Welcome to Engineers Week 2020! We’re excited the spend the week highlighting some of our top-notch engineers, their most memorable projects, and what they’re excited about for the future of active transportation. These passionate, talented engineers – at all stages in their careers – are what makes Toole Design so successful. Inspired to join them? Check out our job board – we have several positions open now, all across the country.

Q&A with Odera Cole, EIT | Engineer I

Tell us about your job here at Toole Design. What kind of projects do you work on, and what is your role?

My job title at Toole Design is Engineer. I primarily am involved in production:

• Using CAD to layout roadway designs
• Writing reports and memorandums ranging from a Traffic Impact Assessment to a Road Safety Audit (RSA) report.

The majority of my time has been spent working on Vision Zero projects around Boston. The Vision Zero initiative involves developing “quick-fix” designs for areas with safety issues. I really enjoy designing and I have had the privilege of taking ownership on designs for various roadways and intersections.

Why did you become an engineer?

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you what made me want to become an engineer specifically, the idea was always in my head. I do, however, know why I wanted to become an engineer working in the transportation industry. I have always had a curiosity to identify why there was a lack of consideration for vulnerable roadway users. Being a widely traveled person, I saw this as a common issue. I have always wondered why and wanted to change it.

What made you want to work at Toole Design?

I was drawn to apply for a job with this company because I admired their values and overall mission.

I am passionate about active transportation and want to be involved with a company that is known for considering the vulnerable user first. Toole Design is well known in the engineering industry for this. Toole Design is a frontrunner for inclusive transportation network design, paying most attention to the most neglected users: cyclists and pedestrians.

The last push for me to apply was when I went on the careers page, a sentence resonated with me demonstrates the passion and commitment I put into everything I do: “We offer you the opportunity to do work you believe in, for a company that shares your values and supports you and your professional development.” I knew I would be able to seamlessly integrate myself into the company.

Tell us about a project you’ve worked on here that you’ve found particularly exciting, interesting, or innovative.

I would say the Big Jump Project in Providence. It gives me a chance to use creativity to overcome design challenges that arise. The project involves designing bike facilities on roadways that are currently lacking.

I enjoy envisioning different facilities allowing cyclists to safely travel and connecting them to other existing facility networks. I particularly like this project because it is essentially building a bike network around Providence by taking on smaller individual design projects, almost like a puzzle, and we are slowly but surely putting the masterpiece together.

Why does this work matter to you?

This work matters to me because it plays into different parts of my personality. To be a transportation engineer, you need to be creative, passionate, empathetic, a good communicator, etc. My personality encompasses all of these; either things that come natural or things I’m actively working on improving. Being able to do work that naturally taps into my personality makes the work matter even more.

This work allows me to passionately put my experience and education into projects and designs I believe in; it’s a win-win.

What is the most exciting trend you see with active transit right now?

I would say shared micromobility has been seen more in the last few years but never really knew the term for it until I started working at Toole Design.

I am recently learning more about it. I really appreciate transportation trends that aim to solve the first and last mile problem in mostly cities without costing a whole lot to consumers and at the same time filling the gaps in mass transit.

What’s been the most surprising or unexpected thing you’ve learned since working at Toole Design?

That you can develop innovative designs for clients who are seeking solutions. Unfortunately, they can be shelved indefinitely, but that’s all part of the job. I don’t know why I was naïve to think every design proceeded to fruition, I guess it was just the enthusiasm.

Did you have a mentor that inspired you to get into engineering?

I don’t necessarily have a mentor that inspired me to get into engineering but I would say a driving force for me going into a STEM path was being black and a woman. The world has told us different and I just happen to be one of the stubborn ones.

What do you hope your career will be like in ten years?

I hope to be actively involved in making policies that guide the transportation world in the right direction, which is active transportation obviously!