Transportation Planner

Description:

Responsible professional urban and regional transportation planning work supporting the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Madison urban area. A primary responsibility of the position is the operation and maintenance of a regional travel demand forecast model for generating traffic and transit use forecasts to support MPO planning work activities. Other general responsibilities include preparing socioeconomic data forecasts and assembling and analyzing other data for transportation planning and modeling purposes; providing assistance with the preparation of multi-modal transportation plans, reports and studies; providing assistance with the annual update to the Transportation Improvement Program; and providing staff support to the MPO policy board and MPO advisory committees.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Knowledge of land use and transportation planning principles, including trip generation and distribution, roadway capacity and level-of-service, and land use/travel relationships.  
• Knowledge of techniques and practices in travel demand modeling, preferably with ability to maintain and operate travel demand modeling software, in particular TP+/CUBE.  
• Considerable knowledge and experience with geographic information systems (ArcGIS) and Microsoft Excel.  
• Ability to assemble, manipulate, and analyze land use, socio-economic, Census, traffic, and other data related to transportation planning purposes, and to prepare graphic materials and maps (with GIS staff assistance) to effectively present the materials. 
• Excellent technical writing and communication skills to convey technical material to non-technical audiences.  
• Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships. Knowledge of Metropolitan Planning Organization procedures and Federal rule requirements related to transportation planning and programming processes for large urban areas is helpful.
• Graduation from an accredited college or university with a degree in Urban/Regional Planning, Civil Engineering, Urban Studies,  or related studies or programs. Other combinations of training and/or experience which can be demonstrated to result in possession of the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to perform the duties of this position will also be considered.
• At least two years of professional land use/transportation planning or traffic engineering experience, comparable to duties and responsibilities gained as a Planner 1 with the City of Madison, is required to be hired at the Planner 2 level.