History

CS Wins Award for ITS Work

CS is awarded ITS Connecticut’s ITS Outstanding Project of the Year Award for the Southwestern Region ITS Strategic Plan.  

CS Leads the Development of a Regional Ports of Entry Operations Plan

The firm leads the development of a Regional Ports of Entry Operations Plan for the El Paso Metropolitan region. This Operations Plan presents a new, system-based approach that focuses on identifying and implementing operational strategies to maximize the use of the region’s six existing crossings.

CS Completes Study on Environmental Performance of Major Transit Investments

CS develops and tests metrics for assessing and comparing the environmental performance of major transit investments. The metrics include energy and greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, ecology, water quality, and habitat. 

CS Leads the Development of Award-Winning State Freight and Logistics Plan

CS leads the development of the Georgia Statewide Freight and Logistics Plan 2010-2050. This project is selected as one of the nine projects to receive a Federal Highway Administration 2012 Transportation Planning Excellence Award. 

CS Wins Award for Innovative Transportation Solution

CS’ MTA Bus Time™ project receives the 2012 Innovative Transportation Solutions Award from the WTS Greater NY Chapter. 

Developed for the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), MTA Bus Time is a suite of APIs, data services and infrastructure, apps, and websites that deliver real-time bus information, including predicted arrival time, vehicle occupancy rate, and service disruption alerts, to two million daily MTA bus riders and closely related MTA applications such as dispatch, reporting, etc. 

CS Makes Strides in Software Support

TransAM:  CS develops TransAM, an Asset Performance Management (APM) system as part of a Federal Transit Administration (FTA)-funded pilot project jointly administered by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). The platform simplifies managing multiphase, multiyear transportation project plans by streamlining asset management and project planning life cycles from start to finish. 

1-Click:  Through funding from the FTA Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative (VTCLI) grant program, as well as local matching funds from five different states, CS develops the 1-Click platform, an open-source mobility management and cross-modal trip planning software platform that assembles information about all available modes, then outputs options that are tailored to the rider’s needs, with a particular focus on identifying suitable options for transportation-disadvantaged individuals. 

CS Leads Fundamental Comprehensive Plan Within the Gateway Cities

CS leads development of the Gateway Cities Strategic Transportation Plan (STP), the first-ever comprehensive evaluation of all multimodal transportation improvement concepts within the Gateway Cities, a 28-city subregion in southeastern Los Angeles County that includes Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and Port of Long Beach (POLB). The result of the study is an integrated, multimodal subregional transportation strategy for planning year 2045. The STP is unanimously adopted in 2016 by the Gateway Cities Board, with implementation efforts including major freeway environmental studies, multijurisdictional arterial corridor plans and interjurisdictional bikeway projects. 

CS Develops Guidelines for Location-Based Data Applications in NHCRP Report

In the report NCHRP 868: Cell Phone Location Data for Travel Behavior Analysis, CS, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, evaluates the extent to which cell phone data accurately reflects daily travel and how to better understand the ways these data can be used to comprehend and model travel behavior. This study results in guidelines to help the FHWA, state DOTs, and MPOs evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this new source of data and provides advice on how to best harvest the value of cell phone data for different applications in travel demand modeling and transportation planning. 

Starting with WeMoveMass, CS Demonstrates Leadership in Supporting LRTPs

For the Massachusetts DOT, CS develops a Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan called weMove Massachusetts. This serves as the first of 17 state Long-Range Transportation Plans (LRTPs) the firm leads or plays a key role in during the MAP-21/FAST era. The support also leads CS to develop the Planning for Performance (PfP) tool, a spreadsheet-based tradeoff analysis tool that allows DOTs to estimate the performance of key capital assets under different funding scenarios. The PfP tool is used in multiple states. 

CS Wins Project of the Year by ITS-NY

CS’ MTA Bus Time™ is recognized by Intelligent Transportation Society of New York (ITS-NY) as Outstanding ITS Project of the Year.  

Launch of New Visual Identity and Website

CS launches a new visual identity that reflects the firm’s forward-looking innovation; flexible, responsive collaboration; and drive to build on our history and reputation of leadership. 

The new logo incorporates a vibrant, forward-looking feel and flexible tagline while the website invites visitors to explore or connect with our people and services by opening with the question: “How can we help you?” In its totality, the new visual identity captures the 40+ year story of CS by portraying the most innovative, collaborative, and energetic brand in the transportation consulting and technology sector. The new brand wins 3rd place in the Corporate Identity Category of the Nationwide Society for Marketing Professional Services 2016 Marketing Communications Awards.  

CS Conducts CA-VIUS, a Massive California Survey

For the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), CS conducts the California Vehicle Inventory Use Survey (CA-VIUS)—a large commercial vehicle survey to understand truck movements throughout the State. This research helps position the firm for the 2016 California Statewide Travel Demand Model (CSTDM) update and the new RHETTA Electric Truck Research and Utilization Center (eTRUC) study. The CSTDM proves to be a critical analytic foundation for the Caltrans Department of Transportation Planning to meet SB 391 and SB 375 requirements and to address rural California’s modeling needs.  

CS Helps Develop Connected Vehicle Pilot for the City of New York

CS assists in the development of the Concept of Operations and Deployment Plan for the phase 1 deployment of connected vehicles (CV) technologies in New York City, under the New York City DOT. The project is one of the first three pilot sites funded by U.S. DOT to advance the deployment of connected vehicle technology, aiming to improve safety and reduce accidents through a mixture of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technologies via the installation of CV equipment at approximately 250 intersections in focused areas in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and along portions of the FDR Drive in Manhattan. Additionally, this equipment was installed in approximately 7,000 aftermarket safety devices in NYC taxis, city fleet vehicles, MTA buses, and other participating stakeholder vehicles.  

CS Serves as the Modeling On-call Consultant for Florida and Texas

For the Florida DOT’s (FDOT) Modeling on-call, CS updates the statewide model, incorporating destination choice, updating the freight component, and developing employment data and guidance documents on how to use the project for policy applications. CS also develops a training program to help users of the model understand the concepts behind new tools, such as supply chain freight modeling and developing methods and procedures to incorporate supply chain and tour concepts into regional and urban freight models. 

For the Texas DOT (TxDOT), CS manages a five-year on-call contract to update and implement the Texas Statewide freight Mobility Plan (TFMP). This included a study to recommend 21 policies, eight programs, and more than 1,200 projects, including nearly 900 exclusively for highways to enhance freight movement.  

CS Develops New York Metropolitan Area Activity-Based Model

For the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC), CS develops a state-of-the-art, activity-based travel demand model for the New York Metropolitan area, home to over 20 million people. Along with its teaming partners, CS implements the model using TourCast, CS’ activity-based modeling platform and SimAGENT, a pragmatic and field-tested comprehensive activity-based modeling approach that uses the strengths of good theory and tested model systems to advance travel demand forecasting applications beyond the usual daily travel pattern and tour-based approaches employed elsewhere in the country. 

CS Develops FAST-Compliant Freight Plan for NCDOT

CS leads the development of North Carolina DOT’s (NCDOT) Statewide Multimodal Freight Plan, a FAST-compliant plan that contributes to increased North Carolina jobs, improves economic competitiveness, and enhances quality of life. The plan provides clear, compelling freight-specific recommendations that support the 25-year vision and addresses the criteria in the statewide transportation prioritization process while offering strategies for better understanding the value of freight transportation investments and their economic benefits, positioning North Carolina to capitalize on higher Federal matching funds.  

CS Analyzes the Future of the Interstate

To meet the 2015 FAST Act mandate – to study the required actions to restore the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways to its role as a premier system that meets the growing and shifting demands of the 21st century – CS analyzes the future of the Interstate System. CS assists the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in exploring the impact of changing travel and technology trends and their implications for the future of the Interstate highway system. 

CS Leads NextGen Bus Study

For the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro), CS leads a bus restructuring study that aims to develop a suite of mobility products that can compete with emerging private-sector services, such as rideshare, bikeshare, and microtransit. This service restructuring effort aims to increase transit use within the County over the next decade by retaining current customers, reclaiming past customers, and recruiting new customers.   

CS Supports FHWA TMIP-Exploratory Modeling Analysis Tool Project

Under an FHWA task order, CS complements the current Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) exploratory modeling approaches effort. CS subject matter experts help to illuminate interactions between transportation supply and demand on urban surface transportation systems (especially at the corridor level) through exploratory modeling and simulation, and gain insights of potential, possible, plausible, probable or preferred futures. Ultimately, the study contributes to our understanding of the impact that the rapid technological evolution has on the movement of people and goods on surface transportation systems and the transportation decision-making process. 

PennDOT Wins Transportation Award for the Northeast Region in 2018

CS worked with the Pennsylvania DOT and the 10-County region in Southeast Pennsylvania to develop demand-responsive transit scheduling software, branded as FindMyRidePA. The project won an AASHTO America’s Transportation Award for the Northeast Region in 2018. 

Virginia SmartScale

In 2014, Virginia passed legislation requiring prioritization for new funding programs. CS provided support to the Virginia OIPI and DOT to quickly create a new statewide prioritization process. Known as SMART SCALE, Virginia’s process screens projects for consistency with the statewide plan needs and evaluates projects across six key factors: congestion mitigation, economic development, accessibility, safety, environmental quality, and land use coordination. CS continues to support ongoing lessons learned efforts, which are focused on how project sponsors can develop more competitive project applications that align with state goals. SMART SCALE is now on its third iteration and is a model statewide prioritization process.  

CS Leads and Revamps FDOT Transportation Plans

CS works closely with FDOT to lead three successive updates to the Florida Transportation Plan (FTP), restructuring the FTP into four documents and helping FDOT enhance the statewide planning process to create a dynamic, iterative process focused on ongoing collaboration of more than 90 statewide transportation partners toward a common vision. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Take a Front Seat at CS

CS starts on a path to better understand and address the issues faced by staff, and to better represent the multifaceted clients and communities that we support. To help guide this work, CS partners with a recognized leader in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consulting space. 

As part of this, CS conducts its first comprehensive DEI assessment and establishes a formal DEI Council. These efforts, with partnership from the firm’s leadership, lays the foundation of CS’ DEI strategy and culminates in the development of our DEI Strategic Plan which makes the business case for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive firm; outlines the priorities that align with the firm’s values; sets goals and metrics; and provides support and direction for action. CS dedicates to continually assess and update the DEI strategy as necessary and commits to integrating DEI best practices throughout the firm and within our business. 

Through LOCUS, CS Leverages the Power of LBS Data

CS creates LOCUS, a suite of customizable data products built using anonymized location-based services (LBS) data. These data can be used readily with traditional transportation data sources to provide flexible, current and right-sized solutions for transportation agencies. CS combines these data with existing transportation and demographic data collected through traffic counts, household and transit surveys, and farecard and toll data to provide tailored, reliable, ground-truthed findings that can be applied confidently.