Staff News - M.Sc. Completed for Large Road Safety Project in Costa Rica

Fireseeds North Infrastructure congratulates staff member Rebecca Peterniak on completing requirements for her M.Sc. degree in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba by defending her thesis entitled "Pedestrian Safety and Accommodation at Signalized Intersections in Costa Rica."

Rebecca spent several months as a visiting researcher in Costa Rica with LanammeUCR (the national transportation lab), where she researched design and operational practices and conducted an in-depth study of a portion of the Pan-American corridor in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica.

She conducted 20 pedestrian-focused in service road safety reviews (or road safety audits) at high-risk intersections in Costa Rica. Her research covered geometric design, signal timing and operations, and a massive conflict and compliance analysis based on a database she developed containing almost 14,000 pedestrian observations. Her work led to 40 recommendations for changes to transport agency practices and 30 recommendations for specific site improvements.

While the defense was held on December 16th, her work was also presented in June at the 2014 CARSP conference where Rebecca Peterniak and her co-author Dr. Jeannette Montufar earned the Charles Miller award for best road safety paper.

At Fireseeds North Infrastructure in Winnipeg, Rebecca works in road safety and gender mainstreaming. For copies of the thesis, the award winning CARSP paper, or any other inquiries she can be reached at rebecca.peterniak@fireseedsnorth.ca.