Cities21 Consulting Capabilities

See also Cites21 projects

Drawing only a small annual budget, Cities21 produces more innovation than many large for-profit consulting firms. Cities21's points of differentiation: a) outside-of-the-box problem solving methodology utilizing an international brainstorming network, b) broad, cross-disciplinary approach encompassing marketing, management, software, and planning disciplines, c) social entrepreneurs' energy level, passion, and persistence.

"I am especially impressed with the comprehensive approach to implementing an innovative transportation system that has been devised by Cities 21 people and think it represents a model that should be emulated by others around the country who wish to participate in our needed transportation revolution. More and more cars, however green, are not the answer we need to ward off a growing dependency on foreign oil and to help limit, perhaps reverse somewhat, the degradation that has been imposed on our cities by the automobile. We can do much better but we have to form large coalitions of like-minded people in order to overcome the tremendous vested interests that wish only to maintain the status quo. Cities21 has shown us how this can be done. One can hope it will be emulated across the land." - Jerry Schneider, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington.

The "power of ideas" allows Cities21 to lead high-profile projects with influential teaming partners:

• Principal Investigator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Transforming Office Parks into Transit Villages Study," teamed with U.S. EPA, Oracle, MTC (Bay Area Metropolitan Transit Commission), Bay Area Council, Cambridge Systematics (a large transportation consulting firm), City of Pleasanton, California Center for Land Recycling, Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, and East Bay Community Foundation.
• Project Lead, "Walk to Work Housing and Upward Mobility Project," teamed with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Urban Land Institute, Fannie Mae Foundation, California State Department of Housing & Community Development, California State Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, National Association of Realtors, AIA Housing Policy Committee, National Housing Law Project, Sierra Club Transportation & Land Use Committee, and Reconnecting America.
• Project Manager, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit District) Group Rapid Transit Investigative Study, teamed with BART, Port of Oakland, City of Alameda, Kimley-Horn transportation consulting, and PGH Wong transportation consulting.

"Our current transportation policy path in the U. S. is clearly unsustainable. Traffic, its environmental impacts and its impact on quality of life continue to get worse virtually everywhere in the country. Innovative new ideas and new approaches are badly needed. We need a portfolio of innovative approaches spread across the United States, with each one pushing the envelope towards a more sustainable future transportation system. Cities21 and its Suburban Silver Bullet should be in this portfolio. It is innovative; it is forward-looking; it addresses many key transportation challenges; and the potential benefits - if widely disseminated - are large." - Stephen Offutt, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Cities21 delivers high quality results in the following areas

• Policy development and economic analysis for transportation, land use, housing, and environmental sustainability
• Market research and customer-centered new product design
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• 3D animation & transit simulation, with specialty in real-time, interactive virtual worlds
• Travel Demand Forecasting
• New mobility system design
• Advanced transit system design and alignments
• Transportation Demand Management (TDM) / automobile trip reduction
• Intelligent Transportation Systems Design, with specialty in train control systems, smart parking, location tracking, RFID, fare box interface
• Social networking design
• Physical model design with specialty in lightweight, portable, full size replicas

High Quality Results: Examples

Transportation System Analysis / Research

BART Group Rapid Transit (GRT) Investigative Study. Project Management. GRT is an elevated, automated train system with 10- to 20-person vehicles. Coordinated project deliverables amongst three agencies, two consulting firms, and GRT vendors, directing simulation studies and cost/structural analyses. Analyzed technical feasibility of emerging Cybertran GRT system and reviewed Morgantown and Austrans GRT systems. Academic paper published for Transportation Research Board conference.

Travel Demand Forecasting / Market Research

Electric Power Research Institute's Multimodal Travel Demand Analysis. Conceived a rapid feeder/distributor system and comprehensive "new mobility" service for a major employment center along the San Francisco Bay Area's Highway 101 corridor, complementing and significantly increasing the attractiveness of commuter rail, carpool, vanpool, bicycle, and bus commutes for the center's 20,000 employees. Interview research was followed by in-depth stated preference surveys. Innovations include: immersive participant education, application of new technology product research techniques, full disclosure of commute behavior issues, "gap analysis" to validate specific attitudinal solutions, customized door to door commute comparisons, and labor-intensive 8-step survey protocol. Academic paper published in Transportation Research Record.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Transforming Office Parks into Transit Villages Study. (See above.)

Policy Development

Walk to Work Housing and Upward Mobility Project. (See above.)

"This is certainly a very timely topic and many people are looking for answers … I am asked for answer to this all the time, both in my professional capacity and in my elected capacity (Ventura City Council). What you are working on is potentially a very important proposal." - William Fulton (Author: The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl)

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

Wireless Carpool Assistant (patent pending), a mobility-enhancing wireless real-time traveler information service for improved carpool connection making. Evaluated and selected the following technologies: GPS-enabled cellular handsets and PDAs, automated voice response telephony systems, and the location based services provided by cellular carriers. Iteratively refined product specification and feature set based on literature review, meetings with experts, and two rounds of interviews with prospective customers. Validated problem importance and solution effectiveness via survey-driven "gap analysis," then developed engineering requirements documentation, user interface design, and client/server task delegation. Prepared economic analysis including value-of-time investigation. Developed J2ME Nextel/Motorola i88s/i730 midlet and Java servlet software using JBuilder X. Academic paper published in Transportation Research Record.

Automated, Single-Operator Smart Parking Design for Office Parks. Designed permission-based restricted access parking management system for large office park with 100 parking lots, providing automated gate access, WiFi and license plate recognition driver identification, real-time available space reporting, and wireless guidance to unite drivers with spaces. Academic paper published for Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress.

Cybertran GRT Train Control System. Designed GRT train control system based on BART's Advanced Automated Train Control system, utilizing spread spectrum radio ranging, WiFi, and guideway transponders.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

City of South San Francisco GIS Journey to Work market study. Developed an innovative micro-scale journey-to-work analysis for improved transportation planning. Built coalitions with city staff, the congestion management agency, and the regional corporate lobby to obtain and aggregate employee addresses from understandably resistant employers. Developed privacy law precedents for fine-grained personal data collection and protection.

City of Palo Alto GIS Journey to Work market study. Academic paper published for Transportation Research Board conference.

"Because of the upcoming Highway 101 Corridor Study and VTA's ongoing bus route planning, Palo Alto needed more accurate and more current commute data than other cities and transit agencies. We've accomplished this for a fraction of the cost it would have taken using a traditional transportation consulting firm. Compared to recent regional transportation studies our data is twenty times more precise and our participation rates are much higher," - Joe Kott, City of Palo Alto Chief Transportation Officer.

Animation / Simulation

Palo Alto Monorail Virtual City Simulation/Animation. Developed a detailed three-dimensional interactive 3DS MAX model of a large office park with 200 recognizable buildings, trees, roads, and a working micro-simulation of 300 small monorail vehicles, all updated in real-time via microsimulation at 30 rendered frames per second using Microsoft DirectX 3D engine. Managed an international development team spread across Beijing, Bombay, Seattle, San Francisco, and Palo Alto. Led fundraising efforts.

Microsoft Campus Virtual Campus Animation: (Click on images below for higher resolution versions.)

Physical Model Construction

Advanced Transit Association's Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) Full Scale Model. Conceived and managed development of a lightweight, portable full scale 33' long x 16' high x 3' wide elevated guideway model for visual impact studies. Evaluated many competing designs and lightweight materials. Resultant design uses 10" diameter plastic corrugated drainage pipe, a custom-machined aluminum tent pole tubing truss, and fabric sheaths. Displayed in Washington, D.C., UCLA, Eugene, Palo Alto, Milpitas, and U.C. Berkeley. (Click on image at right for higher resolution version.)

New Mobility

Digital Hitchhiking Design for Microsoft. Have longer distance Microsoft commuters (4 to 12 mile commutes) traveling in on Bellevue's 148th Avenue pick up shorter distance Microsoft commuters (0 to 4 miles) living close to 148th. Enhance the connection-making with RFID. Academic paper presented at Association for Commuter Transportation Conference.

Social Networking Design for Transportation Demand Management

Low Mileage Community. Invented concept of Low Mileage Residential Communities, based on the power of on-line communities as explained by the Lessons from the Anthill blog: "On their own, each ant's behavior is relatively useless, but when swarms of ants come together, the patterns optimize naturally and allow them to accomplish tasks that should be far beyond their reach."

"I would like to see the industry follow a path that leads to a lasting change in how people think about transportation. I am pleased to see the idea of seizing the Tipping Point that exists now in our society (longer commutes, greater commuter frustration, high gasoline and housing prices, a societal interest in being part of a community) being raised by Cities21." Peggy Hetherington, Parsons Brinckerhoff (transportation consultants).