Ever since my first bicycle tour around Lake Erie with American Youth Hostels when I was thirteen years old, I’ve fallen in love with bicycling and have never looked back. My favorite thing about bicycling is that it allows me to cover a fair amount of ground while still remaining connected to the place in which I’m traveling. On a bicycle, my senses are at their peak – I feel the road in which I ride, my vision is much sharper, and even my sense of smell is more acute.
Bicycling has become my preferred means of transportation because it provides me with everything that I could ever ask for in a transportation mode – reliability, independence, affordability, exercise, recreation and even a clean conscience. I’ve been bicycle commuting my whole life and it definitely feels satisfying to do my part to mitigate climate change through my carbon free commute.
My passion for bicycling undoubtedly influenced my decision to become a transportation planner. Now that I work for Alta Planning + Design, I feel very fortunate to be able to work with communities throughout the country to make them more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
Sam Corbett recently joined Alta Planning + Design’s San Diego office. Sam has more than ten years of experience as a transportation planner and manager specializing in transportation demand management, pedestrian and bicycle planning, program development, transportation system improvements, survey design and analysis, implementation and evaluation techniques, and public outreach and communication strategies. He brings a unique combination of planning and operational skill sets from working extensively in both the public and private sectors. Sam is skilled at producing “real world” solutions and assisting clients with the implementation process. Sam is an avid bicycle commuter and long distance runner, having run the Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Big Sur and San Diego Rock ‘n Roll marathons.
Recent Projects
UCSD Transit and Shuttle Funding Study (San Diego, CA)
UCSD spends more than $7M each year in providing transit and shuttle service to the campus community, which is financially challenging in the current budget environment. In this study effort, Sam served as project manager to evaluate whether the campus should continue providing these services and if so, to explore alternative funding options to ensure that these programs became more self sufficient. The study included an extensive amount of campus outreach, including a campus-wide online survey which generated approximately 9,000 responses. As a result of this study effort, transit and shuttle service to the campus community has been preserved, contingent upon an upcoming student vote on a fee referendum which would generate $3M in revenue to fund these vital campus services.
UCSD Alternative Transportation Study (San Diego, CA)
This study was completed to evaluate the effectiveness and overall value of UCSD’s alternative transportation programs, including its shuttle operations, carpool, vanpool, bicycling, pedestrian, transit and car-sharing programs. Sam served as project manager for this study effort, which resulted in the adoption of a campus-wide strategy to accommodate increasing numbers of campus commuters via alternative transportation, instead of building additional parking structures.
UCLA Bicycle Master Plan (Los Angeles, CA)
As a means of improving bicycling conditions to, from and on the UCLA campus, a bicycle master plan was created in 2005-06 for the Westwood campus. Sam served as project manager and author of the bicycle master plan and worked extensively with the campus community to better understand the campus priorities and to develop solutions to make the campus more bicycle oriented.
UCLA Annual Transportation Surveys (Los Angeles, CA)
UCLA completes annual cordon count surveys to assess commuting trends among the campus population and to ensure compliance with the Long Range Development Plan. Sam managed the data collection process, analyzed the data and presented the key findings from the cordon count to key committees and stakeholders at UCLA.
Selected Presentations & Trainings
2008 UC Sustainability and Association of Commuter Transportation conferences, “If You Build It – They May NOT Come – How to Advance Sustainable Transportation and Save Your Campus $50 million”
2007 UC Sustainability Conference, “Wheels of the Future – Developing a Successful Bicycle Program for a University Campus”
Selected Publications
“Running on Fumes: How Increasing Gas Prices Are Impacting Transportation Choices,” TDM Review, Issue 3, 2008a, pp. 8-11.
Local Option Transportation Taxes in the United States, co-authored with Martin Wachs and Todd Goldman, University of California Transportation Center (UCTC 524), 2001.
