Transportation Engineering

Work:

- Transitec Ingénieurs Conseil: 2016 - 2017

Erik Zakhia worked as a Transportation Engineer for one year and a half at Transitec Ingénieurs Conseil, based in Lausanne (Switzerland). During his experience at Transitec, Erik worked on a multitude of projects with the title of "ingénieur d'études", in Switzerland and abroad. The projects Erik was entrusted, include, among others:

. A project studying the replanning of the Maladière roundabout in Lausanne as well as the last section of the highway between Lausanne and Geneva, to give a more human and urban face to this entryway of Lausanne. This ambitious project also included an urban planning section (the construction of new housings and workplaces), and a historical reflection about how to save the little Chapel of La Maladière. A particular reflection was also conducted on how to favor the use of public transportation, biking, and walking in the future neighborhood that would be built. (stakeholders: Ville de Lausanne, Etat de Vaud)

. A project studying the replanning of the town center and urban area of Geneva, in order to decrease the space given to cars, and increase the space given to pedestrians, bikers and public transportation. This project included an ambitious development of public transportation (new tramway and bus lines). In order to make present and future projections, Erik conducted an ambitious traffic survey over the entire urban area of Geneva, leading a group of volunteers that collected data during rush hours, in order to be able to determine the matrix of origins and destinations of the drivers who crossed the town, combined with a clever use of cameras and traffic counters. With the data thus obtained, Erik was responsible for drawing the maps of how the traffic would evolve in future years depending on the policies the cantonal government of Geneva would adopt. At the end, after presenting and submitting the different scenarios to the authorities, Erik drew a large-scale map of the entire town of Geneva with the retained scenario of traffic and urban replanning. (stakeholder: Etat de Genève)

. A project studying the construction of a new metro line in Toulouse, France. The name of this new metro line is the Toulouse Aerospace Express. Erik was responsible to work, together with a few other engineers, on the path the metro would follow, and the positioning of its stations. Many different scenarios and alternatives had to be presented to the local and metropolitan authorities, as a new metro line also means a strong urban development all around the newly created stations. The role of an urban/transportation engineer is to predict how the town will evolve along this new, high speed, transportation lane. And, in function of what are the political objectives of future developments, as well as the local constraints (topography, river, airport, stadium, already existing public transportation network, etc.) the positioning of stations is chosen, and the reorganization of existing public transportation lines is determined, to ensure the most comfortable experience for the users. And along the new metro line, the biking lanes would be developed, and the role of Erik was also to study intermodality potentials in different places of the town, in order to design stations accordingly.

. Smaller projects such as studying the traffic impact of the closing of a road in Prilly (Vaud), of the construction of new housings and workplaces in Crissier (Vaud), of the construction of a new, olympic swimming pool in Villars-sur-Glâne (Fribourg), of the replanning of the town center of Saint-Sulpice, etc... All these projects included studies on various levels: urban development, road networks and parking spaces, public transportation reorganization, and the favoring of biking and walking. 

At Transitec Ingénieurs Conseils, Erik Zakhia learnt all the subtleties of being a transportation engineer. He also perfected his skills to draw urban and transportation maps, to conduct large scale calculations related to traffic engineering requiring a high level of rigor and precision, to write clear, well-formulated reports, always containing the analysis of several scenarios, in order to allow the political authorities / or the private clients to broaden their reflection, and to choose the plan that suits them the best. The use of a simple and expressive design, and the capacity to orally present complex ideas and scenarios in a relatively short time, were also skills Erik learnt.

The motto Erik always followed is that of: "the less space is given to cars, the less cars there will be", a concept also known as traffic evaporation. In all the projects he worked on, and in all the plans he drew, he tried to favor as much as he could the use of sustainable transportation (public transportation, biking, walking), and to propose pro-active policies to municipalities and regions, implying to decrease the number of lanes on roads and the number of available parking spaces, in order to encourage and even "force" people not to use their cars (which is the most polluting, and encumbering mode of transportation available). Indeed, compare the pleasure of walking in a town without cars, or with few cars, where the public space is friendly and animated, with the dangers and stressful experience of walking into a town where thousands of cars rush, creating urban fractures, and discouraging people to walk and take their time. The wish of Erik was to try to give towns a more human and friendly face, where large trees give quietness to streets, sheltering birds and biodiversity underneath the buildings where citizens live. Because space is not unlimited, and a decision must be taken: will the space be given to cars, or to pedestrians? To Erik, this choice was clear and obvious. During the time he worked as a Transportation Engineer, Erik tried, in every project he carried on, to encourage and promote this vision.

After almost two years spent working as a Transportation Engineer, Erik Zakhia decided to dedicate himself to his true passion in life, which is writing.

The truth is, Erik was disappointed at the leverage an engineer has, in order to change things, and mindsets. At work, it is always time, money, and political directions that rule. As creative and innovative as an engineer can be, there will always be a wall in front. The final decision does not belong to the engineer, but to the politicians, to the dirigeants, to those who hold large capitals.

Having a lot of ideas and ideals, Erik decided that a writing career would offer him much more freedom in order to touch people more deeply than if he worked as an engineer, limited by too many constraints.

That is why Erik decided to take this courageous decision, and to adventure himself along a path he had to himself draw, and pave. His colleagues regretted him, as Erik was a skilled, precise, creative, efficient engineer, but they also whole-heartedly wished him good luck, expressing the wish to read his novels one day. At the end, each human being has a dream, but only few have the courage and the possibility to follow their dream.

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In the first picture (above), Erik sits on a bench, in a town, observing and pondering upon the transportation flows in an urban context. The role of a good transportation engineer is to understand the dynamics of a town, in order to be able to reshape it. In every town he conducted transportation engineering projects, Erik immerged himself for hours, sitting on a bench and observing pedestrians and bikers, walking through every neighborhood, taking a bike and exploring the most remote neighborhoods. This allowed Erik to draw precise enough maps based not only on statistics and numbers, but also on real life observation. 

In the second picture (below), Erik stands in front of Cinecittà in Rome, hoping that one day his novels will be turned into movies. Because that would mean that Erik has succesfully managed to reach the hearts of people from all around the world. At the time this picture was taken, this vision only was a distant dream, necessitating tens of thousands of hours of hard work before becoming real.