Steven Polzin

Steven Polzin is a research professor at TOMNET University Transportation Center School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

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16 years 6 months

Contributed 39 posts

Full Bio

Dr. Polzin is a research professor at TOMNET University Transportation Center School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Polzin carries out research in mobility analysis, public transportation, travel behavior, planning process development, and transportation decision-making. Dr. Polzin is on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Transportation and serves on several Transportation Research Board and APTA Committees. He recently completed several years of service on the board of directors of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (Tampa, Florida) and on the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization board of directors. Dr. Polzin worked for transit agencies in Chicago (RTA), Cleveland (GCRTA), and Dallas (DART) before joining the University of South Florida in 1988. Dr. Polzin is a Civil Engineering with a BSCE from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and master's and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University.

Travel and Cars – Fun with Numbers for 2008

Transportation and its relationship to the economy have been headline media topics for most of 2008 as we have seen unprecedented swings in fuel prices and travelers responding with declines in vehicle miles of travel (VMT) and unprecedented slowing in new vehicle sales. Transit and Amtrak have seen noticeable ridership growth and there have been cutbacks in demand for and supply of airline capacity. What is increasingly looking like an historic recession combined with a plummeting of gas prices late in 2008 has confounded the diagnosis of energy price impacts on travel.

Energy Crisis Solved

Technology innovation – that’s all we need to solve the energy crisis! Unleash American ingenuity and we’ll be able to cope with higher energy costs. The Windmillmobile, should go a long way toward reducing petroleum consumption. It seems to work fine unless there is a strong tailwind. The engineers are still working on the sensor to fold down the windmill for garages and overpasses.

Gas Prices Up a Nickel, It Must be Friday

America is facing more than just gasoline price inflation. The contemporary media is overwhelmed with stories on the impacts of higher fuel prices. The fingers are pointing in every direction. Planners are proposing everything from 50 year transit plans to build a handful of rail lines to forecasting a radical transformation of urban form and travel behavior. After exhaustive research to understand consumer responses to higher energy prices the analysis is complete and the results are in.

Time for Change? Skip the Change, I’ll Take Dollars!

I’ve been torn lately between two contradictory perspectives on the state of the country as it relates to providing transportation infrastructure and service.

Saving Ginormous Amounts of Energy

I couldn’t wait to use the new word, ginormous, which Merriam-Webster recently added to the Collegiate Dictionary. My spell checker has been trained and now I can get about the business of saving ginormous amounts of energy. Recent bouts of ecoterrorism in the form of Hummer vandalism in Washington D.C. and the growing media attention to the environmental hypocrisy of the travel and housing habits of card-carrying carbon footprint club members (take a gander at the 10,000 sq. ft. home of Al Gore or the 28,200 sq.