Transit Center, Inc. announced the appointment of David Bragdon as its new executive director.
Bragdon is a specialist in urban and regional planning, urban transportation and sustainability issues. He served two four-year terms as the president of the metro council, the elected metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the region of Portland, Ore., from 2003-2010, and more recently worked as director of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability in New York City, where he managed the update of the city’s sustainable growth and infrastructure strategy, PlaNYC.
“We are delighted to have David’s well rounded expertise as well as his ‘bi-coastal’ experience at the helm of Transit Center,” said board chair Rosemary Scanlon. “We look forward to leveraging David’s talents to build on our past success with the commuter benefits program to become a national force on a range of transit-supportive issues.”
Transit Center, Inc. founded at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the mid-1980s as the incubator and provider of pre-tax commuter benefits, sold the successful TransitChek program to Wage Works in January, 2012. Transit Center’s Board of Directors is committed using the resources from that transaction and its national contacts within the transit industry to expand the organization’s mission to support the growth of sustainable mobility and transit ridership.
Building on its track record of developing a financial product which benefits employers and riders, the organization is now poised to assist in the development of other pro-transit policies in communities across the nation. Transit Center’s future activities will include applied research and advocacy, particularly on innovations which drive the demand for transit use, such as land use changes, funding and investment strategies, and incentives and improvements to the rider experience.
“I am thrilled to join Transit Center at this pivotal time in its history,” said Bragdon. “Increasing urbanization worldwide, the need for better transportation systems, and the limitations of traditional financing programs all call for creative new ideas in how we grow and maintain urban form that supports sound transportation and attracts more and more satisfied riders.”
Bragdon has an A.B. from Harvard College, where he wrote his honors thesis on railroad deregulation, and a master’s degree from Reed College. He is a resident of Brooklyn, NY.
