Louisville’s first-ever Department of Transportation now has a director.
Bill Bell, the former executive director of the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety, will officially take the reins of the new agency later this month. Mayor Craig Greenberg created the Louisville DoT last year, hoping to streamline the planning, design and construction of public infrastructure projects. Bell will oversee the roughly 180-person office, which will include traffic engineers, roadway maintenance workers and grant writers.
In a recent interview, Bell said he got into the transportation field in order to improve people’s lives and he said it’s exciting to join Louisville Metro’s newest department.
“I wanted to be part of something great and what we’re doing here could affect generations to come, it could affect the next 100 years in Louisville,” he said.
Bell said one of his top priorities will be making sure both motorists and pedestrians get to where they’re going safely. The DoT will coordinate with the federal government, who funds large infrastructure projects, as well as KYTC, which manages many of Louisville’s busiest roadways.
Here’s a snippet of Bell’s interview with LPM News:
Roberto Roldan: Just to start out, can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you view transportation planning?
Bill Bell: My background is in accounting. I received a degree at Eastern Kentucky University. For the last 10+ years, I've been involved with transportation, mainly in highway safety for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
RR: Louisville has been late to the game in terms of creating a local Department of Transportation. Cincinnati has one, Nashville has one, and so do big cities like Atlanta and Seattle. Can you explain, though, why does creating this new agency matter?
BB: Well, it matters for a few different things. Safe mobility is first and foremost. As far as I'm concerned, we want people to travel throughout the city, whether they're residents or visitors, safely, without the risk of serious injury or fatality. Hopefully, we can take some examples from these other cities that have [these] departments and improve upon those things. There's already stuff in motion now, some tangible things like the one-way to two-way street conversions. I know we’ve talked about sidewalks, and we do get a lot of comments from residents on sidewalks. I think that needs to be a priority, especially with pedestrian safety and pedestrian crashes being over-represented in Louisville.
RR: People tend to think of transportation as cars and roadways, but many of the residents we saw pushing for this new department are advocates for pedestrian safety and pedestrian infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes. Is that something your office will handle?
BB: Yes, that will be a big focus. Pedestrian and bike safety is very important, because that affects almost everyone. At some point, everyone is a pedestrian. I would like to see us utilize our roadways and walk and bike to the different things that people can do in Louisville. We have a lot of great areas in Louisville. You've got the Louisville Loop, you have Nulu, you have the Iroquois Park area. There's several different areas that you can utilize by biking or walking, and it's good for you, too.
RR: I know you haven’t officially started the job yet, but you live here in Louisville Metro so I’m curious, what do you think of the state of Louisville’s roads and pedestrian infrastructure and where do you see potential for improvement?
BB: In general, the roads in Kentucky are better than most, but there's always room for improvement. I want to be a big part of that here in Louisville. I think we're going to see some tangible results. I want to hit the ground running on June 23 and make sure that we get the [project contracts] out faster. We need to get the projects completed faster. I think the folks out there that have businesses, they'll appreciate that. And, you know, economic development is one of the collateral benefits of a good transportation system.
We edited this transcript for length and clarity.
