# Ben S (@bensh3.bsky.social)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/bensh3.bsky.social
Headline: Transit planning & geospatial analysis

## About

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.

## Experience

- **Planner at Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA)** (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 at City of Philadelphia** (2023 – 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 at Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania** (2022 – 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 at Econsult Solutions** (2022 – 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 at Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania** (2021 – 2022)
- **Statistical Programmer at Pfizer** (2019 – 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 at Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC)** (2018 – 2018)
  ›	Represented PCDC interests in civic/city planning meetings, including the Chinatown Neighborhood Plan and USDOT Reconnecting Communities Vine Street Expy grant

## Education

- **University of Pennsylvania** — Master of Urban Spatial Analysis (2021 – 2022)
- **Vanderbilt University** — Bachelor of Arts - BA (2014 – 2018)

## Skills

- Geospatial Modeling
- Transportation Planning
- Geospatial Data
- Spatial Analysis
- Data Science
- Data Visualization
- Data Analysis
- Data Modeling
- Smart Cities
- R (Programming Language)
- Python (Programming Language)
- Remote Sensing
- Community Outreach
- SQL
- Microsoft Excel
- Quantum GIS
- SAS (Programming Language)
- Quality Control
- JavaScript
- AutoCAD
- C++
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- Project Management
- ArcGIS Products

## Volunteering

- Public Participation Task Force Member at Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
- Civilian Environmental Advisory Committee Member, Councilwoman Katherine Gilmore-Richardson at City of Philadelphia

## Languages

- Chinese (professional_working)
- German (limited_working)