2024 40 Under 40: Lucas Muller

Lucas Muller’s passion for transit began in childhood and during the past 13 years, he has channeled this passion into his professional work, focusing on making transit modern, safe, efficient and equitable in the Washington, D.C., area and beyond.

Currently, Muller is the consultant team deputy project manager for strategic planning on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Better Bus Network Redesign, where he oversees policy development, engagement and financial analysis. His team’s award-winning engagement efforts have set a new standard for bus network redesigns nationwide.

He currently serves as contract manager for Kimley-Horn’s transit planning on-call contract with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT). He worked with DRPT and other agencies on statewide strategies and transit accessibility, contributing to the American Planning Association award-winning Transit Equity and Modernization Study. He has also led efforts in fleet technology assessment and microtransit feasibility studies, helping agencies make informed decisions about new technology.

Muller has played a key leading role in multimodal planning initiatives like the District of Columbia’s Long Range Multimodal Transportation Plan and the city of Alexandria, Va.,’s Mobility Plan. His work has advanced transit initiatives such as bus priority and bus rapid transit in the D.C. metropolitan region. 

One of the early members of the Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT) community, Muller has served in various leadership roles, where his efforts resulted in a growth in membership and the development of a scholarship program to support students pursuing a degree in transportation. 

Muller mentors a team in his local D.C. office, where he encourages and supports the growth of technical skills, career advancement and ensures a balance of personal satisfaction outside of work. Muller has been influential in developing the firmwide transit vision, as well as developing strategies for growing transit in the Atlantic Region.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Hands down, interacting with the people I get to work with. My Kimley-Horn teammates from whom I learn new things every day, our clients that are extremely passionate about what they do and the communities they serve and, arguably most importantly, the transit riders who we engage with who share their experiences, ideas and, yes, even frustrations with us to help improve our planning. Collaborating with all these groups of people is motivating and inspiring and what keeps me going each day. 

What is the most challenging part of your job?

As planners, we often talk about tradeoffs and difficult choices. Unfortunately, transit is often faced with financial or operational constraints which restrict providing service that would meet the demand. Consultants and staff are often constrained by schedule, scope and budget, which can limit our ability to spend the time and effort we would like to on these critical initiatives for our community.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to please everyone with a proposal for investing public dollars. Yet, these types of challenges are the reality we face and navigating the constraints to build consensus is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, aspects of our job.

Accomplishment you’re most proud of and why?

Both in and out of the office, it has been a priority for me to promote networking and career advancement opportunities for young professionals. Early in my career, I remember going to a professional networking industry event, being the youngest person by far and feeling very out of place and “unimportant.” That feeling compelled me to be proactive about developing more opportunities for young professionals to grow in the industry.

In our Kimley-Horn Northern Virginia office, I led efforts to rekindle the Young Professional  group more than 10 years ago, which continues to grow strong and provides professional development and integration opportunities for young analysts in our offices. Outside of Kimley-Horn, I embraced the DC Chapter of Young Professionals in Transportation and served on the board for five years, helping to grow membership and expand programming. Through YPT, I met future clients, recruits, teaming partners, technical experts and even friends outside of the office and can trace back a lot of the success of my career to the connections I made and the confidence I gained through that group.

Best advice/tip/best practice to share from your area of expertise?

Do not underestimate the importance of storytelling. Knowing how to clearly and effectively communicate complicated, technical information to the intended audience is one of the most underappreciated and overlooked skills in our industry. We need to be able to communicate a proposed bus route change to a rider that may not be able to read and for the same project, be able to convey funding policy changes to elected officials and decision-makers.

Too often we are caught up in planning jargon and/or data overload. Take a step back and test your “story” on someone with a different perspective.