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#14 Inside Steer: Conversations with Experts - Ep. 1 | David Cuneo
46 Plays5 months ago
In this first episode of Inside Steer: Conversations with Experts, Executive President Herbert Higginbotham speaks with David Cuneo, Senior Vice President for Traffic & Revenue Forecasting, about how technology, data, and innovation are reshaping travel, cities, and the future of infrastructure across North America.
Their discussion explores how connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) could transform mobility, from how we plan our cities to how investors assess future transport networks — and what this means for the next generation of infrastructure projects.
Hear expert insights on:
- How connected and autonomous vehicles are redefining traveller behaviour and transport demand.
- The growing role of data and technology in improving traffic and revenue forecasting.
- How public–private partnerships (P3s) can help deliver the next wave of highway investment.
- What these shifts mean for cities, clients, and the people who rely on better mobility every day.
From forecasting models powered by big data to the future of connected travel corridors, this conversation offers a forward look at how innovation will shape tomorrow’s infrastructure landscape.
🎧 Listen to Episode 1 of Inside Steer: Conversations with Experts — a series exploring ideas, people, and perspectives driving change across Steer’s North American business.
Guest
David Cuneo, Senior Vice President, Steer
Host
Herbert Higginbotham, Executive President, North America, Steer
Recommended
Transcript
Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Behavior and Market
00:00:00
Speaker
Talk to me now, take me into the future a little bit. Five or ten years from now, what are we going to be saying? have been sort of the most dynamic elements of the marketplace? The next big thing is is connected to timeless vehicles. It will change how how travelers behave.
00:00:17
Speaker
Yep.
Introduction to Inside STEER and Key Executives
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome to Episode 1 of Inside STEER, Conversations with Experts, the series where we're going to meet some of the people shaping STEER's work across North America. I'm Herb Higginbotham, Executive President of STEER North America.
00:00:35
Speaker
um If you're new to us, we're a global consultancy that supports the organizations that provide the critical services and infrastructure that move our communities and shape our world. With me today Dave Caneo.
00:00:48
Speaker
He's our Senior Vice President, leading traffic and revenue forecasting here at Steer North America. and we're going to talk today a little bit about how Dave got involved in the market, what his outlook is um for a tolling and revenue going forward in North America in light of a lot of rapidly evolving circumstances.
00:01:07
Speaker
Hi, Dave. How are you today? Good. How are you, Herb? I'm doing just fine. Talk to me now. Take me into the
Influence of Autonomous Vehicles on Living Patterns
00:01:14
Speaker
future a little bit. um Five or 10 years from now, what are we going to be saying have been sort of the most dynamic elements of the marketplace?
00:01:22
Speaker
Not sure if it's five, 10 years, where beyond, but sort of the next big thing is is connected to Thomas vehicles. It will change how... how travelers behave just with the ease of travel when when ah they're completely autonomous driving.
00:01:40
Speaker
ah People could live further from work, um you know, so overall travel could increase. um You might have, you know, people who aren't able to drive today, the old, the young, you know, you could have calves ah driving driving them for what their trip requires. And so overall, there could be more activity that happens.
Optimizing Road Capacity with Autonomous Cabs
00:02:03
Speaker
ah These cabs also could um better utilize the capacity that we do have available. So maybe ah over time, there's a lessening need to keep expanding and building more capacity because the technology will allow for greater throughput.
00:02:20
Speaker
So, yeah, i mean, you talked in there, Dave, a little bit about how, you know, maybe, you know, throughput and capacity increases. And at the same time, um i heard in there, too, some, you know, demand potentially increases, too. Like, we talk a lot about, you know, in our field about, you know, value of time, you know, being a key factor.
00:02:38
Speaker
Does my value of time, I mean, I imagine it fundamentally changes if I'm yeah watching a movie and, you know, just kicked back, right? Versus I'm actively moving the vehicle. i Maybe congestion becomes less concerning to me.
00:02:52
Speaker
Is that some of the things that you all sort of think about when you think about CAV? Yeah, we we do That's part of it. um You know, there's there's sort of ah the value of of time and willingness to pay for travel time savings.
00:03:07
Speaker
So there's one, you know, how can you spend the time While you're in the vehicle, if if it's in the town's vehicle, maybe you can do some other uses. And so the value of saving time is maybe a little less than it would be otherwise.
00:03:22
Speaker
ah But there will always be those urgent trips. No matter whether ah you're able to use the time productively or not, and you need to be somewhere as fast you Software still starts at the time. Yeah.
00:03:36
Speaker
So that's sort of, as we think about it, what we need to balance. um and And then there's cases where um if you don't have a completely autonomous vehicle, but your vehicle does have some levels of autonomy, some of the lower levels of autonomy, ah there is technology ah if that can be added along certain roads that would allow your vehicle to operate more autonomously. And so there may be you can use your time for something else. So your value of time might go down, but the value of this added technology and the value of the autonomy that's being offered to you could go up and offset that or even increase. And so that these are some of the dynamics that we think about when when analyzing what what that future might look like.
Growth and Benefits of Express Lanes
00:04:28
Speaker
Let's maybe zoom out a little bit and just, you know, as you you know look and think of the market at large, you've been at this for a while. I mean, and in the last five or 10 years, you know, what have been some of the key things that you've sort of seen evolve from the beginning of your career to maybe the more recent past?
00:04:48
Speaker
About the market, um yeah we've talked a little bit about express lanes and managed lanes. And around 10 years ago that the first ones, other than you know privately ah developed and operated ones, were were being built and about to be operated.
00:05:05
Speaker
ah Before that time, there was some uncertainty about you know how travelers would be willing to pay for those benefits. um you know it It hadn't been proven yet. So there was some skepticism.
00:05:20
Speaker
As we've continued to work on that, we we see ah a growing trend where the performance, the traffic and revenue performance continues to get stronger and stronger as travelers, you know, do see and recognize all the benefits that these express lane projects are providing to them. So that's been interesting and exciting to see how that's developed.
Big Data's Role in Transportation Modeling
00:05:45
Speaker
ah On the side of of sort of what's made our job different. um and And this is now looking specifically at, at the modeling and forecasting work that we do.
00:05:57
Speaker
um It's just the growth of ah ah the big data sets and and how we're able to use that data to develop and calibrate our our forecasting models. um You know, it,
00:06:10
Speaker
Back in the day, you know, I was out in the field counting cars, you know, with clickers, getting a handful of observations that I might be able to get during a peak period.
00:06:22
Speaker
Now with big data, you know, we could get years worth of information of what the travel times are and look at the the variability in those travel times. And so there's a lot more information that's available to us.
00:06:36
Speaker
I worked a lot in, uh, you know, the, the transit space and we would do our bus counts. We would get up at four in the morning, get out on that first bus and it'd literally be, you know, pen and paper, just, you know, yes, on, off, on, off. Oh my goodness. so Oh, that's yeah.
00:06:51
Speaker
All of those things. Um, I, I, I'm curious to going back to sort of your first point, sort of on, you know, and unmanaged lanes and sort of some of the the market perceptions, um, you know it It strikes me that that's allowed communities and regions to think about you know how you know again how you how you price and pay for infrastructure differently than you did 10 years ago.
Electronic Tolling and Infrastructure Funding
00:07:15
Speaker
or Are you seeing that sort of as um then maybe being effect of the success now of managed and express lanes?
00:07:22
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there's there's a couple of things going on. First, just with the growing widespread use of electronic toll paying, whether it be transponders or um without transponders, you know, the ability to capture license plate images, look up the addresses from the DMVs and send invoices.
00:07:45
Speaker
um But, ah you know, allowing all information toll collection to be easier than having to stop and make change and so forth, it there's a lot a lot more flexibility. And so we're able to do that dynamic tolling, which which is does allow unlocking some of the benefits um that that Express Lanes can provide.
00:08:08
Speaker
um For me, coming from an airline yield management background, it was, you know, interesting to see how the tolling, you know, typically was with one price um and yeah and sort of i One of the projects I was excited to to be able to do is ah working for a project, Chesapeake Expressway to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but in Virginia, that they had built this road primarily to serve traffic that was going to the Outer Banks on on peak summer or Saturdays.
00:08:45
Speaker
ah to alleviate three-hour delays. So they built this, ah but the toll road for its first 10 years had the same toll rate no matter what time of day, what time a year, every day all the same.
00:08:57
Speaker
ah But I sort of took the yield management background from my airline experience and said, what about if we a put a higher toll rate on those peak summer weekends, which is, you know, the people who are getting the most benefit from this road that was built.
00:09:13
Speaker
let's Let's align that price with with the benefits that they're getting. Yeah. And they've they've, you know, they increased the toll rate quite substantially for the peak summer weekdays weekends.
00:09:24
Speaker
And traffic, you know, they hardly shifted away because these people were were really valuing what that facility provided. So it was, you know, for me, exciting to know that the technology itself does support allowing more of this differential pricing that is taking place in other industries, allowing us to bring it into the toll industry. So that's that's been fun.
00:09:49
Speaker
Well, there's clearly um still an evolving range of problems to solve for. um You know, is that after doing this for so long, is that what sort of really, know, get you up every day to to to go back at again? Or what are some of the other factors that really sort of, you know, keep you at it and keep you sort of innovating and motivating yourself?
00:10:10
Speaker
Definitely seeing these advances, you know, to to make that does make the job more interesting. um You know, seeing... how the world's going to change and and being able to look at that and be a part of that is exciting. um But yeah even more basically ah for me, just being involved in projects that improve transportation mobility ah for locations all across the country, that's, you know, excited me for some time.
00:10:40
Speaker
you know Knowing that they get to work on projects that result in real tangible infrastructure that gets built shortly after exciting. um you know I remember one of the first toll bridges that I worked on in Virginia after the financing and the ribbon cutting issues.
00:11:01
Speaker
getting to go back a year or so later when, when the bridge now was the span was in place and, you know, done in the the hard hand and getting a tour of, of the road, walking over it, you know, before traffic was going to be open. But,
00:11:17
Speaker
seeing that you know this wasn't there before and you know the work that I did helped support the financing of it and leading to this construction and then going back you know a year later and seeing traffic using it and and the improvements in in travel times and you know just seeing that tangible impact of of better travel options and and how that improves people's lives. yeah that's That's quite rewarding.
00:11:44
Speaker
What are you seeing now? Does the way we work, does the way that we you know sort of ah you know build, design, fund infrastructure fundamentally change going forward? We're in a know really interesting economic and political reality right now. So I'm and just curious, sort of you know how how do we navigate that as practitioners?
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's so much change, but maybe a continuation of of of a trend that we have seen. um so a lot of my work has so supported, well, some supported public sector, but a lot of it has been working with private sector developments who ah enter into public-private partnerships,
00:12:27
Speaker
ah to build and operate transportation projects, toll projects. So while these P3s have existed for a while, ah there has been continued growth, I think, in the interest for these projects, especially when you consider, um you know, what the public sector is dealing with, with aging infrastructure and constrained budgets. And so um as more and more P3 projects have been entered into and and the results of the projects, you know, the infrastructures in place, um you know, with that a growing sophistication in understanding of what are the risks and the rewards and how to structure P3 so that those get shared properly.
00:13:17
Speaker
you know, more properly or properly between the public and private sector, i think there should be more of those moving into the future. And so I see that trend continuing.
00:13:29
Speaker
And in particular, i think one area that it could go into is is sort of the growth in technology. um And with the growth in technology, know,
00:13:40
Speaker
you know, yeah the connected autonomous vehicles, EVs, TNCs, they're changing how people are are driving and behaving. And, you know, I think the private sector developers may sure the manufacturers will add a lot of that technology, but these private sector developers might be able to accelerate some adoption of the technology by, you know, an express lane that that does add the connected technology infrastructure ah so that you can operate your level two connected autonomous vehicle fully autonomous if you use their lanes because of that investment that they made. And so I think then, you know, by doing that, maybe people become more accepting of that type of, of,
00:14:31
Speaker
ah use of technology and and that could help stimulate ah faster adoption of of
Dave Caneo's Journey into the Tolling Industry
00:14:38
Speaker
technology. So that that's an exciting trend that I could see happening.
00:14:43
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you even get into tolling and revenue forecasting? When I graduated with a civil engineering degree, um i i threw all the coursework, determined that transportation as opposed to structural or environmental was was the area I wanted to focus most in.
00:15:03
Speaker
And i I got a job with a large AE firm doing transportation planning. ah There, I quickly became focused on doing network modeling um and and forecasting and analysis.
00:15:16
Speaker
With that experience, one of the the seniors in my office who I i worked with um ah had connections with our Hong Kong office, and i became a modeler in a lot of the the infrastructure work, ah the forecasting work that was happening for for projects all across Asia.
00:15:36
Speaker
And that included sort of my first taste of of doing forecast for supporting of of of toll facility investments and toll roads, toll bridges across Asia.
00:15:48
Speaker
I decided to go back to school to get a master's in transportation and studying at MIT located in Boston. So that was interesting. And that was, um you know, through that research, through the coursework, I learned a lot more about forecasting and optimization fundamentals, which formed a good basis for my career moving forward.
00:16:14
Speaker
After graduating, despite previously having focused ah pretty exclusively on surface transportation, i went to work for an airline, um got involved in their yield management group.
00:16:27
Speaker
And I did continue to focus on on demand forecasting um and got a bit more involved in network optimization And so it was it was a fun time. The airlines are are very dynamic organizations, and it was quite gratifying to see how contributions that I might make on a daily basis would would impact the profits of a flight the the next day or or shortly in the future.
00:16:57
Speaker
I later then moved moved back to Boston to work for an applied economics consulting firm ah where I got to focus on on pretty much all modes of transportation.
00:17:10
Speaker
um While there were many interesting, exciting projects that I did get involved in, despite all those other modes that I got to focus on, it was during that time that really...
00:17:21
Speaker
um became more involved and active in in forecasting ah for toll facilities, doing traffic and revenue studies for toll facilities. ah One of the projects that that we did to at that ah economics consultant firm was a traffic and revenue study for toll facilities in New Jersey.
00:17:41
Speaker
And on that one, we teamed with STEER. we We had members of their team come and and work in our office for ah ah for a few months. And, i you know, we got to work side by side and and sort of saw the good cultural fit of STEER and the team that we had at the other consulting firm.
00:18:01
Speaker
And that led to, um ah you know, a group of us coming over to STEER in 2009 and sort of forming the the the starting group for here in the U.S. Since that time, i continue to to focus a lot on toll facilities. And I've, you know, led the traffic and revenue forecasting team to helping grow STEER in North America.
00:18:28
Speaker
um I continue to be one of the leaders of the infrastructure team. <unk>ve I've been involved in almost all of the traffic and revenue forecasting projects that we've performed in in North America over the last 15 years.
00:18:43
Speaker
Dave, that's, I mean, a rich history that you have there. And, you know, I mean, you're... At Steer now, as in, ah you know, a ah recognized leader in in the industry in terms of traffic and revenue forecasting out and what you're providing, you're leading teams that are doing that.
00:18:59
Speaker
I'm kind of curious, you know, now sort of as you're looking back, I mean, you're, you know, a clear mentor, um again, to our teams, to the community at large. um Were there any particular mentors in in your career that you felt like left some foundational messages along the way?
00:19:16
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. A couple have that it We're both STEER colleagues. ah The first was ah John Bottom, who was I worked with at the at the prior company, Charles River Associates, and actually ah go even longer back with John. He was my yeah it was the TA well for the transportation economics course I took at MIT.
00:19:40
Speaker
ah that when we When we came over ah to STEER, he um he was the the head of North America for STEER. and Working on on projects with him, seeing him in that sort of lead role, i he he'd helped instill in me yeah sort of the the curiosity of of you know why things are as they are, both you know projects, what are the key elements
00:20:11
Speaker
you know, motivation for the work that we're doing? What are the key questions that clients need answered? um and And that sort of stuck with me as well as then thinking about sort of developing the team as as we grew in, in steer in North America, sort of, you know, do we like working together, you know, with a consulting firm,
00:20:35
Speaker
you know, such, such a steer, you know, the people are are, are the biggest asset that the company has. And so it's, you know, finding a great high level quality of, ah of people that like working together and work well together. um you know, he, he just highlighted how critical that was. And that was, uh,
00:20:56
Speaker
quite influential, of both him distilling how to think about, you know, our clients' problems, problem as well as building the the team ah that we work with.
00:21:07
Speaker
And the other mentor, when I joined STEER, ah Charles Russell, i was sort of the lead of of infrastructure globally, um Charles and in the UK.
00:21:21
Speaker
And early on, got to work on some projects where Charles came over and we worked together on on some projects, traffic and revenue projects in the US, including um a quite memorable one where we were looking at a bridge to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and spending ah a summer um summer weekend and in the Outer Banks with Charles, um where he found the yeah the most hippie-ish place to have a very relaxing breakfast. ah So I learned a lot about how to look at infrastructure projects from Charles.
00:21:58
Speaker
Nice. Nice. from From the shores of the Outer Banks. ah Very fun.
Successful Express Lane Projects
00:22:03
Speaker
ah So let's talk to let's talk about projects maybe ah a little bit because I know you've been involved in a lot of um you know really high attention um projects um over your career.
00:22:16
Speaker
I guess one, the the sort of the biggest one I maybe would highlight was outside um D.C. in Northern Virginia, the I-66 outside the Beltway Express Lanes project.
00:22:31
Speaker
This was sort of the first one that was being bid after ah the ones in Texas had been built and started being operated. So there was gaining, a little bit of gaining momentum around Express Lane projects.
00:22:46
Speaker
And this is one where we supported ah the winning bidder ah who altogether the project was some ah close to $4 billion investment.
00:22:56
Speaker
And the client we worked with, Marlis, You know, we we took what we learned from, ah they they were operating the other express lane projects in in Texas, and we worked with them there and and got to learn a bit more of of actually how travelers were responding to having express lanes, what they found valuable and so forth. And we were able to to leverage that and apply it to this project in Northern Virginia as we were doing our our traffic of revenue forecasting.
00:23:29
Speaker
and um You know, they put together a successful bid where they were not only going to build these 20 plus miles of ah of express lanes, but they also were giving a payment to so it's a Virginia, to VDOT, whereas the the other, the competition was asking for a subsidy. So they, you know, on the foundation of of the forecasting work that we conducted, they were able to put together a quite attractive bid that that was...
00:23:59
Speaker
Good for them and good for the the state of Virginia. um you know The project has has since been built and open to traffic in 2022, and the performance is is's performed well, and it's providing that ah you know travel time reliability to ah a section in Northern Virginia, which which often has a lot of congestion. So it's provided, you know, what it was promised to do, um large investment, but our client is is is seeing ah the the return that they looked for and the state of Virginia, one, both by getting the infrastructure built and also getting the ah payment from and the private sector. So it's it's been a big success all around.
00:24:47
Speaker
As you're sort of planning out that facility and there's not a lot of sort of background to go for, what were some of the ways that you and the team sort of thought about how to apply, you know, all of the great network modeling theory into practice that's something new?
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, at at the core, um sort of with express lanes, behaviorally, it's a little bit different. um Often and in network model, we could just think about sort of travelers are making their choices primarily on if they're willing to pay to use a toll facility, what's the time savings that they're realizing. And sometimes it's maybe not even truly the...
00:25:27
Speaker
actual time savings, but what their perception of that is. ah With express lane, it it gets a bit more into also ah what's the reliability of the travel time, because the toll rates are going to be dynamically set to ensure that there's a premium travel time that travelers using those express lanes will will realize. So what's that travel time reliability? Is there also safety and comfort ah benefits that travelers perceive relative to what they they experience in the general purpose lanes? And so it's figuring out how to incorporate that into ah the standard network model that we take from ah from a metropolitan planning organization and the regional travel demand model and customize it so that we could
00:26:17
Speaker
forecast to the specific project that's being analyzed. And so it it takes ah a good degree of of care. And we were able to to see and leverage what what behaviors were starting to be observed from from other ExpressLane projects.
00:26:33
Speaker
Do people in different regions um typically behave differently or do you see some commonalities? What what do you sort of notice?
Traveler Behavior in Express Lanes
00:26:40
Speaker
ah There's some of both. ah I mean, commonality wise, think Steer's done some research. I think it's sort of come out elsewhere that sort of the the the biggest driver often is is not necessarily, you know, the income of the traveler, but What's the urgency of their trip? When people are in a more urgent situation, they're more willing to pay for the time savings and importantly, the reliability that they get from ah the the express lanes. What could vary a bit is is sort of
00:27:17
Speaker
You know what's the familiarity of travelers in that region for paying a toll? How willing are they to pay for it? Often we see for express lanes that it's work-related trips, whether it's it's companies or small businesses, you know, the, the um you know, professional, but you know, electrician, plumber, who realize if they use the express lanes and they know they can get ah from point A to point B reliably,
00:27:45
Speaker
ah on a given time, they they might be able to make, you know, save enough time over the course of the day to hit another job. And so sort of they see great value in the benefits of, ah you know, using those sorts of facilities. And so that could be something that maybe initially isn't isn't known when express lanes start in a new region, um but it's something that will be developed over time.
00:28:12
Speaker
as as more and more people do recognize those benefits. Nice. I chuckled to myself when you were mentioning urgency, and I was just thinking of myself when I'm taking my kids to you know ah their soccer baseball tournament. And if we're on time, then I'm taking the free lanes. And if we're running behind, like I'm in that minute. I want to go get there as fast as I can. Yep, absolutely.
00:28:36
Speaker
I hear you. That really resonated with me. Well, it sounds like we've got, um you know, a lot of work that we need to roll up our sleeves on a lot of, you know, new questions that we'll have to keep asking.
00:28:47
Speaker
um You talked a lot about, you know, again, living in a world with more data and sort of, you know, what that means. um Dave, I just I really appreciate your time and insights today. um It's clear there's, you know.
00:28:59
Speaker
a long sort of history that um that we've come and, um you know, tow ways and managed lanes. And it sounds like there's ah the next decade or two will see even more for us to be focused on.
00:29:12
Speaker
Yeah. Thanks for your time. Exciting time. Thanks, sir. Nice. ah Thanks everyone for joining. and This was our first episode of ah Inside Steer Conversations with Experts.
00:29:24
Speaker
and Thanks for joining Dave and myself and see you again soon. Take care.