WTS—A Partnership for Advancing Women in Transportation

Submitted by Christina Grossenbacher, Associate (San Francisco, CA)

You may have read the recent post on this blog by Marsha Anderson Bomar about gender and transportation design. When I read it, it really made me feel proud to see how much the design realm has progressed and become much more aware and inclusive of the varied users of our public infrastructure, including women.

It reminded me, too, of why I value my participation in Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS). This organization is, simply put, dedicated to the advancement of women in the transportation industry. Not only does it connect professionals like me to opportunities to participate in advancing this mission and challenge myself, but it also creates those opportunities for young women to explore the transportation field through the program Transportation YOU. Transportation YOU is a joint initiative between WTS and the US Department of Transportation that offers girls ages 13 to 18 an introduction to transportation through its hands-on mentoring program and attempts to get girls interested in and excited about math, science, and engineering careers.

WTS Los Angeles named Stantec Employer of the Year in 2010.
Sheila Wray Given (rt) accepted the award from
ULI Los Angeles Exec. Director Katherine Aguilar Perez

The Girl Scouts Research Institute recently conducted a study of what girls say about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), an effort WTS has followed closely to help guide new programs and initiatives like Transportation YOU. Their research is finding that the national focus on STEM education is working—the research shows that “STEM girls” have “significantly higher confidence in their academic abilities and higher academic goals and aspirations” as compared to non-STEM girls. You can read more about the study at www.girlscouts.org/research or get the gist in the infographic above created by WTS.

Clearly, introducing girls to transportation and encouraging them to pursue careers in engineering and technology will benefit our industry. With more women entering the field and feeling empowered to contribute their thoughts, ideas, and perspectives, we all benefit. I have a daughter myself and am encouraged and inspired to think of the possibilities programs like these can create for her in the future.

San Fran WTS’s member of the year Christina,
with her husband, Mark

In the same vein, I’m also thrilled to know that my own peers—and my company—have taken this mission to heart. WTS relies on corporate support, and Stantec has become one of its strongest partners, especially since our goals regarding diversity align so well. I have a number of colleagues throughout the company who take an active role in WTS—both men and women. That’s actually important to note: men comprise more than a third of the WTS membership. The organization certainly would have trouble working toward advancing women in transportation without the partnership and participation of men.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues, listed here, for their participation. And although she’s only 3 years old now, I’m confident my daughter will thank them, too.

Christina is the Communications Committee chair for the WTS San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and was recently named her chapter’s Member of the Year.

Marsha Anderson Bomar
Erin Baily
Caitlin Bowen
Cassandra Carlin
James Cleveland
Frank Domingo
Melissa Dugan
Michael Gill, Jr.
Larry Hazzard
Kathy Massarelli
Angela Medlock
Paul Menaker
Brandy Miller
Rock Miller
Douglas Moseke
Fariba Nation
Laura Niemeyer
Sherry Nour
Vasavi Pannala
David Rourke
Emily Valentino
Molly Williams
Robert Williams
Erica Wong
Sheila Wray Given
*And special thanks as well to Carl Clayton who wholeheartedly supports our international participation in WTS year after year.

Commissioning Isn’t Just for Manufacturing Anymore

Submitted by Kishore Warrier, Director of Commissioning & Compliance (Hauppauge, NY)

Kishore (right) on the job

With the focus on LEED design and energy savings in recent years, the process of commissioning—with its assurance that facilities, utilities, and, especially, energy systems are functioning properly and meeting user and owner needs—is in higher demand than ever. As the Director of Commissioning and Compliance at Stantec, I spent the majority of my career working for the pharmaceutical industry. But now we’re seeing commissioning becoming ever more relevant in areas such as healthcare, office and retail, hospitality, and education.

While the term “commissioning” is sometimes used differently from sector to sector, and even from client to client, understanding commissioning within the pharmaceutical industry makes it clear how specialized this kind of work is. Obviously, manufacturing drugs requires a highly rigorous process to assure their consistent quality and safety. Commissioning in this context often includes qualification and validation, sometimes interchangeable terms, referring to a robust analysis process where qualification documents or protocols, often written by our group, are subject to regulatory agency review. Qualification involves an extended period of time, either to assure that previous testing results are still valid or to determine that new equipment is performing consistently over time.

The complex mechanical systems of pharmaceutical
facilities require diligent commissioning 

Similarly, commissioning across different business sectors provides owners with the means to test facilities, utilities and equipment to ensure that they function as designed and as expected. While not as rigorously documented as in the pharmaceutical sector, commissioning here also includes the development of a master plan defining the scope of work and a check list for monitoring the facility and its equipment, particularly in terms of energy usage.

Commissioning is performed for new buildings and for older ones, ranging from assessing proposed systems to providing field investigations for existing facilities. Especially significant are the building controls, those systems that run and monitor HVAC and utilities for temperature, humidity and air flow, which must operate at optimum efficiency. As such, commissioning engineers are often involved right at the start of a project—developing a commissioning master plan and providing a thorough design review, helping clients mitigate risk before problems arise. In other cases, we provide management and oversight once the facility, its utilities and equipment are constructed.

This interface and coordination of engineering and construction disciplines is challenging and very satisfying, especially since we work closely with clients to gain a thorough understanding of their products/services, processes, stakeholders and users. It’s a special kind of work and requires a particular type of person. I appreciate spending a majority of time in the field, at the client’s site, rather than sitting at a desk in the office. And since we serve clients with facilities across the country, the job requires extensive travel, which I really enjoy.

While this isn’t the profession I went to school for (I studied economics, actually), it’s been extremely rewarding and exciting. And as sustainability becomes even more ingrained in the building and construction process, I see my job and what commissioning can do for clients only growing.

When Gender Makes a Difference in Transportation Design

Submitted by Marsha Anderson Bomar, Senior Principal (Duluth, GA)

Can alternative design solutions avoid
this scenario?

The first national city planning conference in the US was entitled City Planning and the Problem of Congestion. Though it sounds like something you might attend this year, it was actually held in 1909. The themes included crowding in urban areas, blight, immigrants arriving in large numbers, and the shortage of affordable housing.

There was just one woman among the presenters: Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, who founded a settlement house in lower Manhattan. In addition to her comments on social issues, she spoke about the connection between social and physical mobility. Her focus was on improving transit to allow families to live in places where women would have economic opportunity and children would be able to thrive.

As planners, modellers, designers, and engineers, we recognize that what we do requires both art and science. The body of knowledge for our professional work provides the framework for most every task we tackle. But along the way we are called on to use judgement outside of the formulae to arrive at accurate, meaningful outcomes.

Stratifying the population in some manner to derive solutions is not new. You may look at income levels or age distribution to inform a decision. In the last ten years or so there has been a more deliberate examination of when gender makes a difference in the judgement calls.

So, when does gender matter? Let’s take a look at a few areas open for exploration.

At times, design is centered on physical factors. The average woman is shorter and weighs less than the average man. When car manufacturers were designing airbags, front and side, using male crash dummies, women were left at risk. A female crash dummy was later adopted and designs were changed. Now, for example, side curtain airbags are long enough so that most women will not hit their heads on the window glass in a T-bone crash. Other adjustments and recommendations have come forth for pregnant women.

But other design issues can be informed by behavior and culture. Streetscape projects are a great tool for enhancing a community but when pavers with wide spacing are used, many women are challenged to walk on these sidewalks while wearing high-heeled shoes. Tree wells that are open grates or the ventilation grates for subterranean spaces or trains that are incorporated into a sidewalk are even more difficult to traverse. Have alternatives been explored?

A recent University of Honduras study showed that male and female students have different bicycling behaviors. Male students were more likely to ride and even ride longer distances independent of where the bicycling occurred (on road or off road). Female students felt less safe riding in an on-road bicycle lane or where there was no designated lane and so rode less or rode shorter distances. This is a transportation issue, as well as a health issue.

Marsha Anderson Bomar

Today many transit properties are using cameras and alarms to reduce the number of personnel needed in stations and trains. Some initial studies show that, in general, men feel safe with these technology-based solutions while women still strongly prefer having people on the platform and in the cars. While in the short term this use of technology may save some money, how will it impact transit ridership over time?

Household surveys tell us that women continue to do the majority of child-related car trips, which often means getting to many different places over the course of a work week. Could this be a factor when assessing who is willing to pay additional fees for access to increasingly popular HOT lanes? How might it impact their marketing?

With more women entering the transportation engineering field, we’ll continue to take a careful look at how our presence can inform truly universal design.

To explore the findings of the most recent conferences sponsored by TRB and the Women’s Issues committee, visit the website http://www.trb.org/ and search for women’s issues.