June 2023: Summer is upon us, and biking and walking is on the top of our minds! BPS is helping the City of Worthington evaluate the safety and feasibility of the recommendations in their Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan! Our work is focused on corridors in the City’s Street Maintenance Program and upcoming Capital Improvement Projects based on current conditions and constraints. In addition, BPS is developing feasible concept designs and cost estimates for bicycle and pedestrian improvements along those routes.

May 2023: This month, join us in welcoming our new team members! Bernard Ndeogo, Transportation Intern, has an interest in transportation system analysis and design, multimodal systems planning, traffic operations, and safety analysis. Jared Godwin, Assistant Planner, is focused on architectural studies, history, climate/hazard planning, public participation, accessibility, and land use planning. They are both expected to graduate within the next year. We are also kicking off a new contract to co-manage ODOT’s Active Transportation Academy. We are starting with coordinating a Complete Streets Policy Development Training for the Miami Valley Cycling Summit, and are updating the Creating a Vision Zero Action Plan workshop materials to reflect Safe Streets for All guidelines.

April 2023: We are kicking off a project with Cole & Associates this month to inventory and assess sidewalk and pedestrian facilities within public rights-of-way in the City of Gahanna. The BPS team will be conducting curb ramp inspections over the coming months to review general accessibility – wave if you see us out and about on the streets of Gahanna!

March 2023: BPS IS HIRING! We are looking for a transportation intern who is currently pursuing a degree in city planning, civil engineering, or a related field.  The intern’s work will focus on transportation planning and engineering tasks, such as field data collection, existing conditions inventories, data analysis, technical writing, mapping, corridor studies, active transportation plans, and other tasks as needed. Please click here – JOB AD – to see the full job advertisement, which also includes the instructions on how to apply.

March 2023: This month, join us in welcoming our new team members! Lee Reis, RSP₁, EIT, is a Senior Transportation Planner/Engineer with over 4 years of experience in the private sector, focusing on safety analysis and recommendations, active transportation planning, roadway conceptual design, and the transportation elements of environmental review. Prince Kwarteng-Crooklynn, AICP, is a Transportation Planner with 5 years of experience in transportation planning, sustainability, and economic development. He assists BPS with special assignments when he isn’t working his full-time job with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. We are thrilled to have them both working with us!

February 2023: We are kicking off two NCHRP projects for the Transportation Research Board! As part of the consultant teams, we will be conducting research and facilitating stakeholder engagement activities for both efforts. The first project will aim to provide State DOTs and local agencies with timely insights into the current state of the UAS market while supplying practical planning guidance for UAS integration and multijurisdictional coordination. The second project will aim to identify the extent to which operational resilience is considered within State DOTs, determine operational resilience goals, and identify mechanism for integration operational resilience into systems management.

January 2023: BPS IS HIRING! We are looking for a transportation planner or engineer with a minimum of 4 years of experience to work on transportation planning and engineering projects and assist with GIS mapping. Please click here – JOB AD – to see the full job advertisement, which also includes the instructions on how to apply.

January 2023: This year, BPS is striving to further assist communities and entities as extensions of their staff, filling gaps in expertise related to planning and engineering. We are continuing to work with the City of Gahanna to provide engineering services, and with the Ohio Department of Transportation to manage the Active Transportation Academy. We have recently been awarded an opportunity to offer on-call planning services to the City of Greensboro, North Carolina.

December 2022: This month, we are busy with all things hazard mitigation planning. We wrapped up the public comment period for the Shelby County HMP, and have submitted the plan to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency for their review. The public comment period for the Miami County HMP has also concluded, and we have started the stakeholder engagement for both the Morrow County and Summit County Hazard Mitigation Plans.

November 2022: In the first few weeks of this month, we’re assisting the Buckeye Hills Regional Council (BHRC) with outreach related to the Appalachian Community Grant. This $500 million program provides planning and development grants for communities located in Ohio’s 32-county Appalachian region. The program is administered by the Governor’s Office of Appalachia within the Ohio Department of Development. We are presenting an overview of the program at meetings across the BHRC region and are available to answer questions and help communities strategize project ideas.

October 2022: We are kicking off two active transportation plans in partnership with Toole Design this month, one for the City of Dayton and one for Orange Township. Our efforts will start with review of data assets, and existing conditions analyses. We’re excited to work with the City of Dayton again, and to build new relationships with our neighbors to the northwest, Orange Township!

September 2022: This month we are beginning work for the Ohio Department of Transportation to develop trainings in e-Learning format to help local planning agencies better understand the legal requirements for and integration of best practices related to ADA and Title VI for their processes and programs. BPS will be leading the project, with assistance from Cole & Associates and Softek Services, Inc. The start of this project is well-aligned with our warm welcome to our new Educational Manager, Luz Marie Rodriguez, and our two new Instructional Designers, Charles Foster and Kevin Gowdy.

August 2022: This month we are beginning work for the Ohio Department of Transportation to convert construction equipment course manuals to an interactive eLearning format. BPS has in-depth experience with instructional design and eLearning content development, and has brought on STONE Environmental to provide subject matter expertise in construction equipment. The end goal of providing these courses in an asynchronous format is to make the information more easily accessible for those seeking to move into journey-level positions in the construction industry.

July 2022: BPS is teaming with Partnership for Innovation (PIE) to help DriveOhio deploy the Smart Mobility Ambassador Program across Ohio! Together, we will be working to recruit and train people interested in STEM (educators and other adults interested, as well as high school students) to deliver trainings and workshops to K-8 students to give them exposure to skills and careers that utilize drones, robots, coding and other smart mobility-related technologies and applications.

June 2022: We have kicked off another noise wall project for ODOT! This time we’re coordinating public involvement for the evaluation of aesthetic options for noise walls in Mahoning County along the eastern side of Interstate Route 680 from the State Route 170 Interchange to Nova Lane, and from Mathews Road to Tara Court in the City of Youngstown.