Associate Director James Daisa joins our team in Los Angeles

Steer is pleased to announce the appointment of James Daisa, who joins the firm as an Associate Director and Los Angeles Practice Leader.   

James is a transportation planner and traffic engineer with over 30 years of professional experience working with the public and private sector. He brings a passion for complete streets policy, planning and design, as well as context sensitive solutions (CSS). He has been at the forefront of innovative complete street policies and design manuals.

Prior to joining Steer, James worked for transportation and engineering firms throughout California. He has focused expertise in transit oriented (TOD) and urban infill development, transit station area planning, transit center design, transportation demand management (TDM) programs, parking studies and parking management, environmental impact reports (EIR), downtown revitalization and research on the travel characteristics of mixed-use and high density infill development.

James has authored Portland metro’s award-winning “Creating Livable Streets” and contributed to its companion manual “Green Streets – innovations in Storm Water Management”, two of the nation’s first context-sensitive design manuals that advocate compatibility with adjacent context. In addition, he was the Principal author of other national and regional best practices design manuals, including the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ recommended practice “Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach”. Notable projects James has worked on include the Bay Meadows Transit-Oriented Specific Plan and Apple’s new headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area.

At Steer, James will head the Los Angeles office, helping to further establish, grow and develop the firm’s presence in transportation initiatives throughout California. He will also develop the talented and dynamic team of transportation planners in Los Angeles.

Lisa Buchanan, Head of U.S. Planning at Steer said: “We are delighted to welcome James Daisa to Steer. His extensive transit and complete streets experience and broad understanding of transportation planning across a variety of modes and contexts adds a wealth of experience to our local Los Angeles and wider U.S. Planning team.”