Steven Vance is a big nerd who's been going to school at University of Illinois at Chicago for over four years. Using a hand-me-down mountain bike from 1993 as his preferred way to navigate the big bad city, Steven became supremely interested in bicycling as a near-perfect mode of transportation. But it wasn't bicycling nor transportation that persuaded Steven to join the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs; he wanted to design cities. Eventually realizing that such a job doesn't exist (unless you were Walt Disney), he joined the ranks of pragmatic thinkers and doers at CUPPA in the heart of the Second City.

My career objective: “Obtain a transportation planning position with an organization that recognizes the importance of accommodating and providing service for all transportation system users, including transit, motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and freight. I want to focus on projects of which equity is a major concern or focus.”

• Batavia High School, Batavia, Illinois - High school diploma
• Waubonsee Community College - Associate of Arts degree, emphasis on Sociology
• University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) - Bachelor of Arts degree, major in Sociology
• University of Illinois at Chicago - Master of Arts degree, major in Urban Planning with focus on Transportation Planning

I have been employed through Active Transportation Alliance as a consultant to the Chicago Department of Transportation's Bicycle Parking Program since October 2007.

I write an urban planning blog called Steven can plan. The blog is about urban planning, cities, and transportation. I use my classes and new knowledge to inspire what I write. I seem to write most often about Chicago and bicycling. I have published many of my class assignments on my blog.

My website.

• HOV and HOT lanes, tolls and equity, toll revenue distribution
• Access to airports, alternatives to SOV driving there
• Bicycling: Separated infrastructure, bike parking, the use of helmets
• Opening government data
• Creating useful, web applications