Rob Viola is Director of Safety Policy & Research at the NYC Department of Transportation. He works within the Research, Implementation and Safety (RIS) unit, which identifies, designs and implements safety programs and street improvement projects on NYC’s streets, develops safety policy and manages crash data for NYCDOT. RIS has also taken the lead in managing much of Mayor DeBlasio’s Vision Zero traffic safety agenda at NYCDOT.

Rob recently developed the five Vision Zero Borough Pedestrian Safety Action Plans and managed the implementation of Arterial Slow Zones, a program that reduces speed limits and changes signal timing on major roadways to discourage speeding. He was a principle author of the 2010 NYC Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan and managed Neighborhood Slow Zones from 2010-2014, a community-driven program that lowers the speed limit to 20MPH in select areas citywide.

Rob received his B.A. in North American Studies from McGill University and his Urban Planning masters from Columbia University.