FHWA Resource Center

PLANNING TEAM

The United States depends on a safe and efficient transportation system to strengthen communities, to provide access to jobs, services, and centers of trade; and to retain and enhance our economic competitiveness in the global marketplace. FHWA supports transportation decision makers as they manage the comprehensive transportation planning process. This process considers many factors including: economic development, safety and security, environment, land use and system preservation, and maintenance and integration.

The Planning Technical Service Team at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Resource Center helps support the planning process through the provision of training, technical assistance, technology deployment, and partnerships. The Planning Technical Service Team works in partnership with FHWA Division Offices and many FHWA Headquarters Offices including the FHWA Office of Planning, the Office of Freight Management and Operations and the Office of Operations and Transportation Management.

Our vision is that transportation projects and decisions will be based on state of the practice and state of the art planning practices, thereby improving the quality of life for all Americans.

Our mission is to promote effective transportation planning practices nationwide through training and technical assistance.

Currently, the team has placed priority emphasis in deploying innovations, guidance and notable practices, in the following areas:

• Congestion Management Process (CMP). A CMP is a systematic process for defining what levels of congestion are acceptable to the community; developing performance measures to monitor levels; identifying alternative solutions to manage congestion; prioritizing funding for those strategies and assessing the effectiveness of those actions. CMPs are required for Transportation Management Areas (areas with populations in excess of 200,000)
• Visualization / Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Transportation Planning. GIS is a system of computer hardware and software that collects, stores, and analyzes and disseminates information about areas of the earth. While GIS often helps create maps, GIS can also maximize the quality and use of spatial data and analysis to help answer questions of where, how, far, how many, what size, and within what area. By using GIS to bring together information more efficiently, transportation planners are in a better position to review, analyze, and understand the problems they are addressing. This efficiency can save time and money, and a better understanding of information can lead to improved decisionmaking. Visualization involves a range of tools and techniques that can be used for a variety of transportation planning and project purposes. Under SAFETEA-LU, MPOs are required to use visualization techniques in the development of their public participation plans
• Land Use and Transportation Planning. Transportation planners and decision-makers need to be aware of the land use implications of transportation decisions. The FHWA Resource Center Planning Team provides an overview of the issues, practices and technologies that relate to coordination of land use and transportation planning. Information on these topics is available through a land use and transportation seminar.
• Freight Planning. Significant increases in freight movements are projected. These will place greater demands on the Nation's transportation system. The FHWA is undertaking a number of strategies and approaches to help the transportation community effectively respond to the growth in freight traffic. One of these is focused on freight professional development. This strategy is designed to better inform, to increase professional capacity and to expand utilization of freight tools and services among transportation planners at State DOTs and MPOs. Included as a part of this effort is a range of new freight training and technical assistance offerings.
• Transportation Safety Planning (TSP). TSP is a comprehensive, system wide, multimodal, proactive process that better integrates safety into surface transportation decision-making. The ultimate objective of effective Transportation Safety Planning is a reduction in crashes, injuries and fatalities. Achieving this goal requires a multi-pronged effort and relies upon a wide range of safety initiatives.
• Modeling and Traffic Analysis Tools. Under Federal Law MPOs and State DOTs are charged with developing plans and programs to accommodate mobility needs for persons and goods in their areas. An important component of this process involves estimating future travel demand and analyzing alternative transportation investment scenarios using travel demand forecasting scenarios.

Training and Technical Assistance

The team can provide training and technical assistance in the metropolitan and statewide planning process, programs and products, as well as a number of planning specialty areas. All team members have experience and knowledge in metropolitan and statewide planning. In addition, our team members have functional, in-depth specialties.

Functional Areas	Team Member	Contact Information
Border Planning	Lisa Randall	Lisa: (720) 963-3209
Certification Reviews	All Team Members—assist Division Offices and HQ as needed
Climate Change and Transportation Planning	Jim Thorne Ralph Rizzo	Jim: (708) 283-3538 Ralph: (401) 528-4548
Congestion Management Process	Brian Betlyon Ben Williams (primary) Eric Pihl	Brian: (410) 962-0086 Ben: (404) 562-3671 Eric: (720) 963-3219
Data	Ed Christopher– Census, Traffic, Travel Surveys and Team Liaison with Office of Highway Information Eric Pihl– Freight	Ed: (708) 283-3534 Eric: (720) 963-3219
EJ / Title 6	Brian Betlyon Jocelyn Jones	Brian: (410) 962-0086 Jocelyn: (410) 962-2486
Fiscal Constraint/Financial Planning	Ralph Rizzo Lisa Randall Brian Betlyon	Ralph: (401) 528-4548 Lisa: (720) 963-3209 Brian: (410) 962-0086
Freight	Jocelyn Jones Ralph Rizzo (funding, financing, environment linkages) Eric Pihl (data and analysis) Lisa Randall Fawn Thompson	Jocelyn: (410) 962-2486 Ralph: (401) 528-4548 Eric: (720) 963-3219 Lisa: (720) 963-3209 Fawn: (404) 562-3917
GIS and Transportation Planning	Ben Williams	Ben: (404) 562-3671
Land Use and Transportation Planning	Jim Thorne (primary) Brian Betlyon Eric Pihl (land use modeling)	Jim: (708) 283-3538 Brian: (410) 962-0086 Eric: (720) 963-3219
Planning and Environment Linkages (PEL)	Ben Williams (primary) Jim Thorne Brian Betlyon Ralph Rizzo	Ben: (404) 562-3671 Jim: (708) 283-3538 Brian: (410) 962-0086 Ralph: (401) 528-4548
Metropolitan Planning	Brian Betlyon Ed Christopher Jim Thorne Ben Williams Jocelyn Jones Eric Pihl Ralph Rizzo	Brian: (410) 962-0086 Ed: (708) 283-3534 Ben: (404) 562-3671 Jim: (708) 283-3538 Jocelyn: (410) 962-2486 Eric: (720) 963-3219 Ralph: (401) 528-4548
Native American and Tribal Planning	Fawn Thompson (primary) Ralph Rizzo	Fawn: (404) 562-3917 Ralph (401) 528-4548
Operations / ITS and Planning	Ben Williams (CMP primary) Eric Pihl (Traffic Analysis Tools primary) Brian Betlyon	Ben: (404) 562-3671 Eric: (720) 963-3219 Brian: (410) 962-0086
Public Involvement / Public Participation	Jocelyn Jones Fawn Thompson Brian Betlyon	Jocelyn: (410) 962-2486 Fawn: (404) 562-3917 Brian: (410) 962-0086
Transportation Safety Planning/Strategic Highway Safety Plan	Jim Thorne	Jim: (708) 283-3538
Scenario Planning	Brian Betlyon Jim Thorne	Brian: (410) 962-0086 Jim: (708) 283-3538
Security Planning and Emergency Response/Disaster Preparedness	Fawn Thompson (primary) Lisa Randall	Fawn: (404) 562-3917 Lisa: (720) 963-3209
Statewide and Rural Planning	Fawn Thompson Ralph Rizzo	Fawn: (404) 562-3917 Ralph: (401) 528-4548
Travel Demand Forecasting	Eric Pihl (primary) Vacant Jim Thorne Brian Betlyon	Eric: (720) 963-3219 Vacant Jim: (708) 283-3538 Brian: (410) 962-0086
Visualization	Ben Williams (primary) Brian Betlyon Jim Thorne	Ben: (404) 562-3671 Brian: (410) 962-0086 Jim: (708) 283-3538

Your Resource for Transportation Planning Solutions!

Listed below are the Resource Center Planning Specialists. Additional information about specialty planning areas, and our offerings in these areas is available. If you would like further information, please e-mail or call the Team Leader or the team Specialist assigned in a particular area.

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Team Leader

Lisa Randall
(biography)
Planning Technical Service Team Leader
12300 West Dakota Avenue Suite 340
Lakewood, CO 80228
Ph: (720) 963-3209
Fax: (720) 963-3232
lisa.randall@dot.gov

Program Assistant

Haydee Rodrigues
(biography)
Program Assistant
201 Mission Street Suite 1700
San Francisco, CA 94105
Ph: (415) 744-3112
Fax: (415) 744-2620
haydee.rodrigues@dot.gov

Team Members	Specialty Area(s)
Brian Betlyon (biography) Metropolitan Planning Specialist 10 South Howard Street Suite 4000 Baltimore, MD 21201 Ph: (410) 962-0086 Fax: (410) 962-3419 brian.betlyon@dot.gov	Metropolitan Planning Congestion Management Process Land Use/Scenario Planning Fiscal Constraint Financial Planning
Ed Christopher (biography) Metropolitan Planning Specialist 19900 Governors Drive Suite 301 Olympia Fields, IL 60461 Ph: (708) 283-3534 Fax: (708) 283-3501 ed.christopher@dot.gov	Planning Data Metropolitan Planning
Jocelyn Jones (biography) Freight/Intermodal Planning Specialist 10 South Howard Street Suite 4000 Baltimore, MD 21201 Ph: (410) 962-2486 Fax: (410) 962-3419 jocelyn.jones@dot.gov	Freight Planning Metropolitan Planning Environmental Justice and Title VI Public Involvement/Public Participation Plans
Eric Pihl (biography) Modeling Technical Specialist 12300 West Dakota Avenue Suite 340 Lakewood, CO 80228 Ph: (720) 963-3219 Fax: (720) 963-3232 eric.pihl@dot.gov	Travel Demand Forecasting Metropolitan Planning Planning and Operations Traffic Analysis Tools Freight Planning Freight Analysis and Data
Ralph Rizzo (biography) Community Planner 380 Westminster Mall Room 547 Providence, RI 02903 Ph: (401) 528-4565 Fax: (401) 528-4542 ralph.rizzo@dot.gov	Fiscal Constraint and Financial Planning Metropolitan Planning Statewide Planning Tribal Planning Freight Planning Climate Change
Fawn Thompson (biography) Intermodal/Statewide Planning Specialist 61 Forsyth Street, SW Suite 17T26 Atlanta, GA 30303 Ph: (404) 562-3917 Fax: (404) 562-3700 fawn.thompson@dot.gov	Statewide and Rural Planning Tribal Planning Public Involvement and Public Participation Plans Freight Planning
Jim Thorne (biography) Metropolitan Planning Specialist 19900 Governors Drive Suite 301 Olympia Fields, IL 60461 Ph: (708) 283-3538 Fax: (708) 283-3501 jim.thorne@dot.gov	Metropolitan Planning Travel demand forecasting Land Use and Scenario Planning Transportation Safety Planning Climate Change
Ben Williams (biography) Metropolitan Planning Specialist 61 Forsyth Street, SW Suite 17T26 Atlanta, GA 30303 Ph: (404) 562-3671 Fax: (404) 562-3700 ben.williams@dot.gov	GIS and Transportation Planning Metropolitan Planning Visualization and Transportation Planning Congestion Management Process Planning and Operations

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