Mass Transit - 43

Michelle Zeidman is
a planning analyst and the
Washington State Department
of Transportation (WSDOT)-Washington State Ferries
(WSF), where she and her
colleague, Justin Resnick,
work to optimize the on-time
performance sailings and
create sailing schedules that
must consider ridership, vessel
maintenance and preservation
needs, fuel consumption and
operational efficiencies.
"Every day I wake up excited to
use data to better understand
human behavior and trends,
and how they relate to the
services provided by WSF. I love
jigsaw puzzles, and because
WSF system has so many parts,
it's like a giant puzzle to solve,"
said Zeidman. "I get a detailed
view of all the pieces and put
them together so that others
can see the big picture about
what's working and what's not."
The COVID-19 pandemic
caused ridership to plummet
and Zeidman and Resnick
have been working every

"Listen to and engage with front line staff and customers.
They have critically important perspectives about
your service and can provide valuable insights into
how the system is working. They can validate data
and provide nuance that hard numbers can't easily
offer. There is no substitute for visiting the fleet and
talking with colleagues from across the agency."
day-including weekends-to
provide executives with realtime updates on ridership,
help make difficult service
reduction decisions and
overhaul schedules that would
normally take months to
overhaul in a matter of days.
Some of the work product
is being delivered directly to
the state's governor as he
also needs to consider traffic
and transit data to inform his
own decisions. Zeidman and
Resnick are accomplishing all
this work remotely, without

any special transportation
planning technology or tools.
As a result, the rest of WSDOT
and other transit agencies are
looking to WSF as a model
of how to respond to service
reductions in a time of crisis.

Michelle
Zeidman
Planning Analyst
WSDOT-
Washington State
Ferries (WSF)

Zeidman serves on the City
of Seattle's Transit Advisory
Board. She is also helping
WSDOT put together a
multimodal transportation
system performance dashboard
to help other agencies
respond to the pandemic.

Fact: As King County Mobility Manager, Zeidman led the
creation of multilingual videos to help people learn to ride
transit and use community-based transportation service.
MassTransitmag.com/21150002

Model CX Bi-Directional Derail for
Wood, Steel, or Concrete Ties
* Universal Fit
* No Sizing
* No Adzing
* No Shimming
* No Cropping
Tie Plates
* No Removal
of Anchors

US & CA PATENT PENDING

WESTERN-CULLEN-HAYES, INC.
2700 West 36th Place Chicago, IL 60632-1617
Phone (773) 254-9600 Fax (773) 254-1110
Web Site: www.wch.com E-mail: wch@wch.com

For more information, visit www.MassTransitmag.com/10065851

For more information, visit www.MassTransitmag.com/10065991
JULY/AUGUST 2020 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit |

43
http://www.MassTransitmag.com/21150002 http://www.ltk.com http://www.wch.com http://www.MassTransitmag.com/10065851 http://www.MassTransitmag.com/10065991 http://www.MassTransitmag.com
Mass Transit

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Mass Transit
