Alan Voorhees

Alan Voorhees

Alan Manners Voorhees (December 17, 1922 – December 18, 2005) was an transportation engineer and urban planner who designed many large public works in the United States. Voorhees was born in Highland Park, New Jersey.

Early life

During World War II, he left his studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to enlist in the United States Navy as an officer in what was called "Underwater Demolition Team 11" (UDT-11), a precursor to the U.S. Navy SEALs. He spent much of the war mapping shoreline defenses in the Pacific. After the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Voorhees' unit was sent in to inspect the city making him one of the first Americans to see the bomb's aftermath. For his military service he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Presidential Unit Citation.

After the war, Voorhees continued his education, graduating from RPI in 1947 and then earning his master's degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949.

Transportation planning

In 1952, Voorhees came to Washington, D.C. to work for the nonprofit Automobile Safety Foundation. While studying traffic in Baltimore, Voorhees developed a mathematical formula to predict traffic patterns based on land use. This formula has been instrumental in the design of numerous transportation and public works projects around the world. He wrote "A General Theory of Traffic Movement" (1956), which applied the gravity model to trip distribution, which translates trips generated in an area to a matrix that identifies the number of trips from each origin to each destination, which can then be loaded onto the network.

In 1961, he began his own engineering firm (Alan M. Voorhees & Associates) which eventually grew to have branches in ten U.S. cities. He was involved in the design of many subway systems including those in São Paulo, Hong Kong, Canberra, Caracas, and Washington, D.C.

Voorhees sold his firm in 1967 and became the dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Urban Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle in 1971. The firm went on to be project manager of the Boston Transportation Planning Review. Voorhees invested in the [http://www.micros.com Micros] Corporation and its electronic cash register in the late 1960s.

Voorhees designed the street grid for land that was reclaimed in lower Manhattan in New York City, connecting new streets to centuries-old already existing roads and to the Brooklyn Bridge. He was also one of the early designers of the United States' Interstate Highway System and helped determine how the highways would cut through or bypass urban areas.

Later life

In 1979, following airline deregulation, Voorhees helped found Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which was later bought by Delta Air Lines.

Voorhees received the first Harland Bartholomew Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers as the engineer who has contributed most to urban planning, and was honored with the establishment of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University in 1998, and helped found the Voorhees Computing Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He was chairman of the board of Autometric Corp., an aerospace company based in Northern Virginia. Autometric was later sold to Boeing. He was an angel investor of [http://www.lizardtech.com Lizardtech] , the software of which was excellent for digital mapping and GIS purposes.

Voorhees was an avid collector of historical maps, amassing an impressive collection of over 300 maps focused on the history of Virginia. He donated this valuable collection worth millions of dollars to the Library of Congress, the Library of Virginia, and the Virginia Historical Society.

Voorhees believed government could greatly improve the human condition, and was an early supporter of the Council for Excellence in Government.

In the late 1990s, Voorhees started a project to automate county government services in Richmond County, Virginia. The system he supported involved scanning thousands of land records in the county clerk's office and connecting these with data from the county planning office (topo maps, sewer and water overlays, satellite views, etc.) and tax office. The land records were then sent via the Internet to be archived at the Library of Virginia. He spent over $600,000 on this project.

Voorhees was concerned with environmental protection, and he donated over convert|700|acre|km2 of land along the Potomac river in Virginia to become the Voorhees nature preserve [ [http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/virginia/preserves/art1245.html Voorhees Nature Preserve] . The Nature Conservancy.] . His interest in government automation was designed to make it easier to identify environmentally-sensitive areas and ensure that development took them into account.

Voorhees died in a hotel he owned in Richmond, Virginia from an apparent stroke at the age of 83 [cite news
first = Matt
last = Schudel
title = Pioneer in Highway Design Spread Talents Broadly
url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/23/AR2005122301694.html
work= Washington Post
page = B01
date = December 24, 2005
] .

References

*Voorhees, Alan M., 1956; "A General Theory of Traffic Movement," 1955 Proceedings, Institute of Traffic Engineers, New Haven, Connecticut.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Voorhees — may mean:Places* Voorhees Township, New Jersey * Voorhees State Park in New Jersey * Voorhees Township, KansasPeople* Alan Voorhees, transportation engineer * Daniel W. Voorhees, U.S. senator *Foster M. Voorhees, New Jersey governor *John C.… …   Wikipedia

  • Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum — Infobox Museum name = Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum imagesize = 200 map type = latitude = longitude = established = 1966 location = New Brunswick, New Jersey type = Art visitors = director = curator = publictransit= website =… …   Wikipedia

  • Jason Voorhees — En este artículo sobre televisión se detectaron los siguientes problemas: Necesita ser wikificado conforme a las convenciones de estilo de Wikipedia. Carece de fuentes o referencias que aparezcan en una fuente acreditada …   Wikipedia Español

  • Highland Park, New Jersey — Infobox Settlement official name = Highland Park, New Jersey settlement type = Borough nickname = motto = imagesize = image caption = image imagesize = image caption = image mapsize = 250x200px map caption = Highland Park highlighted in Middlesex …   Wikipedia

  • Trip distribution — (or destination choice or zonal interchange analysis), is the second component (after trip generation, but before mode choice and route assignment) in the traditional four step transportation forecasting model. This step matches tripmakers’… …   Wikipedia

  • Rutgers-New Brunswick — Infobox University name = Rutgers University New Brunswick Campus motto = Sol iustitiae et occidentem illustra ( Sun of righteousness, shine upon the West also. ) established = November 10, 1766 type = Public, Research university president =… …   Wikipedia

  • List of World War II topics (A) — # A 20 Havoc # A 25 Helldiver # A 26 Invader # A 31 Vengeance # A A line # A Bell for Adano (novel) # A Blank in the Weather Map # A Bridge Too Far (book) # A Bridge Too Far (film) # A Canterbury Tale # A Challenge to Democracy # A class… …   Wikipedia

  • List of civil engineers — This list of civil engineers is a list of notable people who have been trained in or have practised civil engineering. Contents: Top · 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A …   Wikipedia

  • Council for Excellence in Government — The Council for Excellence in Government was a public/private partnership organization initiated in the 1980s designed to improve the effectiveness of federal, state, and local government in the United States. The organization ceased to operate… …   Wikipedia

  • December 17 — << December 2011 >> Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”