Consultants to the transit industry
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· About · Services · Projects · Staff · Contact	KFH Group Staff Sue F. Knapp President Bethesda Office Sue Knapp is a transportation planner with over 30 years of experience providing assistance to public, private, and specialized transportation operators and policy makers, on all levels of government and throughout the country. Her areas of expertise include planning fixed route transit services, designing paratransit, accessibility, human service transportation coordination, development of state program management and policy, performance evaluation, compliance with federal program requirements, funding and fare policy, transit security, and writing practical guidebooks for transit professionals. She also has a background in transit research and has led a number of research projects for Transportation Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). She holds an M.S. degree in Civil Engineering and B.A. in Regional Planning from the University of Buffalo. Selected Experience Transit and Transportation Services Planning: Ms. Knapp has directed over 60 studies across the U.S. to prepare local and regional plans for improving transportation services, and has provided technical assistance to many local communities on how to improve their transit systems. In urban areas, her experience has centered on estimating transit potential and on linking land use with transportation service for transit and land use master plans. In rural areas, her expertise has focused on human service transportation coordination and regional transit service coordination. Ms. Knapp has also assisted numerous transit systems in planning and improving accessible fixed-route and complementary paratransit services as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Recently, she was Project Manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Specialized Transportation Study that provided recommendations on ways to increase the cost-effectiveness of resources used to provide ADA paratransit service and other specialized transportation in the WMATA service area. Statewide Program Management and Plans: Ms. Knapp has worked extensively with the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), leading multi-year task order projects. Ms. Knapp has assisted MTA as Project Manager or Project Principal on projects to develop regional and state coordination plans for the Section 5310, New Freedom, and Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) programs, assist in implementing their FTA United We Ride program, develop and implement performance measures for Maryland transit systems, develop internal standard operating procedures for use by the state transit staff in managing the statewide funding programs, evaluate and re-design allocation formulas for state transit funding, prepare a grant management manual for the local recipients of grants under the state’s transit programs, and develop or revise State Management Plans for the Section 5310, Section 5311, JARC and New Freedom Programs in the state. Ms. Knapp is a member of the governor’s Maryland Coordinating Committee on Human Service Transportation. She has also assisted the departments of transportation in Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Vermont in developing similar statewide policies, programs, and plans. Management Performance Reviews and Compliance Reviews: Ms. Knapp has been the Project Manager on numerous Management Performance Reviews (MPRs), including measuring and assessing transit system performance, and provided technical assistance to local areas throughout the country to improve their transit systems. She has conducted over 30 triennial reviews of transit systems for the FTA, and is knowledgeable concerning federal program and planning requirements. In addition, Ms. Knapp conducted triennial reviews of 12 Maryland systems for the MTA, and developed a compliance checklist for use by the MTA regional planners in assessing whether grantees are in compliance with FTA regulations. Recently, she developed a new chapter for the Maryland operator’s manual on complying with various Civil Rights requirements including Title VI (including LEP and Environmental Justice), DBE, EEO and Emergency Preparedness and developed a training course for the Maryland systems on the topics. Transit Funding, Cost Analysis, Financing, and Fare Policy: Ms. Knapp also has extensive experience evaluating transit finance and fare policies. For example, she managed a project to assist the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization and a state-level task force in preparing a report for the Vermont State Legislature on financing transit services in Chittenden County, Vermont. She also managed a project to develop rail and bus allocation formulas for WMATA. In the 1990’s, Ms. Knapp was the Director of FTA's Resource Center on Transit Pricing. This Center provided assistance and information on fare policies, fare structure, fare collection and fare service/planning. She was also project manager for evaluation of demonstration projects on competitive services for the FTA and managed an FTA project to design pricing and marketing demonstrations. National Transit Research and Technical Assistance: Ms. Knapp’s extensive national-level project experience includes: · Principal Investigator for TCRP Project J-6 Task 70: Security Standards and Guidelines Pertinent to Public Transportation, in which she is compiling security standards and guidelines for transit for the APTA Security Standards and Policy Planning Committee (underway) · Principal Investigator for TCRP Project F-12: Employee Compensation Guidelines for Transit Providers in Rural and Small Urban Areas (underway) · Participated in TCRP Project B-31, resulting in TCRP Report 124: Guidebook for Measuring, Assessing, and Improving Performance of Demand-Response Transportation · Principal Investigator for TCRP Project B-14, resulting in TCRP Report 61: Analyzing the Costs of Operating Small Transit Vehicles · Principal Investigator for TCRP Project G-5, resulting in TCRP Report 54: Transit Manager Tool Kit for Rural and Small Urban Transportation Systems · Principal Investigator for NCHRP Project 20-65(7), resulting in NCHRP Research Results Digest 314: State DOT Staff Resources for Administering Federal Public Transportation Programs · Principal Investigator for NCHRP Project 20-65(11), resulting in NCHRP Research Results Digest 320: Current State Issues with Implementing FTA Section 5310 and 5311 Programs · Principal Investigator for NCHRP 20-65(16), Current State Eligibility Requirement for Grantees to Qualify for Federal Section 5310 and 5311 Funds (underway) · Project Manager for KFH Group’s efforts under NCHRP Project 20-65(3), resulting in NCHRP Research Results Digest 295: National Public Transportation/Intercity/Charter Bus Liability and Catastrophic Insurance Availability/Accessibility · Assistant Project Director on the U.S. Department study to monitor the implementation of the Department's regulation under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and on the evaluation of the Office of Human Development Transportation Demonstration Project for the U.S. Health and Human Services. Return to staff page	Education · M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Buffalo, · B.A., School of Architecture and Planning, University of Buffalo Previous Positions · Principal, Ecosometrics, Incorporated · Associate, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Company