ATSSA Signal May June 2020

American Traffic Safety Services Association 40 Member Engagement Transportation Conversations Jeff Marootian, director of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) in Washington, D.C., has been with DDOT since 2017 and previously served as White House liaison for transportation and as assistant secretary for administration at USDOT. He serves on the boards of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the Northeast Corridor Commission and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. Jeff Marootian, director of the District Department of Transportation Q A & Q: Each year, ATSSA members from across the country travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss roadway safety issues directly with legislators on Capitol Hill as part of the Legislative Briefing & Fly-In. What value do you feel this provides for people from across the country and what advice would you offer to them as they approach their legislators? A: It’s certainly important for elected officials to hear directly from folks on the ground. I always try to make our conversations about traffic safety really personal and reflective of the human experience and not necessarily just talking about it in terms of engineering or budget numbers. Talk about your issues in away that every - body can understand or appreciate. I often say that we all are pedestrians, we all are navigating difficult intersec - tions, we all can relate to transportation issues. Just putting a human perspective on things will go a long way. Q: What do you consider the biggest roadway safety challenges in the D.C. Metropolitan Area and what are you doing to address them? A: Wehavemoreandmorepeoplebiking andwalking thanever before andmaking theupdates toour infrastructure toreflect that is a huge priority for us. Focusing on bringing all of our assets into good repair is a priority of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. She has introduced new resources to get our roads and sidewalks into good repair. In 2018, Mayor Bowser initiated PaveDC, which isaplantoeliminateall roads inpoor condition in theDistrict by2024. Just toput somenumbers behind that, from2010 to 2014, wewere spending about $4million per year on state of good repair efforts. Wenoware spending 10 times thatmuch, and we are seeing the benefits of those improvements. Q: What do you consider your biggest successes in roadway infrastructure policy or changes? A: That would be our use of the new resources introduced with PaveDC. Last year, we repavedor resurfacedabout 100 miles of roadway, which is about three times as much as we had ever been able