Capabilities of the SCR Consulting Team
This document provides experience and skill summaries of the
seven-person SCR team which stands ready to assist Vulcan and SAFE support the
USDOT Smart City Demonstration. The team described is a friendly, energetic,
well-traveled group of skilled professionals who will help the seven finalist
cities write high-quality proposals that “provide safety improvements, enhance
mobility, increase ladders of opportunity by incentivizing reinvestment in
underserved communities, reduce energy usage, and address climate change,” as
required by the USDOT’s second phase NOFO. We are already collectively active
in advising cities and other organizations nationwide and around the world on
technical and policy issues in transportation that overlap Smart City goals:
Steve
Marshall, Executive Director, Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy
Solutions, Mercer Island, WA | attorney, former electric utility executive, and
electric vehicle expert
Steve Marshall
is Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy
Solutions (CATES), a Seattle-based think tank. He is a former utility executive
and utility chief legal counsel with extensive experience in both the public
and private utility sectors. He has been a leading advocate in moving from oil
to electricity in transportation as well as other advanced transportation
solutions. Steve was a member of the Edison Electric Institute’s legal
committee and regularly writes and speaks on issues and strategies for the
electrification of transportation, including strategies on needed reforms of
utility regulation. He spoke on the
electrification of the transportation system at the most recent American Public
Power Association conference in October. Steve is a coauthor of Plug-in Electric Vehicles published by
the Brooking Institute and a coauthor of a chapter in the book Road Vehicle Automation (Springer, 2014)
on the combination of automated, connected and electric vehicles. He organized
and moderated a series of conferences that become known as “Beyond Oil,” and
organized and moderated a conference last October on Advanced Transportation
Technologies, to be held again this summer.
John Niles, President, Global Telematics, Seattle |
telematics, public transit, and automation expert
John is founder and president of the independent policy
consultancy Global Telematics focused on research, design, planning and
evaluation of policies and actions for transportation improvement with clients
including federal, state, and local government agencies, universities, and
corporations. He is a co-founder with Steve Marshall of the CATES nonprofit
think-tank and serves as its Research Director. His most recent research projects are on the
productivity implications of transit rider acquisition at park & ride lots
as a Research Associate with Mineta Transportation Institute (San Jose State
University), and on strategies for accelerated deployment of transportation as
a service (TaaS) using automated vehicles, as a principal in Grush Niles
Associates. He is a long-standing member of the Puget Sound Freight Mobility
Roundtable. He has served as an aviation
quality assurance officer in the U.S. Navy, and is a graduate of MIT and
Carnegie Mellon University.
Doug
MacDonald, retired Washington State Secretary of Transportation, Seattle |
public policy analysis, performance measurement, and program design
Doug served 2001 to 2007 as Secretary of Transportation for
Washington State before turning to private advisory work. He has deep knowledge and skill in how to implement new transportation
programs by working with local, state and federal agencies. Earlier, he spent
nine years as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
working to clean up Boston Harbor. He
has undergraduate and law school degrees from Harvard University, and served
two years in Africa for the Peace Corps. Since moving to Seattle from the state
capital, he has participated with agencies in providing solutions on a variety
of projects and issues involving transportation and transit, land use and
environmental policy, including pedestrian accommodations and communication of
government performance information to the public. He has maintained a strong interest in safety
throughout his career, as demonstrated by managing the construction of the
second Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge to be on time, on budget, and achieving
a record of zero workplace fatalities.
Dr.
Richard Mudge, President, Compass Transportation and Technology, Potomac, MD | transportation
economics, finance, and policy expert with experience in drafting proposals
Dick has held a series of transportation consulting
positions. His work usually
involves the changing market place for transportation, with a focus on the
effects of new technology. When prepared for public sector clients, these
studies usually assess economic and social impacts. As part of current planning
work for Northern Virginia, he prepared a memo on “What’s New in
Transportation.” This covered autonomous
vehicles, new forms of shared mobility, new urban institutions,
telecommunications, and changing values for travelers. He has a successful track record in responding
to federal RFPs. Dick holds a Ph.D. in Regional
Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and previously ran the
transportation policy group at the Congressional Budget Office and worked at
the RAND Corporation in New York City.
Paul
Minett, CEO, Trip Convergence Ltd, Auckland, NZ | expert on ridesharing and
business strategy
Paul is the Co-Founder,
President and CEO of Trip Convergence Ltd, a commercial venture established to
leverage the opportunity presented by flexible carpooling, as well as a founder of the Ridesharing Institute, a think tank with members worldwide. He has been
funded by the U.S. Transportation Research Board IDEA program on ridesharing
system design. His vision is for a Smart City that understands the value of
drivers who choose to be passengers and manages the use of its transport system
to maximize their number. This has led him to develop and adapt systems
and technologies that support safe, effective ridesharing and what he calls “passengership.”
He has an Executive MBA from Auckland University, and has held roles in
finance, customer research, and strategy development. In addition to his
ridesharing activities Paul operates a business strategy consultancy, Strategic
Lift Ltd.
Bern
Grush, Principal, Grush Niles Associates, Toronto | automated vehicle and
parking technology expert
Bern is an entrepreneur, innovator and author specializing
in parking reform, road pricing and applications for self-driving vehicles. He
has developed multiple patents and technologies for telemetrics for autonomous
road tolling, self-paid parking, HOT tolling and usage-based insurance. His
work with ISO standards included the innovation and launch of the
charging-performance standard, ISO-TS-17444, for autonomous road and parking
tolling systems. Bern has published over 100 articles and 300 blog essays
regarding road and parking pricing and autonomous vehicles. He
co-authors the EndOfDriving.org site to promote accessible, public fleets of
self-driving vehicles, emphasizing deployment patterns that support equity in
community mobility. He is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop
designer/participant. Bern holds a Masters in Systems Design Engineering from
University of Waterloo.
Tony
Billera, Project Manager for SCSS participation in the Smart City program,
Whidbey Island, WA | project management specialist, wireless technology subject
expert, and environmental policy specialist
Tony is a PMP certified, deeply experienced collaborative
team leader and product owner, in project management, operations, product and
technology development. He has two decades of private sector experience in the
telecommunications, software, and wireless industries doing project management
planning and deployment with both internal and external partners. Lately, he
has committed extensive volunteer hours to Carbon Washington, working on
decarbonization of energy use in the state.
He has strong collaboration, relationship, and communication skills and
he practices Total Quality Management, and agile development using Project
Management Institute methodology. He earned his MBA from Willamette University,
Atkinson Graduate School of Management, and has a marketing degree from Lehigh
University.