George Haikalis is Founder and President of the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility, Inc. (IRUM). Haikalis, is a civil engineer (BSCE 1958 and MSCE 1959 from Northwestern University) and a transportation planner. He grew up in Decatur, Illinois, a midwestern rail hub and manufacturing center, where he began a lifetime interest in transportation research. He initiated his career as a research engineer at the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS), a pioneering public agency that focused on using data to provide an informed basis for planning transportation facilities and operating strategies. Encouraged by CATS director Dr. J. Douglas Carroll, Jr., Haikalis submitted a research paper to the Highway Research Board at the very first Annual Meeting that he had attended. The paper on economic evaluation of alternative transportation network plans using newly developed computer modeling techniques tied as "Best Paper" in 1961. He participated in the annual meetings, later renamed the Transportation Research Board (TRB), for over fifty years, chairing sessions and establishing new research efforts. He was the founding chair of TRB's Committee on Intercity Rail Passenger Systems.
In 1963 Haikalis moved to NYC and joined the organization that eventually became the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission where he served for nineteen years. Tri-State was dissolved in 1982, after Connecticut and New Jersey failed to agree with New York to fund the agency during the years of hostility to public enterprises. After serving as a consultant to several organizations that challenged the overdependence of cars and trucks in crowded urban places like the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Regional Plan Association and Transportation Alternatives, Haikalis founded IRUM in 1997.
Haikalis is a Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Planning Association (APA). He headed a number of committees of these and other professional organizations in the NY area and also serves as a public member of Manhattan Community Boards Two and Five. Haikalis was active in the City Club of NY for many years and was awarded their "Earthling Award" for his devotion to environmental causes. He is a member of the Council of Representatives of the Rail Passengers Association and is Manhattan Coordinator of the Empire State Passengers Association.
Haikalis had a strong interest in choral music and served as Chairman of the Metropolitan Greek Chorale and assistant director of the Choir of the Archdiocesan Greek Cathedral in NYC. He participated in the combined chorus of metropolitan area churches at the Divine Liturgy at Madison Square Garden celebrated when the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople officiated and also sang with the Chorale in concerts at Town Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall.
November 1, 2020