ABJ Spotlight

1. ABJ00 Summer 2010, Volume 3, Issue 3 ABJ Spotlight • TAC Action • Special Task Force on Data for Decisions and Performance Measures Approved • By: Tom Palmerlee, TRB • The Technical Activities Council (TAC) approved this Special Task Force in April. At the TAC June meeting, its term was set at three years. The scope has been approved and co-chairs Charlie Howard of Puget Sound Regional Council and Chair of the Transportation System Policy, Planning and Process Section, and Johanna Zmud, who is moving to RAND Corporation this summer. Howard and Zmud are identifying individuals to serve on the STF. • Scope: The Special Task Force (STF) coordinates the activities of, and facilitates communication among, the TRB standing committees regarding the cross-cutting issues to address the necessary data resources and infrastructure to support decision making and performance measures. The Special Task Force augments, but does not replace, the activities of the TRB standing committees in these areas. The STF reports directly to the TRB Technical Activities Council. • The TAC also approved as one of eight the STF cross-cutting session proposals – “360 Degree Look at Data for Performance-Based Decision Making.” Two or three organizations will present their approaches to measures to support decision making and the data resources needed. A panel of transportation professionals will offer their insights on these examples. Section to conduct Strategic Planning – Joe Schofer to facilitate By Reg Souleyrette, Iowa State Univ. (Chair) The section is embarking on a strategic planning activity. The goal is to produce both a 3 year guidance plan and 2011 action plan. The planning team consists of section members Ed Christopher (at large), Kate Lawson (Urban Data), Leni Oman (at large), Jack Stickel (Statewide Data), and Harvey Miller (Geographic Information Science and Applications). The group will be facilitated by Joe Schofer (at-large). Tom Palmerlee and Reg Souleyrette will support the planning team. After meeting for the first time during NATMEC, the planning team issued a “call for topics” to section committee chairs, requesting information on committee activities and plans mapped to TRB critical issues by July 9, in time for use at the Minneapolis mid-year meeting. Mr. Stickel gets the early bird award for first submission of topics! The planning team plans to meet in person at the mid-year meeting and have a couple of conference calls prior to a one-day planning retreat at the Keck Center on October 20 to develop the draft plan. In addition to new materials, the team plans to build on the successful retreat the section had in March 2008 at the Beckman Center (Irvine), as well as the 2000 TRB committee millennium papers, section committee TSPs, and the Policy and Organization Group strategic and action plans. Thanks Joe!

2. TRB TAC Action and Annual Meeting TAC Action (cont.) By: Tom Palmerlee, TRB Strategies for Meeting Critical Data Needs for Decision Making in State and Metropolitan Transportation Agencies The Technical Activities Council (TAC) approved proceeding with a conference to convene agency policy makers, program managers and data experts from states and MPOs to examine the key data programs needed to support critical decisions facing those organizations in the next 5-10 years. A fall 2011 date is anticipated. The initiative for this meeting came from Kansas Secretary of Transportation Deb Miller. NCHRP’s program to support the decisions and improve the effectiveness of top managers has already allocated some funding for this conference. Additional support will be needed to proceed with conference planning. TRB Annual Meeting – Calendar and Info for Chairs By Tom Palmerlee, TRB • The Spotlight Theme for the meeting is “Transportation, Livability, and Economic Development in a Changing World.” Committees are asked to consider this theme as they develop their sessions. Committees are again allotted 2.3 lectern sessions per committee. Poster sessions do not count against this allotment. • The paper submission site opened on June 1. Authors have until August 1 to submit papers. Over the next 10 days TRB staff will distribute papers to committee chairs to assign to reviewers. • All information for sessions must be entered into the TRB online Annual Meeting Planner (AMP) by October 1. • New this year, during August and September we will be providing Committee Chairs and authorized session planners with the ability to view sessions that have been entered into AMP by all committees. This should help enhance the coordination among committees in the development of sessions. • Two new Annual Meeting training webinars will be added to our collection this year - TRB New Member Orientation and training for TRB paper authors. These will supplement our webinars for paper review coordinators, paper reviewers, session organizers, and new Annual Meeting attendees. • The full schedule of Annual Meeting training webinars can be found at http://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting2011/AnnualMeetingAnnouncements.aspx 2

3. TRB Annual Meeting (cont.) and Section Shout Out! TRB Annual Meeting – Section Workshops By Tom Palmerlee, TRB • Sponsored Workshops • Using ACS Data for Transportation Planning • Use of Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Emergency Preparedness • Sensing Technologies for Transportation Applications • Use of Private Sector and Blended Private/Public Sector Speed Data by Public Agencies for Planning and Operations • LiDAR Technologies for Transportation Applications • Current and Emerging Practices in Collecting and Estimating External Travel • National Household Travel Survey: Data Tools and Overview of Trends • Pervasive Data for Transportation: Innovations in Distributed and Mobile Information Discovery in ITS and LBS • Place of Artificial Intelligence and Computation in the Complex World of Transportation • The Right Tool for the Job: Search, Discovery and Current Awareness Tools, Tips and Tricks for Busy Transportation Professionals • Co-Sponsored Workshops • Emerging Sensor Technology for Utility Construction • Virtual Design and Construction for Transportation: Terminologies, Opportunities, Benefits, and Barriers • Using Information Technology to Support Better Construction Management VII • Strategies for Staying in the Game - Getting Better Results with IT Innovations • Qualitative Research Methods in Transportation: A New Approach to New Challenges • State of the Research in Assessing the Effectiveness of Transportation Programs Aimed at Knowledge/Skill Building and Enhancement ABJ Good Practice Shout-out – What Works for Committees? By: Reg Souleyrette, Iowa State Univ. (Chair) Following on the last issue, I am soliciting section “best practices” which can be anything one or more of our committees are doing that you feel may be useful to your peer committees and task forces. In this issue, I’d like to highlight a few* of the excellent web sites our committees have developed. WOW! I invite you to look them over for potential collaborative activities and perhaps ideas for your own page … ABJ30 Urban Data Kate Lawson, Chair; Ben Stabler, Committee Communications Coordinator ABJ40 Travel Survey Methods, Guy Rousseau, Chair; Sharon O'Connor, Webmaster ABJ50 Information Systems and Technology Frances Harrison, Chair; Martin Akerman, Webmaster ABJ60 Geographic Information Science and Applications Harvey Miller and Cesar Quiroga, co-chairs; Val Noronha, Webmaster ABJ70 Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications Shinya Kikuchi , Chair ABJ80 Committee on Statistical Methods Simon Washington, Chair; Phyllis Orrick, Webmaster ABJ95 Visualization in Transportation Mike Manor, Chair *left yours out? SORRY! Please let me know the address or other corrections.

4. ABJ Updates and Links AASHTO Holds Data Needs for Performance-based Planning Peer By Jonette Kreideweis, Minnesota DOT (at-large member) • On June 22-24, the AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning (SCOP) met in San Antonio, Texas to host a mid-year business meeting and a joint FHWA and AASHTO Peer Workshop on “Data Needs and Considerations Related to a National Performance-based Planning Process”.  • The peer workshop included a number of planning and data representatives from states, MPOs, transit agencies, academia and the transportation consultant community.  Peter Plumeau from RSG facilitated the workshop.  Results of a roundtable discussion held in 2009 were shared as well as a scan on the state of the practice.  Greg Nadeau (FHWA), Alan Pisarski (Transportation Consultant), Lance Grenzeback (Cambridge Systematics, Inc.) and Steven Polzin (CUTR) provided background perspectives.  Workshop participants spent the majority of the meeting in breakout sessions focusing on four key questions: • How can agencies ensure their data approaches and systems support performance based planning and programming? • How will agencies collect, manage, apply and report data for performance-based planning programming? • How can we ensure decision making is closely linked to performance management data? • What research and capacity building efforts should be initiated to support development of use of performance related data? • Preliminary themes from breakout group reports reflected a desire for clear transportation vision and goals to drive performance based planning; better tools and methods for integrating and analyzing performance data; and enhanced methods for sharing, reporting and applying performance data in the transportation programming process.  A final report of the peer exchange and SCOP business meeting will be available in the near future. More information will be available on the SCOP website at http://planning.transportation.org. Useful links New! Section Google Group Section Newsletter archive Temporary Section Website/data archive

5. ABJ00 Who we are … ABJ00Section - Data and Information Systems Reginald R. Souleyrette, Chair Iowa State Universityreg@iastate.eduTRB Staff RepresentativeThomas M. PalmerleeAssociate Director, Technical Activities DivisionTransportation Research Boardtpalmerlee@nas.edu Committees ABJ10National Transportation Data Requirements and Programs Timothy J. Lomax, Chair Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) ABJ20Statewide Transportation Data and Information Systems Jack R. Stickel , Chair Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities ABJ25TTask Force on the Traffic Monitoring Conferences Shawn M. Turner, Chair Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) ABJ30Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems Catherine T. Lawson , Chair University at Albany ABJ35Highway Traffic Monitoring Peter L. Keen , Chair Digital Traffic Systems, Inc. (DTS) ABJ40Travel Survey Methods Guy Rousseau , Chair Atlanta Regional Commission ABJ50Information Systems and Technology Frances D. Harrison , Chair Spy Pond Partners, LLC C. Douglas Couto, Past Chair CitrixABJ60Geographic Information Science and Applications Harvey J. Miller, Co-Chair University of Utah Cesar A. Quiroga, Co-Chair Texas Transportation Institute (TTI)ABJ70Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications Shinya Kikuchi, Chair Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)ABJ80Committee on Statistical Methods Simon P. Washington, Chair U.C. Berkeley ABJ90Freight Transportation Data Scott R. Drumm, Chair Port of Portland, Oregon ABJ95Visualization in Transportation Michael Anthony Manore, Chair Vispective Management Consulting, LLC Subcommittees Research Subcommittee James P. Hall, Chair University of Illinois, Springfield Metadata SubcommitteeFrances D. Harrison, Chair Spy Pond Partners, LLC At Large Members Thomas Bolle USDOT/RITA Edward J. ChristopherFederal Highway Administration (FHWA) Jonette R. KreideweisMinnesota Department of Transportation Ellen M. OmanWashington State Department of Transportation Joseph L. SchoferNorthwestern University Johanna Zmud, Past Chair NuStats For more information about ABJ00, please contact Reg Souleyrette, chair (reg@iastate.edu) or Tom Palmerlee, TRB (tpalmerlee@nas.edu)

6. ABJ Upcoming Events • 2010 TRB Joint Summer Meeting • July 11-13, 2010 • Minneapolis, Minnesota • Committees 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, 2010 • Keck Center, Washington, DC • Look for the new preliminary program soon at http://www.trb.org/conferences/livability2010.aspx. • Data and Information Systems Section (ABJ00) Strategic Planning Meeting • October 20, 2010, Washington, DC • Being designed for on site and remote participation. • Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) Workshop • November 16, 2010, Washington, DC • Look for the latest program at www.trb.org/Conferences/CFS2010.aspx • Using National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) Data for Transportation Decision Making Workshop • Date changed to June 6-7, 2011 • Keck Center, Washington, D.C. • Data Section Summer Conference Call • Tuesday July 13, 12:00 PM Central time (TRB Mid-year) • (877)339-0018, Access *360-7711* • Hear overview of Office of Transportation Policy Studies, FHWA • Select Topics for October 20 Consideration • Discuss committee session plans (continued)