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Biography
Ms. Fatemeh Ranaiefar joined Fehr & Peers after her PhD. graduation from University of California, Irvine in 2013. She specialized in freight transportation modeling, developing performance measures, and developing decision support tools for prioritizing projects to address freight issues. Even though “models” are great tools but observed freight data is a gem can tell the real story so much better! In recent years Fatemeh focused on using commercial fleet GPS probe data and other available public or crowd source freight data to describe the needs and impacts of freight transportation systems. Preparing meaningful statistics, understanding the limitations of the data, who is over/underrepresented in the samples or surveys and how trends are changing over time are important details that helps developing more practical and successful solutions.

She has provided several training workshops for public agencies’ empowering staff to understand the freight data analytics, develop and evaluate freight forecasting scenario alternatives and assess projects and strategies under these scenarios based on comprehensive freight performance measures. Her recent major projects are California Freight Mobility Plan (CFMP 2020), California Statewide Freight Forecasting Model (CSFFM) development, SCAG Heavy Duty Truck Model Update, Utah Statewide Freight Model update, Virginia State Truck Parking Study, SANDAG Gateway study, impacts and opportunities of freight for SCAG communities and NCHRP 20-102(22) State and Local Impacts of Automated Freight Transportation Systems.

She is passionate about research community and developing next generation of transportation enthusiasts. She serves on TRB Urban Freight and Freight Transportation Planning and Logistics committees. She teaches transportation modeling to Master students at USC and guide students on their dissertation.

Co-presenter Biography
Troy Simpson is a data-focused transportation planner, passionate about transportation performance metrics and data equity for all modes. He studied Geographic Information Systems at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2018, with a minor in City and Regional Planning offered through the UNC DCRP. Troy was a 'resident undergrad' in the graduate school there, happily attending his first TRB as a junior.

After graduation, Troy worked for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning in sub-regional TIP programming, completely overhauling the STP distribution model using scalable and comprehensive GIS methods to back performance-based programming against political pushback. He now works for Ecopia AI as an industry specialist in transportation, helping apply a planner's lens to manage the complexity of and communicate the potential applications of digital twins as the volume of representative data grows.

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