McGurrin Consulting

Services

I provide a range of services related to ITS research and deployment, connected and automated vehicle applications and impact assessment, as well as smart city planning and implementation:

Program Planning & Strategy, including Horizon Scanning and Policy Development

Technology Assessment, Project Planning and Project Technical Review

ITS Standards Development

Acquisition Support for Public Sector Agencies

Proposal Preparation & Strategy for Public and Private Entities

Informational Workshops and Presentations

Industry Networking

Intelligent Transportation and Traffic Operations

Intelligent Transportation and Traffic Operations

The convergence of technological innovations and societal changes is revolutionizing transportation, providing the potential for dramatically improved safety and mobility while simultaneously reducing costs and environmental impacts.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have always been about applying the latest sensor, communications and information processing technologies to improve transportation. Today that includes Big Data, advanced data analytics, machine learning, the Internet of Things, and low-cost sensors, to enable connected and automated vehicles, Mobility as a Service, and Smart Cities.

With over 25 years of experience in ITS, working at the intersection of technology and policy, McGurrin Consulting provides a range of services ranging from proposal development to detailed analysis to strategic and business guidance to both the public and private sector.

About Mike McGurrin

Mike McGurrin is a widely respected expert in Intelligent Transportation Systems. He founded Noblis’ surface transportation practice in 1991 and grew the program to well over $10M in annual revenues. He led the program until his retirement from Noblis in 2017, and was responsible for all technical, business, and management aspects of the program. Much of Mr. McGurrin’s work has been at the intersection of technology and policy. A major focus of his career has been the application of systems engineering and information technology to improve the performance of systems, ranging from the space shuttle simulator to the National Airspace System to the nation’s surface transportation infrastructure. He is adept at presenting and explaining complex technical subjects and at analyzing the interrelationships between technology and policy. He has made numerous presentations on all aspects of Intelligent Transportation Systems and taught multiple courses on connected vehicle applications and technologies. Mr. McGurrin’s experience and expertise includes: • Connected and automated vehicle technologies and impacts • Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) concepts • National and international work on the role of probe data • National and international work developing technical standards • Strategic program planning • Systems engineering and architecture development • Extensive acquisition experience, both from the government procurement and private proposal perspectives • A record of innovative projects, ranging from applying new IT standards to ITS, to developing new simulation approaches for assessing the impact of connected and automated vehicle technologies, to changing the public and private sector roles in developing traffic simulation models

Mike McGurrin

Mike McGurrin

Principal

Selected Publications
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Additional Information

News, Articles and Publications

Sep, 18

FHWA publishes guide on the use of Scrum for ITS project development

September 18, 2017 by Mike McGurrin

The FHWA had published their first guide on applying agile techniques to ITS projects, Applying Scrum Methods to ITS Projects. To quote from the document’s abstract, ” The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed this document to help those interested in learning about Scrum Methods, one of the Agile Methodologies, and how to incorporate Scrum into ITS project […]
Read more FHWA publishes guide on the use of Scrum for ITS project development

Jul, 27

The Magic Behind Self-Driving Cars

July 27, 2017 by Mike McGurrin

Arthur C. Clarke wrote that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” For non-experts, that certainly seems to be the case for self-driving cars. But as in the case of magic tricks, we can begin to understand how self-driving cars work by breaking them down into component pieces and examining them individually. If you […]
Read more The Magic Behind Self-Driving Cars
Mar, 27

The Three Ages of ITS

March 27, 2017 by Mike McGurrin

A while back, I worked with two of my colleagues (Greg Hatcher and Carolina Burnier, both of Noblis) to write an article for Thinking Highways magazine on the past 10 years of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) developments in the U.S. In developing that article, it occurred to me that at the risk of oversimplification, one […]
Read more The Three Ages of ITS

Mar, 25

Connected Vehicle 101 Course

March 25, 2017 by Mike McGurrin

I’m looking forward to once again teaching the online, instructor led Connected Vehicle 101 course for CITE, starting next week. It provides a good introduction to connected vehicle technologies and applications, as well as the current status of USDOT-funded field tests and pilot deployments. The “blended” online format provides opportunities to teleconference with fellow students […]
Read more Connected Vehicle 101 Course
Feb, 13

A Brief Note on Modal Access Across America

February 13, 2017 by Mike McGurrin

Introduction The Accessibility Observatory at the University of Minnesota is one of, if not the, leading center for the research and application of accessibility-based transportation system evaluation. They have harnessed the growth of big data in transportation, along with cloud computing resources, to conduct multiple groundbreaking accessibility studies that are unprecedented in scope. As part […]
Read more A Brief Note on Modal Access Across America

Jan, 10

Uber and World Bank Launch Separate Open Traffic Data Initiatives

January 10, 2017 by Mike McGurrin

The announcement by Uber that they will provide free time of day travel time data could be a game-changer for free and open routing and planning tools, such as Valhalla and Mapzen’s isochrone tool. These tools use GTFS schedule data as a decent surrogate for transit travel times, and calculate walk and bike times, but […]
Read more Uber and World Bank Launch Separate Open Traffic Data Initiatives
Dec, 29

Transportation Performance Metrics: The Value of Accessibility

December 29, 2016 by Mike McGurrin

Back in 2013, I authored an article on the value of accessibility, aka access to destinations, as a transportation performance metric. Accessibility basically measures the ability to access jobs, goods, or services in a community. While there are many formulations, a simple accessibility metric would be the number of jobs reachable by a 30 minute […]
Read more Transportation Performance Metrics: The Value of Accessibility

Dec, 28

Providing Robot Drivers with ESP

December 28, 2016 by Mike McGurrin

There is considerable discussion and debate concerning the relationships between connected vehicle and automated vehicle technology. In an article from the fall 2015 edition of Thinking Highways magazine, I describe the results from a study of the interrelationships. A key take-away is that the two technologies have, in many ways, a synergistic relationship. Connectivity literally […]
Read more Providing Robot Drivers with ESP
Dec, 28

Open Traffic Data

December 28, 2016 by Mike McGurrin

The theme of the October 2015 issue of Thinking Highways magazine is data, and it includes a think piece I authored on open traffic data. In the few short weeks after I wrote the piece, there were a couple of interesting announcements on the topic. While not open to other parties, TomTom is partnering with […]
Read more Open Traffic Data

Dec, 22

Open Source Software

December 22, 2016 by Mike McGurrin

A significant portion of my work has been at the intersection of technical and policy issues. An example is my work on open data and open source policies for the USDOT’s ITS program. One artifact from that work is the Software Licensing Policy for the Open Source Application Development Portal (OSADP)
Read more Open Source Software
Dec, 21

Horizon Scans

December 21, 2016 by Mike McGurrin

While at Noblis, my colleagues and I conducted two “Horizon Scans,” identifying and assessing the technical, institutional, commercial, and environmental trends that might positively or negatively affect ITS deployment over the long term. The purpose of the studies were to help the ITS JPO understand the range of opportunities and threats that may warrant further […]
Read more Horizon Scans

Dec, 20

Image Credits

December 20, 2016 by Mike McGurrin

Several images on the website are used under a Creative Commons license. These are: SeattleI5Skyline by Cacophony, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Linear City-Scape from Gweb, used under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Santiago de Chile de noche by Javmoraga, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Read more Image Credits