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| WHAT’S NEXT FOR 2022 YPT-NYC BOARD? Elections for the 2022 YPT-NYC Board are coming up later this month. We are excited about the new ideas and energy that candidates would bring to YPT-NYC next year! Despite on-going challenges with the pandemic this year, we were still able to host a packed calendar of workshops, author talks, tours, skill shares, and happy hours! What was your favorite part of being a YPT-NYC member this year? Share with us on our social media posts this week!  New two-way protected bike lane installed on Brooklyn Bridge, NYCDOT. September, 2021. @nyc_dot. The lane, originally proposed in Mayor de Blasio’s State of the City address, repurposes one lane of vehicular traffic to accommodate the recent cycling boom in NYC. This transformation is the first reconfiguration of the iconic bridge since trolley tracks were permanently removed in 1950. YPT-NYC 2022 Board Elections How do I participate in the election? To vote in the election, you must be an active member of YPT as of October 1, 2021. Check your membership status here, or join here. Membership is only $20/year and allows us to continue providing exceptional programming and events. Election TimelineOctober 18, 2021 – Election ballots will be sent out by YPT International to eligible voting members for all Chapter and International elections by 9:00 AM EDT October 29, 2021 – Online elections close at 11:59 PM EDT. International and Chapter Board members and nominees will be notified of election results shortly thereafterNovember 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021 – Board Transition periodJanuary 1, 2022 – New term begins for International and Chapter BoardsDecember 31, 2022 – 2022 Term concludes YPT-NYC OCTOBER EVENTS Outdoor Happy Hour at CultureLab LIC Thursday, October 7 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Register Here!  Join us for another outdoor happy hour, this time at CultureLab, where we’ll enjoy live music, great food, and drinks in Long Island City! Invite your friends and coworkers! Mask policy: Fully vaccinated people are not required to wear a mask. However, masks may be required if we go indoors or in crowded areas. Unvaccinated people must wear a mask at all times. Bring: mask, proof of vaccination, sunscreen, water Penn Station and Grand Central Secrets Walking Tour Saturday, October 9 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. RSVP to Rayn Riel at raynriel@gmail.com  Join us and explore the secrets of Penn Station and Grand Central on a walking tour! We will uncover artifacts of the original Penn Station hiding in plain sight, and experience the new Moynihan Train Hall. If you’d like, then take the subway with us to Grand Central, where we will discover even more secrets accessible to the public. We’ll be walking a lot and going up and down stairs so please bring comfortable shoes and your mask. Space is limited, so please RSVP to raynriel@gmail.com for more details and confirmation. Grand Central Terminal Train Shed Tour – Led by Michael Feinberg Metro-North Director of Tunnels, Bridges and Track Wednesday, October 20 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Register here.  Would you believe us if we told you that Park Avenue between 42nd and 57th Street, and all numbered cross streets in between, were not just streets, but also bridges? What lies beneath these city streets is the Grand Central Terminal Train Shed, a railroad yard completed in 1913. It has both upper and lower levels and houses 67 operational tracks with 44 platforms. Between the upper and lower levels of the Train Shed, there are 31 miles of track. While many repairs and maintenance projects have been completed throughout the Train Shed in over 100 years, it has never been fully renovated. The Train Shed is in dire need of renovation, and the MTA has a plan to repair and replace it, section-by-section, over the course of many future capital programs. Join us for this walking tour of the Grand Central Terminal Train Shed to learn more about this workhorse of a railroad yard underneath the iconic historic building we all treasure! All attendees must take an online safety training (link provided after registration) and bring the wallet card issued after the completion of the course to the tour. All attendees must also wear full PPE including hardhat, safety goggles, safety vest, work boots with a defined heel (no steel toe), and a facemask. Please let us know if you need PPE or if you have any questions. TransportationCamp NYC (Main event) Saturday, October 16 from 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Register Here TransportationCamp NYC is back and better than ever! Building on the success of the first virtual event in 2020, this year’s Camp will feature virtual unconference sessions while also hosting special outdoor events for participants to reunite after a year apart and celebrate the seventh consecutive year of Camp. TransportationCamp is an unconference – every session is planned, proposed, and led by attendees like you. TransportationCamp NYC welcomes all attendees, whether you’re a transportation professional, planner, software developer, engineer, student or just excited about mobility! If you are in the New York City region during the period of the event, don’t miss the chance to network in-person with fellow TransportationCamp NYC attendees before and/or after the main event at the outdoor gatherings. For the second consecutive year, TransportationCamp NYC will award one undergraduate student and one graduate student a $500 scholarship sponsored by Gold sponsors, C2SMART and VHB. Click here to apply. The deadline for all applications is October 11th, 2021! YPT-I Mentoring Register Here Forbes recently reported that while 76% of people think mentors are important, only 37% actually have one. We would like to change those numbers. We are thrilled to announce that YPT International has launched a mentorship program to help transportation professionals learn from other transportation professionals. We are eager to empower those with more experience to share their knowledge, skills, and professional journey. YPT-I will be accepting applications from interested transportation professionals. Please note that all mentees must be a YPT member but anyone in the transportation community can be a mentor. More information on the program and registration details at the link below. YPT-NYC MEMBER PROFILE  Daniel Wood MTA – New York City Transit Manager, Ridership Modeling Development I grew up on Cape Cod, Mass, where I eventually got tired of living in a completely car-dominated place, and went off to college in Philly, where I first became interested in transportation professionally. After a couple of transportation-related internships, I went to grad school for transportation at MIT, where I did research for the Hong Kong metro system as a member of MIT’s Transit Lab. After graduating, I landed a job in the data analysis and research group at New York City Transit’s planning department, where I’ve worked for the last six years analyzing bus and subway data and helping to create data-driven applications like new subway performance metrics, real-time applications for subway train dispatchers and customer communication staff, and ridership models. Outside of work, some of my favorite things are runs around Prospect Park, long walks through the city, museums, board games, and (when it’s not a pandemic) exploring cities in other countries, nerding out about the local trains and buses. 1. What is your favorite YPT-NYC event and why? Transportation Trivia! I love trivia in general, so a transportation-themed trivia night is right up my alley. 2. If you could snap your fingers and make one change to regional transportation, what would it be? Remove all single-family zoning in the NYC area. Technically this isn’t transportation, but since higher density is correlated with higher transit use, this change could pave the way for increasing transit use and lower car use in the NYC region. 3. What sparked your passion to work in the transportation industry? I took a city planning class as an elective in college, and really liked it, especially the parts relating to planning transportation systems. I was a mechanical engineering major, but starting to doubt I’d like working in the “traditional” fields recruiting mechanical engineers—fossil fuel energy, defense, HVAC, widget manufacturers, etc. After the class, it occurred to me that transportation was a field where I could apply both my quantitative skills, and my interest in urbanism and social sciences, and generally “doing good”. 4. What are you working on that you’re most excited by? Right now, I am working on developing an integrated bus and subway ridership model that will be able to trace the paths of NYCT customers across the network, including their transfers between the bus and subway systems. Up until now, my group has had separate bus and subway models that don’t “talk” to each other at all. 5. What career advice would you give to other YPT’ers interested in your career path? First, don’t be afraid to jump into the transportation world from another industry if your degree isn’t in one of the fields people typically associate with transportation—civil engineering, city planning, etc. A lot of people I know who have succeeded in this field come from “non-traditional” backgrounds. Second, don’t feel you need to commit to the public sector or private sector for your career; moving between the two is very common. Finally, if you’re aiming for work that involves a lot of data analysis and coding, having some coding knowledge is useful for getting your foot in the door, but once you’re there a bigger determinant of success is being able to research and reason your way through problems, and understand the context of the task in the overall “big picture” of the transportation system. “Muddling your way through” and “sanity checking” are really important skills! 6. What famous celebrity do you think should be given the opportunity to voice a NYCT Subway Announcement? Bill Hader as Vincent Price. RECENT YPT-NYC EVENTSMeatpacking District Walking Tour  A big thank you to Evan Sweet of the Meatpacking BID who gave a fantastic walking tour of the Meatpacking District Open Streets! After learning about the history and future planning of the open streets layout, we ended the evening with beers at the Brass Monkey!Transportation Trivia  This year’s Transportation Trivia was a success, with 16 teams competing for the grand prize! Thank you to our co-hosts APA and WTS-GNY for organizing a fun event with some challenging questions-from history to emoji pictograms! Congratulations to our victors, VHB T+R Trivia Titans (first place), ARUP Rail, Team Felt and VHB Transpotastic! (tied for second place) and PEN14 (third place)! Thank you to all our participating teams, we’ll see you at next year’s Trivia! YPT-NYC LINKEDIN Use the YPT LinkedIn group if you are #OpenToWork! Our LinkedIn group is a great way for members to share information about yourself as a job seeker, connect with others, or share job opportunities! |
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