About Dan

	Dan grew up in sunny San Diego, California, where he quickly noticed that the city's unique geography of mesas and canyons channels drivers onto the freeway system, meaning nearly every trip outside of a neighborhood requires the use of a freeway. Freeways in key areas became blocked up, then widened, then blocked again as the capacity got used up. He wondered what would happen if San Diego's freeways could behave more like a rail network? If they did, they might carry many more people in the limited space available. Freeways have limited access; people can only get on and off at specific exits. Everyone travels along the same narrow route. How is that different from a metro to the passengers in the car? These ideas first sparked his interest in how transportation networks function and led him to study public transit and vehicle automation.
	A 2006 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Dan holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. His senior project involved designing, building, and flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (or UAV) for under $10,000. He was selected to manage the project and led a team of five students in a successful effort sponsored by the U.S. government.
	After graduation, Dan served for five years as an officer in the United States Navy. Dan trained as a helicopter pilot, and was assigned to HSL-46, the "Grandmasters" of Mayport, Florida. He deployed once to the Horn of Africa as part of a counter-piracy task force in 2010 and was responsible for preventing the capture of several merchant vessels. He is a FAA certified commercial pilot and has 700 hours of helicopter flight time.
	Dan recently finished grad school at the University of California, Berkeley's College of Engineering and College of Environmental Design. He received his Master of Science in Transportation Engineering and Master of City Planning in December 2014. His research interests include designing for self-driving cars and public transit. He is specifically interested in the nexus between engineering, design and communications. His graduate thesis involves designing a visualization that shows what a person can access in transit at certain periods of time. A prototype of this tool is the walking map, on this site.
	After leaving the military, Dan worked for San Diego County's planning department for nearly one year, before leaving to enter graduate school. While at school, he has been working as an intern in the Transit Engineering section of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). His work at the SFMTA ranges widely but his main interest is developing graphics and communication materials that help the public understand what is being proposed and the effects that it will have. He feels this work best combines his skill in engineering, planning, and design.
	Dan's passion is public transportation, and he specifically focuses on the user experience. Dan believes anything that can improve a passenger's experience is his job, whether it is shorter travel time, more predictable service, clear signage and wayfinding, better station design, or presenting information well. In his free time, Dan enjoys cycling, hiking, sailing and snowboarding, and he loves living in the Bay Area where all of these things are within easy reach.

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