The National Park Service (NPS) recently selected RSG to serve as the nation’s lead contractor for visitor use and social science research in the national parks through a five-year, up to $20 million contract. This provides RSG with a unique opportunity to help the NPS with the stewardship of America’s national treasures, the national parks.

RSG Analyst, Nagendra Dhakar, co-authored the article “Route Choice Modeling Using GPS-Based Travel Surveys” which was published in the latest issue of Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Nagendra and co-author Sivaramakrishnan Srinivasan combined data from a large-scale GPS-based travel survey and geographic information system-based roadway network databases to develop models for route choice. These models produce statistically significant and intuitively reasonable effects that are sensitive to basis of trip and traveler characteristics

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, Ken Kaliski, will present at NoiseCon 2014 – The Institute of Noise Control Engineering’s annual conference – on September 9th in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The presentation titled “The Massachusetts Research Study on Wind Turbine Acoustics – Methods, Goals and Preliminary Findings” will outline the methodologies and preliminary results of a study that RSG is working on with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to provide a quantitative basis for testing and evaluating pre-construction and post-construction wind turbine noise.

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.