2015 Dynamic Dozen Employee of the Year: Martin Gugel

Employee of the Year Martin Gugel recently added the title assistant director of Public Works for the city of Springfield to his resume, after serving as interim director since January. He joined the city eight years ago as a traffic engineer.

“I’ve always wanted to better myself and do a good job and was always looking for opportunities, but I don’t think the first thing I would’ve told you upon taking the job eight years ago was that my goal was to be the assistant director within that period,” he says.

Go back further, to the early 1990s, and you’ll meet a young Gugel who didn’t consider pursuing engineering of any type. Instead, he pondered several occupations. None involved charting traffic patterns.

After contemplating and then crossing out accountant, journalist or lawyer, he said he focused on his strong suits: math and science. A summer engineering program at then Missouri University of Science and Technology drew him to the field. Coursework in civil engineering led him to focus on transportation.

“It has its formulas and rules and best practices but it also has a variety that some of the other areas don’t,” Gugel says. “That variety really attracted me.”

For Gugel, variety comes through interacting with the driving public.

“We’re dealing with the public and with that comes uncertainties,” he says. “You’re trying to figure out how to convey messages through traffic signs, road markings, signal timing. I joke that we have to be part-time psychologists because we’re dealing so much with human behavior.”

An example of successfully marrying cutting-edge traffic flow design with the adaptability of real-world drivers is installation of the diverging diamonds, he says.

“A lot of citizens and frankly a lot of engineers wondered ‘how are these going to work?’” Gugel says.

“They are designed so they are not going to be confusing when you’re actually driving it but the real test is when you turn the public loose on it. We kind of held our breath when that first one opened at [Interstate] 44 and Kansas [Expressway].”

His faith in drivers’ ability to adapt was rewarded and the diverging diamonds have, for the most part, been well-received, he says.

“When we try something else new, some will go back to ‘well, those diverging diamonds are silly,’” he says. “Our goal is to produce a system that gets people from point A to point B as quickly as is safely possible.”

Gugel notes he doesn’t work for thank-yous, saying if he was paid in thank-yous, he would probably need a second job. Instead, he considers it thanks enough to travel the city and see happy drivers.

“They’re not pounding their steering wheels or honking at other drivers and they’re not frustrated with the system. They are actually driving worry-free,” he says.

Shepherding drivers safely through city streets is but one of Gugel’s duties. When he’s not working on big projects like diverging diamonds, he oversees smaller but also important jobs from snow removal to maintaining public grounds and beautification projects that add landscaping and art to the city.[[In-content Ad]]