TransportGooru

Job Req #: 140113-6

Basic Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent knowledge with 3 years of related professional experience. Proficiency in computer applications, especially Microsoft Word, Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel, and Access. Ability to solve varied and complex problems using originality and ingenuity. Ability to operate using appreciable latitude for independent judgment and action. Ability to work successfully in a team environment. Experience working in complex environments with a high degree of organizational effectiveness. Ability to develop relationships with co-workers and employees in other National Academies’ departments through effective communication. Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal skills with a proven ability to effectively interact with all levels of employees.

Description

The mission of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is to promote innovation and progress in transportation through research. In an objective and interdisciplinary setting, TRB facilitates the sharing of information on transportation practice and policy by researchers and practitioners; stimulates research and offers research management services that promote technical excellence; provides expert advice on transportation policy and programs; and disseminates research results broadly and encouraged their implementation.

TRB is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council— a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academies in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The National Research Council is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. TRB’s varied activities—described below—annually engage more than 7,000 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest by participating on TRB committees, panels, and task forces. The program is supported by state transportation departments, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation.

The Associate Program Officer manages programs/projects for multiple TRB Groups and Sections consisting of 35 to 60 standing committees Provides support in ensuring programs/projects meet their stated objectives. Serves as liaison between TRB and related external customers and organizations, including committee members, TRB sponsors and affiliates. Assists with the daily supervision of support staff. Assists three Senior Program Officers in the development of programs/projects. Coordinates program/project activities, handling inquiries, organizing sessions and meetings, and developing materials. Tracks relevant issues and compiles reports. Manages NRC and FACA required processes.

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES:

• Administers and manages program/project activities. Communicates with chairs of Groups, Sections, standing committees; other committee members and external program/project contacts. Facilitates the flow of information among committee members, consultants, TRB sponsors and affiliates, and staff. Prepares reports on activities. Represents the program/project areas within and outside of TRB.
• Identifies and gathers materials in support of programs/projects sponsored by Groups/Sections/committees. Synthesizes and edits findings and data. Prepares background papers and summaries of program/project activities.
• Organizes conferences, sessions, and meetings. Creates agendas, invites presenters and participants, oversees meeting logistics, and prepares written summaries. Manages the development and delivery of over 100 sessions for the TRB Annual Meeting, one to two meetings per year for each of the Groups/Sections/committees, and several conferences per year (100 to 600 attendees each). Accomplishes sophisticated and customized computer sorts, selections, formatting, report generation and other tasks in support of sessions, meetings, conferences, and other projects.
• Coordinates publication of materials, including peer reviewed papers, proceedings of conferences, and circulars. Manages the peer review of approximately 500 papers each year, leading to publication of approximately 150 papers annually.
• Performs financial and administrative tasks related to programs/projects of the assigned Groups/Sections/committees. Creates, maintains, and updates records, databases, and files. Oversees the rotation of member appointments for 15-20 committees per year. Authorizes expenditures, tracks spending, monitors budget, and projects future spending plans. Reviews contractual obligations and ensures that obligations are met. Serves as travel coordinator.
• Ensures consistent application of organizational policies and procedures. Manages compliance with National Academies’ procedures, format, and processes, including NRC and FACA, as they relate to assigned activities.
• May update and maintain web pages and prepare newsletters and other promotional materials.
• Assists with supervising staff. Assigns tasks and provides guidance and feedback to staff. Ensures required training is accomplished and participates in performance reviews. Serves as a mentor and resource to support staff.

Click here to learn more and to apply

The TIFIA Office is recruiting financial analysts to work on the Credit and Budget Team.   The individual(s) will review credit requests submitted to the TIFIA Office and analyze cashflows for the purposes of quantifying the assessed risk of the loan and calculating the subsidy cost to the Government as well as support budgetary, contracting, and audit related work performed by the Credit and Budget Team.

The ideal candidate is experienced in analyzing cash flows and revenue projections, and understands how to apply the principles and practices from transportation planning, economics, and finance to estimate and quantify risk.  The individual has experience with or can learn how to implement this skill set to work on Federal credit programs operating under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990.

Links to USA jobs are:

Merit Promotion: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/369503100

All U.S. Citizens: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/369506500

More info about the TIFIA program: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/tifia/

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has announced the availability of two positions to help support the use of second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) data. Duties for the Interdisciplinary: Operations Research Analyst/General Engineer include planning, initiating, promoting, coordinating, and monitoring SHRP 2 safety data dissemination and research activities including training, technical assistance, and tool development. Duties for the Interdisciplinary: Operations Research Analyst/General Engineer include creating data extraction specifications; and extracting and exporting datasets from larger databases such as SHRP 2 data. Both position announcements are open until May 27. Additional information on each announcement is available online at www.usajobs.gov or by using the links below. 

Position #1 – Interdisciplinary: Operations Research Analyst/General Engineer, GS-1515/801-13/14 
• https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/368928500 (Merit Promotion) 
• https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/368928200 (Public Notice) 

Position #2 – Interdisciplinary: Operations Research Analyst/General Engineer, GS-1515/801-12/13 
• https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/369270700 (Merit Promotion) 
• https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/369271700 (Public Notice)

via TRB E-Newsletter

Cambridge Systematics is a place where individuals are able to grow and develop both personally and professionally. When you come to work for us, you’ll be joining an independent, employee-owned company, recognized nationally and internationally. Through our world class on boarding process, new hires receive introductory training from our staff subject matter experts. Ongoing learning and knowledge sharing is a hallmark of our culture and our pursuit of excellence. Through our professional development opportunities, staff can branch out into several different career paths. In addition, we offer competitive salaries and superior benefits.

We are seeking a transportation consulting professional with proven project management and business development skills to help drive the expansion of our Transportation Planning and Management practice. This is an excellent opportunity to join an established and growing national team of planners, engineers, and economists recognized for innovative work in transportation planning and policy analysis.

The successful candidate will work with CS professionals around the country to address transportation challenges faced by Federal, state, and local governments, with a particular focus on clients in the western U.S. You will manage complex client projects, create and implement business development strategies, conduct leading-edge transportation research and analysis, and train and mentor other staff.

Qualifications: Master’s degree in planning, engineering, public policy, or a related field; 3 or more years of professional experience, including two or more years in a related consulting environment; proven business development, project management, and client service skills; proven writing, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills; and strong analytic and problem-solving skills with fluency in transportation data, planning methods, and analysis tools

http://www.camsys.com

EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability

Qualified Candidates Apply To: https://home.eease.adp.com/recruit/?id=8965851

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Here is a quick summary of  the what, why, who and when:

During April 24th-26th, I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee attending the 5th Annual Vanguard Conference, an experiential urban leadership gathering of 40 of the best and brightest urban leaders under 40, hosted by the national non-profit media organization Next City.  Mind you, I’m probably the least accomplished of this excellent group of 40 promising leaders, all of them working to improve cities across sectors, including urban planning, community development, entrepreneurship, government, transportation, sustainability, design, art and media. We convened in Chattanooga for a three-day series of presentations, workshops and neighborhood tours. The Vanguard conference will culminate in the Chattanooga Challenge, an ideas competition sponsored by the Footprint Foundation and designed to jump-start civic local innovation through a $10,000 grant for the winning proposal.

Here are a handful of observations from this conference:

• In a nutshell, it was a life altering experience. I got to learn so many issues associated with urban development, such as housing and economic issues, while further understanding the linkages and the crucial role of transportation systems in building a better urban environment.

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville,com

• Met some of the best and brightest in the country and was in awe from the time I arrived till I left the city (even now I’m in awe of how much knowledge was exchanged and free flowing in that setting).

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville.com

• When you adopt an unconference format, discussions flow freely and people are at ease to share their ideas. Moral of the story: do not host events featuring powerpoint presentations.  The conversations were engaging, stimulating and at times downright wild (particularly those conversations over the beers and coffees were excellent).

Image Courtesy: Metrojacksonville.com

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. A lot of beverages consumed and tons of knowledge exchanged.

image courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. Did I tell you it was wild and fun?

Image courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. Opening night party on the premises of the Aquarium building.

• People in the government at local levels work together and even when they work together to solve problems they are constrained by institutional biases and money shortfall.  The city owns a strategic piece of digital infrastructure – Chattanooga offers the fastest Internet connections in America through the city-owned fiber-optic network.
• City of Chattanooga is a great place and certain parts of it, like in most urban areas, has bad things going on.   As part of the Vanguard Conference’s Chattanooga Challenge, we were all divided into four groups and sent to explore different corners of the the city (East, West, North and South) by foot, bikes and transit.  I was part of the walking tour (Team West) that hit the West side and got to see up close the economic disparities that exist on either side of a major elevated highway (U.S. 27) that literally bifurcates the communities more details on the West Side tour in a different bullet below).

Image Courtesy: metrojacksonville.com. Team West, posing for a picture, moment before announced as Winners of the $10k Chattanooga Challenge.

• City of Chattanooga has a great bikeshare system, fantastic aquarium and an excellent set of touristy things like the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel (pictured below), great restaurants and watering holes across the town.

Image Courtesy: Metrojacksonville.com. Click image to see an entire set of image from a fellow Vanguard, Ennis Davis at Metro Jacksonville

• The city’s low-income residents, particularly those in the West side neighborhoods such as College Hill courts, are somewhat caught in a bad situation. These communities, slated for redevelopment within a decade or so, live quite close to the economic heart of the city. But they do not have a meaningful direct access where they can walk to their jobs and they are cut off by a major thorough fare. This has resulted in poverty and the usual accompaniments of crime and lack of education.  I was part of the Team West in the Chattanooga Challenge that visited these communities and pitched a strong proposal to connect the divided communities.  Our team, bolstered by three strong local young leaders, gained very illuminating insights that helped  us understand the situation at hand.  We suggested that the City of Chattanooga offer free Wi-Fi service to a public housing community on the city’s west side and develop a new pathway to connect the city’s downtown to the highway-marooned neighborhood.  I’m borrowing the narrative from Next City to explain how this is laid out: Right now, area residents, (shown in image below total population of 2481 with a median income of $9277) many of whom are children and downtown workers commuting from public housing developments to school or jobs in other parts of the city, must trek by foot on a dirt path and across highway ramps to reach the city’s center. Where the path enters their neighborhood, residents must pass through a hole in a chain-link fence.  Our teammate Marlon Brown, a city councilman from Mason, Michigan put it succinctly “the neighborhood is physically divided from the downtown at the same time as it is digitally divided from opportunities there. You have to remember, a city is only as strong as its least connected neighborhood. ” These next two images below came from our teammate John Bilderback, who quickly generated them to show how this community  is strategically located and yet remains far removed from better opportunities. What’s better – our winning idea will get a $10,000 boost from the local Footprint Foundation and the City will get to implement the proposal. And the local newspaper did an excellent article covering our winning proposal.  Yay!

• 

  Image Courtesy: John Builderback. Picture1 – Westside – Where the Resources are.

•  Last but not least I got to ride a bicycle after almost 15 years.  I am a regular transit user living in Washington, DC metropolitan area, where we are blessed with better transportation alternatives and a fantatistic world-class bikesharing system.  But I never had a reason to ride a bike because of my living and commuting options. Thanks to Chatanooga and my fellow Vanguards, I got to commandeer a bicycle one afternoon. It was a lot of fun and I reached my destination without embarrassing myself and an exciting story to tell (yeah, our group got yelled at by an older gentleman in a pickup for occupying a full lane on a main thoroughfare).  Sadly, despite the presence of a bikeshare system in the city, the number of bicyclists on the city streets were relatively low.

• 

  Image courtesy: http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/. Click image to see an entire set of image from a fellow Vanguard, Ennis Davis at Metro Jacksonville

Image Courtesy: Metrojacksonville.com

OFFICE OF PERFORMANCE: SR. PERFORMANCE ANALYST (#140519)

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)
WMATA provides transit services in the National Capital Region covering a 1,500 square mile area  (5 million residents) including Washington, D.C.,  two suburban counties in Maryland, and three counties and three cities in Northern Virginia. WMATA operates the second largest heavy rail transit system, sixth largest bus network and fifth largest paratransit service in the United States.

The Office of Performance was established in 2009 to bring a performance-based management approach to the agency, increase Metro’s accountability and transparency and respond to the national focus on performance measures. The office serves as an internal consulting team working across the agency to develop tools that turn data into information, tackle areas facing performance challenges and effectively communicate results. The Office of Performance has also developed external performance material including the Vital Signs Report and scorecard to track progress towards WMATA’s strategic goals (Scorecard).

Sr. Performance Analysts Responsibilities
As a member of the Office of Performance, this position will assist in the formation of a range of performance products to expand the use performance information to guide decision making, promote WMATA’s benefits in the region and to unify employees toward achieving the agency’s strategic goals. The Senior Analyst will serve as the primary liaison between departments responsible for delivering and maintaining rail, bus and paratransit services. The incumbent will be responsible for collecting, analyzing, documenting, and communicating performance information in cooperation with other departments. Through cross-agency collaboration, the overall purpose of this position is to improve the safety, reliability and quality of WMATA services. The Senior Performance analyst will operate with broad latitude and independent judgment under the guidance from the Director of the Office of Performance.

We are looking for someone who can effectively work in an unstructured fast paced environment by applying strong analytical and communication skills with strategic thinking.

Salary Range
$88,700 to $133,000; plus excellent benefits package.

TO APPLY
Please see WMATA website for full information and to submit an application and resume

Via @YPTransportation

via Autoblog

The innovators at Solar Roadways have pulled together a demonstration site (i.e., parking lot) to showcase how their technology works – it’s got a textured glass surface that can (among many other things) generate low-carbon electricity, melt snow, and throw up safety warnings with its integrated LED lighting system. Pretty cool, right? 

Their vision for smarter roads has grown considerably from conception to an award-winning early prototype to a test deployment.  It is poised to take the next logical step forward – manufacturing, which usually costs a ton of money. So they have put together a nice campaign video and lauched the fundraising efforts over at IndieGoGo for helping move this audacious vision to an everyday reality.

Autoblog notes that if successful, the concept will next start appearing in parking lots, driveways and sidewalks before taking that final leap toward paving the way to a solar-powered paradise. Let’s hope it does succeed.  Show your support over at their IndieGoGo campaign site.   

Note: As of this minute, the campaign has raised $4,712 (in just a day) and they have about 39 days left to reach the $1million goal (by May 31 @ 11:59PM).

Related articles

• Solar Roadways to build solar-powered parking lot
• solar powered roadways by scott brusaw
• In Focus: Solar Roadways
• Solar Roadways (the company) to Build Solar Panel Parking Lot (+ Top Transportation Stories)
• Solar Roadways: The Prototype – an interesting idea to contemplate

Check out this infograph from Pembina Institute that clearly lays out the case for public transportation (i.e., Rapid Transit) and shows how much money can be saved..

Source: Pembina Institute.

Closing date: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 (11:59PM EST)

This position is located in the Office of Safety Programs, Office of Safety, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC. The incumbent serves as a transportation specialist and provides advice to Safety Leadership on highway safety programs.

You will serve as a nationally recognized authority and advisor to Safety Leadership in identifying, developing and delivering safety workforce competency programs and products to reduce the number and severity of highway crashes, and other highway safety programs. You will also serve as the co-champion for the FHWA Safety Discipline and the program manager for the Roadway Safety Professional Capacity Building Program (RSPBC). As Safety Discipline co-champion, you will work toward improving the capacity of FHWA’s workforce in safety related competencies. As the RSPBC Manager, you will also help a broad range of roadway safety professionals acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to implement safety programs, strategies, and countermeasures.

The ideal candidate for this position is a mid-career or senior level professional with experience in identifying, planning, and implementing new national program initiatives and leading the development and implementation of programs for outreach and public information to improve the proficiency of highway safety professionals.  He/she has a high degree of independence in planning, prioritizing, scheduling, and carrying out assignments and maintaining effective working relationships as a leader or member of teams or working groups.  In addition, the ideal candidate has excellent person-to-person and written communication skills.

Duties:

• Provide leadership in technical, programmatic engineering and policy assistance to FHWA field offices, State and local agencies, and other internal and external customers to implement safety programs for all levels of government.
• Provide resources to help safety experts and specialists develop critical knowledge and skills within the roadway safety workforce.
• Lead the development and implementation of programs for outreach and public information to improve the proficiency of highway safety professionals.
• Coordinate with other Federal, State, and local agencies and professional organizations and serve on intra-agency task forces with partners to improve the safety workforces’ knowledge, skills, and abilities.
• Plan and conduct briefings and regional and national meetings for FHWA, State, and local safety professionals and other highway safety-related organizations.
• Identify customer’s needs and provide resources to facilitate the deployment of roadway safety tools.

Click here to learn more and to apply.

My favorite numbers guy, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has poured over the census data and published an intriguing article that shows how the workforce in US cities begin its work day. I’ll share Nate’s findings through the graphs he published but I highly recommend that you read the full article over at his site . This insightful analysis will be definitely useful for transportation systems operators and managers.

Here are a few data nuggets from this analysis:

• New Yorkers are pretty relaxed and get to catch a few more winks  than many in the country. The median worker in the New York metropolitan area begins her workday at 8:24 a.m. 
• A quarter of the workforce in Atlantic City doesn’t begin its workday until 11:26 a.m. or after (understandably because the AC workforce is dependent on a recreational economy).
• The metro area with the earliest workday is Hinesville, Ga. The median worker there arrives at work at 7:01 a.m.

Let’s first see the US metro areas that are slow to roll

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com

Now let’s look at the those cities with the earliest median arrival times to work

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com Click Image to learn more.

And finally the Median arrival time in your local time zone

Source: fivethirtyeight.com. Click the image to learn more

Interesting, isn’t it? Go over to Fivethirtyeight.com to soak up the brilliant write-up from Nate.