For more on Mr. Cempel’s experience in the transportation consulting industry click here.
Mr. Cempel creates context-specific transportation plans to match a community’s needs.
Mr. Cempel has done MPO, county, city, and transit planning work in Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City, Memphis, San Francisco/Oakland, Atlanta, and Indianapolis, among others. Mr. Cempel developed a unanimously approved performance-based regional transportation plan for the Memphis MPO, utilizing best practices for project prioritization and tradeoff analysis. The plan includes a financially constrained list of transportation projects, along with recommendations for additional innovative funding sources. He worked closely with the MPO board and other elected officials and led numerous public meetings and events to achieve this community-driven plan in a region where transportation is truly a lynchpin for achieving equity and public health.
Mr. Cempel helps create effective, accountable transportation agencies that deliver transportation and economic outcomes in line with a community’s goals.
Mr. Cempel helped “write the book” on transportation performance management at the Federal level. He worked directly with FHWA and AASHTO to help Federal, state, regional, and local agencies prepare for the MAP-21 Federal transportation legislation. He managed Cambridge Systematics’ on-call contract with FHWA’s Office of Performance Management and oversaw tasks relating to rulemaking and guidance. He conducted training for FHWA leadership and staff on best practices in performance measurement and facilitated a National Forum on Performance-Based Planning. He helped develop a National Highway Institute course on Performance-Based Planning and Programming for state, regional, and transit agencies across the country, and delivered courses providing an overview of MAP-21 performance management provisions to states and MPOs. Prior to drafting the legislation, Mr. Cempel managed the evaluation of what measures to include in any national performance-based Federal-aid system, in separate projects for both AASHTO and FHWA. This work has included training and workshops for states, MPOs, and FHWA staff. Mr. Cempel also led the development of NCHRP Report 666 – Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies. Mr. Cempel managed the staff who lead Cambridge Systematics’ asset management work, incorporating the same elements of performance management, risk assessment, and tradeoff analysis as the work above.
Mr. Cempel helps agencies identify and acquire funding to implement their plans.
Mr. Cempel and his staff – at the request of the Indiana legislature – did a complete statewide assessment of funding across all levels of government, developed tools for quick assessment of different funding scenarios, and compared to needs via a statewide asset management assessment. He and his staff worked directly with the Commissioner of Transportation to disseminate the results to the legislature. Mr. Cempel examined tolling options for new highway facilities in Illinois, Indiana, California, and Minnesota. His staff prepared grants for agencies across the country, including numerous highly successful grants for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) program in Chicago. He is currently assisting Suffolk County, NY, with their countywide grants strategy, and helped the Peoria MPO through a series of large workshops develop a strategic approach to prioritizing projects and applying for funds. For the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (TA), Mr. Cempel led a study to develop a downtown parking pricing and regulation program examining both the public and private supply of on- and off-street parking. He also advised the TA on restructuring the City’s taxi system, focusing on medallions and franchising.
Mr. Cempel helps regions capture the economic potential of freight transportation while mitigating potential neighborhood impacts.
Mr. Cempel managed the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways Freight Plan, which will help determine the County’s role in freight planning and investment in the region. He prioritized Chicago’s freight needs and strategies for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), and he and his staff led planning and grant preparation for Chicago’s massive, successful CREATE rail infrastructure program. Mr. Cempel managed the evaluation of economic impacts of freight inter-modal facilities in Chicago’s southwest suburbs and Virginia on behalf of CenterPoint Properties, and more recently for such facilities in western Nebraska (which led to state grant funding). He also was the Deputy Project Manager for the Indiana DOT Freight and Mobility Study.