Omar J. Peters
a transportation plannerd & dayton transplant
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About
Omar is a transportation planner for the Miami Valley region in Ohio and a recent transplant to Greater Downtown Dayton.
Passionate about cities and technology, he is interested in ways technological innovations can make cities even better places to live – specifically in the uses of GIS and the Web for civic engagement in planning bicycle, transit and pedestrian transportation.
A true plannerd, Omar is usually preoccupied in all things planning, but can otherwise be found engrossed in the newest triple-A video game, sci-fi TV dramas or following the latest Apple product rumors.
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Info
- Summary
Omar J. Peters is an urban planner with professional experience in transportation planning at the Metropolitian Planning Organization (MPO) level.
He is passionate about cities and technology, and is interested in ways technological innovations can help urban planners make cities better places to live.
Specifically, Omar is interested in the uses of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Web technologies and other planning support systems for transportation planning and civic engagement. He is especially drawn to providing better active transportation, transit and pedestrian oriented infrastructure.
Experience- Aug 2011 - PresentRegional Transportation Planner I / Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
At MVRPC, the regional planning agency and designated MPO for the Dayton region, Omar is on the Long-Range Transportation team which developes a 20-year strategy for an efficient allocation of funds into the transportation system. Particularly, Omar administers the traffic volume monitoring program and analyzes the Region's roadway crashes and safety conditions.
- May 2010 - Jan 2011Planning Intern / Capital District Transportation Committee
At CDTC, a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), tasked with planning and programming transportation projects in New York’s Capital Region, Omar assisted planning staff with a wide array of transportation and land use projects. Those included collecting infield data, traffic and trip generation counts, research for preparation of CDTC’s reports and documents, and developing web-based public outreach material.
- Aug 2010 - Dec 2010Consultant / UAlbany Masters of Regional Planning Studio
As part of a faculty-led consultant team, Omar conducted a feasibility study for a 14-mile inter-municipal, inter-modal trail for Columbia County, New York. Tasks included collecting, analyzing and visualizing field data in GIS to identify opportunities and challenges for future trail use. Omar coordinated communications as point-of-contact between the consultant team and local Trail Committee Members, and developed a website for outreach to area residents and landowners.
- Oct 2008 - Jul 2009GIS/Planning Intern / WILMAPCO
At WILMAPCO, the MPO for the Wilmington, Delaware urbanized area, Omar performed entry-level work in GIS and transportation planning. These tasks included assembling and analyzing of technical data for presentation in analytical reports, maps and other graphic outputs for public distribution.
- Jun 2008 - Aug 2008GIS Intern / WFLHD - US DOT Federal Highway Administration
At a regional office of the FHWA Federal Lands Highway, the Western Federal Lands Highway Division (WFLHD), Omar assisted with the incorporation of a GIS by collaborating with highway project managers and planners to compile and synthesize a database of projects’ locations. After the completion of the 2-month assignment, a presentation was made in a student symposium at DOT, Washington D.C.
Education-
2009 - 2011University at AlbanyMasters in Urban and Regional Planning
Activities: Graduate Planning Student Association -
2005 - 2009University of DelawareBA in Geography
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Honors:Paul D. Marr Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Student in MRP, May 2011 Best Paper on Technology in Planning, APA Technology Division, April 2011 Marie Donaghay Award for Outstanding Service in Geography. Spring 2009. Delaware Valley Geographical Association Award. Spring 2008. Undergrad Science Research Scholar, University of Delaware. Spring 2007. Deanʼs List. University of Delaware. Fall 2005 to Spring 2009.
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Interests:Urban Planning, GIS, City and Technology, Public Transit, Walkable Communities
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Work
- As a transportation planner, Omar's work involves analyzing data such as demographic information and roadway crashes, and presenting the findings to policy makers and the general public, empowering them to make informed decisions regarding investments in transportation infrastructure.For his graduate research, he identified ways transportation planning agencies are engaging the general public, including web-based, Web 2.0, social media and traditional offline methods. Read the summary paper or full research project.
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Tweets
- Bike-Share May Not Take Cars Off the Road. Survey says only 4% of riders would have use car if no bike-share http://t.co/cXDjVkaGMe
- 53% of pedestrians age 16+ killed in nighttime crashes in 2011 had blood alcohol concentrations at or above 0.08% http://t.co/v0gfm8KX7i
- Using RFID technology and ZAP readers, record their commuter travel, and provide incentives for choosing to bike http://t.co/SaVRLvlKfG
- A dream-come-true for transportation planners: companies like this 1 are using cell phone data to track pop mvment http://t.co/2OuTCYR88y
- "Tactial Urbanism HERE is a new way to share, discover, and inspire tactical urbanism in Denver" http://t.co/I2OVFBJmG5
- The vast majority of traffic crashes are caused by humans. A landmark study by Treat 1979 found that human factors led to 93% of crashes
- Walk Your City Dayton OH. New @WalkYourCity signs downtown to illustrate the ease in waking to destinations. http://t.co/0RLCuf9l3C
- RT @lutzfernandez: Farewell to the Gas Station: The Demise of a Car Culture Icon http://t.co/no3xrLBwwm via @thedailybeast
- This #Dayton cyclist has the right idea. Bike Month! http://t.co/s3EdlWKzei
- May is Bike Month. Go forth and ride! @ Downtown Dayton http://t.co/wdEiXQiIfA
- 41 cities in the US have or are launching bike-shares, So we've taken to calling 2013 the Year of the Bike Share http://t.co/rpWNGxV82o
- Tilt-shift, timelapse, city video. One of my favorite things, and this is probably the best I've seen. http://t.co/YPKYb00twR
- The % of drivers texting or using hand-held increased significantly for a 2nd yr from 0.9% in 2010 to 1.3% in 2011 http://t.co/MZigvkHX77
- 10% of fatal crashes in 2011 were reported as distraction- affected crashes. Likewise for 17% of injury-causing http://t.co/BnrG6Wv0z8
- Road crashes are well documented, but how do we capture data on near misses? TA has new web map: 'Crash Stories' http://t.co/Drdysout42
- I'm excited for the @UpDayton 2013 Summit tomorrow. ESP the Livability session & Mayor Fetterman.#stepupd8n http://t.co/t0lVaEimVd
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