Consultants to the transit industry

KFH Group Staff

Beth Hamby

Senior Transportation Planner
Seattle Office

Beth Hamby is a transit planner with over 20 years of experience in local, state, and federal government projects, as well as transit operations and management. Her background includes urban and rural transit, paratransit, and coordinated human service transportation planning, performance evaluation, development of guidebooks and manuals, facilities planning and assessment, technical assistance on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Web content management, communications, customer service, and graphic design.

Selected Experience

In current and previous positions with KFH Group, Ms. Hamby managed and supported transit planning and program development projects for state and local governments. She was project manager and principal author of a locally operated transit system program manual for the Maryland Transit Administration. She also served as project manager for MTA’s Rural Transit Assistance Program, co-manager for the development of a bus stop improvement program for Arlington County, Virginia, and had significant role in updating the transportation development plan for Frederick County, Maryland. More recently, Ms. Hamby participated in projects for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority to develop bus stop location and design standards and to analyze ADA standards and guidelines related to walking pathways to bus stops. She also developed a compliance monitoring toolkit for states to use in monitoring their subrecipients of Federal Transit Administration funding.

At Easter Seals Project ACTION, Ms. Hamby maintained ESPA’s Web site, edited a bimonthly print newsletter highlighting promising practices in accessible transportation across the nation, co-developed a program to train Federal Transit Administration regional staff and funding recipients in four funding programs and their coordination transportation requirements established under SAFETEA-LU, developed content and prepared print designs of technical assistance materials, and responded to questions on the transportation requirements of the ADA from the transit industry, private operators, customers with disabilities, and other technical assistance providers, through a national toll-free hotline and email.

Ms. Hamby coordinated the Pierce Transit’s bus stop program, spearheaded a project to improve accessibility of signage and other "wayfinding" cues at transfer centers for customers with vision disabilities, prepared portions of grant applications and budget revisions for the FTA, state and regional planning organization, and co-wrote, compiled, and edited the agency's six-year transit development plan.

At Transit Services of Frederick County, Ms. Hamby planned and coordinated implementation of substantial changes to three city bus routes, planned new shuttle services, prepared National Transit Database reports, updated the ADA paratransit plan, trained operators and administrative staff in ADA awareness and sensitivity, wrote comprehensive policies and procedures handbook for paratransit services, planned and conducted marketing and public relations activities including the design of route maps and schedules.

At Ecosometrics, Ms. Hamby supported and eventually managed projects to plan rural, small urban, and human service transportation, transportation for persons with disabilities, preparing transportation development plans and similar projects for more than 30 counties and small cities in Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia. She assisted in evaluating state-level administration of federal and state transit funding programs in Indiana, Maryland, and Virginia, co-authored a comprehensive financial management handbook for rural and small urban transit managers under the Multi-State Technical Assistance Program, and assisted in developing the first ADA paratransit plan for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority as well as in preparing an accessibility plan for a nine-county rural coordinated system in Texas.

Ms. Hamby began her transit career operating transit vehicles up to 40 feet in length in to transport passengers in fixed-route, demand-response, and charter services for Shuttle-UM Transit.

National Transit Research and Technical Assistance: Ms. Hamby’s national-level research experience includes:

Primary researcher on NCHRP Project 20-65 Task 17, resulting in NCHRP Research Results Digest 341: Compliance Monitoring Tools

Assisted with research for TCRP Project B-31A, resulting in TCRP Report 136: Guidebook for Rural Demand-Response Transportation: Measuring, Assessing, and Improving Performance

Assisted with research for TCRP Project B-37: Estimation of Demand for Rural Intercity Bus Services (nearing completion)

Assisted with research for TCRP Project A-2, resulting in TCRP Report 6: Users' Manual for Assessing Service-Delivery Systems for Rural Passenger Transportation

Co-author of AASHTO’s Comprehensive Financial Management Guidelines for Rural and Small Urban Public Transportation Providers

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