The University of Pennsylvania is establishing a new transportation think tank led by Leslie S. Richards, the former SEPTA general manager and Pennsylvanian Secretary of Transportation.
Called the Richards Transportation Initiative at Penn (R-TRIP), the organization will work on practical innovations to improve mass transit, air travel, highways, and tolling systems. It will be housed in the university’s Institute for Urban Research,
“Great research should move quickly into action,” said Richards, professor of practice in the department of urban planning at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design.
“We’re creating a platform where public agencies, private partners and academic leaders can work together to develop and implement smart, scalable solutions,” she said.
The Richards institute is hosting launch events on campus Oct. 16 and 17.
Richards, 58, resigned and left SEPTA in late November 2024, after leading the transit agency through the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath, a time of ridership losses and financial problems. She was the second woman to lead SEPTA.
She ran PennDot for four years in the administration of former Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, and before that was an elected Montgomery County commissioner.
Projects will be co-developed with input from public agencies and private sponsors under the guidance of interdisciplinary teams of Penn faculty, students and transportation leaders, the university said.
The program plans to draw from a public-sector advisory committee with members from an array of leaders of a variety of transportation agencies across the U.S., including the Los Angeles Metro; the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority; DOTs in Utah, California, Connecticut and Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia International Airport.
Projects are expected to include development of predictive analytics, smart infrastructure that responds to user demand and behavior, and congestion management and safety.