Cities21 Team Members

Palo Alto, CA, (650) 329-9200

Very, very, very special thanks to Jeral Poskey for seven productive years with Cities21! 

Jeral was a Steering Committee member from 2000 through the end of 2006 and was a crucial part of Cities21.  Many Cities21 projects would not have been possible without him.  Jeral came to the Bay Area in 2000 to obtain his Stanford MBA, and he co-founded Cities21.  In the advanced transit space, he also held senior positions with Taxi2000 Corporation and the Advanced Transit Association.   Jeral has recently became a new dad (http://www.davinciglobal.com/Brynn-Day0.jpg) and now manages a group in a technical operations unit at Google. His teams provide data analysis, business process reviews, and internal support for the product, engineering and sales organizations.

Steve Raney	Jim Galanis	David Maymudes	Tom Richert
David Maymudes	Joe Kott	Mary Bell Austin	Forrest Deuth

Steve Raney, email: steve_raney at cities21 dot oh ar gee

• The Cities21 web is dedicated in loving memory to Diana Raney Smith
• Principal Consultant, ATS Inc. (makers of ULTra - urban light transit)
• Curriculum Vitae (Microsoft, Citigroup, 3 Masters: Berkeley Transportation Planning, Columbia MBA, RPI Computer Science)
• Palo Alto native: born @ Stanford, El Carmelo elementary, Jordan, Paly, home: Crescent Park. Worked 3 summers at old Page Mill Kodak plant; learned tennis at Weisshaar Park; attended toddler storytime at College Terrace Library; frequent trail runner at The Dish.
• Cities21 was inspired by concern about the future livability of the Bay Area for daughter Emma. green favorites.
• Board Member, Advanced Transit Association
• Member, Transportation Research Board New Public Transit Systems and Technology Committee.

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James Louis Galanis, Ph.D.

• Senior Market Research positions at eBay, Intel, and Electric Power Research Institute
• State of Utah, Department of Natural Resources
• James L. Galanis & Associates
• Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates
• Adjunct Professor of Economics, Gore School of Business (Westminster College, Salt Lake City)
• Lecturer in Economics, San Francisco State
• Research & consulting interests: Energy Security; Operations Research; Environmental Economics; Regulatory Economics; Industrial Organization; Public Finance; Transportation and Land-Use Planning; Energy, Resource, and Environmental Economics; Engineering Economics; Econometrics; Multivariate Statistics; Survey Research
• University of Pennsylvania, M.S. and Ph.D. (Energy Management & Policy)
• Ecole Nationale Superieure du Petrol et des Motors (Courses and Dissertation)
• Columbia College (Columbia University), B.A. Political Science
• Palo Alto native: Garland elementary, Jordan, Paly, 5th generation Californian

David Maymudes

• Author Stanford Research Park "figure 8" PRT simulation
• Software Developer, Taxi2000
• Microsoft Sr. SW Architect, DirectX, Video for Windows
• Board Member, Advanced Transit Association
• BA Harvard, Mathematics
• Volunteer: http://www.svpseattle.org/become_a_partner/vinaction/dmaymudes.htm
• "I started out as a strong supporter of conventional transit in Seattle, based on my experiences with it in Boston and New York. After our light rail project had been approved, when it became clear that the costs would be very high and the service far less useful than I had assumed, I started to look for alternatives. At first, large monorails looked quite promising, but they end up having many of the same problems as light rail, with costs almost as high. When I first came across the idea of PRT, it sounded like a great idea but I assumed there was some reason it couldn't really work. I found a couple of books on the subject and sent a lot of email to Ed Anderson and others I met on the internet, and gradually came to believe that not only would it really work, but that it literally was one of the best ideas I'd ever heard. Since then, I have been working to convince more people that it's a good idea and to build computer simulations to help make it easier for people to see that PRT can really be built and will work. Since even a fairly small system can be run profitably, I think that if we can get a real system running somewhere, it won't take long before many more of them are under construction in lots of places.
  In Seattle and elsewhere there's a large and growing recognition that automobile traffic is a serious problem and alternatives are needed; the mainstream consensus is that buses and light rail are the only possible alternatives, and they should be pursued even if they make little economic sense. It's still amazing to me that there's a much better alternative that we basically know how to get built in the next five years, and so few people know about it."

Joseph Kott, AICP

• Nelson Nygaard Associates
• Chief Transportation Officer, City of Palo Alto. In addition to managing the City's transportation division, Kott supervised the pilot commute coordination program, initiated the Local Shuttle, evaluated roundabouts, and solicited numerous grants for transportation projects. Kott also worked on behalf of the City with Stanford on design of the proposed Intermodal Transit Center.
• Transportation Coordinator, Marin County
• Transportation Planning Manager, Greater Portland (ME) Council of Governments
• Transportation/Transit Planner, San Joaquin County Council of Government
• Transportation Masters, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Master of Traffic (Engineering), Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Tom Richert

• Senior Project Manager, Linbeck Corporation. Rresponsible for Menlo Park office. Program manager responsible for the planning and execution of building programs.
• Outgoing Chairman of the Board, Advanced Transit Association
• Program Management Consultant, City of San Diego $2 billion wastewater expansion program.
• Authored several papers examining the economic impact of the development of advanced transit in communities. (See Library)
• Led PRT business development and advocacy efforts in San Diego, Palm Springs, and Schaumburg, IL.
• "I first saw the PRT concept on the cover of an issue of the Futurist in the periodical room of the library. It was in either 1990 or 1991. It intrigued me as a way to privately develop public transit service, improving transit service while generating an investment return. Later I saw how the technology could improve various characteristics of commercial activity centers, in terms of aesthetics, mobility, and financial performance. Any area that has developed to the extent that many traffic signals are required in a short distance of driving is an area that should consider the utility of installing a PRT network."

Mary Bell Austin, EPA Region 10 (Pacific NW) 

• US Environmental Protection Agency since 1997, in the Tribal, Air Quality, Sustainable Communities, and Brownfields programs. 
• Presented "Building a CASE for a New Transportation System" at the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation conference, September 2001. Explores the potential for PRT to facilitate urban ecosystems renewal/reclamation. Her writings on PRT and other green technologies can be found at: http://www.mbaustin.squarespace.com/can-you-really-do-that/2006/3/22/prt-dreams-to-live-by.html
• Member, Advanced Transit Association. 
• JD, University of Washington 
• BA in Anthropology and Comparative Area Studies, with certificate in Women's Studies, Duke University. 
• Certified Sustainable Building Advisor (similar to LEED certification), with particular interest in renewable energy, straw bale buildings, and design for water conservation/management (often called "Low Impact Development"). 
• "The Silver Bullet report is an excellent case study for how to approach suburban office parks and other areas that need improved commute alternatives, infill development for an improved jobs/housing balance, and better transit to meet non-commute hour needs. It combines a 'big-picture' view, taking the whole commute-shed into account, while also exploring detailed solutions to the many parts of a solution that must function together to be effective. The use of innovative technologies is well crafted to meet the practical and sociological demands of high-tech workers."

   

Forrest Deuth

Contract designer, battery subsystem, Tesla Motors Robotics/Mechanical Designer, Velocity11, Palo Alto Stanford University, BA Urban Studies. Focus in Architecture and Urban Design Leader, $100K Stanford Solar Car Project. Third place national finish, SunRayce '97. Machinist, Welder, Artist. Rail vehicle designer. Land yacht designer. Anamatronic engineer, Edge Innovations. Free Willy III: Orca whale. Anaconda: 50' robotic snake. The Perfect Storm: swordfish. High-end shock, fork, brake, and hydraulic designer, Risse Racing Technology (mountain bikes). Designer, PRT Full Scale Model

Nirmal Nair

• Pinnacle Systems (Mountain View) .media division Director of Software Development: video editing; Microsoft OS application software developer
• Principal, Arete Sofware, Inc., Sirius Systems Corporation.
• MS Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University; software simulation of mechanical processes. Patents for geometric metal formability analysis
• BE: Production Engineering, REC, Trichy, India.
• Settled in Silicon Valley, avid home builder, remodeller. Participated in several major home building projects, racquetball enthusiast, outdoorsman. Strong entreprenuerial bend.

Jeral's quote:

"I became interested in PRT in 1990, when I read a short article on the topic. I followed the field for years, first as a student and then later as a Congressional Aide in Washington. It became clear to me that PRT was inevitable and that it would be explosive once it hit the market. I determined that the best role I could play would be to go to business school at a place where innovation was valued, and I came to Stanford.
It seems everyone involved in PRT seems to have a different motivation -- for some it's the environmental benefits, for others it's the idea of making a difference and leaving a legacy. For me it ties together many interests, from economic efficiency to social justice, that are individually important to me.
I think we're very near the tipping point. The recession brought a temporary reprieve, but traffic congestion will only get worse. It is already the number one concern of citizens in most metropolitan areas. Our traditional solutions can only get us so far, and it will take something new to solve these problems. PRT is ready and the time is right. I think someone will choose a system similar to the Palo Alto proposal within the next two years, and by the end of the decade (2010) dozens of systems will be in the planning stages, both for private applications such as business parks and even as city-wide transit links."