Technical Program Highlights
Opening Session
ITE International President Kenneth H. Voigt opened the first session of the ITE 2009 Technical Conference and Exhibit, Transportation Operations in Action, Monday morning with a positive outlook on the ways the transportation engineering community can rise to today’s economic challenges by effectively managing and operating our transportation systems. While budget shortfalls and employee layoffs have had crippling effects on many state and local governments, transportation professionals stand poised to rebuild the United States’ economy and infrastructure through the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Keynote speakers Anthony (Tony) R. Kane, Ph.D., director of engineering and technical services for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and Randell (Randy) Iwasaki, chief deputy director for the California Department of Transportation, addressed the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities that ARRA funding presents to the transportation engineering community.
In his presentation, Kane urged transportation professionals to prove their ability to deliver strong projects that will build the case for management and operations funding in the upcoming transportation reauthorization legislation. While much discussion about the stimulus package has focused on “shovel-ready” projects, which are more focused on construction than maintenance, it is important to emphasize that management and operations projects serve a critical role in the congestion mitigation and incident management requirements surrounding these projects. Management and operations projects also meet the ARRA legislation’s goal of creating real jobs in a short amount of time. Iwasaki stressed the need to put forward projects that have gone past the planning stage, are ready for implementation and can clearly show how people will be put to work and for how long. The speakers noted that possible funding for transportation-related projects can also be identified in other allocated funding categories, such as training, education and energy.
While the challenges in obligating funding and executing projects in a short amount of time with a high level of transparency can be great, so can be the rewards. The speakers advised local jurisdictions to work with their state departments of transportation and suggested these resources for more information:
Interview with Tony Kane and Randy Iwasaki
Immediately following the opening session, ITE Executive Director and CEO Thomas Brahms and Public Information Manager Michelle Birdsall interviewed keynote speakers Tony Kane and Randy Iwasaki, bringing together their main points and observations regarding transportation management and operations opportunities in relation to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Click here to listen to the interview.
Transportation Operations Track
Session 5, “Keeping Traffic Moving During Major Construction Projects,” discussed the ways traffic management plans (TMP) can be effective tools in managing congestion throughout the duration of a construction project. On average, work zones contribute to 10 percent of planned (routine/daily) congestion and 20 percent of non-recurring congestion. TMP guides have been developed and used productively by Virginia, Wisconsin, Maryland and Michigan.
Safety Track
Session 3, “Evolution of Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) to Intellidrive SM,” described how the VII program’s new branding is designed to help take the initiative to the next level–bringing applications of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-road wireless communications to the public. Intellidrive’s new tagline, “Safer, Smarter, Greener,” also incorporates the program’s new focus on environmental issues. While it takes 20 years for the automobile fleet to turn over so that Intellidrive capabilities will be in every vehicle, the session highlighted ways that aftermarket devices can start providing benefits now.
Plenary Session
The following is a synopsis of some of the messages relayed during the plenary session, “Culture of Operations,” and follow-up conversation circle. Participants included Jeffrey Lindley, U.S. DOT-FHWA; Tim Kelly, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County; Gene Donaldson, Delaware DOT; and Stephen Lockwood, Parsons Brinckerhoff.
It is increasingly clear that widespread reductions in delay and improvements in reliability and safety on our nation’s highways can be achieved through aggressive management and operations of existing systems. Institutional, technical and process-oriented issues are often discussed and are commonly recognized as barriers to the transformation to an operations based management system. Less commonly embraced is the concept of the need for a “cultural” shift in transportation agencies. Agencies are built on a tradition of shared features that shape attitudes, roles and activities. This culture is defined by technical training, professional and agency values, customer expectations, political assumptions and the authorizing environment. These features result in a strong legacy of program directions within agencies. Significant change in agencies is not possible without affecting a cultural change within the agencies.
Cultural change can be imposed successfully by employing several strategies: (1) education—clearly explaining to stakeholders what operations means and how it is beneficial in terms of customer service; (2) leadership—working closely with agency leaders that may be from outside the transportation industry and may face “risks” in proposing changes to the way we do business; (3) collaboration—working together with partners (EMS, fire and police, traffic engineers) and establishing a means of communication, understanding and trust amongst stakeholders that may have opposing goals and objectives; and (4) workforce development—creating a curriculum for a new generation of transportation management professionals with training and skills in a broad area beyond traditional technical capabilities.
Traffic Engineering and Design Track
Session 27, “What is Happening in Your Community?” focused on the impacts of changing fuel costs on operations, mobility and safety. This lively conversation circle session attracted a wide range of participants from across the United States and Canada, including representatives from localities within the states of Arizona, California, Michigan, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and the province of Ontario, Canada.
The following trends were consistently attributed to the recent rise in fuel prices: increased car pool and high-occupancy vehicle lane usage; increased transit ridership; decreased vehicular traffic and vehicle-miles traveled (VMT); decreased crashes and crash rates; increased vehicular speeds; and increased pedestrian and bicycle travel. Other impacts of changing fuel prices were demonstrated in the types of projects receiving funding. It was consistently reported that new road construction projects are on the down-turn and are being replaced by a significant increase in funding for transit related projects. Voter-approved ballots in California have recently allowed for significant extensions of existing rail lines and a multi-billion-dollar high-speed rail project.
Participants agreed that these unique transportation conditions typified by decreased vehicular volumes and increased pedestrian, bicycle and transit travel allow agencies a unique opportunity to pursue new ideas for more livable communities, including road diets, new bike lanes and improved pedestrian facilities.
Questions remain as to whether the effects of the down turn in the economy, funding shortages and fluctuating gas prices will result in permanent or temporary impacts to transportation. Stay tuned to discussion on these issues by joining ITE at a future meeting.
Closing Session
Valerie Briggs, of U.S. DOT-RITA, moderated the closing session of the ITE 2009 Technical Conference and Exhibit, which included a distinguished panel of professionals sharing their highlights and lessons learned during the week’s sessions within the traffic engineering and design, safety, planning and transportation operations tracks. The following provides some highlights from the presentations. The presenters’ summaries from the conference will be published in July’s ITE Journal.
Traffic Engineering Track
James Helmer from the City of San Jose, CA, USA, DOT, observed the following challenges, areas of progress and opportunities discussed within the traffic engineering/design and operations track:
Challenges:
- keeping up with continuous change
- inserting audits into alternative design reviews and existing systems
- defining our role and mission on decreasing energy use
- telling our story
Progress:
- greater use of advanced technology in operations
- outdated interchanges being replaced with new alternatives
- ITE showing leadership in energy and climate issues
Opportunities:
- significant reductions in fatalities and injuries on our roadways
- development of sustainable and green construction and design standards
- links between our transportation investments into growing our economy
Safety Track
Bruce Ibarguen, of Maine DOT, identified the following challenges, areas of progress and opportunities discussed within the safety track:
Challenges:
- staying current with technology
- moving from demonstrations to deployment
- providing real-time data to drivers
- becoming proactive versus reactive
Progress:
- development of innovative tools that will enhance safety:
- Intellidrive(SM)
- iCone
- HAWK
- cell phone data collection
Opportunities:
- public-private partnerships
- partnerships with universities and high schools for research and testing
- American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funding
Don’t miss the July issue of ITE Journal for the complete summaries as well as those from Thomas Martin of the I-95 Corridor Coalition on the transportation operations track from Ronald Kirby of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on planning and operations.
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