Internship #7: Friday 1/15

Internship site: CalTrans


Department: Planning


Project Title: Transit Stop In or Adjacent to State Right of Way


General Description:
I will be driving around with my mentor a couple of days and look for bus stop near the ROW (Right of Way) and see if there are any problems. For some examples: is the curb accessible for handicap, or are there bushes overgrowing the bench, is there a bench or is it far away from the bus sign, or is it in the dirt, or not enough room on the road for the bus to stop, and just stuff that people could complain about.

Learning Objectives:

Well other then this project I will be doing a lot of projects for all different people to learn about all different parts of the company. However my learning from this specific project is that there is a lot of work behind CalTrans other then some one saying lets build a road then its built it take sometimes years to get things done and because there are a lot of little details and side jobs with it.

Organization/Company Objectives & Benefits:

Helping them locate problems with bus stops near the ROW

I am helping my mentor so he doesn’t have to do a lot of work on his own. Also if we do find problems with bus stops it could help pedestrians when trying to access a bus stop.


Schedule:

Mostly unknown schedule for driving around since we are avoiding driving for hours out in the rain. However I can work on the spreadsheets at any time and I have been.

Academic Skills:

Academic skills required are: Math for coordinates and reading of course to look through a Thomas Guide and find streets the bus stops are on.

Technical Skills:

I need to use excel, word, and maybe Google maps to find stops and right out results.



Collaboration—Skills and Opportunities:

I need to work with several different people for different projects each one requires talking to many people since every one has very specific jobs but all contribute. For an example there is a map and there are four other people one person does the 56 and 94, another does the 805 and the 5, and some other person does the 15 and colors of the map. Each person needs to talk to each other and give work to each other so they can work off of one another.

Exhibition Plans:

I have two sheets of excel a map of San Diego county and about twenty other small ones of specific parts of the city.


Schedule & Timelines:

I do not have one it all depends on what my mentor wants to do for the day but most days I will be mapping out routes for us to take then taking them. A few days I will be working with some other people on computers.


Next, provide a summary of your week.


My highlights were that I got to do field work so I wasn’t just looking at a map. I also met a lot of the people in my division, which was nice. Then the last thing was I went to meeting about plans for future roads and it was very interesting on how they need to care about some things that don’t like too big of a difference. I did not have any challenges the hardest one was when we were on the road and my mentor was going to fast for me to keep up while going through the Thomas Brothers Guide book. I worked with other great I was polite and they were back got work done and even went out to lunch with a couple people. I did not expect it to be so friendly and kind of kicked back, yes people work but no one is yelling at you that something needs to be done in one day. I would say it is fun exciting and an eye opener. Most students go to school and that’s it not to many people at fifteen or sixteen have a job especially one like mine were no one seems to be harassed.