Thomas Brown, Senior Associate

Tom is based in our New York office. Tom has completed several major parking and access studies for Nelson\Nygaard. Most recently, he has conducted comprehensive reviews of zoning code requirements for parking for the District of Columbia (2007), Raleigh, North Carolina (2008), and Abu Dhabi, UAE (2009). In 2006-07, Tom coordinated a downtown parking and access study in Ann Arbor, Michigan that re-framed parking as an access means rather than an end in itself and resulted in a strategic set of multi-modal mobility investments that are being implemented today — including pricing strategies, commuter bus service, and a coordinated, public valet-parking service. Tom’s TDM planning work includes a recently completed review of the City of Alexandria’s Transportation Management Plan program and a 2008 review of inter-agency processes and coordination for Arlington County’s Site Plan Review process.”
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Brian Canepa, Senior Associate

Brian Canepa is a transportation planner specializing in innovative parking strategies, transit-oriented development (TOD), and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) programs. Working at Nelson\Nygaard, he has developed parking management and alternative mode plans for downtowns, transit centers, and individual developments in conjunction with members of the public, county planning staff, and transit officials. Brian emphasizes planning approaches that include cost-effective policies, multi-modal connectivity, and community participation. He has recently developed several parking and TDM plans for districts and developments in Oakland, Oxnard, San Carlos, Pasadena, and other California cities. Brian’s experience also includes the crafting of transportation form-based codes and campus transportation plans for universities throughout California.
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Scott Chapman, Senior Associate

Scott has been responsible for various transit operations analysis, data collection and transportation research. Scott has evaluated paratransit operations and ridership characteristics for a number of small- and large-sized agencies. He has contributed toward a number of coordination plans in California, Washington and Oregon in response to SAFETEA-LU/United We Ride requirements.

Scott has analyzed scheduling and dispatch tools, estimated demand, surveyed riders and operators and/or reviewed financial operations for paratransit services in Boise, Idaho, Port Angeles, Washington and Bend, Oregon. He has also developed small community and rural transit plans throughout Oregon and Washington that included a focus on the needs of seniors and people with disabilities. Scott also participated in the development of system requirements for a paratransit traveler information system for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
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Stephanie Denis, Senior Associate

Stephanie Denis has over six years of experience as a multimodal planner with a focus on transit and pedestrian facilities. She specializes in transit planning and coordination, and has extensive experience in rural transit service.  Stephanie has completed non-motorized data collection, level of service analyses at transit stations, corridors, and downtowns in New Orleans, and the Washington DC area.  She has led community walking tours identifying barriers to walking and cycling in and around New York City. 
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Ralph DeNisco, Senior Associate

Ralph J. DeNisco has over 14 years of transportation planning experience, with a history of successfully implementing a variety of transportation projects in challenging environments. His energy and devotion to making transportation systems work smartly and fairly has earned him great praise in the Boston planning community. Working as Project Manager, Ralph has effectively led public and interagency processes to develop transit, non-motorized, streetscape, and parking policies and improvements. He has channeled his understanding of interrelated transportation issues into actions able to win the collective support of residents, businesses, and governing agencies. . Having spent 10 years working for the City of Boston Transportation Department, Ralph's public sector experience continually informs his perspective on how to develop recommendations that get implemented, and he excels in projects that utilize his grounded but broad-based transportation planning and public process experience. A perfect fit for Nelson\Nygaard, Ralph will be leading multi-modal and parking projects throughout the Northeast.
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Paul Lutey, Senior Associate

Paul is based in Nelson\Nygaard’s Portland office and has been with the firm for over nine years. He specializes in all elements of transit service planning, including feasibility studies, service evaluations and community outreach. Paul has utilized his skills on a number of planning projects around the country ranging from very small rural communities to large urban areas. Recent projects include a series of coordinated transportation plans in northern California, a Transit Development Plan in Trinity County, California and a regional transit study in Prescott/Prescott Valley, Arizona. Paul has also been heavily involved in several streetcar feasibility studies in Minneapolis and Everett, Washington, as well as evaluations of high capacity transit service in Seattle and Portland. In addition to his planning background, Paul has assisted transit agencies with various marketing efforts, including the development of transit brochures and websites.
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Ross Peterson, Senior Associate

Ross Peterson is a skilled and energetic transportation planner with six years of experience in highway and public transit planning.   Ross’s core areas of expertise include planning, financial analysis, facilitation, and policy development in the areas of community transportation coordination and travel demand management.  Recent planning work ranges from implementation and evaluation of Travel Demand Management (TDM) strategies in Daybreak, a new urbanist-style development in South Jordan, Utah, to development of an algorithm to help the Utah Department of Transportation identify emerging areas needing additional planning support.  His work in financial analysis includes the development of a cost allocation model for coordinating transportation programs in rural Utah, as well as cost-benefit analysis of transit and TDM strategies.  Ross has planned and facilitated numerous group discussions ranging from small focus groups to large open-house style gatherings.   He has also worked closely with the Utah Department of Transportation to revise the state’s transit related policies and procedures.
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Manuel Soto, Senior Associate

Manuel is a Mass Transit Planner/Designer skilled in service planning, route network design, operations planning and scheduling, GIS analysis and market research.  He has more than 15 years of experience in urban planning, transportation planning, and transit operations planning.  Manuel’s expertise includes the service planning, operational design and implementation of BRT, Commuter Express, Fixed-Route, and Shuttle service for public and private systems across the US.  He has wide ranging experience in service performance evaluation, service restructuring, ridership forecasting, and assessment of mobility needs.  His project experience includes: the master plan and service implementation of Metro Rapid Bus service for the Los Angeles County MTA; service design and implementation of Microsoft’s Connector (Microsoft’s employee only commuter bus system); shuttle service planning for the Chicago Central Area; market analysis, ridership forecasting, and service planning for the Community DASH service in Los Angeles; comprehensive operational analysis (COA) for the Maryland Transit Administration (Baltimore, MD), the Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority (Silicon Valley, CA), and Long Beach Transit (California); and implementation of inter-facility and commuter shuttle services for Children’s Hospital in Seattle, WA.
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Kara Vuicich, Senior Associate, AICP

Kara has 10 years of experience as a transportation planner and has re-joined Nelson Nygaard after working for seven years at the City of Berkeley, California in the city’s Transportation Division.  She combines her knowledge and understanding of multi-modal transportation planning with her experience implementing transportation projects and programs to provide communities with effective tools that they can use to achieve their vision. As a transportation planner for the City of Berkeley, she worked on a wide range of transportation plans and projects, including parking management and pricing, TDM programs, transit service planning including bus rapid transit, bicycle and pedestrian planning, transportation funding and financing, development requirements and land use policies, and project implementation and management. She has extensive experience working with diverse stakeholders, including community members, business districts and merchant associations, elected officials, appointed boards and commissions, and other public agencies. While at Nelson Nygaard previously, her work focused on public participation and comprehensive transportation planning, as well as transit planning, program evaluation, and design and implementation of TDM programs.
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