Summary

Skills

• Transit Service Planning

  Assessed existing conditions, developed and costed service proposals, conducted operational analysis and wrote mock schedules to find service efficiencies, determine impacts (including potential Title VI issues) of proposed changes and develop mitigation strategies

• Data Collection & Analysis

  Built, updated, and maintained databases to track ridership by route, stop, and trip, bus stop attributes, public feedback and operator feedback, processed and analyzed data from databases to support planning process and develop public reports, wrote and administered survey to understand parents’ needs for school bus service

• Illustrate Complex Data & Concepts

  Created GIS maps to assist subcontractors with wayfinding installations and other tasks, supervised creation of updated system maps, created isochrones to show expected travel times under various service planning scenarios, developed dashboards in Tableau to visualize and facilitate analysis of GTFS and other data

• Public Outreach

  Developed written and visual guides to service changes including collateral targeted for school students and materials to assist “transit ambassadors”, identified locations for targeted outreach, staffed public meetings and “pop-up” events

• Technical Writing

  Authored and co-authored reports for various phases of transit planning process including transit development plans, existing conditions reports, service plan proposals, public outreach reports, guides for agency staff, and presentations and brochures for external stakeholders, contributor to TCRP Synthesis 140: Comprehensive Bus Network Redesigns (June 2019)

• School Student Transportation Planning

  Developed methodology to evaluate existing and proposed supplemental school service for Baltimore City Public Schools, conducted accessibility analysis for District of Columbia Public Schools, evaluated and proposed updated school bus routes for an independent school in Washington, DC

• Project Management

  Served as task lead for multiple phases of project work responsible for QA/QC reviews and on time delivery to clients and/or supervisors, served as liaison between project managers, clients, subcontractors, and colleagues to create and maintain good lines of communication throughout project scope

• Customer Success

  Onboarding clients and then providing them with personalized, ongoing support for a cloud based SaaS transportation planning platform by creating documentation and developing specific workflows for their specific needs

Work Experience

• Solutions Engineer, Optibus

  February 2021-present

  Optibus is an end-to-end software platform for transit planning, scheduling, and operations that creates more equitable, sustainable, and efficient transportation services for agencies, operators, cities, drivers and passengers. As a solutions engineer on the customer success team, duties include:
  • Leading client onboarding, configuring client data, and providing general assistance and troubleshooting on the planning, scheduling, and rostering modules within the Optibus platform for clients.
  • Using my transportation planning and operations background to enable clients to get the most out of Optibus
  • Serving as a liaison between our clients and colleagues to improve Optibus for the benefit of both our present and future clients
  • Completing vehicle blocking, operator run cuts, and rosters for "scheduling as a service" projects.

• Independent Consultant

  September 2014-August 2022

  Worked with the MILTON Gottesman Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital (Washington, DC) to advise school administration on how to improve the school’s bus transportation options

• Transportation Planner, Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning

  February 2016-July 2020

  Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning is a small, privately owned transportation planning firm that specializes regional planning, transit planning, and bikeshare planning. Projects included:
  • Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) BaltimoreLink Transit Network Redesign
  • Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Rural Agency Five Year Transit Plans
  • District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Circulator Support Program
  • District of Columbia Deputy Mayor of Education - Student Transit Study
  • Montgomery County, MD Department of Transportation - Transit Services Clarksburg Bus Service & Evaluation
  • Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line ADA Alternatives Analysis
  • Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority (RIPTA) Quonset Transit Plan
  • Mankato, MN Transit Development Plan
  • Arlington County, VA Transit Division Arlington Transit Development Plan
  • TCRP Synthesis J-07/Topic SA-44: Comprehensive Bus Network Redesign

• GIS Analyst, Jerusalem Transportation Management Team

  November 2010-March 2014

  The Jerusalem Transportation Management Team (JTMT) is the organization that is responsible for overseeing public transportation planning in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. JTMT is responsible for long range and short term planning for a variety of projects, including highway construction, the Jerusalem light rail, and bus rapid transit corridors.
  • Maintained and improved JTMT and Jerusalem Municipality bus stop database
  • Developed wayfinding text for new bus stop signage currently installed in Jerusalem
  • Supervised and coordinated installation of new bus stop signage in the field with as many as 10-12 contractors & colleagues
  • Created GIS maps in MapInfo to assist contractors & staff with implementing new citywide transportation network
  • Assisted in development of the first official Jerusalem Bus Map to be published since 1995, including supervising and coordinating with contracted employees at three different graphic design firms
  

• Intern, Jerusalem Municipality Planning Policy Unit

  September 2009-February 2010

  The Jerusalem Municipality Planning Policy Unit identifies, analyzes and evaluates urban processes (social, economic, physical, and political) that occur in the city and presents the results of these processes to decision makers and other departments within the municipality.
  • Wrote report analyzing employment supply and population demand for the next 20 years in Jerusalem
  • Created GIS maps in MapInfo to show present and future locations of high employment

• Intern, Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit

  Summer 2006; February-May 2009

  Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) operates the local bus system in Ithaca, NY and the surrounding area with a fleet of about 50 buses serving 33 routes. TCAT has experienced record ridership in recent years, with over 4 million trips being taken in 2013.
  • Conducted GIS analysis of proposed route changes
  • Conducted bus stop inventory
  • Presented recommendations to board of directors regarding improvements to bus stop signage and amenities

• Transportation Planning Intern, Toole Design Group

  Summer 2007

  Founded in 2003, Toole Design Group specializes in bicycle and pedestrian planning. Recent clients include the cities of Denver, Philadelphia, and Boston.
  • Created GIS maps in ArcGIS for City of Alexandria (VA) Pedestrian and Bicycle Mobility Master Plan, Gaithersburg (MD) Bike Plan, Glover Park (DC) Transportation Study
  • Conducted field work: Sidewalk conditions survey for Glover Park Transportation Study, surveyed pedestrians for District of Columbia Pedestrian Master Plan

Education

• University of Maryland, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

  Class of 2017Masters of Community Planning

  • Courses in Planning History & Theory, Planning Process, Urban Economics, Research Design & Application, Research Methods, Land Use Planning, and Social Planning
  • Community Planning Studio: Frederick, MD Sustainability Plan (Summer 2015)

• Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art, & Planning

  Class of 2009B.S. with Honors in Urban & Regional Studies

  • Senior honors thesis: “Road Pricing: Is it Along America’s Road to the Future?” (available online at www.orenhirsch.com)
  • Studied abroad in Rome, Italy on “Cornell in Rome” Program (Spring 2008)

Qualifications

• ArcGIS

• MapInfo

• Microsoft Office Suite

• PowerPoint

• Wordpress

• HTML/CSS/PHP

• GSuite

• Tableau

• R

• Multilingual

  Native English
  Proficient Hebrew (speaking, writing, reading)
  Basic Spanish and Italian
  

Accomplishments & Extracirriculars

• Jerusalem Bus Map (www.jerusalembusmap.com)

  2009 - present

  Creator and webmaster of an unofficial interactive Jerusalem, Israel bus map for free download on Google Earth and Google Maps with over 6,000 Facebook fans

• Oren’s Transit Page (www.orenstransitpage.com)

  2000 - present

  Creator and webmaster of site featuring photos and general information about trains, subways, and buses in the U.S. and abroad with over 25,000 views annually (2000 - present)

• Transportation Committee Member, Jewish Council for the Aging

  July 2019 - present

• Webmaster/Assistant Coordinator, Minyan Segulah

  January 2017 - present

  Responsible for scheduling volunteers to assist with certain roles in twice monthly Saturday morning services Redesigned website and update content as needed