TR News - Transportation Research Board

P R O F I L E S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Johanna ZmudNuStats, LLC“Our data assetsmust align to currentconditions and, moreimportantly,anticipate emergingchallenges.”All transportation researchers will be involved, atsome point, in data collection. As president ofNuStats, LLC—a survey science consultancy basedin Austin, Texas—Johanna Zmud spends much ofher time improving data collection methods to meet transportationobjectives. “The traditional responses to the challengesof transportation safety, congestion mitigation, andenvironmental protection involve infrastructure or equipment.Improving our understanding of people’s travel behavior—thehow, why, when, and where they choose to travel—is at least asimportant for sound policy and planning,” Zmud observes.Zmud cofounded NuStats 25 years ago to bring rigorous andcutting-edge survey research techniques to the study of transportation,health, education, the environment, and public safety.In the late 1980s, she perceived a need for a solution to travelbehavior measurement challenges within the survey science tradition,and guided NuStats to fill that gap. Zmud sought toimprove the quality of the data available for decision making,with a focus on linking transportation planning and sound surveyscience. NuStats is now the largest producer of primarytravel behavior data in the United States.In a 2007 TRB transportation data needs assessment withJoseph Schofer, Tim Lomax, and Tom Palmerlee, Zmud coinedthe phrase “data as an asset.” Because of increasing requests frompolicy makers and new legislative reporting requirements, thedemand for data exceeds the supply. The value of the data assetmust be recognized, invested in, and prudently managed, Zmudobserves: “Our data assets must align to current conditionsand—more importantly—anticipate emerging challenges suchas climate change or new technology, changing demographics,land use, or different options for financing transportation.”Zmud notes, however, that the transportation data infrastructureis “the most neglected asset in our transportation balance sheet,despite its potential for improving people’s lives.”Although Zmud’s training is in the social sciences, almost allof her professional career has been in the transportation researcharena. Zmud received a bachelor’s degree in foreign languagesfrom East Carolina University, with master’s degrees specializingin educational statistics from the University of Maryland andin communication management and policy from the Universityof Southern California (USC). She received a PhD in communicationresearch from USC’s Annenberg School.Zmud’s theoretical and technical social science backgroundcomplements a growing expertise in transportation policy andplanning issues. In addition to her responsibilities as presidentof NuStats, Zmud continues to direct large-scale travel surveysas a way to monitor and refine her firm’s performance and leadershipin the field. As Zmud explains, “NuStats operates with thevision of continual improvement—reinventing research techniquesand approaches dynamically as circumstances change.”She has been instrumental in leading the practice in applyingnew technologies to capture an expanding set of data requirementsmore quickly and cheaply. New data capture technologiesare necessary investments; then, as systems are institutionalizedand standard operating procedures are refined, new technologiesoften result in cost efficiencies, notes Zmud.Zmud has a history as a serial entrepreneur. In 2000, Zmudand Jean Wolf founded GeoStats, a firm focused on technologyapplications in transportation research. Almost 10 years later,NuStats is a partner to Mygistics, a firm creating a detailed, contiguousmodel of the entire United States, Canada, and Mexico,simulating all travelers on the network to accurately predictcurrent and future traffic volumes and travel times. NuStatsbrings a survey research component that will use Mygistics technologyto create the first nationwide transportation panel.Zmud credits her long history of active engagement in TRBactivities for her continued focus on emerging needs for, andsources of, passenger and freight data. Currently, she chairs theData and Information Systems section of the Technical ActivitiesCouncil’s Policy and Organization Group, presiding over 11committees that work to raise awareness about weaknesses orgaps in transportation data and to highlight effective techniquesfor strengthening the nation’s transportation data infrastructure.Before this, Zmud chaired the TRB Travel Survey MethodsCommittee. Outside of the data section, she is an active friendof the travel behavior, road pricing, and public transit committees,and a member of the TRB–National Research CouncilCommittee on Equity Implications of Alternative TransportationFinance Mechanisms, the National Cooperative FreightResearch Program Project Panel for the Truck Idling ScopingStudy, and planning committees for the Innovations in TravelModeling Conference and the Freight Data Research Road Map.Zmud’s other activities include cochair of the InternationalSteering Committee on Travel Survey Conferences, and memberof the Regional Infrastructure and Development Committeeof the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.TR NEWS 264 SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 200931