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| Happy Lunar New Year! Best wishes for the Year of the Tiger, and hoping this year brings you happiness and prosperity! |
 Streetcars and buses in Toronto are wrapped with this design to celebrate The Year of the Tiger, thanks to the leadership of TTC’s Wayfinding and Signage Coordinator, Brenda Tong. Source link. We also celebrate Black History Month, and with that, we acknowledge the accomplishments of Black Americans in transportation that extend throughout the history of transportation in our country, and those who continue to keep our region moving today. Our transportation systems have been sites of racial discrimination and protest. Transportation is a tool that can be used to limit or expand opportunities. In honor of Black History Month, we reflect on how we, as transportation professionals, can advance racial equity in our work. As a start, check out this episode of WNYC’s The Takeaway, “Why Public Transportation Is Such an Important Site of Civil Rights Protest.”  Throughout the MTA network, from the Bronx to Long Island, lies a treasure trove of permanent public artwork that honor and uplift Black history and culture. In celebration of Black History Month, we wanted to showcase this new piece at Nostrand Ave LIRR Station by Derrick Adams, “Around the Way”. Source link. There’s a ton of work left to do to achieve a more equitable regional transportation system. We honor the ongoing work being done in our community towards a more inclusive future and we’re thankful for our members who share in this important, achievable outcome! Now, onto the goods. YPT membership ($20 annually) comes with a bunch of perks, including access to exclusive events and networking opportunities, New York Transit Museum discounts, and much more. Know someone who’d be interested? Encourage them to sign up! FEBRUARY EVENTS! Designing Safe, Equitable, Sustainable Streets – Around the World! When? Tuesday February 15th, 6:00pm-7:00pm Where? Virtual Event on Zoom How? Register here to receive the meeting link  Love a good pop-up pedestrian plaza? How about quick-build bike lanes? Have we got the event for you! Scratch your tactical urbanist itch AND live out some of your long-postponed global travel fantasies with this great presentation from the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI)! Solomon Green-Eames and Eduarda Aun from GDCI will show us examples of street redesigns that they have implemented which have helped foster more sustainable, equitable, and safe streets around the world. Their examples will start in New York City with the story of how the former NYCDOT Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan started the GDCI, and will take us from Quito, to Addis Ababa, and more! Don’t miss it! AICP CM Credits are available for this event! Lunchtime Creator Talk with Revel CEO Frank Reig When? Thursday, February 24th, 12:30pm-1:30pm Where? Virtual Event on Zoom How? Register here to receive the meeting link  Join us for this Creator talk to learn more about Revel’s journey into the micromobility sector, its electrification strategy, and how it differentiates from other micromobility companies. This talk will cover the company’s reflection on the last four years and their vision for the future! Frank Reig is the Co-Founder and CEO of Revel, a Brooklyn-born company that’s leading cities to a zero-carbon future through charging infrastructure and shared electric vehicle fleets. Through the Revel app, users can rent electric mopeds, hail an electric car ride or find fast charging Superhubs compatible with any brand of EV. Founded in 2018, Revel now operates in four New York City boroughs, Washington, D.C., Miami and San Francisco. Prior to Revel, Frank held senior roles in the energy and corporate sustainability sectors. He received an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University and also holds a Culinary Arts degree from the Culinary Institute of America. Podcast Club: Exploring Black History, Race, Inequality and Transportation When? To Be Finalized *Tentatively 2/28 12:30pm-1:30pm* Where? Virtual Event on Zoom How? Register here to receive the meeting link  Meet us at the podcast club on your lunch break with our special guest, where we’ll learn and discuss the intersection of Black history, race, and transportation. As always with our podcast club format, we will suggest you listen to one specific episode before we meet, but we will also supply you with a list of our recommendations for further listening! This event will encourage participants to examine the policies, the budgets, the specific projects that get funding, the leadership, how and whether our transportation systems provide access to opportunities in our nation’s history, and how we can work towards more equitable transportation. We will keep you updated as we finalize these details. 🚨NEW SPONSOR ALERT 🚨  We are excited to announce that FHI Studio is the latest sponsor of our chapter! FHI Studio is a firm of transportation planners, engineers, designers, and community engagement specialists and will be our AICP certification maintenance partner. Going forward, YPT-NYC educational events like webinars and site tours will be available for AICP CM credits! If you work for a company interested in becoming a sponsor, please reach out via our website: https://yptnyc.org/sponsorship/. IT’S BACK! YPT’s MONTHLY MEMBER PROFILE. Know someone you’d like to see answer these questions? Want to share more about your journey? Let Us Know  Lauren Rushing Mobility Planner and Cycling Advocate (Lauren Rushing Consulting, LLC) Lauren Rushing is a former YPT-NYC board member and an independent mobility planning consultant and cycling advocate. Lauren works with clients to develop strategic mobility plans for local governments, with a focus on creating complete and integrated multimodal transportation systems that serve people and provide mobility choices. Lauren is driven by her belief that bicycles are the missing link to many urban challenges, and puts her professional skills to work advocating for policies and infrastructure that will facilitate a cultural shift to legitimize cycling (and other active modes) as a mode of transportation in urban areas. What is your favorite YPT-NYC memory? The YPT-NYC, WE Bike NYC, and NYCDOT Queens Bike Tour last summer. Enjoying summer in the city by bike is always a favorite pastime, but on the Queens tour we also learned about the process involved in building bicycle infrastructure in the city and got to see many of the recent projects first-hand! We got to meet some of the open space influencers including Jim Burke (34th Ave Open Street) Evie Hantzopolous and Irak Cehonski (31st Ave Open Street) and Kyle Gorman (Senior Program Manager of the Public Space Unit at NYCDOT), as well as local business owners. We also ran into Clarence Eckerson Jr. of Streetfilms! If you could snap your fingers and make one change to regional transportation, what would it be? Hands down, the implementation of a strategic plan for regional bicycle and micromobility parking. Parking is one of the biggest obstacles to conveniently using a bike in New York, both in residential and commercial areas. As a personal example, there is no public bike parking on the street where I live. So, before I moved into my 5-floor walk-up, I made sure that using the basement to store my bicycle was a condition of me signing the lease. Policies that ensure space like this can be used for secure bike parking are critical. Luckily, companies like Oonee are providing options, but we need the city to embrace these options. Lastly, travel outside the U.S. and you’ll find massive bicycle parking garages at major transit stations allowing people to use bikes and other micromobility as a first-last mile solution. What sparked your passion to work in the transportation industry? My journey to a career in urbanism and transportation began as a teenager living in Jacksonville, Florida – one of America’s most sprawled cities characterized by quintessential suburban development. Having grown up in a city built for cars and lacking an enticing and reliable transit system, I was awestruck by the multimodal cities I visited and later moved to, as an adult. I remember when studying abroad, navigating and riding the metro was such a fun thing to me! I loved learning the system and memorizing the transit map. It was a very different lifestyle from how I grew up and somehow that felt more like freedom to me than when I first earned my driver’s license. That’s when I fell in love with cities. What are you working on that you’re most excited by? In 2021, I had the pleasure of managing community outreach for the Essex-Hudson Greenway campaign with the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition. The Essex-Hudson Greenway is a proposed, nearly nine-mile long, multi-use trail corridor following the abandoned Norfolk Southern rail line between Montclair and Jersey City. When complete, the Greenway will be New Jersey’s version of the High Line, creating more than 135 acres of new green space, active transportation, and recreation, and will act as an economic engine for nearby communities. After decades of advocacy from local residents and electeds, more than three years of direct negotiations with Norfolk Southern, and personally more than one year of full-time work galvanizing community support for the project, in November the State of New Jersey committed to providing funding and securing purchase rights to the existing railway property identified for the Greenway! What career advice would you give to other YPTers interested in your career path? Don’t be afraid to fail. I know it sounds cliché, but I held myself back so much early on in my career with my imposter syndrome. Push yourself to do things that are out of your comfort zone. Say yes to things when you want to say no. You might surprise yourself. You WILL surprise yourself! What famous celebrity do you think should be given the opportunity to voice a NYCT Subway Announcement? I absolutely adored Schitt’s Creek and Catherine O’Hara’s character, Moira Rose, and I’d love to hear Catherine do an announcement in character! LET’S STAY IN TOUCH We will minimally invade your inbox once a month with a newsletter, we’re much more timely and active on our social media channels. Follow to stay up-to-date and ping us with anything you’d like on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn! EXCLUSIVE PERKS & PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR YPT-NYC MEMBERS  Here’s a fun ~perk~ from YPT-International that comes with your membership—chats with YPTers from other chapters! From the sign-up sheet: “Each Month, YPT members will be randomly paired up with another fellow YPT member who signed up in the program to connect over coffee, tea, or whatever beverage you prefer!” Sign up here.  Join this virtual Open House event to learn more about the WTS-GNY 12-month Mentoring Program in 2022! The program provides a forum for emerging women professionals in transportation seeking development of the skills necessary to achieve success in both their professional and personal lives. Benefits for mentors and proteges include networking, candid conversations, and confidence-building. If you have questions or need further information, please contact Co-Chairs Dana Hecht at dana.hecht@mtacd.org or Maxine Hill at mhill@vhb.com. Institute of Transportation Engineers Mentoring Program 2022 Application Deadline February 7th! Register here Professional Women in Construction Mentoring Application Deadline February 18th! More info here YPT-NYC LINKEDIN Are you #OpenToWork? Are you #Hiring? Check out all of the exciting job postings in our YPT LinkedIn Group! It’s a great way for members to share information about themselves as job seekers and connect with other YPT-NYC members! …PSST. LET US KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. We want to hear from you! While we’ve got our contact form on the website, I’d like to introduce a new way for members to contact us with ideas, thoughts—anything—via a virtual suggestion box. Let us know what you’d like to see this year! I’ll be checking this every two weeks. Young Professionals in Transportation – New York City (YPT-NYC) is the local chapter of Young Professionals in Transportation International, a nonprofit coalition of organizations, which helps professional development, fellowship, and networking for young professionals in the transportation field. YPT-NYC’s members keep the Greater New York City region moving while providing a space for growing skills, sharing knowledge, and expanding professional networks. |
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