Comments on: One Agency to Rule Them All http://www.orphanroad.com/blog/2009/01/one-agency-rule-them-all Puget Sound Transportation and Land Use Issues Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:55:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Matt the Engineer http://www.orphanroad.com/blog/2009/01/one-agency-rule-them-all/comment-page-1#comment-1026 Matt the Engineer Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://wp.orphanroad.com/?p=966#comment-1026 If this could be structured well, then it would certainly improve efficiency. They could have a single design department, a single group devoted to attaining grants, a central body to come up with standards and coordination, coordinated maintenance resources, but still break funding and voting up by appropriate geographical areas. We could even create a new transportation system (for instance the Seattle streetcar) without having to create a new agency. My engineering firm has electrical, mechanical, plumbing, telecom, lighting, and fire code engineering groups. Each effectively earns money independently and there are many jobs with only, say, mechanical needs that don't involve the other trades. But having us all in one company allows us to work together well when we need to, plus we can share just one group of administrative costs (billing, marketing, HR, etc.). The result is a much more efficient business model. If this could be structured well, then it would certainly improve efficiency. They could have a single design department, a single group devoted to attaining grants, a central body to come up with standards and coordination, coordinated maintenance resources, but still break funding and voting up by appropriate geographical areas. We could even create a new transportation system (for instance the Seattle streetcar) without having to create a new agency.

My engineering firm has electrical, mechanical, plumbing, telecom, lighting, and fire code engineering groups. Each effectively earns money independently and there are many jobs with only, say, mechanical needs that don’t involve the other trades. But having us all in one company allows us to work together well when we need to, plus we can share just one group of administrative costs (billing, marketing, HR, etc.). The result is a much more efficient business model.

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