Four decades of insight and a focus on what’s next.
Since 1986, RSG has helped governments and businesses make smarter, data-driven decisions in transportation and beyond. What began with three Dartmouth professors has grown into a renowned data analytics and transportation consulting firm.
This is our story, told over the course of four decades. But it’s also a look ahead, because after 40 years, we’re just getting started.
In 1986, Thomas Adler, now President Emeritus, joined fellow Dartmouth professors Dennis Meadows and Colin High to found RSG. United by a belief that advanced modeling and research could solve real-world problems, they launched a firm that would grow into a nationally recognized leader in analytics, transportation, and decision support.
RSG’s earliest projects focused on air quality, noise, and travel demand modeling, applying advanced analytical techniques to real-world challenges. These formative engagements established the firm’s technical foundation and set the stage for decades of innovation in transportation research, analytics, and software development.
Roadrunner and other early software tools reflected RSG’s deep roots in modeling, analytics, and technology development. These early innovations helped establish a tradition of building practical tools and decision-support systems that continues today through platforms and initiatives such as RSG’s rMove®, FTA’s STOPS, VisionEval, and ActivitySim.
IVIS (Interactive Video Interview Station) marked a major step forward in RSG’s survey technology capabilities. Built on the Macintosh platform, the software combined multimedia and research methods to create more engaging, interactive data collection experiences, foreshadowing RSG’s continued leadership in survey innovation.
RSG established our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving employees a stake in our future success. The move marked the beginning of a transition that would ultimately make RSG a 100% employee-owned company and help shape the collaborative culture that defines the firm today.
RSG brought the Interactive Video Interview Station (IVIS) online through a custom ASP-based survey platform. The innovation expanded the reach of survey research beyond stand-alone computer applications and marked an important step in RSG’s evolution as a technology-enabled research firm.
RSG launches our first website, bringing the firm’s expertise online and laying the groundwork for a digital presence that continues to grow to this day.
Employee ownership reaches a major milestone as RSG’s ESOP becomes the majority owner.
RSG completes the transition to 100% employee ownership, making every RSGer a stakeholder in the firm’s success. The milestone solidifies a culture of shared ownership, accountability, and long-term stewardship that continues to define RSG today as embodied by one of our Core Values of “Think Like an Owner.”
RSG earns Vermont’s Best Places to Work recognition four years in a row. These awards reflect the strength of RSG’s employee-owned culture and our commitment to creating a workplace where people can grow and develop professionally.
Twenty-five years after our founding, RSGers gathered in Stowe, Vermont, to celebrate the people, projects, and innovations that shaped us. The occasion brought together all three co-founders, who reflected on RSG’s origins and the journey that followed.
RSG begins development of the Simplified Trips-on-Project Software (STOPS) for the Federal Transit Administration. More than a decade later, the model remains a cornerstone of transit project evaluation nationwide and has since earned industry recognition for its impact and innovation.
RSG develops rSurvey, a next-generation online survey platform that modernizes and expands the firm’s data collection capabilities. Building on decades of survey innovation, rSurvey becomes a core tool supporting research for clients across industries.
RSG launches a new website and brand identity, replacing our logo and longtime blue-and-green palette with the logo and orange and gray colors that remain in use to this day. The rebrand also introduces “The Science of Insight,” signaling RSG’s enduring focus on turning data into meaningful decisions.
RSG launches rMove, a breakthrough survey platform that has transformed location-aware research by capturing real-world travel behavior through smartphones. The debut expanded the boundaries of what researchers could measure and reinforced RSG’s reputation for combining technology, data, and behavioral science.
Already recognized as one of Vermont’s best workplaces, RSG earns national recognition through the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For program. The award underscores the strength of a culture built on employee ownership, trust, and shared purpose.
RSG earns the When Work Works Award in 2014 and 2016, recognizing workplaces that successfully balance employee flexibility with business performance. The honor reflects a culture built on trust, accountability, and empowering employees to succeed.
RSG is selected to lead development of ActivitySim, helping usher in a new era of open-source travel demand modeling. The effort strengthens the firm’s position as an industry leader in activity-based modeling while advancing tools that improve the practice of transportation planning for agencies and practitioners nationwide.
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RSG leads the development of VisionEval, an open-source planning platform rooted in our early work with the Oregon Department of Transportation. VisionEval shifts transportation planning beyond predicting a single future and toward evaluating thousands of possible futures, helping agencies identify strategies that remain effective in an uncertain world.
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The COVID-19 pandemic accelerates RSG’s transition to fully remote work. What began as a response to unprecedented circumstances evolved into a lasting transformation, enabling us to attract the best and the brightest talent while staying connected through our employee-owned culture.
FTA STOPS received the Zephyr Foundation’s Impactful Research Award. This award recognizes a research project that has had the most relatively recent impact on bettering the travel analysis field for the public good.
Four years after transitioning to a remote-first workforce, RSG reimagines our White River Junction headquarters to better reflect how employees work and collaborate. The move marks a new chapter in the firm’s evolution as a distributed, employee-owned company.
Following a national search, RSG’s Board of Directors appoints Charlie Phippen as our third Chief Executive Officer.
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RSG launches a completely redesigned, high-performance website to better connect visitors with our experts, services, and products.