Venu Nemani (second from right) joins Seattle City Councilmember Alex Pedersen and Councilmember Tammy Morales on a tour of District 2. The tour included representatives from Duwamish Valley Safe Streets and other community members. Photo credit: Seattle City Council staff Blog stats: 950 words | 5-minute read
At-a-glance
- SDOT Director Greg Spotts has elevated our City Traffic Engineer, Venu Nemani, to become our new Chief Transportation Safety Officer in order to better align Responsibility, Authority and Accountability for safety within the department.
- Venu will be an integral member of our senior leadership team, and provide a clear, consistent voice on behalf of safety in all our work throughout the department and across the city.
- Safety is not just one person’s job – it’s all of ours, and something we take very seriously every day.
- Ensuring this new position sits at the highest levels of our organization will allow for a more direct and effective presence as we prioritize safety in every aspect of our work. Venue will report directly to Senior Deputy Director Francisca Stefan and will also take over direct supervision of the Vision Zero team.
- Congratulations to Venu for this opportunity and recognition, and we look forward to getting to work!
SDOT Director Greg Spotts has elevated our City Traffic Engineer, Venu Nemani, to the position of Chief Transportation Safety Officer. In this leadership role, Venu will report to Senior Deputy Director Francisca Stefan and will lead the Vision Zero team, allowing for a more direct and effective presence across all levels of the agency as we prioritize safety in all aspects of our work.
We are centering safety in everything we do at SDOT. Promoting Venu Nemani to Chief Transportation Safety Officer ensures that we are aligning authority, responsibility, and accountability for addressing safety issues.
SDOT Director Greg Spotts
The creation of SDOT’s first ever Chief Transportation Safety Officer, was one of the five momentum-building actions called for in the Vision Zero Top-to-Bottom Review, released in February. The review was commissioned by Mayor Harrell and Director Greg Spotts to better understand why serious injuries and death were on the rise, how the department could identify opportunities to reduce harm for all travelers, and identified actions to ensure we take swift action on addressing safety.
“Every Seattle resident should feel safe getting where they need to go – no matter how they travel. Creating the city’s first Chief Transportation Safety Officer shows our One Seattle commitment to leading with safety in how we plan, build, and operate our transportation system. This position of leadership within SDOT will ensure accountability and responsibility for embedding safety and equity across our streets and neighborhoods, centering people, Vision Zero principles, and healthy communities.”
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell
Through the review, we discovered there was confusion within the department on who approved safety measures, where they should be included in planning and projects, and how we measure their effectiveness. To address these concerns, SDOT decided to create a Chief Transportation Safety Officer role that will create a framework for saving lives on Seattle streets.
In this role, Venu will be an integral member of our senior leadership team, and provide a clear, consistent voice on behalf of safety in all our work throughout the department and across the city. However, safety is not just one person’s job – it’s all of ours, and something we take very seriously every day. Venu will continue to work directly with SDOT’s engineering staff every day to guide a focus on safety, and he will lead our Vision Zero team and an inter-departmental Vision Zero Steering Committee to bring critical staff together to develop and implement safety plans and projects.
Congratulations to Venu for this opportunity and recognition!
As Venu gets to work, we asked him a few questions about the job and his vision for how it will elevate safety in the work we do.
What does the role of Chief Transportation Safety Officer mean to you, and why is it important?
The role of a Chief Transportation Safety Officer is to elevate and prioritize safety in all our policies, projects, and programs. It is the responsibility of this role to embed safety thinking at all levels of SDOT and lead with safety. It is important because in our recent Top to Bottom review we learned that decision making around safety can be confusing and dispersed. It will be my responsibility to provide that direction to all projects and programs and be that final voice for safety in the department.
Why are you passionate about traffic safety?
In my 20-year career, I have seen the impacts of traffic safety in various contexts and settings. Early in my career, I once had to sit in the living room of a parent who lost their child in a fatal collision. I had to explain what happened, and why, to their son who was crossing a road. This fatal crash had a deep impact on me and changed me forever. This moment, even after several years, stays in my heart and motivates me to prioritize safety in my work.
I am passionate about traffic safety because it affects everyone in our community, some community members more than the others. Transportation is a basic human need. We need to access places and opportunities in our daily lives. To do so, we must interact with the transportation system using various modes of travel. Providing a safe transportation system is therefore imperative. Even a single loss of life or a serious injury is one too many on our streets. The people affected are our friends, neighbors, and community members. At the end of the day, we all deserve to go home to our families and loved ones.
What will be your focus in this new role in the coming months?
My focus in the coming months will be to provide that safety direction to policies, programs, and projects. I will now lead the Vision Zero team, and I want to focus on developing ways to be more effective and impactful with everything we pursue through that program. The goal of all these efforts is to reverse the recent trends we are seeing in our fatal and serious collisions.
What resources will you be bringing to the department to help us get on track towards our Vision Zero goals?
I will be putting a strong emphasis on the Safe Systems approach to redesigning our streets. Safer streets and safer speeds are two elements we have a significant control in various aspects of our work. Another emphasis would be to bring us back to the basics of investing in locations, seeing the highest number of crashes, evaluating them, and developing solutions. Additionally, we have identified several proactive safety investments such as Leading Pedestrian/Bike Intervals, No Turn on Red restrictions, Enhanced crossings, Lighting etc. that have a meaningful impact on safety. I want to identify ways to implement them on a citywide scale quicker than we have done in the past. Finally, developing a Vision Zero action plan that includes all these strategies, and many more, prioritizing safety of people walking, biking, rolling, and taking transit.
