Policy, Strategic Planning, and Management

As the volume of passengers and goods moving across our aging infrastructure accelerates, the complexity of transportation planning, policy-setting, and decision-making is increasing. Transportation is no longer purely a matter of traffic; short- and long-term investments and benefits must be weighed, freight and passenger needs balanced, and the pressures of land use, environmental impact, and economic competitiveness considered.

Cambridge Systematics is recognized for innovative and objective guidance to our clients in this intricate landscape. We offer a full range of research, policy development, strategic planning, and management consulting services to help transportation leaders deliver the most value today and in the future. We have partnered with clients at the local, regional, and state levels, and we are among the largest continuous providers of Federal transportation, economic, and environmental research and policy support.

Our Services

Cambridge Systematics is trusted by clients to develop solutions to challenges that have never been addressed before and when no pre-set rules and methodologies exist. Although we’re known for solving the toughest industry problems, we also provide practical solutions to a wide range of industry challenges at the federal, state, regional, and local levels. We offer a national perspective, with an understanding of local needs and objectives. We pride ourselves on bringing innovation, objectivity, and collaboration, to every project. Our services include:

• Transportation research and policy development that provides insight and guidelines to advance the understanding and practices of transportation decision-makers.
• Performance-based planning and program management to define approaches and provide solutions to the complex issues of evaluating transportation systems performance.
• Systems planning that combines our deep experience in key transportation environments with unparalleled analytical capabilities to bear on our clients’ needs assessment, feasibility analysis, and planning processes, including statewide and multimodal systems planning, transit operations and planning, freight and intermodal planning, and planning support for private industry (railroad, airport, and trucking).
• Strategic technology planning to help our clients assess, develop, and deploy new technologies in effective ways to meet transportation objectives, including intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and commercial vehicle operations (CVO).
• Environmental planning to address our clients’ air quality and environmental issues, including environmental justice; management of the environmental scoping process; environmental screening analysis; analysis of traffic, land use, economic impacts, community, and air quality; and development of mitigation measures.
• Transportation impact analysis that quantifies the effects of specific policies, projects, and programs on key variables, including land use, air quality, and economic development.
• Economic analysis of investments to quantify and assess objectively the benefits and costs of specific projects and programs.
• Innovative financing strategies to help our clients understand and employ the right approach to financing, whether it’s privatization, public-private partnership, outsourcing, users fees, or one of the new Federally-authorized financing techniques.
• Safety planning consulting to address issues involving the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Safety Conscious Planning (SCP) initiative; the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Driver, Vehicle, and Roadside Strategies for 2010 program; assessing security issues related to movement of commercial vehicles across international borders for both Canadian and U.S. clients; and examining the manner in which security considerations are being incorporated into metropolitan area and statewide transportation planning.
• Decision support tools and data management systems to provide decisions-makers with clear, defensible, and practical information and outcomes that logically support investment decisions.

Why Cambridge Systematics

We specialize in transportation, so whether the need is for passenger or freight, Federal or local, strategic planning or quantitative analysis, we can deliver the right intellectual capital. We bring strong technical expertise, deep subject matter understanding, broad practical experience, and a commitment to working with clients to exceed expectations.

We have supported transportation planning projects for local and regional agencies, state agencies and coalitions, and national agencies. We maintain one of the largest transit planning practices in the nation, focusing on high-speed and conventional rail, urban and intercity bus, commuter rail, new technologies, special activity centers, and transit-oriented development. Our staff are experienced professionals in national policy definition, development of statewide and long-range transportation plans, transit ridership, outreach, and more. From short-range plans that help transit authorities improve service by deploying new technologies, to policy guidelines that we’re crafting to support the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in shaping the next generation of transportation planners, we offer a fact-based, but creatively-driven, approach.
You can learn more from some examples of our recent work.