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Samuel Cass
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Sam’s
career in transportation commenced in 1950 when he joined the staff of
the City of Toronto as the Assistant City Traffic Engineer.
Some 39 year later Sam retired from the Municipality of
Metropolitan Toronto as the Commissioner of Roads and Traffic.
During
Sam’s tenure, Toronto experienced significant growth in travel demand.
In 1953 the Province of Ontario passed the Municipality of
Metropolitan Toronto act creating a federated system of government made
up of the City of Toronto
and 12 other municipalities surrounding encompassing some 240 square
miles. And Sam was at the helm of an agency employing 300 staff and some 700 contract staff. By the time Sam retired, metro was responsible for over
427 miles (688 km) of arterial roads and over 1,570 traffic signals.
Toronto sought to offset and manage demand through the expansion of
public transportation, effective land use planning, and traffic
management. In 1963, Toronto implemented the world’s first application
of digital computers to operate a centralized traffic signal control
system. Sam was a visionary who was early to grasp the changing role of
transportation in shaping modern cities, and the public’s changing
expectations for transportation infrastucture.
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Sam
was a significant contributor to the profession’s technical literature
by authoring of over 36articles and papers. He wrote chapters in the
Traffic Engineering Handbook, 4th edition, An Introduction to
Transportation Engineering, and Transportation and Traffic Engineering
Handbook, 1st edition. He is a proponent of expanding the
horizon of the transportation professional to look around the world for
effective solutions to transportation needs and issues.
Sam also served as an adjunct professor at the University of
Toronto and a lecturer at the traffic training program of the Ontario
Traffic Conference.
Sam’s
service to ITE includes elective offices in ITE’s
Canadian District (formerly the Canadian Section) including President. He was also Head of Department 4 of Technical Council, chair
of the Urban Traffic Engineers Council, chair of the Program Development
Conference, Technical Program chair of the 1963 and 1979 Annual
Meetings; and memberships and chair of numerous other committees. Sam also was nominated to be a candidate for International
Secretary-Treasurer and for Vice President.
Sam
served on the Council of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada and
chaired the Signal Committee. He
unselfishly gave of his time and shared his experience through active
memberships in the Ontario Association of Professional Engineers, the
Ontario Traffic Conference, the Roads and Transportation Association of
Canada (now the Transportation Association of Canada), the
Transportation Research Board, the American Road and Transportation
Builder's Association, and the Ontario Good Roads Association.
Sam also served on committees of the National Highway Cooperative
Research Program.
Sam
has a B. A. Sc. With honors from the University of Toronto and a M. Eng.
in Civil Engineering-Transportation Planning from the University of
Waterloo. |
Institute of Transportation Engineers
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© 2008 Institute of Transportation
Engineers
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