What Is Fehr and Peers? A Simple Guide for Everyone

Fehr and Peers is a transportation planning and engineering company that helps people, cities, and governments create better ways to move around. Whether it’s making streets safer for kids or designing smart traffic systems, their work touches everyday lives in big and small ways.

Who Are Fehr and Peers?

Fehr and Peers is a well-known transportation planning and engineering firm based in the United States. Founded in 1985, the company has grown to include dozens of offices across the country. They specialize in making travel easier, safer, and more sustainable. From walking and biking paths to public transportation systems and future-ready planning, they help cities and communities of all sizes.

Their team includes experts in transportation planning, traffic engineering, urban design, and data science. They believe that every city can work better when people can travel easily, safely, and in an environmentally friendly way. Fehr and Peers is known for listening closely to what communities need and creating smart solutions that really work.

What Do They Do?

Fehr and Peers helps cities and communities improve how people get around. They work with schools, neighborhoods, city governments, and even private companies. Their main services include:

• Traffic planning: Helping reduce congestion and delays.
• Biking and walking improvements: Creating safe and easy paths for people who walk or ride bikes.
• Public transportation planning: Making sure buses, trains, and other transit options are easy to use.
• Future travel planning: Preparing for things like electric vehicles, self-driving cars, and new mobility trends.
• Data analysis: Using smart tools to study traffic patterns and suggest improvements.

Whether it’s redesigning an intersection or planning a whole city’s transportation system, Fehr and Peers provides the knowledge and tools to make it happen.

Why Are They Important?

Fehr and Peers plays a big role in how cities work. Most people don’t realize how much planning goes into roads, sidewalks, and transportation systems. That’s where this company comes in. They make sure cities are safer, more efficient, and ready for the future.

When cities are planned well, people can get to school, work, or the store without long delays or dangerous roads. Fehr and Peers helps make that possible by studying traffic, asking communities what they need, and then creating smart designs.

They also care about the environment. Many of their projects include solutions that reduce pollution, support public transit, and encourage walking and biking.

Helping Schools and Kids Travel Safely

One of Fehr and Peers’ goals is to make sure kids can get to school safely. That means safer crosswalks, better lighting, and reduced traffic speeds near schools. They design school travel plans that help children and families walk or bike to school without fear. By working with local school districts, they help create Safe Routes to School programs.

These projects also educate drivers about safety and promote awareness in neighborhoods. It’s not just about building roads—it’s about making a better, safer experience for families every day.

Making Cities Easy to Travel In

Fehr and Peers knows that cities are busy places, and people need smart ways to get around. They work on improving everything from sidewalks to bike lanes to traffic signals. They study how people move—from driving to walking to using electric scooters—and design systems that reduce traffic jams and make travel faster.

They also help create complete streets—roads that are safe and welcoming for everyone, not just cars. Whether someone is driving a car, riding a bike, using a wheelchair, or pushing a stroller, the street should be usable and safe.

Planning for the Future

Fehr and Peers is a leader in future mobility planning. That means they think about things like self-driving cars, electric buses, and smart traffic systems. They help cities get ready for future transportation needs so that when new technology arrives, cities are already prepared.

For example, they help plan how charging stations for electric cars should be placed, or how a city can prepare for automated delivery vehicles. This helps cities stay modern and efficient, even as technology keeps changing.

Where Does Fehr and Peers Work?

Fehr and Peers has offices across the United States. Some of the states where they work include California, Texas, Colorado, Washington, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. They also take on projects in other parts of the country depending on the need.

Most of their work happens in urban and suburban areas, but they also help smaller towns and rural areas with traffic and transportation solutions. They are especially active in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver, where smart travel planning is a top priority.

They partner with city governments, schools, transportation departments, and private developers to make sure every project is a success.

How Fehr and Peers Uses Data

Fehr and Peers doesn’t just guess when it comes to transportation. They use real data to make smart decisions. This includes things like:

• Traffic counts: How many cars, bikes, and people pass through a place.
• GPS data: Understanding where people are going and when.
• Accident reports: Finding dangerous spots to fix.
• Speed studies: Knowing where drivers are going too fast.

Using this data, they can spot problems and design smart solutions. They also use computer models to predict how traffic will change in the future. This helps cities build the right kind of roads, signals, and pathways before problems get worse.

Cool Projects They’ve Done

Fehr and Peers has worked on hundreds of cool and helpful projects. Some make cities greener, some make them safer, and others just make life easier for everyone.

Bike Lane Projects

One of their most well-known areas of work is creating safe, useful bike lanes. These aren’t just painted lines—they’re carefully designed routes that protect bikers from traffic, connect key areas, and encourage more people to ride.

In places like San Jose and Portland, Fehr and Peers designed bike-friendly streets that increased bike use by over 30%. They also worked on “protected bike lanes” that put a physical barrier between cars and cyclists, making riding much safer.

Traffic Signal Timing

Fehr and Peers also helps cities with traffic signal timing. That means making sure red lights and green lights are set up in a way that keeps traffic moving smoothly. By analyzing traffic patterns, they can adjust signals to reduce delays, lower emissions, and improve safety.

In cities like Sacramento, they’ve helped save drivers time and reduced traffic buildup by more than 20%. Smart signal timing is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to improve how people travel in a city.

How They Help the Environment

Fehr and Peers is committed to sustainability. They plan transportation systems that reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. This includes:

• Encouraging more biking and walking.
• Designing better public transportation.
• Reducing traffic congestion.
• Supporting electric vehicle infrastructure.

They also study carbon emissions from transportation projects and help cities meet their climate goals. Their environmental planning efforts make it easier for communities to move toward a greener future.

Jobs at Fehr and Peers

Working at Fehr and Peers means being part of a team that cares about smart, safe, and sustainable travel. They hire people like civil engineers, data analysts, planners, designers, and environmental experts.

Team members often work on community projects, use advanced tools to study transportation, and help shape the future of cities. It’s a great place to work for people who love cities, care about the planet, and want to make a difference. Many of their employees say the best part of their job is knowing that their work helps people every day.

The Bottom Line

Fehr and Peers may not be a name you hear every day, but their work affects how we all live and travel. From making crosswalks safer for kids to designing future-ready cities with smart traffic systems, they play a big role in improving daily life.

They combine engineering, planning, and data to solve real problems in real communities. Whether it’s your walk to school, your daily commute, or your favorite bike path, chances are Fehr and Peers has helped make it safer and smarter.