Speaking

The opportunities for women to advance into leadership roles are dependent upon others, opening the doors for them and giving them a seat at the table. These experiences should be shared and passed on to the next generation of women and those who lead them. This presentation will provide examples of the opportunities provided to Ruth that led to a leadership role while inspiring others to do the same. The goal is to encourage and promote women in transportation to take advantage of the not-so-obvious moments to have a seat at the table.

Connecting small cities and rural villages through trails supports active transportation, economic growth and equitable mobility. In Ohio, the Village of St. Paris and the City of Springfield studied corridors to enhance local amenities and link to regional trail systems. St. Paris leveraged a 14-mile abandoned rail corridor to connect schools and historic sites to the Simon-Kenton Trail, while Springfield planned a trail extension to the Mad River Gorge. This session explores innovative planning tools, phasing strategies and public engagement techniques to advance trail projects from vision to reality.

Data drives decision-making in transportation, but numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. True equity requires blending quantitative data with lived experiences, community insights and stakeholder feedback.

This session explores how integrating qualitative and quantitative data leads to smarter, more inclusive decisions—saving costs, reducing redesigns and ensuring infrastructure meet real needs. Using real-world case studies, we’ll demonstrate scalable methods for uncovering disparities, prioritizing investments and designing projects that resonate with communities. By bridging the gap between numbers and narratives, we can create transportation solutions that truly serve the people they impact.

While roundabouts have been a proven countermeasure for improving safety, designing them to meet the required performance checks at highly skewed intersections with numerous site constraints can be challenging and often require uniquely shaped roundabout designs. This presentation will look at case studies of two unique shaped roundabouts in Ohio: a peanut-shaped roundabout (SR-61/SR-656/Wilson Road) and an oval-shaped roundabout (Wayne-Madison/Hamilton-Trenton). Attendees will develop a more detailed understanding of:

• The benefits of non-standard roundabout designs
• The process used to develop alternatives cost-effectively and efficiently
• Effectively communicating roundabout concepts for consensus among key stakeholders