Young Professionals in Transportation http://yptransportation.org
Volume 5, Issue 3 Winter/Spring 2014
In this issue: •
AirSage PASS Scholarship Award Winners Announced......................1
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TRB-Young Members Council Presents the 2014 Outstanding Young Member Award..............................2
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Beyond Employee Tuition Reimbursement: Who’s Investing in the Next Generation of Transportation Professionals?..................3
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YPT Innovator Series: Ship Anything, Anytime, Anywhere with uShip......5
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2013-14 Board of Directors Across the U.S..................9
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Growing with the Data: The Development of NYCDOT’s Traffic Information Management System..........................11
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YPT Photo Album..........13
AirSage PASS Scholarship Award Winners Announced Continuing Education Funding Awarded to Elite Young Professionals in Transportation Four members of Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT) have been named as recipients of the AirSage PASS: Professional Advancement & Success Scholarship. Presented quarterly by AirSage™—a pioneer in digital population analytics and the largest provider of consumer travel trends and population movement intelligence in the U.S.—PASS funds are awarded exclusively to YPT members as a way to support the continuing education and professional development of future leaders in the field of transportation planning. “The AirSage PASS is about empowering emerging transportation leaders to take the next step in their careers by presenting their work and meeting other like-minded members of the industry,” said Cy Smith, Founder and CEO of AirSage. “By attending conferences and symposiums these young minds broaden the transportation conservation with their unique and innovative perspective.” Many strong applications were submitted for consideration during the AirSage PASS application and award period. Scholarship recipients include: NICOLAS NORBOGE: Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT) International Leadership Meeting The AirSage
PASS covered costs for Norboge—an Assistant Research Scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in Houston, Texas—to attend the January YPT International Leadership Meeting in Washington, D.C. Norbage was able to meet with other YPT leaders to share best practices and help shape the future of the YPT organization nationwide. Founder of the Houston chapter, he has spent the last year growing it to 32 members and 117 friends. “I am looking forward to meeting other YPT chapter leaders to find out what we can do to further grow the Houston Chapter and discuss our accomplishments.” HOLLY CHASE: Transit Network Design: Interactive Short Course Chase, a Transportation Planner with KFH Group, Inc. in Bethesda, Maryland, will use her AirSage PASS award to attend the Transit Network Design: Interactive Short Course scheduled for February 2014 in New York City. The course covers the methods behind transit design, presented in a unique and collaborative format. “The AirSage PASS will allow me to share ideas and engage with other transportation professionals with different perspectives and experiences. I hope to learn how to make transit systems more useful, convenient, and cost effective.” ADAM MOORE: Transportation, Planning, Land Use and Air Quality Conference (TPLUAQ) 2014 Adam Moore, a Graduate Research Assistant at Portland State University, is using the AirSage
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M obility Matters PASS to attend the 2014 Transportation, Land Use, Planning and Air Quality Conference 2014 in Charlotte in March. Here he will present first-of-its-kind research conducted by he and his graduate research advisor Dr. Miguel Figliozzi at Portland State University. The innovative study focused on exposure to vehicle emissions for pedestrians, cyclists and those waiting for public transit.
“Attending the ITE Conference will allow me to learn more about transportation information systems, technology and ITS for transportation planning. Additionally, it will give me the opportunity to exchange information, discuss best practices and learn about innovative solutions to issues in data and information systems.” The submission period for the next, quarterly grant period for the AirSage PASS is now open. Applications must be submitted by midnight (Eastern), March 7, 2014. Winners will be announced on April 2, 2014.
“Presenting at the Transportation, Land Use, Planning and Air Quality Conference allows me to not only share my work with others but to receive valuable feedback from experts in the field. This forum is one of the best opportunities for me to collaborate with others as it is the rare conference to focus specifically on transportation air quality.”
About AirSage AirSage™—a pioneer in population analytics—is the largest provider of consumer locations and population movement intelligence in the U.S. Each day, AirSage uses patented technology to capture and analyze more than 15 billion anonymous, real-time, cellular-signal data points to identify travel patterns and transportation trends. Partnerships with the nation’s largest wireless carriers give AirSage exclusive access to data from more than 100 million mobile devices. Analyzed and aggregated, AirSage data provides actionable insights into where and when people travel and is transforming the transportation industry, commercial enterprises and a diverse range of industries. Find AirSage online at http://www.airsage.com and on Twitter @AirSage #AirSagePASS.
ASHEQUE RAHMAN: Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) 2014 Technical Conference and Exhibit For Rahman, a Project Manager for the New York City Department of Transportation, the AirSage PASS will cover expenses associated with the ITE 2014 Technical Conference and Exhibit, which will be held in Miami in March. Rahman will participate as both an attendee and a presenter. As an invited speaker, Rahman will discuss the NYCDOT Traffic Information Managements System (TIMS), a project that has made transportation data more transparent for the city of New York.
TRB-Young Members Council Presents the 2014 Outstanding Young Member Award The TRB Outstanding Young Member Award, established in 2012, recognizes a distinguished younger member of a TRB standing committee who has demonstrated exceptional service to TRB and achievements in transportation research, policy, or practice. The award, which is administered by the Young Members Council (YMC), is to be presented annually to a TRB volunteer who is 35 years of age or younger on April 15 in the year of the award. The award consists of a plaque and a $2,500 cash award supported by Stantec, Inc.
Stephane Hess, recipient of the Outstanding Young Member Award, with Lucy Phillips Priddy and Marsha Anderson Bomar.
Studies, University of Leeds (UK) was recognized in the Thomas B. Deen Lecture and Presentation of Awards Monday, January 13, 2014. Congratulations Stephane, and good luck in all of your future endeavors!
The winner of the 2014 TRB Outstanding Young Member Award, Stephane Hess, PhD, MPhil, Institute for Transport
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M obility Matters Here is a little more about Stephane:
interpretation of such models, notably in a valuation of travel time savings context, while also publishing numerous papers on the benefits of advanced structures in actual large-scale transport analyses, for example in the context of air travel behaviour research. His contributions have been recognised for example by the 2010 Fred Burggraf award handed out by the Transportation Research Board, the 2005 Eric Pas award for the best PhD thesis in the area of travel behaviour modelling, and the 2004 Neil Mansfield award handed out by the Association for European Transport.
Stephane Hess is Professor of Choice Modelling in the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. He is also Honorary Professor in Choice Modelling in the Institute for Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney, an external affiliate in the Centre for the Study of Choice (CenSoC) at the University of Technology, Sydney, and a senior technical advisor for Resource Systems Group. He has formerly held posts as a research fellow in the Centre for Transport Studies at Imperial College London and as a senior researcher in the Institute for Traffic Planning and Transport Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH). He has also spent time as a visiting researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He is also the founding editor in chief of the Journal of Choice Modelling, the founder and steering committee chair of the International Choice Modelling Conference, and the co-chair for the 14th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research, to be held in London in 2015. He is an associate editor of Transportation Research Part E, and serves on the editorial advisory board of two other leading journals; Transportation Research Part B and Transportation. He is a member of the two key academic transport modelling committees of the Transportation Research Board (Travel Demand Forecasting and Travel Behaviour and Values) and is a member of the board of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research.
Hess holds a PhD in transport demand modelling from Imperial College London and a MPhil in Statistical Science from Cambridge University. His main research interests lie in the use of advanced discrete choice models for the analysis of travel behaviour, primarily with the use of stated preference data. Here, Hess has made contributions to the state of the art in the specification, estimation and
Beyond Employee Tuition Reimbursement: Who’s Investing in the Next Generation of Transportation Professionals?
For Daniel Tischler—a Transportation Planner with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority—a desire to become part of the travel modeling community meant he needed to attend the TRB (Transportation Research Board) 93rd Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. But the trip came with a financial hurdle, which was solved by The AirSage PASS: Professional Advancement & Success Scholarship.
By Andrea Moe, VP Product Management and Marketing, AirSage
Atlanta-based AirSage™—a pioneer in digital population analytics and the largest provider of consumer travel trends and population movement intelligence in the U.S.—offers quarterly scholarships. Tischler was one of three recipients of the AirSage PASS, which is awarded exclusively to Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT). AirSage PASS funds opportunities that can advance the transportation industry as a whole, such as professional development and continuing education. After only one quarter, the AirSage PASS program has funded the educational aspirations of three YPT members. The next round of scholarship awards will be announced on Jan. 4, 2014.
Where do transportation students and professionals go for funding when they attend educational conferences, earn certification credits, or further develop a skill through continuing education Andrea Moe courses? Surprisingly, many are turning to other transportation-focused organizations. While larger companies may be known for their general scholarship funds and traditional employee tuition reimbursement plans, some lesser known options are making a big impact. From companies supplying transportation data and studies for road construction projects to transportation planning firms to non-profit organizations, established private enterprises are quietly investing in the industry’s future thought leaders. And, the recipients often have no connection to the benefactor other than a shared passion for the industry.
Non-profit organizations are also helping to develop young talent despite restricted budgets. The Coalition for Smarter Growth—a Washington D.C.-based organization that promotes walkable, inclusive, and transit- oriented communities in the Capital City region—offers training
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M obility Matters About AirSage
and mentoring to transportation students and young professionals through fellowships and internships. Each semester, three to six professionals are accepted to the program, which introduces them to a proven model of smart growth advocacy. In 2013, the Coalition trained a dozen emerging leaders in policy and advocacy for smart growth and in 2012, there were nine.
AirSage™—a pioneer in population analytics—is the largest provider of consumer locations and population movement intelligence in the U.S. Each day, AirSage uses patented technology to capture and analyze more than 15 billion anonymous, real-time, cellular-signal data points to identify travel patterns and transportation trends. Partnerships with the nation’s largest wireless carriers give AirSage exclusive access to data from more than 100 million mobile devices. Analyzed and aggregated, AirSage data provides actionable insights into where and when people travel and is transforming the transportation industry, commercial enterprises and a diverse range of industries. Find AirSage online at http://www.airsage.com.
Participants often take advantage of the networking and learning opportunities available at the annual TRB conference. Abigail Zenner worked with The Coalition as a Policy and Outreach Fellow. In January 2013, the position afforded her the opportunity to attend a portion of the 92nd Annual TRB meeting where she made some important industry connections and enhanced her focus on transportation policy.
About Dewberry
Dewberry is a Virginia-based engineering, architectural and consulting firm that provides transportation planning and design services to public and private clients up and down the entire eastern seaboard. For multiple years, the firm has contributed to TRB annual and regional meetings. Dewberry also invests in promising engineering students at universities in different states through two scholarship programs: The Dean Meyers Memorial Scholarship at Pennsylvania State University and the Dewberry Virginia Tech Scholarship. These scholarships were created to honor and heal communities in the wake of two distinct tragedies.
Dewberry is a leading professional services firm with a proven history of providing architecture, engineering, and management and consulting services to a wide variety of public- and private-sector clients. Recognized for combining unsurpassed commitment to client service with deep subject matter expertise, Dewberry is dedicated to solving clients’ most complex challenges and transforming their communities. Established in 1956, Dewberry is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, with more than 40 locations and 1,800+ professionals nationwide. To learn more, visit http://www.dewberry.com.
Dean Meyers, a civil engineer and a 20-year employee of the firm, graduated from Penn State University and was a victim of the Washington-area sniper attacks. The permanent, fullyendowed Dean Meyers Memorial Scholarship was created in his honor in 2002. The Dewberry Virginia Tech Scholarship was established in the spring of 2007 in honor of the victims at Virginia Tech through contributions from employees, clients, associates, and friends with those funds matched by Dewberry owners. Since establishing each scholarship, one to two engineering students have benefited annually. These students have the potential to impact the travel and transportation landscapes of communities across the nation.
About The Coalition for Smarter Growth The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington D.C. region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies needed to make those communities flourish. To learn more, visit the Coalition’s website at http://www.smartergrowth.net.
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M obility Matters YPT Innovator Series: Ship Anything, Anytime, Anywhere with uShip
RelayRides. Does uShip identify with that space? Do you ever see uShip capitalizing on its existing platform for other types of resource sharing?
By Arthur Pazdan
TE: In the big picture, there’s so much opportunity in the shipping and freight space, that we look at those companies you mention as examples as how to model something. Almost every industry has had its marketplace disrupted by online information. AirBnB has provided a new service in an already disrupted hospitality industry. Orbitz, along with Priceline disrupted the personal travel industry marketplace. We don’t anticipate entering other industries because we’re looking at $300 billion and $39 billion industries in full truckload (FTL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, respectively. There is no shortage of odd items that need to be shipped, including more normal things like vehicle shipping and household good moving. There’s no lack of opportunity in shipping. So yes, we’re interested in learning from other industries but not necessarily expanding into their space.
Today we talk to uShip’s Timur Eligulashvili, VP of Commercial Products. Timur has over 10 years of experience in the transportation logistics industry. Before uShip he held several roles in logistics including analyst, sales, product manager, and even company founder. We talk to Timur about how uShip’s innovative Timur Eligulashvili marketplace has changed the logistics industry, the current state of shipper/carrier relationships, and where the logistics industry is headed. You can find out more about Timur and uShip at uship.com or catch their product offerings on A&E’s “Shipping Wars” on Tuesdays at 10/9c.
AP: What is the profile of your typical users and the “whale” users i.e. those who make up the bulk of your revenue?
AP: What is uShip’s elevator pitch, i.e. what do you do (in 30 seconds or less)?
TE: If you take a look at the shipping marketplace and consider our slogan “Ship Anything, Anytime, Anywhere” we initially started in a very little market segment called “consumer freight”. If you want to ship a car or motorcycle or household good, bed, desk, etc. you could ship that with uShip. Once we created this marketplace and launched it, we were drawing business and commercial shippers who came into our marketplace and wanted a customized version of it for themselves. Our marketplace could be used for something more than just one-off shipments, it could be used for enterprise. We got into commercial freight because that opportunity presented itself. We produced an enterprise marketplace with some great partners including Ritchie Brothers auctioneers. They are the largest auctioneers of heavy equipment in the world. They would have these auctions where they sold large tractors or construction equipment. After the auction was completed the buyer would complete the transaction and need to move the equipment to their desired location. We formed a really strong partnership with Ritchie Brothers where we are their online provider for shipping. Anyone that buys a piece of equipment at a Ritchie Brothers auction can go to uShip and get quotes from multiple (feedback rated) carriers where they can then filter their decision by price and feedback rating of the carrier. We have over 2 million shippers and 350,000 transportation providers in our marketplace. Because the market is so diverse in size and highly fragmented we just don’t have that “one” customer out there who represents a large percentage of
TE: We’re an online transportation marketplace that connects customers who want to ship things (i.e. shippers) and the service providers who deliver shipments (i.e. carriers). We offer an easy way for shippers and carriers to connect and transact online. Think eBay or Orbitz, but for shipping services. The company was founded by our CEO Matt Chasen. Our company was born when he identified two problems he was having. The first problem was he wanted to ship an old dresser from his Grandmother’s house in the Midwest to Texas. They looked at all the usual suspects but couldn’t find a good price. All the carriers offered different prices for different services. The second problem occurred when Matt was working in Seattle before getting accepted into the MBA program at Austin. He packed up a truck with his wife and started driving down to Texas and thought about how he had extra space on his truck that wasn’t utilized. He thought about how he could have connected with someone who needed to ship something down to Texas so Matt could offset his own shipping costs or even make money. Along with his other co-founders, Matt then connected the dots at the UT-Austin MBA program. There are a lot of trucks out on the road today that aren’t fully utilized and have empty space that could be sold to people needing to ship something. That’s how the uShip idea was born. AP: There are a lot of companies in other spaces that are also doing resource sharing of other kinds like AirBnB or
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M obility Matters our business. What we do have, is our strong partnerships with businesses like Ritchie Brothers who then lead their customers to our platform. It’s not just one buyer, but several strong partnerships that feed their customers to us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtA4B9hFzhw
TE: Good question. We have 350,000 providers worldwide. It’s such a fragmented market. This isn’t parcel carriers where the industry is dominated by the top 3 (UPS, FedEx, DHL), because worldwide there are millions of freight & shipping providers. To funnel those millions of providers into our marketplace we’ve built a successful online strategy. We do a lot of really good things with SEO, online advertising, and most importantly forming strong partnerships with other sites online. If someone has an ecommerce site that requires freight shipment, these ecommerce folks can put a uShip widget on their site, enabling their users to get an estimated quote to move that shipment. The fact that we are prominently integrated into A&E’s TV show “Shipping Wars” is extremely helpful. We have no say in production on “Shipping Wars”, but we do offer up loads that are on our site. They follow some of the more compelling providers on our site. What that show has done is raise interest in attracting transporters to the site. They believe there may be an opportunity to pick up some additional loads from uShip in the process. We always see a spike in sign-ups when there are new episodes or a marathon.
AP: Is it fair to say then that you guys are more focused on the “long-tail”? You don’t have #1 hits or “whale” users per se, but hundreds of thousands of millions of limited individual users and customers who make up the bulk of your revenue TE: That’s right, at the same time though, at least half of the customers who come to uShip are regulars who just bought something on eBay. As a regular consumer, after their eBay purchase, they may use a service like uShip to find a transportation provider, but consumers may not always have a need for our service. Then we have small businesses that have a regular shipping need and regularly ship items. About half of our customers are repeat users. Where I think we’ve seen the highest engagement on the consumer side is with “enthusiasts”. These are people who ship motorcycles, or boats, the snowbirds who need to ship their cars from the North to the South seasonally. We see music enthusiasts who need to ship pianos or sensitive musical instruments. Vehicle shipping is huge. For that we have a strategic partnership with eBay. If you purchase a passenger vehicle on eBay we are there in their shipping tab and we connect you with transporters. On eBay, 3 of every 4 cars go to an out of state buyer. You can imagine the volume of cars that eBay processes, which translates into a huge opportunity for transportation.
From a transportation carrier standpoint, we as a marketplace, are not in a position where we can legally vet them. Instead we provide a user feedback system similar to eBay or AirBnB. In time, as business shipping has increased on the site, we’ve needed to introduce more verification and raise the bar for who can participate in certain load activity versus others. That is an area where we can improve. We’re not a broker, we’re a marketplace, so it restricts how we can categorize the service providers. We are a venue, a technology marketplace. We don’t actually arrange the transportation for the shipper. The shipper uses our technology as decision support to select a transportation provider based on the information we provide. One thing we’re doing in this regard is our integration with SaferWatch, who enables monitoring of a carrier to ensure that they meet certain criteria. Does the carrier have the right legal authority? Do they have the right level of insurance? Have they had a satisfactory rating with the DOT? So we can present that data from SaferWatch to the customer, especially with our uShip PRO product. A lot of our uShip PRO users monitor their network using this tool, and in the background we can inform them which carriers still meet their criteria.
We recently noticed that businesses are using us more regularly. Some 35% of our listings are listed by businesses, not consumers. When we started talking to these companies, they love uShip, the technology, the value proposition, they come back and say “We love what you’ve built with this technology. I have a trucking company or several that I work with on a regular basis, is there any way to leverage your technology for me to be more efficient with my business?” In response, a couple years ago we created a solution called uShip PRO. This is targeted towards the larger shippers. These companies have their own internetwork of carriers that they want to use. So we’ve enabled them a way to leverage the whole uShip marketplace and all the tools we’ve implemented over the last 9 years to bring in their own carriers and manager their own carrier network using uShip’s tools.
Obviously most people filter first on cost, but secondly they look at the carriers history on uShip via feedback and star ratings on things like punctuality, communication, etc. All in all, we’re developing the tools and giving the shipper the tools and information to make the right decision on which carrier they want to use.
AP: How did you go about acquiring or bringing in all of those shipping providers?
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M obility Matters AP: You have the Consumer marketplace, the PRO marketplace, what’s next in the product roadmap?
be able to account for every possibility. One thing we’ve done recently is launch a product called MyRates to enable the smaller providers to add their services and rates on uSHip. If you’re not a LTL or FTL carrier it’d be hard for you to approach a million dollar transportation management system or any other companies. What we’ve done is create a tool for trucking companies to come to our site and upload their pricing model and keep it updated as often as desired. Someone can come in and say “We haul boats”. Boats are not LTL. “We go from Illinois down to Florida”. There are lots of boat shipments down to Florida in the fall. They can come and set their price, then uShip brings these carriers business. Shippers will see that carrier’s quote instantly and they can then choose to use that carrier based on an instant quote instead of putting their shipment request into auction. We’re making it a lot easier for these different scale trucking companies to work with uSHip instead of monitoring auctions. So while dynamic pricing is a market economy ideal, occasionally a static pricing model works better.
TE: Earlier this year we launched an LTL instant rates product. Booking a shipment should be as easy booking travel arrangements on PriceLine. If you look back in time people would have to call or visit a travel agent. Nowadays they’ve been replaced by online marketplaces. So we believe shipping your product should be as simple as booking your flight. Businesses want to save time and money. The auction format works so long as the shipper has time. In those cases though where a shipper needs to ship today, however, at uShip what we’ve done is integrate with several regional and national LTL carriers. We make it easy for our shippers to get dynamic price quotes in real-time. Based on the demand of where that carrier has available open space, they can provide a good price. Over time, the LTL carrier has started to lose market share to thirdparty logistics providers (3PL) on a contract or wholesale basis. Some 35% of our business is now enterprise shipping so we can essentially help facilitate that connection for those small to medium sized businesses (SMB) for whom a direct LTL carrier sale is cost prohibitive because the SMB doesn’t have the shipping volume necessary to make the potential profit for LTL carrier worthwhile to acquire with their existing salesforce. For the first time there is a spot market for LTL carrier rates, and uShip has provided that market disruption.
AP: Who would you say is your main direct competition and how do you differentiate yourself? TE: There have been some knockoff sites in Europe and Latin America, but we have first-mover advantage, especially when you consider our name and brand recognition. If you’re going to talk about competition though, we should consider any alternative option that our customers have to facilitate their shipment. For example, there are still DIY options where people can rent their own trucks. Our data shows that it’s not cost efficient to do it yourself. You don’t really save that much by renting your own truck to move household goods. The same goes for car shipping. Someone who thinks they can take time off work, fly to where they bought their car, rent a truck and trailer putting their car on the trailer bed, drive it all the way back across 3 time zones because of the great deal you got on eBay. Why do that when you can get a similar or better price by using uShip? Sometimes you think you can save a buck yourself, but with a competitive marketplace that information asymmetry is removed and you can get a better price for using professionals.
AP: What do you believe is the ultimate impact of uShip’s marketplace on the size or number of carrier providers? Do you foresee proliferation, consolidation, etc.? Who are the winners and losers in the next few years? TE: We’ve been at this for 9 years by bringing value to both sides of the shipping marketplace. Our belief is that in 10 years the model of picking up the phone to call somebody to schedule a pickup will go away. Everything will be done online via web or mobile device. On the expansion side, just bringing on these LTL carriers into a dynamic priced marketplace to compete on a national level, these LTL carriers coming to the marketplace will provide a new service to shippers they didn’t have before. The carriers like it because we bring them customers that would be too cost-prohibitive to acquire on their own. We allow them to keep more of their revenue rather than allowing a 3PL or broker to take a roughly 30% markup on their LTL shipping service. One question we have is how do we make this one product fit all? There are all kinds of shipments out there. LTL is just one mode, mostly for pallet type freight, something that can be moved easily with a forklift and minimal manual handling. We need to
AP: Are there any features that users keep asking for that technically aren’t feasible yet? TE: We’re going in an interesting direction with mobile. For example, Uber makes it easy for you to make a real time request for transportation service and provide a slick integrated experience. We are expanding into mobile possibilities that are now becoming available. Imagine that you’re at an antique market and have just picked up a new
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M obility Matters armoire. At that moment there are dozens of drivers with empty space on their truck within a reasonable distance of you. Today we should be able to leverage smartphone technology to connect you with a trucker that is close enough and travelling in your desired direction. Connecting that demand with supply via mobile is quite compelling. You take a picture of what you’re shipping, put in your requirements and desired shipping prices, and
now within seconds more than a few trucking companies see your request and can get you a real-time quote so you can get your armoire home that day instead of laboring over what to do and when you’ll get your find home. What we’re moving towards now is people being able to publish their rates and consumers being able to name their price to complement our more traditional auction marketplace. That is one of our core growth areas.
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M obility Matters 2013-14 Board of Directors Across the U.S. Wondering who won this past year’s YPT election? Maybe you know someone who won in your city, or maybe even across the country! We are happy to announce the next Board of Directors for the 2013-14 fiscal year for the International Board and for 9 YPT chapters that held their own elections. All terms started on November 1 and will last until October 31, 2014. The YPT International Board would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the incoming YPT leadership, and of course, to thank everyone in YPT leadership, outgoing and incoming, past and present, for their hard work. Also, if you want to get involved, it’s not too late! YPT is always looking for volunteers at the International or local level. If you’re interested, please contact info@yptransportation.org to get started.
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Nila Jackson (Norfolk Southern) – Vice Chair for Communications and Outreach
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Phillip Cherry (Parsons Brinckerhoff ) – Vice Chair for Membership
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(vacant) – Vice Chair for Sponsorship
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Jeremy Daniel (Georgia DOT), Aaron Fowler (Southern Polytechnic State Univ.), and Landon Reed (Georgia Tech) – Directors At-Large
______ YPT Austin Chapter Board of Directors
YPT International Board of Directors
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Nick Wood (TTI) – Chair
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David Williams (HNTB) – Deputy Chair
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Julia McAdams (HDR) – Vice Chair for Administration
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Nicola Gheno (HVJ Associates) – Vice Chair for Finance
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Zachary Elgart (Texas A&M Transportation Institute) – Vice Chair for Communications
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Katherine Kortum (TRB) – Chair
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Candace Brakewood (Georgia Tech) – Deputy Chair
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Boris Lipkin (Parsons Brinckerhoff ) – Vice Chair for Administration
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Andy House (AASHTO) – Vice Chair for Finance
YPT Boston Chapter Board of Directors
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Stephanie Dock (DDOT) – Vice Chair for Membership
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Brittney Kohler (ASCE) – Vice Chair for Programs
Eric Halvorsen (Metropolitan Area Planning Council) – Chair
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Melissa Chow (WMATA) – Vice Chair for Communications
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Tegin Teich (IBI Group) – Deputy Chair
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Nikola Ivanov (Univ. of Maryland Center for Adv. Transportation Tech. Laboratory) – Vice Chair for Chapter Development
Gabriel J. Lopez-Bernal (TranSystems)– Vice Chair for Administration
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Conor Semler (Kittelson & Associates) – Vice Chair for Finance
Emma Chapman (Parsons Brinckerhoff ) – Vice Chair for Sponsorship
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Mike Tremblay (Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc.) – Vice Chair for Communications
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Gretchen Johnson (Nelson\Nygaard) – Vice Chair for Programs
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Jennifer Slesinger (MassDOT) – Vice Chair for Membership
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(vacant) – Chair
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Chris Rome (Foresite Group) – Deputy Chair
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Lindsey Dunahoo (AECOM) – Vice Chair for Administration
David Baumgartner (Cambridge Systematics) – Vice Chair for Sponsorship
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Rebecca Gould (Accenture) – Vice Chair At-Large
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France Campbell (AECOM) – Vice Chair for Finance
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M obility Matters YPT Chicago Chapter Board of Directors
YPT Philadelphia Chapter Board of Directors
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Erik Cempel (Cambridge Systematics) – Chair
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Jenna Oskowitz (HNTB) – Chair
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Christina Arthur (Chicago Transit Authority) – Deputy Chair
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Oluwaseye P Akele (Maser Consulting, P.A.) – Deputy Chair
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Brenda Christopher (HNTB Corporation) – Vice Chair for Administration
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Erica Antoine (Burns Engineering, Inc.) – Vice Chair for Administration
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Elizabeth C. Gonzalez (Load Delivered Logistics, LLC) – Vice Chair for Finance
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Lindsey Graham (HNTB) – Vice Chair for Finance
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Jared Voto (Regional Transportation Authority) – Vice Chair for Programs
YPT San Francisco Bay Chapter Board of Directors
______ YPT Minneapolis Chapter Board of Directors
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Andy Kosinski (Fehr & Peers) – Chair
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Teresa Tapia (SFMTA) – Deputy Chair
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Terra Curtis (Nelson\Nygaard) – Vice Chair for Administration
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Laura Eash (The MN Transportation Alliance) – Chair
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Michael Petesch (The Ackerberg Group) – Deputy Chair
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Erik Sowers (Neighborhood Energy Connection) – Vice Chair for Administration
Ted Rosenbaum (LTK Engineering Services) – Vice Chair for Finance
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Nicklaus Ollrich (SRF Consulting Group) – Vice Chair for Finance
David Weinzimmer (Student at UC Berkeley) – Vice Chair for Membership
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Jessica Kuo (Serco Inc. supporting the SFMTA) – Vice Chair for Communications
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Leon Raykin (Fehr & Peers) – Vice Chair for Programs
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Michael H. Glaser (Parsons) – Vice Chair for Sponsorships
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Shivam Vohra (Nelson\Nygaard) – Vice Chair of Collegiates
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______ YPT New York City Chapter Board of Directors •
Joseph Ehrlich (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) – Chair
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Elizabeth Paul (MTA Bridges and Tunnels) – Deputy Chair
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Annalisa Liberman (MTA New York City Transit) – Vice Chair for Administration
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Julia Kerson (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) – Vice Chair for Finance
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Steve Michejda (MTA Bridges and Tunnels) & Mike Banoub (Parsons Brinckerhoff ) – Co–Vice Chairs for Programs
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Erica DeCrescenzo (NYC DOT) – Vice Chair for Membership
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Chrissie Carlin (MTA New York City Transit) & Jonathan Ehrlich (New York State Thruway Authority) – Directors At-Large
______ YPT Washington, DC Chapter Board of Directors
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Eduardo Maeyama (Parsons Brinckerhoff ) – Chair
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Paul Lewis (Eno Center for Transportation) – Deputy Chair
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Amy Cavaretta (Eno Center for Transportation) – Vice Chair for Administration
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Lucas Muller (Kimley-Horn and Associates) – Vice Chair for Finance
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Kim Lucas (DDOT) – Vice Chair for Programs
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Marla Westervelt (Eno Center for Transportation) – Vice Chair for Communication
M obility Matters Growing with the Data: The Development of NYCDOT’s Traffic Information Management System
users to query, display and download traffic data within a data warehouse. As the project scope was fully defined, the application to be build came to be known as the Traffic Information Management System (TIMS). Developing TIMS was no easy task. From the beginning our goal was to build the system with the perspective of the users in mind, making it easy to access and understand. In order to do so, the project team needed a thorough understanding of traffic engineering, existing business processes, workflows, problems, bottlenecks and limitations. While a basic understanding of the traffic count workflow could be obtained by a review of existing documents, it did not allow for a complete understanding of the more intricate details.
By Asheque Rahman, Project Manager, New York City Department of Transportation I truly realized the importance of traffic data to the New York City Department of Transportation’s mission on my first day as Data Management Coordinator. While as an undergraduate intern I had Asheque Rahman participated in various traffic management studies, it wasn’t until I supported and managed agency-wide data coordination initiatives that I saw how all of this data contributes to NYCDOT’s mission: to provide for the safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible movement of people and goods in the City of New York and to maintain and enhance the transportation infrastructure crucial to the economic vitality and quality of life of the agency’s primary customers, New York City residents.
To gather a finer level of detail, the project team conducted a number of requirements gathering meetings with all of the stakeholders in the project: executives, end users, domain experts, contractors, sister agencies and support staff. Out of these meetings came a concise Requirements Report that described what functionality would be included in the application, as well as any technical, functional and nonfunctional restrictions on the application. Based on industry best practices and the development team’s prior experience, it was decided that TIMS would be developed using an agile methodology based on the core principles of incremental and iterative development, usercentered design and usability. This approach allowed us to decompose the project into smaller, more manageable pieces. It made progress transparent, easily measurable, and more predictable. It exposed risk early, when there was more time to address it. It enforced continuous testing, resulting in a higher quality application with fewer defects. It enabled us to see and test functionality early and on a regular basis throughout the development process, providing continuous validation that the application met the functional requirements. And it encouraged a consistent and high level of communication between the project team and the stakeholders.
NYCDOT routinely collects high volumes of traffic data: Automatic Traffic Recorders (ATR); Bicycle; Pedestrian; Turning Movement; Vehicle Classification; and Spot Speeds. This traffic count data serves many diverse project and analytical needs. Though the data we collected was worth the price we paid for the purpose of the collection, the data was not always used to its full capacity. Historically, this data had been collected by many divisions within NYCDOT on an “as-needed” basis for a particular project or study, either by internal staff or consultants. This caused the data to be collected in inconsistent formats, making post-processing and comparison difficult. Data was also stored in many different locations, both electronically and on paper, making it difficult and time-consuming for staff to identify available data for use on future projects and studies. Inevitably this led to duplication of data collection efforts and increased costs.
The application was developed over the course of approximately 18 months and 10 iterations. We began with the basic application framework and database design, moving through the implementation of functionality related to each of the traffic count data types, and finally integrated with NYCDOT infrastructure. After deployment of TIMS in 2012, the benefits were seen right away. Through the application the agency was able to standardize the methodology for requesting, approving and collecting traffic data. This led to an improvement in data accuracy while reducing the time from data collection to data analysis, and eliminated the collection of duplicate data. The application also reduced time consuming searches for traffic data and
As I found myself on a new role as a Project Manager in 2011, it became one of my major tasks to help the agency eliminate these data inefficiencies. As this task became a priority for the agency, I was not left alone to resolve this issue by myself. I had a core support group of experienced project team members. With a skilled and motivated team we were able to develop Phase I of the project, an interactive, map-based web application to provide a simplified workflow for both NYCDOT and non-NYCDOT
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M obility Matters simplified responding to Freedom of Information Law requests.
the use of the Phase I implementation, and incorporates additional traffic datasets. This work was started in Fall of 2012 and is expected to be completed by May 2014.
The database was initially populated with 3 years of historical traffic count data (approximately 6,000 counts), and the user base consisted of 95 authorized users (70 internal NYCDOT, 5 other NYC agencies, and 20 consultants). As an indication of the success and usage of the application, as of December 2013 the database had expanded to over 18,000 individual counts, while the user base had grown to include 375 authorized users. The application has also grown in popularity as it was presented in a number of technical conferences.
TIMS Phase I has provided NYCDOT with an advanced application for managing and maintaining all traffic count data used by the department within a secure hosted environment. By combining a focused project team, good stakeholder involvement, detailed requirements gathering and an agile development methodology, the TIMS application meets agencies and users’ needs while providing a cost and time savings to NYCDOT and numerous other sister agencies. I was extremely fortunate to be given the opportunity to lead such an important project, and have grown a lot as a young professional, and as the TIMS system has grown to include more data, I have grown professionally alongside it.
Based on user reaction, comments and feedback to the existing application, NYCDOT has embarked on Phase II of the project. Phase II addresses user comments generated during
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YPT Photo Album! YPT National Leadership Meeting, Washington, DC
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YPT National Chapter Board of Directors, 2013-2014 Katherine Kortum, YPT Chair
Aimee Custis, Vice Chair for Membership
Brittney Kohler, Deputy Chair
Sophie Guiny, Vice Chair for Programs
Stephanie Dock, Vice Chair for Administration – Secretary
Candace Brakewood, Director at Large – Chapter Development
chair@yptransportation.org Transportation Research Board
membership@yptransportation.org Coalition for Smarter Growth
deputy@yptransportation.org ASCE
programs@yptransportation.org Booz Allen Hamilton
admin@yptransportation.org DDOT
chapters@yptransportation.org Georgia Tech
Alexandra Malikova , Vice Chair for Communication
Alek Pochowski, Director at Large – Sponsorship
comms@yptransportation.org MTA NYCT
sponsorship@yptransportation.org Kittelson & Associates
Bud McDonald, Vice Chair for Finance – Treasurer finance@yptransportation.org AASHTO
Board of Advisors YPT’s Board of Advisors are preeminent public and private sector leaders in transportation with a wide range of exemplary experience in the field. We are grateful for their participation and willingness to assist the development of a new generation of transportation professionals.
Bud Wright, Executive Director, AASHTO
Janet F. Kavinoky, Executive Director, Transportation & Infrastructure, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Mortimer Downey, Chairman, Parsons Brinckerhoff
Mary Peters, Former Secretary of the United States
Emil Frankel, Bipartisan Policy Center
Department of Transportation
Jane Garvey, North American Chairman, Meridiam
Joshua Schank, President and CEO, Eno Center
Jonathan Gifford, Professor and Associate Dean for GMU’s
Bob Skinner, Executive Director, Transportation
Infrastructure
for Transportation
Transportation Policy, Operations & Logistics Masters Program
Research Board (TRB)
Art Guzzetti, Vice President for Policy, American Public Transportation Association (APTA)
Mobility Matters Editor: Outgoing - Bryce McNitt
Federal Transit Administration, United States Department of Transportation
Incoming - Andrew Bevington American University
Mobility Matters Design and Layout: Alpha Wingfield
Visual Information Specialist, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, United States Department of Transportation Mobility Matters is a quarterly publication of Young Professionals in Transportation. The views expressed in the articles published in Mobility Matters represent only the views of their authors, and not those of YPT. YPT strives to incorporate articles in Mobility Matters that represent a diverse range of perspectives on transportation and cover all transportation modes. If you are interested in contributing to Mobility Matters please email Bryce McNitt, Editor, at mobilitymatters@yptransportation.org for more information.
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Thanks to our 2013–2014 YPT Sponsors NIC and eGov www.egov.com
AirSage www.airsage.com
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) www.transportation.org
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Mercator Advisors LLC www.mercatoradvisors.com
Eno Center for Transportation www.enotrans.org 15