Speakers

Mr. Ralph Bond, BA Group, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

A transportation planner with expertise in mixed-use intensification developments and shopping centres, Ralph Bond leads the BA Group’s parking planning practice where he produces strategic action plans for downtown areas, as well as financial feasibility, operational planning, and functional design studies for parking systems and facilities. Of the 300 projects he has worked on since 1974, several have included the integration of parking, transportation demand management, and transit strategies. Besides being an expert witness expert transportation planning witness at the Ontario Municipal Board, Ralph has served as board member, treasurer and president with the Canadian Parking Association. He is also an active board member of the Association for Commuter Transportation and member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Ralph holds diplomas in Architectural Technology and Urban Land Economics.

Dr. Jeff Casello, University of Waterloo, City of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Professor Jeff Casello is jointly appointed at the University of Waterloo in the School of Planning and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is an expert in the planning, design and operation of public transportation systems. Professor Casello’s primary research interest is in the development and application of quantitative models of transportation (particularly transit) system performance. He is also interested and researching the impacts of transportation investments on land use patterns. He has published extensively on these topics. Professionally, Professor Casello has worked as a consultant, instructor and researcher with many transit agencies, including Washington DC (WMATA), Houston (METRO), Philadelphia (SEPTA), the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (GRT), the City of Kingston, and Mexico City (D.F.). Dr. Casello has also worked in the public sector for the New York State Department of Transportation. A licensed Professional Engineer, he holds a Ph.D. and a Masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Brendon Hemily, Hemily & Associates, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

An independent transit consultant with over 25 years of international transit experience, Dr. Hemily focuses on best practices and innovation in the transit industry, in the areas of policy, management, planning, and advanced technology. From 1985 to 2000, Brendon worked at the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), where as Manager of Research and Technical Services, he was responsible for all of CUTA's research, statistical, and technical services. Brendon has a Ph.D. in Transportation and a M.S. in Civil Engineering, both from M.I.T., and a B.A. in Economics from Columbia College, and is an active long-standing member of several committees at CUTA, the Transportation Research Board, and the American Public Transportation Association.

Bruno Jacques, Transport Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Bruno Jacques is Director of the Economic and Environmental Analysis and Research Branch at Transport Canada. During the last twenty-eight years in the federal government, he participated in the economic and political analyses of varied issues including environmental issues such as climate change and air quality. Since 2005, Bruno led his department's team as they undertook the Full Cost Investigation of Transportation in Canada. The team completed the first set of cost estimates in 2008 for the year 2000 and in 2010 for the year 2006. Bruno has a B.A. and a Masters’ degrees in economics and a diploma in international administration.

Dr. David King, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

David King is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. His research explores the impact of local transportation planning on the built environment, public finance and accessibility. As part of this research he has written about the phenomenon of cruising for parking and used spatial regression techniques to analyze travel behavior. He also studies how public policy influences the adoption of new technologies to address congestion, energy and environmental concerns. These issues are the focus of Professor King’s teaching through his courses covering planning techniques and methods, transportation and land use planning and transport policy. David joined the faculty in 2008. He did his graduate work at UCLA and the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.

Harry Kitchen, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Harry Kitchen is Professor Emeritus in the Economics Department at Trent University. Over the past thirty years, he has completed more than 80 articles, reports, studies, and books on a range of issues relating to local government expenditures, finance and governance in Canada and abroad. In addition, he has served as a commissioner, advisor, and consultant for a number of municipal and provincial governments in Canada, the federal government in Canada, and has worked on projects in Russia and China. Much of Professor Kitchen’s recent writing has concentrated on financing municipal services with a special emphasis on the structure and implementation of user fees, especially for financing public transit and transportation networks. They include “Financing Public Transit and Transportation in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton: Future Initiatives”, “A State of Disrepair: How to Fix the Financing of Municipal Infrastructure in Canada”, and “Municipal Infrastructure Financing: A Prescription for the Future”. Professor Kitchen holds a BA and MA in economics from McMaster University.

Peter Mills, Perrin Thorau & Associates, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Since 1999, Peter Mills has designed and implemented revenue, financing and cash management programs in eight US state departments of transportation. He has testified before legislative committees and commissions in several US states on surface transportation funding and has served as expert advisor to the Auditor General of British Columbia on three public-private partnerships in that province. He and his partners helped implement the British Columbia Carbon Tax, the Pacific Carbon Trust and other elements of British Columbia' Climate Action Plan. Prior to 1999, he served as a director of transportation funding in the British Columbia Ministry of Finance and as Treasurer of the British Columbia Ferry Corporation. Peter is a Professional Engineer, registered in the Province of Ontario, and a Professional Economist, registered in the Province of British Columbia.

Dr. Keith Neuman, Environics Research Group Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Keith Neuman leads Environics’ Public Affairs and Environment-Energy research practice areas, which provide leading-edge public opinion research in such areas as energy and environment, natural resources, health care, municipal services, justice, transportation, social policy and Aboriginal issues. Since the 1980s, Keith has conducted a wide range of research projects with a particular focus on the social dimensions of environmental, energy and resource issues, including air quality, water quality, waste management, climate change, environmental assessment, social impact assessment, energy conservation, and consumer behaviour. In 1987, he co-founded The Environmental Monitor, Canada’s first ongoing syndicated public opinion survey on environmental issues, and currently directs the Canadian Environmental Barometer, which provides clients with ongoing public opinion intelligence on environmental issues. Keith holds a Ph.D. in Social Ecology from the University of California. He is a frequent media commentator on social trends and public opinion.

Dr. Lisa Schweitzer, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

An award-winning instructor, Lisa Schweitzer is Associate Professor at USC’s School of Policy, Planning and Development. She specializes in urban studies, and, in particular, analyses of transport, social justice and the environment. Lisa’s work on the distribution of social and economic opportunities and the location of environmental hazards throughout Los Angeles and the US has appeared in multiple popular and scholarly outlets, and her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. Lisa holds a Ph. D. in urban planning from USC and degrees in regional planning, economics and social work from the University of Iowa. She is a Fellow with the Brookings Institute and maintains a blog about sustainable urbanism at www.lisaschweitzer.com.

Dr. Roger von Haefen, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Professor von Haefen is an Associate Professor of economics and Associate Director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy (CEnREP) at North Carolina State and a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). His research focuses on how fuel prices affect household car purchase and driving intensity decisions as well as the distributional and efficiency effects of increased US gasoline taxes. Prior to arriving at North Carolina State, he was a faculty member at the University of Arizona, a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and a researcher at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. He received a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University.