakeholders to reduce the number and severity of traffic crashes by ensuring that opportunities to improve roadway safety are identified, considered, implemented, and evaluated, as appropriate, during all phases of highway planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance. Collaboration between planners, landscape architects, engineers, law enforcement, emergency responders, communications professionals, and natural and cultural resource experts is paramount to ensuring the context of safety strategies are appropriate for a given park.

What inspired you to get into engineering?

LeVar Burton’s portrayal of Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation inspired little Wayne to dream of becoming the person who could solve the big problems as part of a multidisciplinary team. Since I’m not able to save everyone on the ship by re-routing power from the main deflector, I’m very happy to be a part of the team that creates a safe and enjoyable visitor experience on the transportation networks in our National Parks.

Following this year’s theme, do you have a dream that became reality through your engineering work?

Along the theme of reimagining what seems impossible, I’d like to think that we’re getting closer to the dream of no one dying in traffic crashes. That’s not no crashes; that’s no one DYING in crashes. By design, operating, and maintaining roads where crash impact speeds are low enough that people do not die when crashes happen, this new approach to safety (that has worked well internationally) has the chance to change the narrative in the US. The nation as a whole is rethinking its approach to transportation safety and I’m excited to help the National Park Service think through what the new National Roadway Safety Strategy looks like in an agency with a resource preservation-oriented mission.

Do you have any experiences that you are most proud of?

Having spent several years working nationally on pedestrian safety for FHWA, I have two proudest moments it's hard to pick between. The first was helping a room full of highway safety program managers from across the country understand how a network level look at land use, population demographics, traffic volume, and traffic speed could help them decide where safety money could best be spent to save the most lives. The second was repeatedly playing a hilariously original pedestrian safety song at workshops. I used to joke that I was on tour!

What are the career benefits of working for the National Park Service?

Having worked for both another federal agency and in state government, I can honestly say working for the National Park Service has been very refreshing. There is a great sense of mission and purpose here that is immediately evident. The diversity of professional expertise and experience make for an environment where real teamwork is both necessary and rewarding. I’m finding that as part of team at the park service you can rely on your peers and that together you can accomplish great things.

What would your advice be to someone interested in an engineering role at the National Park Service?

Read National Park Roads – A legacy in the American Landscape by Timothy Davis. Never forget that your profession is about so much more than following standards. You went to school to learn how to solve problems, and you have a responsibility to yourself and your profession to think creatively. Listen to and rely on your partners with expertise outside of engineering, working toward solutions that make roads safer for people without destroying the natural and cultural resources of the parks in the process.