On July 13, Women’s Transportation Seminar – Los Angeles, or WTS-LA, invited new LA Metro Chief Planning Officer Therese McMillan to serve as keynote speaker at their luncheon event held at the Jonathan Club, Los Angeles. Ten students from the University of Southern California (USC); the University of California, Irvine; Mississippi State University; and Occidental College attended the event at no charge to them, and learned firsthand how McMillan plans to move Metro forward.  I was fortunate to be one of those sponsored students, and wish to thank our corporate sponsor, Jacobs, our academic sponsor, Genevieve Giuliano/METRANS, and our private sponsors John Livzey, Arthur Schurr, and Alexandra Spencer.

McMillan shared her experiences living in LA and getting around by public transportation 30 years ago. She said she was happy to see that the air quality in Los Angeles region has been significantly improved by stronger regulation and better technology, but also expressed her concern about the worsening congestion we are facing today. Finally, she talked about Metro’s long-range plan to build a world-class transportation system to better serve the region.

Students were able to interact with both McMillan during the Q&A session and after the event. I was fortunate to be able to pose the first question, and asked about Metro’s recent ridership decline and Metro’s plan to tackle the issue. McMillan pointed out that there are many internal and external factors that impact ridership, and cautioned that more research would need to be done to find out whether the ridership decline is driven by internal factors that Metro can control or by external factors which Metro likely cannot.

When asked about her priorities as Metro’s Chief Planning Officer, McMillan noted that it is more important to understand the priority of the decision makers “who have so much more on their plate than just our priorities.” She also added that if she had to choose one priority as her highest, she would first make sure there is “a way to bring all of the voices, which need to be heard, to the table.”

Audience members also asked how emerging new technologies like autonomous vehicles would impact future parking demand. McMillan pointed out that the technology that we rely heavily on today (internet, social media) would have been hard to imagine several decades ago. With that said, she shared her view that we should not be afraid to say we do not have the answers and that the important thing is to seek and support research and research methods to answer these questions.

Besides meeting Therese McMillan, the students also had the opportunity to talk with the practitioners in the transportation industry and receive valuable career advice. The students found talking with practitioners in this manner very helpful for their professional development.

To learn more about student opportunities to participate in WTS-LA activities or to inquire about affordable opportunities to serve as a sponsor to a grateful student, please contact METRANS Assistant Director Victoria Deguzman at [email protected] or at (213) 821-1025.

Writer Feiyang Zhang

Feiyang Zhang is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California. Currently he is interning at the Research & Analysis Department at the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), where he is responsible for research, data analysis and providing GIS services. He interned at the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) over the past year, where he worked with city planners and engineers to implement better bicycle and pedestrian facilities. His areas of interest include transportation planning, urban design and environmental planning. Specifically, he is passionate about using data analysis and visualization to inform planning decisions.