Ervin Roszner

BiographyA native of Hungary, Ervin Roszner immigrated to the United States in 1950. After completing his high school studies at the Bronx School of Science, Roszner enrolled at the City College of New York. After graduating with Bachelor of Science Degrees in Mathematics and Economics, Roszner began pursuing graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). While seeking a dissertation topic, Roszner was connected to the CMU Transportation Research Institute. Through this work, he was exposed to the field of latent transportation and began studying barriers that seniors and elderly people faced with public transportation. Roszner worked for the Transportation Research Institute in his role as an economist before transitioning to an economist position at GAI Consultants.
At GAI Consultants, Roszner was continued to work on projects aimed at closing gaps in public transportation for seniors. Together with Dr. Lester Hoel and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation administrator William Millar, Roszner undertook to assess the impact of a free public transportation program aimed at Pennsylvania seniors and elderly people. The project was the first of its kind in the country. An assessment of the project was written by Roszner and his collaborators was published in the trade journal, Traffic Quartley. Roszner, Millar, and Hoel were the recipients of the Pyke Johnson Award in 1977. Bestowed by the Transportation Research Board, this award recognizes an outstanding paper in the field of transportation systems. During the Transportation Research Board’s annual convention, Millar approached Roszner to gauge his interest in serving as manager of a paratransit system that was taking shape in Allegheny County, later known as ACCESS Transportation Systems. ACCESS stands for Allegheny County Coordinated Effort for Shared-ride Service. ACCESS was devised to meet the paratransit needs of Allegheny County seniors and people with disabilities.
The framework underpinning the ACCESS paratransit system was the product of a collaboration between Keith Forstall and Harold Miller at CMU, who worked under the direction of Professor Alfred Blumstein. They conceived of a coordinated paratransit service that was managed by an independent broker that would contract for, market, and administer paratransit services throughout Allegheny County. In 1977, the Port Authority of Allegheny County was awarded a demonstration grant from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to enact this system. Roszner began as manager in October 1979. In this role, Roszner recruited and oversaw carriers, including Colonial Taxi, Yellow Cab Taxi, the Mon-Yough Center, Magic Carpet Transportation Service, Northern Area Center, and Focus on Renewal Sto Rox Corporation. Throughout his career, Roszner placed an emphasis on working with carriers owned and operated by women and/or African American people. Also central to Roszner’s work was the recruitment of social service agencies such as the Allegheny County Department of Aging to encourage their constituents to use ACCESS paratransit services. This strategy enabled the streamlining of funds for seniors and people with disabilities to maintain and expand paratransit services. Roszner also regularly negotiated with unions at taxi companies and the Port Authority. One final key constituency was the community of paratransit riders- primarily seniors and people with disabilities. Preliminarily, paratransit services were developed for seniors and people with mobility disabilities. Over time, ACCESS and the Port Authority collaborated with community members to expand paratransit services to include the broader disability community. Integral to expanding paratransit services was determining who in Allegheny County was eligible for paratransit. Former assistant director and current ACCESS director Karen Hoesch played a key role in developing an eligibility determination process. This process borne from ACCESS became a national model for eligibility determination. Within the first decade of its existence, ACCESS Transportation Services became the largest and one of the best paratransit systems in the United States. An international model for paratransit systems, ACCESS is known for key innovative characteristics that include door-to-door service, a lack of trip limitations, and the unique independent broker-carrier system. Roszner managed ACCESS through key eras in its development, including the passage and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the Port Authority of Allegheny County fixed route service.
Ervin Roszner served as manager, executive director, and CEO of ACCESS Transportation Systems from 1979 to 2000. After a medical leave of absence, Roszner returned to ACCESS and served as CFO until December 2013. He married Johanna Roszner on September 22, 1973. Together, the two raised five children.