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UrbanLabs

People.
Places.
Planet.

Helping public institutions work for the people they serve.

Technical leadership for agencies and mission-driven organizations · from Leavenworth, Washington

Get in touch

About the name

ur·ban adj.
places for human connection.
labs n.
learning how to improve.

People have gathered in towns and cities for centuries to create social and economic opportunity. Technology like models, data and AI can help us understand complex systems and expand what feels possible.

But people know best how they feel, and they belong at the center of deciding what future is worth building.

The world we're working toward

  • Voices

    Lived experience and expertise are valued, and actually shape decisions.

  • Data

    Data sharpens judgment, provokes important debate and checks our imaginations.

  • Trust

    Government earns trust by delivering, and its people are supported to do good work.

  • Streets

    Streets are safe for walking, rolling and stopping to talk with neighbors.

  • Transit

    Public transit is reliable and dignified, and connects people and places.

  • Planet

    Places are healthier, and the planet keeps sustaining us long into the future.

How we help

The messy middle:where policy, people, data, software and procurement all decide whether a system actually works for the people who are supposed to benefit from it.

Community building

Investing in the connective tissue of the field: coalitions, standards communities and open-source homes that let good ideas travel.

e.g. Zephyr Foundation · TRB committee chair

We keep our hands dirty

Credibility comes from doing the work.There's always a hands-on project in the mix, so our advice stays grounded in what it really takes to build and maintain a tool, govern a data standard or put analysis in front of the public. Not shiny objects: things that work in context.

  • DerTownA self-maintaining local community website, built to learn agentic coding on a real civic problem.
  • Network WranglerOpen-source tools for managing and editing transportation networks, with MTC and the Metropolitan Council.
  • GTFS validatorA microservice that checks any transit feed through a reusable API.
  • Fast-TripsDynamic transit assignment, implemented and written up for the field.
  • TODS + TIDESOpen standards that make transit operations data more useful in practice.
  • ResearchPeer-reviewed methods for crowding, walking, biking, climate and pricing.

Organizations we've worked with

…and are trusted by

  • Cal-ITPmobility data, traveler information policy
  • CaltransSB743 expert panel, transit technology business case
  • Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)model systems, network tools
  • Ohio DOTZephyr Foundation
  • SFCTAformer executive; models, data, policy analysis
  • CalACTCalifornia Association for Coordinated Transportation
  • King County Metrointegrated services technology planning
  • Metropolitan Councilnetwork tools, Metro Transit software procurement
  • N-CATTdata interoperability best practices

…and others like APTA, Oregon DOT, UC Davis and more.

Elizabeth Sall laughing on a mountain trail, with evergreens and a snowy Cascade peak behind her
Elizabeth Sall, principal

Who's behind this

Elizabeth is a former SFCTA executive and longtime advisor to agencies, research programs and open-source efforts. She does her best work across boundaries: between technical and executive teams, between policy goals and delivery realities, and between institutions that need to trust each other.

After years in Washington DC, Austin, San Francisco and Seattle, she now lives in Leavenworth, a walkable small town in the Cascade foothills, served by Amtrak and Link Transit and close to the mountains and rivers. Big-city systems and small-town life both shape how UrbanLabs thinks about what makes a place work.

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We'd love to hear about it.

If you’re working on something that matters to your community, write to us.

elizabeth@urbanlabs.ioLeavenworth, Washington · © 2026 UrbanLabs LLC