About Ida van Schalkwyk

Ida van Schalkwyk is a Senior Research Assistant Professor at Oregon State University.  She specializes in Transportation Engineering and has a particular interest in Transportation Safety, particularly as it relates to the different functions of transportation management (planning, design, operations, maintenance), different road users (vulnerable road users, passenger vehicles, freight, motorcyclists), and enterprises (e.g. performance measurement, pavement engineering).

She completed the requirements for a PhD in Civil Engineering at Arizona State University at the end of January 2008. She received a Bachelors in Engineering (Civil) and Masters of Engineering (Transportation Engineering) from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Ida is actively involved in Transportation Research Board activities. She serves on four committees and two panels (one as chair). Besides her involvement in TRB, she is also a Board member of ATSIP, the Association of Transportation Safety Professionals.  She serves on a variety of other committees and supports activities of ITE, SWE, and ASCE. You can download a copy of her resume by right-clicking on the "PDF" link and saving the file to your computer: PDF.

When she's away from the office and not teaching or working with transportation safety, she enjoys spending time with friends and family; taking photographs; and playing her Fender Stratocaster (electric guitar).

Ida grew up in South Africa where her family has lived for more than 500 years. Prior to leaving the country in 2001, she was part of the development team for the South African Road Safety Manual, acting as main author for 5 of the 7 volumes. It is currently used as best practice guideline for highway safety in South Africa. South Africa presents a combination of first and third world conditions, with particular pedestrian safety challenges. Nearly half of the motor vehicle crash fatalities are pedestrians. One of the most exciting developments for the Gauteng province is the Gautrain, a high speed rail project connecting Pretoria and Johannesburg (http://www.mytrain.co.za/). It is expected to alleviate congestion on the N1, a major telecommuting route in the economic center of South Africa.

Ida became a permanent resident in March 2007 and hope to become an American citizen in 2012.