Like his father and grandfather before him, Trent Brooks is dedicated to transportation.
Brooks is the Central District traffic engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation and leads the central region Coalition for Roadway Safety.
Brooks, a Jefferson City native, began working for MoDOT in 1993 and is celebrating 28 years with the department this month. He's worked in various positions throughout his career, all within the Central District.
As traffic engineer, Brooks oversees staff working on rights of way, signal systems crews, and anything else related to traffic engineering in the Central District.
The Brooks family has a history with transportation. Brooks' grandfather worked on railroads in Oklahoma, retiring with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, and his father worked for the Federal Highway Administration.
"Hearing them talk about things, going places and him talking about different types of construction that might be going on or just different things he had seen in his job were things that I grew up hearing and found interesting," Brooks said.
With an abundance of familiarity with transportation and a mind for science and math, Brooks said, traffic engineering was a natural fit.
"As I was getting my civil engineering degree, the idea of going to work for a transportation-type department or business was, I guess you could say, in the blood," Brooks said.
Brooks said while he took classes directed toward the transportation industry, he didn't enroll in many traffic engineering courses because of a lack of availability at the University of Missouri.
Yet Brooks soon found himself looking at how to make Missouri's roadways more efficient and safe.
"I was offered a position to start working for MoDOT in the traffic engineering field and didn't really know a whole lot about it, but working for MoDOT was a location and type of work that I was wanting to do, so I accepted the job and started working," Brooks said. "(I) soon found out that it was definitely something that I liked very much, and I've been doing traffic engineering for nearly all the 28 years I've been at MoDOT."
Despite being frustrated with a seemingly endless list of transportation needs, Brooks said, he enjoys working on solutions to spend money and manpower on projects that will have the biggest impact on the most number of drivers.
Brooks said the most enjoyable aspect of his job is realizing how he empowers motorists to travel the state more efficiently and safely.
"The overall impact of the decisions that I make and that my staff makes, and just how much they do affect the people that are traveling Missouri's roadways, is really something I enjoy," Brooks said.
Brooks is also the leader of the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety Central Region, a group looking to eliminate all fatalities on roadways.
He said it is sobering to review and talk about the statistics of drivers who don't make it home because of traffic accidents, but he appreciates working with others in the community who recognize the issue and want to help.
"I really enjoy working with other people, really outside the engineering field, like law enforcement, educators and just other safety advocates, on trying to get the message out that the decisions we make when we're driving a car are directly related to whether or not people get home at night," Brooks said.
He hopes more people realize their role in making roads safer and make an effort to make good decisions, like buckling up, driving sober, slowing down and putting cellphones down while driving.
"I see my role as having some pretty big impacts on both quality of life and the safety that we have while we're moving about," Brooks said.