Alison Townsend, AICP

Alison Townsend is an urban trans­porta­tion planner who has worked with both the public and private sectors to develop and execute their visions for complete corridors of the future. Her areas of expertise include project management, alter­na­tives analyses, demographic and ridership forecasting, developing inputs for travel demand modeling, survey methodology, data collection and benefit cost analyses, and envi­ron­men­tal docu­men­ta­tion.

Prior to joining CDM Smith, Alison served as a project manager for the Seattle Department of Trans­porta­tion (SDOT) where she oversaw the conceptual design phase of the Rainier Transit Plus Multimodal Corridor. “It was a corridor with several overlapping projects, the largest of which was a Vision Zero safety study. It soon became evident that the team was being forced to make safety improvement recom­men­da­tions that conflicted with the speed and reliability improve­ments that would set the stage for future BRT service in the corridor,” she says.

Alison success­fully worked with SDOT leadership and the project team to coordinate efforts and solve their various goals, and she is eager to continue this industry-leading work in her new position at CDM Smith. “I hope to go back to work on that same corridor—as a consultant—when King County Metro commences on the next phase of design for RapidRide BRT service. It has all the components of a complete corridor; I would love to pick up where I left off,” she says.