Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting - 12

2010 Annual Meeting

Essay Describes Student’s Transportation Career Plans
Editor’s Note: Following is the text of the winning essay in the American Public Transportation Foundation’s (APTF) Donald C. Hyde Essay Contest, titled “In what segment of the public transportation industry will you make a career and why?” The winner, Brandon Jeffrey Kearse, is a master’s degree candidate in civil engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was sponsored by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. Kearse also received the Jack R. Gilstrap Scholarship for receiving the top score in the APTF scholarship competition. recent summer in Germany. Memories of trains speeding from city to city greeted me fondly, and in an instant I was back running through dense, pedestrianfriendly towns and along bike trails that crisscrossed the countryside. I longed that my journey from work to home were so pleasant: a quick stroll to the train station, a relaxing ride with a good book, and arrival in time for family dinner and an evening jog. The horn of an impatient motorist dragged me back to the unfortunate reality of congestion and sprawl. Peering out at the sea of cars, I resolved that this “helluva engineer” would solve the problem. An avid reader of Popular Science and Time since fourth grade, I have long been concerned about energy, sustainability, urban sprawl, and transportation. What I realize now is how inextricably tied these issues are to each other and to our quality of life. The average Atlantan wastes nearly 60 hours per year in traffic delays. Mass transit offers an alternative to this costly gridlock, in addition to reducing emissions and fuel consumption. Likewise, compact, transit-enabled cities bring us closer together, fostering a stronger sense of community while conserving land and resources. High-speed rail increases industrial efficiency and global competitiveness, and multi-use trails enhance mobility and promote physically active lifestyles. Meanwhile, innovative solutions such as high-occupancy toll lanes and congestion pricing facilitate better use of our existing resources. Better transportation, thus, improves not only sustainability but, more importantly, the human condition. Mechanical engineering taught me how to apply technology to society’s greatest problems, but my experiences have also revealed technology’s inherent limitations. The gas turbines we built at General Electric are fundamentally the same as those designed 50 years ago. The 1930 Ford “Ramblin’ Reck” I drove for Georgia Tech rivals the gas mileage of a modern luxury sedan. Energy consumption is arguably more dependent on the size of a building than on the efficiency of its appliances or air handling system. Even my senior classes on automotive engines and renewable energy illustrated that hybrid cars and solar power are not stand-alone solutions. Rather, these are just components of much larger systems, and thus our energy and environmental problems reside as much in how we live and how far we drive as in the technology we use. To bridge the gap between technology and its use in our daily lives, I chose to pursue a master’s degree in city and regional planning, focusing on transportation. My co-op assistantship at Central Atlanta Progress has furthered this aim, where projects such as the Atlanta streetcar and multimodal passenger terminal (MMPT) have served as both inspiration and education, informing my understanding of the human interaction with the built environment. In my after-work runs, I visualize how the streetcar might reshape the city’s urban fabric: improving walkability, enlivening the streetscape, and promoting new mixed-use development. Meanwhile, my technical skills have proven beneficial in numerous projects, where I find myself interpreting engineers’ mechanical explanations for more policy-oriented planners. In one instance, my report on bus routing was able to sway a consultant’s recommendation by encompassing technical as well as economic considerations. Simultaneously, the planning curriculum itself has given me a broad background in policy, law, economics, and public administration, thus endowing me with an invaluable new lens through which to view and understand the world. Over the past year, these experiences have helped me refine and clarify my personal vision and career goals: I intend to dedicate my career to the renaissance of rail travel throughout the United States, from local urban transit to intercity high-speed rail. To best prepare me for this career,

ith two hours lost to Atlanta’s rush hour traffic, I was still barely 12 miles into my weekend trip home. Tiring of talk radio, my mind slipped back to a

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ESSAY CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
12 | Passenger Transport

Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting

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