Ben McDowell is a member of transportation planning and engineering team at Wells + Associates, based in the Manassas office. His work includes traffic impact studies, parking analyses, capacity analyses, signal warrant analyses, and data collection activities in multiple jurisdictions in Virginia.
Ben conducts traffic impact studies for residential, commercial and mixed-use projects. This work includes preparation of analyses, reports, and presentations in support of rezoning, site plan, and subdivision approvals, as well as studies that are subject to the VDOT Chapter 870 requirements.
As a member of our parking team, he handles shared parking studies and parking tabulations for commercial projects. Ben’s experience cuts across a range of parking situations, including evaluating existing and proposed parking, conducting ULI and code analyses to determine the appropriate number of required spaces, producing reports, and working with staff to gain approval of required parking.
Ben also works on intersection and roadways projects. Using Synchro, Highway Capacity Software, the Critical Lane Volume technique, and Traffix, he conducts capacity analyses of intersections and roadway links and studies to determine the existing and future need for signalization at intersections, according to the guidelines of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).
He supervises data collection activities in support of traffic impact and parking studies, including vehicle turning movement counts, pedestrian movement counts, and parking occupancy counts.
Q + A
- What spurred your interest in transportation?
- Growing up in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area provided me with an early exposure to the various types, efficacies, and impacts of a wide variety of travel methods and transportation options.
- What do you like best about working at W+A?
- That everything we do is collaborative. What we create and submit, we do as a team. Also, everyone is so nice here.
- What is your favorite quote?
- “No amount of money ever bought a second of time.”
- Plane, train, car, or bike?
- A fast car and an open road.
- Favorite book?
- The Last Summer of the Death Warriors – Francisco X. Stork
- Make and model of your first car?
- A 2013 Dodge Dart.
Education
- Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering Technology, South Carolina State University