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03.14.2022

RSG Principal receives Outstanding Industry Contributor Award

The Zephyr Foundation has given RSG Principal Johanna Zmud, PhD, its Outstanding Industry Contributor Award. This annual award recognizes an individual who selflessly contributes to the travel demand modeling industry through their work. Johanna has been at the forefront of applying survey science to the gathering of data on past, current, and future travel behavior to understand important phenomena, such as transportation mode choice, and to ascertain developing trends, such as propensity to use automated vehicles. Her recent research has examined how technology-enabled mobility impacts society. She has also researched the implications for transportation providers and agencies. Zephyr Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. Its mission is to advance rigorous transportation and land-use decision-making for the public good. It does this by advocating for and supporting improved travel analysis and facilitating its implementation.

Click here to read about Johanna's Outstanding Industry Contributor Award »

03.03.2022

Wind turbine shadow flicker paper coauthored by RSGers is subject of webinar

RSG Principal Ken Kaliski and Senior Analyst Ryan Haac both coauthored a peer-reviewed paper, titled “In the shadow of wind energy: Predicting community exposure and annoyance to wind turbine shadow flicker in the United States,” which was published in the Energy Research & Social Science journal. The paper is also the subject of a webinar on March 11, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. PT). The webinar is free and open to the public.

Ken and Ryan worked with their paper's coauthors from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Vermont Environmental Research Associates, Inc. to model shadow flicker (SF) exposure. SF is the effect of sunlight passing through moving wind turbine blades, which can lead to annoyance among those exposed.

The team modeled shadow flicker exposure at nearly 35,000 US residences across 61 wind projects and surveyed 747 people. The results shed light on what contributed to perceived shadow flicker and annoyance. The team did not find a significant correlation between shadow flicker annoyance and exposure. Instead, the team's model identified a greater correlation with other factors among respondents. These included a person's level of education, age, perception of how wind turbines look, and annoyance at other human-caused sounds.

Research of this nature is increasingly important as the renewable energy market expands. By 2035, the installed capacity of wind energy in the United States will be 600 gigawatts (GW), up from 110 GW now. This will require thousands of new wind projects. To understand how those projects will affect nearby communities, additional research like that undertaken by RSGers for this paper will be necessary to better understand wind turbine shadow flicker exposure.

Click here to register for the March 11 webinar »

02.04.2022

SWaM certification awarded to RSG in Virginia

RSG is a certified Small, Women-owned, and Minority (SWaM) firm in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The certification was granted on February 2, 2022, by the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity.

RSG is eager to continue to offer our innovative consulting services and expertise to entities in Virginia through this important program. Through the SWaM program, RSG is authorized to provide traffic and transportation consulting services as a small business.

The Commonwealth of Virginia defines a “small business” as one that is at least 51% independently owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are US citizens or legal resident aliens, and together with affiliates, has 250 or fewer employees, or average annual gross receipts of $10 million or less averaged over the previous three years. Additional information about RSG's certification is available in the SWaM directory.

RSG SWaM Certification Number: 682999
Small Start Date: 02-02-2022
SWaM Expiration Date: 02-02-2027
NIGP Description and Code: Traffic Consulting (91894) & Transportation Consulting (91896)

01.19.2022

RSG Principal named ITS Senior Fellow

The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of California, Berkeley named RSG Principal Johanna Zmud, PhD, as an ITS Senior Fellow for 2022. Johanna is one of only five Senior Fellows selected this year. The award recognizes her extraordinary contributions and dedication to the transportation field.

As a Principal at RSG, Johanna supports clients' needs around transportation technology and emerging mobility. She has cofounded several firms and worked in both the public and private sectors on travel behavior and transportation research.

As an ITS Senior Fellow, Johanna will continue her important work at RSG while shaping the industry conversation. Senior Fellows can collaborate with ITS faculty, staff, and students to improve transportation education, research, and practice.

Click here to read the ITS Berkeley announcement »

01.18.2022

Jim Brogan joins RSG as Vice President

Jim Brogan, PMP, joins RSG as a Vice President and brings over 25 years of experience in multimodal planning, operations, strategic planning, transit planning, and investment support at the national, state, and local levels.

Jim has helped state DOTs, MPOs, ports, railroads, transit agencies, and regional coalitions across the country more effectively identify and address multimodal issues within their planning and investment activities.

Jim's strategic mindset and emphasis on improving outcomes will empower RSG to continue to deliver unparalleled transportation and mobility insights to clients in both new and established markets.

Read Jim's profile to learn more »

12.14.2021

Kyeongsu Kim joins RSG as Director

Kyeongsu Kim, PhD, joins RSG as a Director and brings over 15 years of experience in travel demand modeling and data analytics. Kyeongsu has led numerous innovative data analytics and modeling projects and has a proven track record that exceeds client expectations. Importantly, his analytical and project management skills will allow us to continue to bridge the project delivery gap between consultants and government agencies.

Read Kyeongsu's profile to learn more »

12.07.2021

Jonelle Hanson joins RSG as Director

Jonelle Hanson, AICP, joins RSG as a Director and brings over 12 years of transportation planning experience in the public and private sectors. Her primary interests are in strategic mobility planning and long-range transportation planning. She is also researching the manufacturing of landing infrastructure for delivery using drones, or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Jonelle's experience and expertise will allow us to continue to help clients plan for and adapt to rapidly changing traveler behavior.

Read Jonelle's profile to learn more »

11.21.2021

Population synthesis program developed by RSG receives Zephyr Software Badge

The Zephyr Foundation has awarded PopulationSim its “Zephyr Software Badge” after RSG Senior Director Joel Freedman nominated the program. The award was made after Zephyr's Software Badging process found that the population synthesis program is easy to use, useful to Zephyr's community of users, and contributed to a common problem space.

RSG originally developed the population synthesis program for the Oregon Department of Transportation and its partner agencies. It replaced multiple population synthesis tools being used throughout the state at the time. Unlike other population synthesis software products, PopulationSim handles multiple geographies and avoids algorithmic errors. Moreover, RSG built it using software engineering best practices. This reduces the likelihood of bugs and enhances its utility to users. RSG included PopulationSim in the Python-based ActivitySim modeling framework, which we also led the development of.

 

Click here to read more about Zephyr's evaluation process »

11.12.2021

RSG Director coauthors paper on active transportation and health

RSG Director Michelle Lee coauthored a peer-reviewed paper, titled “The 2019 Conference on Health and Active Transportation: Research Needs and Opportunities,” which was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The paper discusses expert conclusions from the December 2019 Conference on Health and Active Transportation (CHAT).

Active transportation, which includes activities like bicycling and walking, has well-known public health benefits. These modes, when replacing personal vehicle trips, can also reduce emissions. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed new opportunities for active transportation. At the same time, the pandemic highlighted societal inequities around transportation access and health.

Michelle and her fellow authors present a conceptual model, based on CHAT sessions, that could assist practitioners in overcoming barriers to the development and use of active transportation infrastructure. The paper also identifies crucial research gaps. Importantly, the paper emphasizes the importance of coupling additional research with plans for dissemination and implementation.

Click here to read an early access version of Michelle's article »

11.04.2021

Lucia Maloney joins RSG as Director

Lucia Maloney, PMP, joins RSG as a Director and brings over 15 years of experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Her primary interests lie in innovative product delivery for local/regional transportation planning efforts and capital projects. Lucia's experience and expertise will help us continue to offer clients unparalleled insights into household- and person-level travel behavior.

Read Lucia's profile to learn more »

11.03.2021

New Denver office opens

We have officially opened our new downtown Denver, Colorado, office location. The new office signifies continued growth in and demand for RSG's energy and noise control engineering services.

“I'm thrilled to see Denver added to our diverse portfolio of office locations,” said Stephen Lawe, CEO. “As interest in renewables has grown, so has the demand for our services that integrate advanced statistical approaches and modeling with traditional acoustical analyses. Our Denver location will help us meet this demand.”

In addition to our headquarters in White River Junction, Vermont, RSG now has offices in six other locations. These other offices include San Diego (CA), Portland (OR), Chicago (IL), Washington, DC, and Burlington (VT).

10.08.2021

RSG Celebrates 35 Years

RSG celebrates 35 years in business this October. Since 1986, we have combined academic rigor with serious data analysis and computer modeling. Through the dedication of our employee-owners, we have evolved into an innovative consultancy. Our work now helps clients understand why people and systems do what they do and guides their decision-making.

“RSG solves challenging problems. But more than that, we offer our clients solutions grounded in innovative, data-driven methods,” said Stephen Lawe, Chief Executive Officer at RSG. “Every issue facing humanity now involves a complex system. Uniting people with diverse perspectives and backgrounds to tackle the issue at hand—that’s where we excel as a consultancy. We’re innovators at our core, and we have been since day one.”

In the three-and-a-half decades since our founding, we have consulted for Fortune 500 companies and clients at all levels of government while working in all 50 states and over 30 countries. Our unique culture has also won awards that cite our industry-leading benefits and workplace flexibility.

“As RSG celebrates 35 years, I’m thrilled to see the vision that I shared with my two friends and cofounders continue to make a significant and positive impact on the world,” said Tom Adler, PhD, President at RSG. “The system our clients operate in today is much more complex than it was when we started RSG. Now, more than ever, clients require rigorous analysis to guide, support—and, in many cases, defend—their decisions.”

RSG has also established itself as a cutting-edge firm that develops advanced software tools and platforms. We developed our own software (rMove™) to conduct location-aware market research and understand mobility patterns using big data. We have also contributed to the development of several open-source software products in use by clients around the world.

Click here to read our full news release »

08.24.2021

Johanna Zmud joins RSG as Principal

Johanna Zmud, PhD, joins RSG as a Principal and brings 30 years of experience in transportation research, data, technology, and policy. Her recent work has examined public acceptance and socioeconomic impacts of connected and automated vehicles, sociodemographic trends, future travel behavior analysis, and the impacts of technology on society. Johanna's experience and expertise will help us continue to support clients' growing needs around transportation technology and emerging mobility.

Read Johanna's profile to learn more »

08.19.2021

RSG's noise control engineering services support record growth of renewable energy market

Despite the challenges created by the pandemic, the renewable energy market has demonstrated its remarkable resiliency over the past year. In 2020, global investment in clean energy hit $500 billion for the first time. Our noise control engineering services have been integral to the recent approval of six projects totaling nearly 1.5 gigawatts (or 1,500 megawatts) of renewable energy in the United States. The following is a list of renewable energy project approvals in 2021; each of these relied on our noise impact assessment and expert testimony services.

Recent Renewable Energy Project Approvals

Plum Creek Wind Facility. This 414-megawatt wind project received approval in August 2021 and comprises 74 turbines along with a 31-mile transmission line. The project will generate hundreds of clean energy jobs and tax revenues for local counties.

Nobles Wind Farm. This 201-megawatt wind project received approval in July 2021. This project was unique in that it was an existing wind farm that the facility's operator (Xcel Energy Inc) sought approval to repower. Repowering a wind farm involves replacing the hubs and blades of each turbine.

Emerson Creek Wind Farm. This 297-megawatt wind project received approval in June 2021. Some of the power generated by this facility, which Firelands Wind developed, will power a nearby Google data center.

Morris Ridge Solar Project. This 177-megawatt solar project will help put New York State on the path toward obtaining 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. This was also one of the first projects in the state to follow the new “94-C” process designed to speed up approvals of renewable energy projects.

Arche Energy Project. This 107-megawatt solar project received approval in April 2021. Sponsored by 7X Energy, this project will help increase solar capacity in the state of Ohio, which is expected to see rapid growth in its solar energy market over the next five years.

Yellowbud Solar Project. This 274-megawatt solar project received approval in February 2021. Sponsored by Yellowbud Solar LLC, the project is expected to occupy approximately 1,383 acres once complete.

We applaud the continued shift toward clean and renewable energy generation and congratulates each of our clients on receiving final project approval.

07.22.2021

RSG cofounder's watershed study validated using real-world data nearly 50 years later

RSG cofounder Dennis Meadows was part of a team of MIT researchers who released a groundbreaking environmental study in 1972. Now, new research conducted by KPMG Director Gaya Herrington and published in Yale Journal of Industrial Ecology has confirmed the findings of Meadows's team's study against current real-world data and trends.

The original report documenting Meadows's findings, titled The Limits to Growth, was based on system dynamics modeling of society's resource use and extraction. In it, Meadows's team looked at then-current trends to predict several future scenarios. Importantly, one of these scenarios was a base case the would result in a decline in both industrial and population capacity. The latest research from KPMG confirms the accuracy of Meadows's team's modeling based on current trends.

Click here to read Vice's reporting on KPMG's updated findings »