Annual Meeting HighlightsAppel Emphasizes Importance of Data at ABJ00 Section MeetingPeter Appel, RITA Administrator was one of four keynote speakers at the ABJ00 Section meeting and dinner held at the Washington Hilton, January 10, 2010. Mr. Appel discussed common objectives for RITA and the data section. He is stressing bringing RITA groups together to take advantage of synergies (Volpe, Joint Program Office, BTS, …) as well as partnership with the Policy Bureau of the Department. RITA is looking forward to working with the section on data and information systems issues, especially related to performance measures, transparency and data for decision making.

Winter 2010, Volume 3, Issue 1

Following Mr. Appel’s discussion, past section chair Alan Pisarski presented his assessment of data programs and a lively discussion of future directions for the section took place. Highlights included discussion of Mr. Pisarski’s testimony before the Congressional Technology Committee, working closely with the administration to meet data driven goals and connecting data users with providers. Where can we make gains in data? According to Mr. Pisarski “content, methods, institutions, and funding.” At large section members Joe Schofer and Ed Christopher continued the presentations with updates on the data policy study and data assessment guide efforts (see below for more details).

TAC Announces Seven7 Strategies for improving Effectiveness of TRBDuring the annual section chairs luncheon, Bob Johns, TAC Chair and new Director of the Volpe Lab announced 7 strategies for improving the functioning and impact of TRB. These include renewed focus on: Emerging/ crosscutting issues, group consistency, research needs, options for AM and conferences, publications and products, new technologies and committee effectiveness. It was suggested that less time should be spent on committee business and more on the issues. The theme of the 2011 AM will be: transportation, livability, and economic development in a changing world.

Congratulations and thanks to ABJ committee chairs, staff, members and friends for many productive meetings and sessions at the 2010 Annual Meeting!

RITA Administrator Peter Appel briefs ABJ00 on RITA initiatives during section dinner on Sunday evening.

ABJ00

In April 2010, the Section chair and several section committee chairs will change. Reg Souleyrette of Iowa State University, current co-chair of ABJ60 – Geographic Information Science and Applications has accepted this responsibility. Reg follows Dr. Johanna Zmud, President of NuStats who served as Chair 2007-2010, and as a member since 2002. Reg is replaced by Cesar Quiroga of TTI as co-chair of ABJ60. Peter Keen, president of Digital Traffic Systems is the new chair of ABJ35 -- Highway Traffic Monitoring as Ralph Gillman steps down. Travel Survey Methods (ABJ40) Chair Kara Kockelman is succeeded by Guy Rousseau of Atlanta Regional Commission. ABJ50 - Information Systems and Technology turns the wheel over to Frances Harrison of Spy Pond Partners. ABJ20 – National Transportation Data Requirements and Programs welcomes Tim Lomax of TTI who replaces Pat Hu as chair. A new chair for the Metadata Subcommittee will be identified soon to replace Frances Harrison who moves to ABJ50 chair.

Retiring Chairs – THANK YOU!

Reg Souleyrette presents Dr. Zmud with a small token of the section’s appreciation

Ralph Gillmann, Highway Traffic Monitoring (ABJ35), Chair 2007-

2009, Member Since 1995Kara Kockelman, Travel Survey Methods (ABJ40), Chair 2007-

2010, Member Since 1999

Patricia Hu, National Transportation Data

Requirements (ABJ10), Chair 2007-2010, Member since 1995

C. Douglas Couto, Information Systems and Technology

(ABJ50), Chair 2007-2010, Member since 2001

ABJ Leadership Changes

Travel Survey Methods (ABJ40): Guy Rousseau is the Models & Surveys Manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), the MPO for Atlanta, Georgia, which he joined in 1998. He is responsible for model development activities, coordinating the travel model with the land use model, providing model results for air quality conformity, and household travel and on-board surveys. Before coming to ARC, he was the Principal Traffic Engineer for the City of Atlanta Department of Public Works. Mr. Rousseau is a member of the TRB Committees on Transportation Planning Applications, Metadata, and Travel Survey Methods. He is the Co-Chair of the TRB Household Travel Survey Sub-Committee and the Chair of NCHRP 08-79.

National Transportation Data Requirements (ABJ10): Tim Lomax has been extensively involved in urban mobility research. He developed and applied a methodology to assess area-wide traffic congestion levels and congestion costs. The Urban Mobility Report includes information on 90 cities throughout the U.S. and examines trends in urban area mobility and documents the effect of transportation investments. A related pooled-fund research project has developed several performance measures and analytical techniques to describe mobility to a wide range of audiences including transportation professionals, public policy decision-makers, the media and the general public. Dr. Lomax has also been involved in developing and evaluating a wide range of solutions to mobility problems.

Information Systems and Technology (ABJ50): Frances D. Harrison’s interest and expertise includes transportation data and information systems, transportation performance measurement, federal, state and local transportation policy and planning, and Software development process and quality assurance. She is Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of management consulting practice for public sector transportation agencies for Spy Pond Partners. There, Ms. Harrison’s work focuses on helping organizations to improve accountability and internal effectiveness through targeted improvements to business processes and information systems. She is Chair of the Data Section Subcommittee on Metadata, Chaired TRB’s Peer Exchange on Open Architecture and is a Member of the Women’s Transportation Seminar.

Geographic Information Science and Applications (ABJ60): Cesar Quiroga is a research engineer at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). At TTI, he founded and currently leads the Infrastructure Management Program, which conducts research and technology transfer in areas related to data inventory and maintenance, data exchange and integration, optimization of the project development process, and infrastructure data management needs throughout the lifetime of transportation facilities. Dr. Quiroga has also been active in transportation operations research, in particular intelligent transportation system (ITS) design and implementation issues. Before joining TTI in 1998, he was a research associate at the Remote Sensing and Image Processing Laboratory at Louisiana State University. He is currently serving as Secretary for Committees ABJ60 (Geographic Information Science and Applications Committee – since 2005) and AFB70 (Utilities Committee – since 2008).

ABJ Leadership Changes

New Chairs – CONGRATULATIONS!

ABJ InitiativesTRB Policy Study on

Strategies for Improved Passenger and Freight Travel DataSupported by USDOT/RITA, AASHTO/NCHRP, and TRB

Dr. Joseph L. Schofer - (Chair)Northwestern University

This study will assess the state of passenger and freight travel data at the federal, state, and local levels and make recommendations for an affordable and sustainable system for estimating personal and freight travel to support public and private transportation planning and decision making… The primary emphasis of this project will be on understanding user needs for travel data and developing a practical, achievable, and affordable strategy for collection of, and funding for, essential travel data programs.

… current and emerging barriers will be identified, new approaches for collecting data assessed, costs evaluated, and benefits documented.

… the committee will qualitatively examine the effectiveness and feasibility of promising innovations in data collection, such as continuous longitudinal surveys, web surveys, and methods to capture data from automated sources (e.g., probe vehicles, cell phone probes, radio frequency identification tags), and recommend strategies for ensuring the timely availability and quality of essential travel data at acceptable costs.

NRC web site: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49163Outside of meetings the committee is receiving and exchanging information about data programs, user needs, confidentiality issues, and research on challenges and opportunities. The committee invites suggestions and ideas from the data community.

Contact InformationNancy Humphrey: NHUMPHRE@nas.eduJoseph Schofer: j-schofer@northwestern.edu

Just short of two years ago the Section had a retreat in Irvine California at the Beckman Center. One concept that came out of the retreat was the need for some type of guide to help assess our data programs. To help flesh out the concept we have managed to secure a small project, NCHRP 8-36(100) for $70K, that calls for the "Development of a Framework for Agency Self-Assessment of Transportation Data Programs". The work on this project expected to be completed in about a year after which the Section will takes steps to further advance the concept.

The work is being overseen by a small NCHRP Task Panel but for our Section we have a committee made up of Johanna Zmud, Joe Schofer, James Hall, Reg Souleyrette and chaired by Ed Christopher continuing to keep the concept and project moving.

For the NCHRP project, proposals were received by NCHRP on Thursday, February 25, 2010 and a contractor is expected to be selected shortly.

NCHRP 08-36/Task 100: Development of a Framework for Agency Self-Assessment of Transportation Data Programs

By Ed Christopher, FHWA

ABJ Upcoming EventsGIS for Asset Management Peer ExchangeApril 11, 2010Charlestown, West Virginia Innovations in Travel Demand Forecasting: 2010 May 9, 2010Tempe, Arizona Toward Better Freight Transportation Data: A Research Road Map May 19-20, 2010Irvine, CA 2010 Environment and Energy in Transportation Summit* June 6-10, 2010Raleigh, North Carolina NATMEC: Improving Traffic Data Collection, Analysis, and Use June 21-24, 2010Seattle, WashingtonCommittees meeting there:

• Statewide Transportation Data and Information Systems Committee (ABJ20)

• Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems Committee (ABJ30)

• Highway Traffic Monitoring Committee (ABJ35)

• Regional Transportation Systems Management and Operations Committee (RTSMO)

 2010 TRB Joint Summer Meeting

July 11-13, 2010Minneapolis, MinnesotaCommittees meeting there:

•Information Systems and Technology Committee (ABJ50)•Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications Committee (ABJ70) •Freight Transportation Data Committee (ABJ90) •Visualization in Transportation Committee (ABJ95)   2010 University Transportation Centers

Spotlight Conference: Research Perspectives on Transportation Systems for Livable Communities

October 18-19, 2010Washington, DC Using National Household Travel Survey

(NHTS) Data for Transportation Policy Decisions

October 25-26, 2010Washington, D.C. Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) WorkshopNovember 16Washington, DC 

Data Section Winter Conference Call!Wednesday, March 3, 12:00 noon Eastern(877)339-0018, Access *360-7711*

•Hear about key data initiatives•Consider plans for the July 11-13 Joint Summer Meeting•Share updates from section members