Thanks to generous sponsorships by Jacobs, AECOM, METRANS, METRANS Assistant Director Victoria Deguzman, Emilie Gino, and Alexandra Spencer, on Friday, March 18^th, eighteen transportation students from USC and CSULB attended the WTS-Los Angeles Members Only Professional Development Breakfast Meeting featuring Joshua Schank, Chief Innovation Officer at METRO and former President and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation. Joshua Schank holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from Columbia University, a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. in Urban Studies from Columbia University and has worked on federal and state transportation policy for over a decade. Dr. Schank was a Transportation Policy Advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton during the development of the last six year transportation authorization bill (SAFETEA-LU). He has also worked for for-profits as Consultant with PB Consult and Senior Associate at ICF International in Washington, D.C., and has held many government positions including at the Office of the Inspector General’s in the U.S. Department of Transportation, and with the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City.

WTS members introduced Dr. Joshua Schank with a brief background on his education and work experience and then the meeting was opened to questions from the audience. Audience members asked the director several questions about his professional background, the innovation office, current Los Angeles transportation projects, METRO’s use of data in decision making, the future role of transit agencies, and advice on networking and job applications.

Vincent Ying, a Master of Planning student at the University of Southern California asked an insightful question about whether METRO had any concerns regarding whether their newly launched bike share program in Downtown Los Angeles may cause customers to move away from existing public transportation services like buses and light rail. Dr. Schank provided a thoughtful answer, noting that METRO is the first to launch a bike share program in Los Angeles County, and that it would be narrow to judge public transit based on merely on transit ridership, as creating a multi-modal transportation system is METRO’s larger goal.

Arpita Sharma

Arpita Sharma is a dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Planning Candidate at the USC Price School. She is interested in issues of health inequities, sustainable land use development and active transportation.  She expects to complete her degrees in May 2017. She can be reached at arpitasharma.net or at [email protected].