Ben S

@bensh3.bsky.social

Transit planning & geospatial analysis

Planner at Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)

Transit planner from Philadelphia, working for Philadelphia. I'm passionate about abundant and equitable transportation & mobility in every neighborhood, while utilizing visual communication, analytics, and effective management, using R, Python, SQL databases, and frontend frameworks to get there. To this end, I worked as an organizer for several years in Philadelphia transit advocacy, helping win transformative policies such as free transfers between SEPTA transit routes.I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 with a master's in Urban Spatial Analytics, where I was able to channel my broad knowledge of transit and urban policy into geospatial analytics, creative visualization, and predictive modeling. I'm now committed to further my career in the public sector, directly working with public officials and residents to envision implement groundbreaking transit improvements.

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Career: 7

Planner

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)

Nov 2024 - Present

› Implement SEPTA's Reimagining Regional Rail master plan through service development and corridor design process, supporting higher frequencies and reliable service across the Philadelphia metro › Perform data analytics and modeling for ridership analysis & on-time performance on Regional Rail

Transit Project Coordinator

City of Philadelphia

Feb 2023 - Oct 2024

› Analyze, plan, and improve surface transit and cycling in Center City/University City Philadelphia through street and traffic design interventions, partnering with SEPTA/PennDOT/Streets Department › Project management for a new long-term intercity bus terminal in Philadelphia (conceptual analysis/design)

GIS and Data Analyst

Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania

Jan 2022 - Jan 2023

› Created map/data viz portfolio in R for draft book by Netter Center director Ira Harkavy, analyzing 60 years of socioeconomic change in West Philadelphia under urban renewal

Extern

Econsult Solutions

Mar 2022

› Researched urban transportation equity measures across five US cities to support the ESI Center for the Future of Cities program › Devised a metric for trail accessibility on the neighborhood level using open data

Senior Statistician

Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania

Oct 2021 - Jan 2022

Statistical Programmer

Pfizer

Jan 2019 - Aug 2021

› Analyzed and processed 10+ years of clinical trial data using SAS/SQL/R, producing standardized reports for FDA drug development submissions › Contributed towards accelerated FDA submission of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, compressing three years of work into nine months

Intern

Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC)

Jun 2018 - Sep 2018

› Represented PCDC interests in civic/city planning meetings, including the Chinatown Neighborhood Plan and USDOT Reconnecting Communities Vine Street Expy grant

Education: 2

University of Pennsylvania

Master of Urban Spatial Analysis

Aug 2021 - May 2022

Public Policy Analytics › Built temporal-spatial regression model and data visualization on NJ Transit train delay data using R, accurately predicting for delays by time of day and station Geospatial Data Science in Python › Analyzed longitudinal trends in worker-residence spatial dynamics in Philadelphia region using Python, utilizing origin-destination analysis Transportation Planning Methods › Studied VISSIM/VISUM, 4-step transportation demand modeling, history and theories of US transportation, policy analysis, analysis of origin-destination travel surveys, cost-benefit analysis, environmental review analysis Practice of Transportation Planning › Presented case study and white paper on initiatives and recommendations for transit in Montreal (Reseau express metropolitan) light rail system

Activities / Societies: MUSA Student Rep, Weitzman Student Council Graduate Student Rep, Penn Transit Advisory Committee

Vanderbilt University

Bachelor of Arts - BA

2014 - 2018

Activities / Societies: Vanderbilt Commodore Orchestra, Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science

Volunteering: 2

Public Participation Task Force Member

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

Jan 2022 - Present

Monitor, review, and vision MPO work items (Long Range Plan, Transportation Improvement Program) with a focus on equity and public outreach

Civilian Environmental Advisory Committee Member, Councilwoman Katherine Gilmore-Richardson

City of Philadelphia

Jul 2020 - Jan 2023

Advise on legislative priorities around sustainable policy, particularly around transit and land use equity

Languages: 2

Chinese(Professional working)

German(Limited working)

Skills: 24

Technical

AutoCADC++Data AnalysisData ScienceJavaScriptMicrosoft ExcelPython (Programming Language)R (Programming Language)

SQL

Business

Data VisualizationProject Management

Community

Community Outreach

Other

ArcGIS ProductsData ModelingGeographic Information Systems (GIS)Geospatial DataGeospatial ModelingQuality ControlQuantum GISRemote Sensing

SAS (Programming Language)Smart CitiesSpatial AnalysisTransportation Planning

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Bluesky (@bensh3.bsky.social)