What if our streets were designed for our imperfections? A profile of Sylvain Felton, Project Director.

With more than 30 years of experience in engineering, mobility, and street design, Sylvain Felton, P.Eng., Project Director at Intervia, has devoted a significant part of his career to an issue that has become central to his professional journey: road safety. From traffic management to street design, his experiences gradually led him to focus on the most complex dimension of mobility: people.

When People Are the Starting Point

Unlike other engineering disciplines, human behavior remains difficult to predict. Road users may become distracted, make errors in judgment, or misinterpret their surroundings. For Sylvain, this reality raises a fundamental question: how can we design infrastructure that accounts for human limitations rather than assuming perfect behavior at all times?"

This reflection naturally led him to the Vision Zero approach.

Vision Zero: Designing a Safer System

Originating in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero is based on a simple idea: no death or serious injury on the road network should be considered acceptable. This approach encourages us to move beyond individual responsibility and examine the mobility system as a whole. Street geometry, speed management, visibility, crossings, intersection design, and the allocation of public space all become tools for reducing the consequences of human error.

Advancing Practices in Montreal

After working in both the private sector and for the City of Sherbrooke, Sylvain spent ten years with the City of Montreal, holding various roles in planning, design, and road safety before becoming Division Head of Road Safety and Sustainable Development. He notably contributed to the implementation of Vision Zero across the organization.

This initiative was founded on a key principle: making road safety a shared responsibility involving municipal teams, boroughs, police services, public health authorities, and transportation partners. This collaborative effort helped establish a more comprehensive approach to road safety and fostered a deeper understanding of the many factors that contribute to serious collisions.

Turning Principles into Action

For Sylvain, road safety must be integrated from the earliest stages of design. In Montreal, he led the revision of the Street Geometry Guide to place greater emphasis on pedestrian and cyclist safety, while also contributing to the School Area Safety Program across the city's 19 boroughs.

These initiatives clearly reflect his belief that safety should not be an added feature of a project, but rather a guiding principle throughout its design.

Expertise Focused on the Future

Since 2020, Sylvain has been bringing his expertise to mobility and road safety projects at Intervia. His diverse experience allows him to address safety challenges by simultaneously considering urban design, traffic operations, human behavior, and the unique realities of each environment.

Since 2024, he has also served as a member of the Road Safety Expert Committee of the Association québécoise des transports (AQTr), continuing to contribute to the advancement of industry practices.For Sylvain, road safety is not the result of a single intervention. It relies on a systemic vision in which every design decision contributes to building streets that are safer, more inclusive, and more resilient.

More than 30 years after the start of his career, the guiding principle remains unchanged: designing environments that acknowledge human limitations in order to make travel safer for everyone.