The books of May are here—fresh, fierce, and full of feels.
Alan Pisarski
For almost 40 years Alan E. Pisarski has been involved in
the national transportation policy scene, from vantage
points at the original Tri-State Transportation Commission
in New York, the Metropolitan Washington COG, the Office of
the Secretary, U.S. DOT, or in a personal consulting
capacity. In his work he has measured the transportation
activities of our nation from the metropolitan, state,
national and international levels. In the U.S. DOT he
organized the major travel surveys of the nation and
designed and managed the U.S. transportation statistical
system under the Assistant Secretary for Policy,
establishing programs that are still the basis of much of
the U.S. transportation statistical system today. He has
benefited greatly throughout his career from having had the
privilege of working with many of the best people in the
profession.
As a consultant in transportation public policy, travel
behavior analysis and statistics his clients include all of
the major transportation associations, most of the
countries statistical agencies, including the new Bureau of
Transportation Statistics. Outside the U.S. his clients
have included the World Bank, AID, The European Tourism
Commission and the World Tourism Organization. He has
conducted seminars in travel and tourism around the world
for more than 100 countries; and is the author of an
international standard classification of tourism activities
promulgated by the UN.
His work related to transportation, particularly commuting
and travel behavior, has been reviewed, discussed and
quoted in all of the major national news magazines, and
newspapers, appearing often on major national radio and
television network programs, including "Good Morning
America," ABC Nightly News," "Nightline," and "20/20,"
discussing national transportation topics, and recently
served as content advisor to a three hour NPR public
television series on transportation. His works have been
translated into at least eight languages. He is perhaps
best known for his major studies of American commuting
patterns produced for a consortium of public interest
groups, entitled "Commuting in America" and Commuting in
America II."
Mr. Pisarski's TRB participation spans 30 years, having
chaired four Committees and served on two others. He
presently serves as Chair of the Committee on National
Transportation Data Requirements and Programs, and the
Committee on Transportation History, and is the past chair
of the Group 5 Council. He also serves on the Editorial
Boards of the Journal of Transportation and Statistics, of
the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and of
Transportation Quarterly of the Eno Transportation
Foundation. Internationally, he has represented the U.S on
the United Nation's Group of Experts in Transport
Statistics and served on the UN's Expert Group in
Statistical Classification Systems. He has degrees in
Economics and Sociology and is a resident of Lake Barcroft
Virginia.