Ed Hard

TTI Research Scientist

Education

• M.U.P., Transportation Planning, A&M College of Texas, 1988
• B.S., Geology, Texas A&M University, 1986

Short Biography

Ed Hard is a Research Scientist and Manager of the Transportation Planning Program of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) in Bryan, Texas. He has over 30 years of experience as a transportation planner, including 21 years as a TTI researcher, and over 11 years as a practitioner in the public and private sectors.  Mr. Hard serves as TTI’s manager for the design and analysis of travel surveys and new technology passive ‘big’ data for transportation planning and travel behavior studies. He manages a team of 10 research/data scientists and leads applied research and project development in app and web-based methods and passive data application for TxDOT-supported travel forecasting models.  This work includes cloud computing and custom analysis code to develop trip rates, lengths, and tables and other variables as needed for special studies or model input.  Mr. Hard served as advisor and contributing author for a DOT pooled fund study on Applications of Probe-Based Origin-Destination Data and served as lead author on the Synopsis of New Methods and Technologies to Collect Origin-Destination (O-D) Data for FHWA.  He also led a study on Optimizing Technology for Collecting Long Distance Travel Data that developed a statewide plan to collect passive O-D data for Arizona Department of Transportation. Ed has scoped and lead research studies to compare and determine the relative accuracy and suitability of cell, GPS, location-based services (LBS), and Bluetooth O-D data for different types of transportation planning and operational studies.

Mr. Hard also has significant research and practical experience in integrating transportation and land development in the areas of DOT/local agency coordination and corridor management and planning. He served as lead author on Guidelines on Corridor Management in Texas and A Guidebook on Preserving and Enhancing the Functionality of Highways in Texas and has conducted over 45 outreach workshops throughout the state of Texas on coordinating and integrating transportation and land development. Prior to his current position, he was the Transportation Planner for the City of College Station, Texas. Mr. Hard received a Master of Urban Planning from Texas A&M University in 1988 and received his AICP in 1994. He is a member Texas A&M’s Master of Urban Planning Advisory Committee and a former member Transportation Research Board’s Transportation and Land Development and Travel Survey Methods Committees.