Year: 2014

RSG Analyst Ben Cummins co-authored the article “Why Do Voters Support Public Transportation? Public Choices and Private Behavior” which will be published in the next issue of the journal Transportation. In it, Ben and co-author Michael Manville examine American support for transit spending, in particular the support for financing transit with local transportation sales taxes. The findings suggest a collective action problem; people support transit for its collective benefits, but these benefits are realized through increased ridership, which does not necessarily result from increased funding. The findings were also mentioned in CityLab’s recent article “If So Many People Support Mass Transit, Why Do So Few Ride?” which explores the same concern.

RSG is proud to have played a key role in the Who’s on Board: The 2014 Mobility Attitudes Survey commissioned by TransitCenter, an organization committed to improving transit through innovation. The study, released today, is the first to compare rider and non-rider attitudes by age, income, education, family status and ethnicity, and to examine both cities and suburban areas across various regions of the U.S. The study reveals that Americans from regions coast to coast think about and use public transit in remarkably similar ways.

RSG is thrilled to receive the ‘Planning Project of the Year’ Award from the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association (NNECAPA). The award honors the Bedford, NH Pedestrian/Bike Master Plan which RSG worked on in partnership with Jeff Taylor & Associates.

RSG Senior Director, Michael Geilich, was recently certified as a ‘Project Management Professional (PMP)’ by the Project Management Institute. The PMP recognizes demonstrated competence in leading and directing project teams.

The Families and Work Institute (FWI) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently honored RSG with the prestigious When Work Works Award, recognizing RSG’s use of effective workplace strategies to increase business and employee success. Applicants are evaluated on six research-based ingredients of an effective workplace: opportunities for learning; a culture of trust; work-life fit; supervisor support for work success; autonomy; and satisfaction with earnings, benefits, and opportunities for advancement—all factors associated with employee health, well-being, and engagement. RSG also qualified as one of the top 25 employers. After the recent recognition as a Great Rated!™ workplace, RSG is thrilled to welcome yet another national award.

Erica Wygonik recently re-joined RSG, bringing over fifteen years of experience in a wide range of transportation planning and engineering efforts—including traffic simulation, transportation planning, community outreach, and freight modeling. In her role as Senior Consultant at RSG, Dr. Wygonik will focus on freight transportation and modeling, transportation engineering, and campus and community planning.

The City of Burlington recently broke ground on the $9.1 million Waterfront North Project—aimed to boost activity and upgrade infrastructure for the northern side of the Lake Champlain waterfront. RSG is proud to have been the consultant team project manager and lead design engineer for this development, helping the City of Burlington design, permit, and move forward with this major component of its waterfront revitalization initiative. The project will include, among other things, realigning and rebuilding parts of the deteriorated bike path, remediating environmental issues, building a $1 million skatepark, and implementing stormwater measures to protect Lake Champlain.

RSG Senior Consultant, Steven Gayle, has achieved the status of ‘Certified Instructor’ for the National Highway Institute (NHI). NHI is the training agency of the Federal Highway Administration—offering a large number of classroom and web-based courses for federal, state, and MPO staff. Certification involves a rigorous process of training, teaching, and observation by a Master Trainer. Steve teaches the Metropolitan Transportation Planning course.

A book edited and co-authored by RSG Director, Steven Lawson, was just released. The book, Sustainable Transportation in the National Parks, synthesizes the research of the last two decades on transportation in parks and outdoor recreation. Twenty-one essays explore the interdependent relationship between transportation and the national parks—working to develop principles for managing sustainable transportation while minimizing impacts and maintaining a high-quality experience for the visitor.

The Great Place to Work® Institute recently named RSG as the latest Great Rated!™ workplace. The Great Rated! review process includes confidential surveying of employees to rate their employers on benefits and culture—ranging from professional development to overall company atmosphere. After six consecutive years of winning Vermont Business Magazine’s Best Places to Work in Vermont, RSG welcomes the Great Rated! recognition as a national honor—reflecting the company’s evolution and national footprint.

RSG has been honored with the 5x5x5 Growth Award from Vermont Business Magazine! The 5x5x5 Awards celebrate the achievements of the five fastest growing businesses in five categories over the last five years in Vermont. RSG placed number four in the service category this year. We held the number five spot in 2012.

The poster titled “RSGHB R Package” won the Best Poster award at the American Marketing Association’s Advanced Research Techniques Forum this week. RSG’s Jeff Keller, Jeff Dumont, and Nelson Whipple authored the poster which highlights RSG’s open-source R package that allows users to estimate sophisticated Hierarchical Bayesian (HB) models from choice-based conjoint data without significant custom programming.

This is the second time that RSG has been honored with the Best Poster award in the past three ART Forums.