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He managed the planning, study and
design of improvements to reduce congestion and increase roadway
capacity, including SMART corridors, alternate modes of transportation
and various transportation planning systems. His work was at the leading
edge of meeting the demands of regional mobility. As the needs of the
public changed, his focus changed from traffic, parking and site-access
plans for major developments to plans for mitigation of traffic
congestion.
In 1994 Walter joined PB/Farradyne as Senior Vice
President. To this position, he brought his concerns for mobility and
has become an international leader in the development and deployment of
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). He has lectured at many
international events, including a number of conferences in China.
Walter has clearly demonstrated that he has taken to
heart the goal of the profession: Safe and efficient movement of people
and goods. Walter understood the importance of mobility, whether
translated through traffic studies, parking plans, or congestion
mitigation of major new developments. He showed how the solutions to the
mobility problem have had to change with the times by always being
willing to investigate new tools and new approaches. The current
manifestation of that attitude is his leadership in the ITS field.
Walter embraces ITS because of his engineer’s insight that this is a
tool, or a toolbox full of tools, that responds to today’s mobility
and safety needs with the best we have available.
Walter has been an Adjunct Professor at the New
Jersey Institute of Technology and the Polytechnical Institute of New
York and has lectured at several other universities. He is a registered
professional engineer in many states as well as a registered
professional planner in New Jersey and a registered traffic engineer in
California. He is a member of numerous professional societies, including
the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Transportation Research
Board (TRB), American Society of Highway Engineers and National Society
of Professional Engineers. Walter has been very active in ASCE and TRB.
ASCE awarded him the Metropolitan Section Robert Ridgway Award in 1962
and the Frank Masters Award in 1982. He chaired TRB’s Committee on
Intermodal Transfer Facilities and served as a Member of the Committee
on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service and the Committee on Freeway
Operations.
Walter’s service to ITE is immeasurable, as was
noted when he received the Burton W. Marsh Distinguished Service Award
in 1992. Besides this award, a few special contributions stand out. The
first is the fact that Walter has always been a mentor to young
professionals. He not only brought new people into ITE, he
challenged them to contribute, and to lead, and counseled them on how
they might best do it. Many of the leaders of the N.Y. Metropolitan
Section, District 1 and even the International Board of Direction are
people who accepted that challenge. Walter continues to accept
challenges himself. After serving as International President in 1987, he
was not content to fade into the woodwork. When President Alan Gonseth
decided ITE needed to look at the future of ITE in a rigorous way, he
asked Walter to chair the Future Directions Advisory Committee. The
constitutional amendments that were overwhelmingly approved are a
tribute to his work on that effort. When ITE leadership had a
new vision of how the technical side could be better organized and
operated, they turned to Walter to chair the Intelligent Vehicle Highway
Systems/ITS Council and make that council the model for the new
approach. He eagerly rose to the task. |