David Chia
Vice President, Transportation Group
David epitomizes the Collaborative Transportation Group’s trademarked approach of “Transportation that Gets Everyone on Board™.” It’s an approach to transportation, especially public transit, that increases options for travelers regardless of age, location, economic circumstances or degree of disability.
As a national expert, David leads the firm’s work in transit and paratransit services, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, and transit safety and security. He has managed or co-led assignments involving a wide range of transit projects, including: the development of accessibility guidelines for transit systems, safety and security planning and evaluation, performance evaluation of transit systems, paratransit system design and review, and ADA compliance plan reviews for a large majority of the 470 reviews and 30 transit systems the Collaborative has reviewed across the United States and its territories.
David’s representative assignments include serving as Subject Matter Expert for a U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) project to publish a circular explaining the elements FTA’s ADA regulations. For the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), he participated in the development of a guidebook and training tools for front-line transit staff for ensuring enhanced customer communications under emergency conditions. In support of another TCRP project, David’s study team found that improved coordination of transit services can lower costs and improves services for riders. For Greenville, SC, David led efforts to design school attendance zone plans, employing a combination of automated and manual techniques to create zones for 80 schools at all levels for 50,000 students. David developed automated Management Information Systems for transit properties in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York City, Maine, and rural Pennsylvania.
As past two-term Chairman of the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Paratransit, David reviews research submissions from around the country, guided two international conferences on innovations in demand responsive services, and helps set areas of future research for the national organization.
David is author of numerous TCRP and FTA publications, including: Strategy Guide to Enable and Promote the Use of Fixed-Route Transit by People with Disabilities; Emergency Public Transportation Mobilization and Emergency Operations Guide; and Detectable Warnings: Testing and Performance Evaluation at Transit Systems.
David regularly serves as an expert witness in transit-related civil trials, and has conducted presentations and training to transit staff and the riding public.
David holds a Master of Science in Technology and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University.
