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| THIS MONTH WE CELEBRATE BIKES AND THE PEOPLE WHO RIDE THEM. tl;dr: Bike to Work week is May 16-22 (with an extra special day on May 20). Learn more about other events and ways to get involved here. May is Bike Month. This month we celebrate all the progress we’ve made making our roads safer and more fun for people through the lens of cycling (and also acknowledge the work yet to be done). Bikes are freedom, bikes are fun, bikes are for everyone, and the more people we can commit to this way of thinking, the better our collective futures can be. It’s going to require decades of work, but that’s what’s so great about being the young professionals: we can spend our lives doing the work we love to make the world better for everyone. Ride on. |
 Now, onto the goods. Maximize your perks: Check out all of the exclusive perks for YPT-NYC members on our website! Know someone who’d be interested? Encourage them to sign up!  YPT-NYC is proud to introduce two exciting scholarship programs for members! Through the Young Scholars in Transportation program, YPT-NYC will make two awards of $500 each directly to selected students in the New York City metropolitan area. Applications are due at 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2022 and selections will be announced by August 1. Applications will be accepted at this link. YPT-NYC is also providing small cash awards to YPT-NYC members as reimbursement for travel expenses or registration fees for transportation-related conferences or other events of their choosing. Applications will be accepted in two rounds, ending at 11:59 p.m. on June 30 and September 30, 2022. Applications are accepted at this link. *Note that enrolled students are not eligible for this award, but are encouraged to apply to YPT-NYC’s Young Scholars in Transportation Award.* Please contact scottrmiddleton@gmail.com with any questions. MAY AND EARLY JUNE EVENTS! May Happy Hour When? Thursday, May 12, 6:30pm – 8:30pm Where? Alewife Brewing, 41-11 39th Street, Queens NY (Sunnyside) How? Register here… or just show up!  Join us for our May Happy Hour at Alewife Brewing in Sunnyside, Queens! Alewife Brewing is a brewery and taproom serving a wide range of craft beer styles in a beerhall setting with pinball, arcade games, live sports, and rotating food trucks. For us transit nerds, Alewife is also just across the street from Sunnyside Yard. Take a walk over the 39th Street Bridge to take a peek at the tracks! See you then! YPT-NYC Presents: Skill Sharing – Python + GIS with Mark Bauer When? Tuesday, May 17, 6:00pm – 7:30pm Where? Online via Zoom How? Register here  Curious about how to visualize and quantify transportation and climate challenges? Join YPT-NYC skill-share to learn the basics of GIS + Python! This is a follow-up from our wildly popular workshop in November and will be hosted by the amazing Mark Bauer! It is free to attend; please register on Eventbrite! About Mark: Mark Bauer, a Data Scientist at First Street Foundation, will host a skillshare, demonstrating how GIS and Python can be used to visualize transportation and climate data. During the session, Mark will walk through a demonstration of how to quantify flood risk within NYC streets/subways using GIS and Python. This is a virtual event targeted at people with no previous Python experience. Instruction to follow. YPT-NYC x WE Bike NYC x NYCDOT Brooklyn Bike Tour When? Saturday June 4, 1:00pm – 3:30pm Where? Meet at Foley Square, Lafayette St. & Centre St. How? Register here  We will be joined by staff from NYC DOT and members of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, who manage the Vanderbilt Ave Open Street. We’ll begin this ~4 mile ride at Foley Square in Manhattan and ride over the dedicated bike lane on the Brooklyn Bridge. The ride will continue through Brooklyn and will end at the hugely successful Vanderbilt Ave Open Street. Along the way, we will gain insights into the implementation of bicycle infrastructure from conception to fruition. After the ride, stick around to join fellow YPT and WE Bike NYC members for drinks and snacks on the Vanderbilt Ave. open street. *Please bring: Helmet, mask, sunscreen, money for food/drinks, full water bottles.* Note: This is an all-gender ride open to bicyclists of all experience levels. Helmets are required. Please take the New York Bike Census! It’s a quick survey designed to collect data about bicycle transport across the state, to inform planners and policymakers. Plus, respondents can enter a drawing for three $150 Planet Bike gift cards. PARTNER EVENTS ACEC New York Emerging Leaders/Young Professionals Industry Networking Event When? Thursday May 31, 5:30pm to 7:30pm Where? The Keg Room, 53 W 36th St, New York, NY How? Register here Network and connect with ACEC NY, ACEC NJ, ASHE and fellow YPT members! All attendees will receive two (2) drink tickets. Scroll halfway down to see the “Emerging Leaders Networking Event.” YPT’s MONTHLY MEMBER PROFILE.  Priyanshu Sharma Urban Planner & Designer at Equitable Cities Priyanshu is an urban planner and designer at Equitable Cities who specializes in transportation planning, design, data analysis, and visualization. He holds a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Planning from CEPT University, India. His work and research primarily focus on transportation planning and design, land use, spatial analysis, and data analysis and visualization. Moreover, his academic and professional experience in the planning profession has also inculcated the art value of good communication, which is not limited to maps, visuals, and interactive platforms, but also persuasive and engaging storytelling for our communities. What is your favorite YPT-NYC memory? It was fascinating how I joined this group. I had an opportunity to speak with some New York-based transportation professionals during one of the career workshops. After that session, I contacted that person on LinkedIn to ask more questions about transportation planning opportunities. And they recommended that I join this group, and I’ve been a member of the YPT-NYC group for a year now. I am always on the lookout for new opportunities and events within the group. And it was really helpful. It’s wonderful to be a part of this and to be able to share and learn from the other group members. I’m excited to meet some of them in person. If you could snap your fingers and make one change to regional transportation, what would it be? When it comes to planning, there are many things I’d like to change, but having last-mile connectivity would be interesting if I had to specify changes for regional transportation. Create active transportation or bike-share programs that connect our neighborhoods to major transit stations, for example. I believe that the way we plan our cities, particularly in suburban areas (which encompasses the majority of America), has made us overly reliant on automobiles, and that small changes can make a significant difference. Cities and communities will benefit from differences not only in terms of connectivity, but also in terms of economy, environment, and improving public health. What sparked your passion to work in the transportation industry? After my undergraduate degree in planning, I spent considerable time living in two metro cities i.e. Mumbai and Bangalore for work. On one of the monsoon days, while heading back home, as I was getting down to my metro station suddenly it started pouring heavily and everyone was rushing towards finding a safe place and tried gathering under a cantilever. Some held their bags on their head to try to escape the rain. I was amazed when I saw that chaos. That day I realized the role of urban professionals in planning and designing cities beyond just the provision of infrastructure to create livable environments where people can stop, pause and play instead of just treating them as spaces they need to pass by to reach their destinations. What are you working on that you’re most excited by? I don’t know where to begin, but I suppose being a young professional in this fraternity, I got an opportunity to work in a diverse sector and with some really amazing people. To start with now, a lot of my work focuses on transportation equity, planning, and research which is exciting. Previously, I had an opportunity to work with the NYC Ferry team where I was responsible for developing a framework for the database system to facilitate the operation and maintenance of the waterfront development and ferry projects. Before that, I provided technical assistance in the implementation of a micro-mobility project for the City of Newark. So, these two work experiences were really fulfilling because I was involved in the planning throughout the project. But prior to that, I had two years of work experience in the field of planning, design, and research in India, where I worked in different capacities with social entrepreneurs, planning organizations, and research institutions. What career advice would you give to other YPTers interested in your career path? I would definitely say build your technical skills, as it will be helpful to brand yourself while giving interviews or working with the team. Don’t limit yourself to your area of interest, especially during the initial years of your career. Find out what opportunities you think are right for you, learn new things, and broaden your skills and knowledge. It will boost your network and help you to identify your area of interest because in the real world things are very different from the academic world. What famous celebrity do you think should be given the opportunity to voice a NYCT Subway Announcement? It would be amazing to hear the announcement in Abel Makkonen Tesfaye’s Voice aka “The Weeknd” or Alicia Keys since her work is strongly associated with New York. CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS! TransportationCamp NYC is still a few months away but the planning is well underway! The TCamp Planning Committee is looking for committee volunteers to join the team for overall logistics planning and day of operations. If interested, please message Kathy Zhang at kz2270@columbia.edu. Come be a part of this awesome “unconference!” 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! 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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