new job announcement!
I started this week as an senior account manager at Swiftly
Hi everyone!
After a busy fall (with very few blog posts from me… yikes!) I’m happy to share that I have started a new job as a Senior Account Manager at Swiftly.
Swiftly is a transit technology platform that develops tools to help transit agencies manage their rail and bus networks. Swiftly’s products enable agencies to do the following:
Provide accurate real-time passenger information: Swiftly has a proprietary algorithm that provides accurate information to riders about the real-time location of buses and trains and estimates for their arrival at future stops. In cities where Swiftly is the real-time data provider, these tools power apps many readers may already use for trip planning (Google Maps, Transit, etc.).
Review and assess system performance: Swiftly collects data on trips across an agency’s network to provide performance insights on individual trips and across the system. This enables the teams that plan and schedule routes to see more in-depth information on on-time performance, run-times, and vehicle speeds so they can make informed decisions about future operations.
Manage live operations: Swiftly’s live operations dashboard allows dispatchers to track vehicles in real-time, identify and respond to issues, and make service adjustments to facilitate smooth operations.
In my role, I’ll be working with existing Swiftly customers, helping them get the most value from the tools they already use and identifying opportunities to further integrate with the Swiftly product suite. I don’t know exactly which agencies I’ll be working with yet, but looking forward to going deep with these customers and learning more about how they work.
It was a tough decision to leave my last job at Kyanite Partners, which was a more traditional urban planning role focused on economic analysis and the development of policy initiatives for local governments, economic development organizations, and community groups. What I loved about that work is that the questions we were tackling were so open-ended, such as: “What economic development programs can attract residents to this county?” or “Which real estate projects will be most impactful for this region?” While it was a consulting role, there was so much to chew on - in many ways, it felt like applied urban planning research.
Even though my new job is more specifically focused on the intersection of technology and planning than general planning issues, I’m confident there will be plenty of tricky questions to grapple with. Namely, “Is the bus still running?”
Oh, and for anyone who is wondering, the apartment hunt has been on pause for a bit. Primarily because I started dating someone, and well… it’s been going well enough that I’d prefer not to be locked into a studio for the next 5 years. The pay bump from my new job has also impacted my eligibility for certain programs… but hopefully once I’ve settled into my new role you’ll hear more about that!
City Speak #51
Bennett Capozzi
Good luck, always love to hear about your adventours.