Anne Canby, project director for the OneRail Coalition and past president of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP), will present the 2010 Thomas D. Larson Distinguished Transportation Lecture at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, in room 105 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.
Canby's presentation, titled "Transportation in a Changing Environment," is free and open to the public. A reception will follow her address.
The Larson Lecture is being given in conjunction with the 16th annual Transportation Engineering and Safety Conference, which is being held Dec. 8-10.
Canby served as Delaware's transportation secretary from 1993 to 2001 and is recognized nationally as a progressive leader in the transportation field for transforming a traditional highway agency into a multimodal mobility provider and as an advocate for integrating land-use and transportation planning.
STPP's goals are to strengthen federal transportation programs to expand travel options to motor vehicles; enhance the livability of our communities; improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers; provide access to economic opportunity for people of all ages and incomes; reduce demand for energy and output of greenhouse gases and protect our cultural, historic and community assets.
Prior to serving as STPP president, Canby led a consulting practice focusing on institutional and management issues with particular emphasis on passing a landmark federal surface transportation law in 1991, known as the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, or ISTEA. ISTEA was the first federal legislation on the subject in the post-Interstate Highway System era. It presented an overall intermodal approach to highway and transit funding with collaborative planning requirements, giving significant additional powers to metropolitan planning organizations.
Canby has served as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation, treasurer of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. She sits on the board of the Mineta Transportation Institute and is a member of the Women's Transportation Seminar.
She has been recognized for her leadership by the American Public Transportation Association, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the Delaware chapter of the American Planning Association and the Women's Transportation Seminar. Canby received the 2006 Carey Distinguished Service Award for outstanding leadership and service to transportation research and to the Transportation Research Board.
Thomas Larson was a Penn State alumnus, professor and co-founder and director of the Penn State research center that today bears his name -- the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute -- before rising to statewide and national prominence and helping to shape the direction and management of the nation's transportation system and policy in the Interstate era. The Larson Lecture recognizes his singular contributions to the University and to the field of transportation.