transtalk_2013oct10022013.pdf

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TransTalk

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

Welcome back

from what I hopewas a greatsummer foreveryone! Whilethe MET Sectionslows down a littlebit over thesummer months,a lot has beengoing on behind

the scenes. I figured I would take thisopportunity to highlight some of these

activities along with a look at some futureevents coming your way this fall.

2nd Annual All Day Technical Conference - Iam happy to report that we were able to buildon the success of last years inaugural All DayTechnical Conference as we held our 2ndConference on July 18th at the Skyline Hotel inManhattan. We had over 120 people inattendance and were able to offer 7 PDHsfrom a lineup of great speakers! I want tospecially thank our Technical Projects

Committee for another awesome event!

ITE International Annual Meeting I was ableto head up Boston to experience my firstAnnual Meeting. I have to say that it was veryimpressive to see such a large gathering oftraffic professionals from all across thecountry. I participated in the Elected

In This Issue

October 2013, Volume 16, Issue 3

By Adam Allen, P.E., TSOS1

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Presidents Message

3Candidates for 2014 Met

Section Treasurer

5From the Editor

7We need to Throw Away ourThrowaway culture

11CoVal Advanced Travel

Advisory System

10,15,16Meeting Highlights

17Section Calendar

18Student Chapter Happenings

13Conveying the Benefits of Transit Signal

Priority Through Animated and Static Media

19Young Member Events


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October 2013

Leadership Forum and was able to shareideas and learn from ITE leadership fromaround the country.

2014 Northeastern District Annual Meeting A few weeks back, members of the LocalArrangements Committee were able to meetin Long Branch, NJ to put the finishingtouches on booking the venue for our 2014Annual Meeting. For those of you whovenever attended a District Meeting, I urge youto consider joining us at the Ocean PlaceResort in Long Branch, NJ on May 14 16 forwhat is shaping up to be a great meeting fullof excellent technical presentations andnetworking opportunities.

Emerging Professionals Conference I amvery excited to announce this new eventplanned by our Mentorship Committee. It isgeared towards younger transportationprofessionals and will focus on developingtheir skills to advance their careers. We areexcited to have Carl Selinger, a Met SectionLifetime Member, present on topics such asdecision-making, time management, effectivemeeting preparation and leadership skills.We have also assembled an impressive panel

including CEOs, Commissioners and seniorITE Leadership, from both the public andprivate sectors, to share their experiences ina roundtable discussion.

Young Member Events The Young MemberCommittee has already put together a lot ofexciting networking opportunities this year.After a successful Six Flags trip, they havenumerous events planned for the fall. So staytuned for various Young Member Eventscoming your way!

As you can see, we have a lot coming up aswe wind down 2013. I hope to see all of youin Milleridge!

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TransTalk October 2013

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Keith Hall, LEED AP BD+C, STP!, is an Assistant Project Engineer with MaserConsulting in Hamilton, NJ. As a product of the cooperative education programat Northeastern University where he earned his Bachelors Degree, his

experience spans over 5 years, as an active team member and lead designer onkey projects and a developer of solutions for unique challenges. Serving bothprivate and public clients, Mr. Halls project portfolio includes adaptive trafficsignals, ITS, pedestrian accessibility, bicycle facilities, and design standards foragencies such as the Port Authority of NY&NJ; positioning himself to be adifference maker in the future. His experience extends internationally having

studied in the Netherlands and gaining invaluable knowledge through field investigations,exercises, and daily life. Its no coincidence then that he has taken an active role in designingtransportation facilities to accommodate all modes, with a commitment to sustainability, in theUS.

Mr. Halls active ITE involvement dates back to his college years, serving as President for the

Northeastern University student chapter which under his leadership won student chapter of theyear for the District in 2012. In addition, he was presented with the 2011 ITE NortheasternDistrict Student Paper Award for his review of dilemma zone practices. Since then, ITEendeavors above and beyond regularly attendance at Section meetings include:

! Presenting for the Met Section on the topic of Sustainable Transportation in the Fall of2012;

! Co-chairing the Construction/Activation sub-committee for the ITE Sustainable TrafficSignal Development IR;

! Serving as a volunteer reviewer for the USDOT/ ITSA/ ITE ITS ePrimer series; and! Currently co-chairing the Met Section Mentorship Committee tasked with creating a

program geared toward providing insight, industry experience, and leadership to ouremerging professionals.

In addition to these ITE responsibilities, Keith is a volunteer firefighter serving his hometowncommunity for over 6 years and is also the chair of the Students in ITS committee for ITS-NJ.

As you can see, Keith is passionate about his career and ITE in particular. Its his firm belief thatthe technical and networking opportunities that ITE provides plays a critical role in the successof the industry, its individual members, and the public it serves. He will make it his mission tofurther engage and expand the Sections student chapters and younger members, throughenhanced participation activities and mentorship opportunities. Aligning with his corephilosophy of community involvement and outreach, he will seek more opportunities to get thesection involved in giving back to our local communities that have given us so much. Moreover,he will set forth an initiative to provide increased exposure to cutting-edge research and new

technologies as it relates to transportation, keeping our members at the forefront of our ever-changing industry. Having served under similar capacities, he understands the dedication ittakes and is willing to devote the time necessary to serve in the position, fulfill all duties andresponsibilities, but most importantly be diligent and faithful to continue the great tradition thatis the ITE Met-Section of NY-NJ.

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October 2013

Tra Vu, Ph.D. is a Transportation Engineer with Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. in

New York. Her specialty is in simulation modeling, with focus in advancedIntelligent Transportation Systems. She is extremely familiar with most majormodeling software including Aimsun, Vissim, and Synchro, using themregularly in her work on major simulation design projects for NYCDOT, NJDOTand the Port Authority.

Ms. Vus undergrad, graduate, and post-graduate schooling have all been atPolytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly, formerly known as

Polytechnic University). She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering andMaster of Science degree in Financial Engineering in 2007. In 2009, she acquired her secondMaster of Science degree in Transportation Planning and Engineering, and received her Doctoratein Transportation Planning and Engineering in January of 2011.

During her years at the university, Ms. Vu conducted several transportation research projects inthe fields of Freeway Weaving Sections, and Transportation Finance. In the fall of 2011, afterfinishing her Doctorate, she taught a Special Topics course in Transportation SimulationModeling as an adjunct professor at NYU-Poly.

Tra Vu has received a number of awards, including the following: Polytechnic University CordellaE. Williams Memorial Award - 2005/2006; The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), TheNew York City Post Scholarship Fund 2005, 2006, and 2007; the Sharon D. Banks Scholarshippresented by WTS-GNY 2005 and 2009; and the 2009 Professor Louis J. Pignataro MemorialTransportation Engineering Education Award presented by our ITE Met Section on March 182010.

Tra has been an active member of the ITE organization for over five years, and while pursuing herpost graduate studies, she revived the ITE student chapter at NYU-Poly which had been dormantfor more than two decades. As President of this chapter, she organized meetings and field trips,and introduced her peers to the myriad of activities offered by ITE. Currently, Tra is the Chair ofthe Long Island Arrangements Committee, responsible for organizing ITE meetings at JerichoTerrace in March, and joint meetings with the ASCE Met Section at the Milleridge Inn inSeptember.

With a fresh perspective on student life and student chapters, one of Tras main objectives as amember of the Met Section Executive Board would be to attract more student participation. Herplan is to encourage educators, who are ITE members, to serve as channels for students to getmore exposure to ITE and to help them learn how the organization can aid them in advancement

Additional nominees for any office may be made by petition, signed by not less than twenty-five

voting members and representing at least three employment organizations. Each such petition

shall be accompanied by the written consent of the nominee to run for the office for which

nominated and must be received by the Secretary no later than September 30th.

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Welcome back from what was, hopefully, awonderful summer.

There has been a lot of media coverage adsand stories on radio and especially television

about this falls elections. Two of the mostwidely covered have been the New York Citymayoral race and the New Jerseygubernatorial race although there arenumerous other races throughout the region.

Michael Bloomberg has been mayor of thecity for three four-year terms. During mostof that time, his transportation commissionerhas been Janette Sadik-Khan. TheBloomberg/Khan team has accomplished agreat deal in a really short time. There has

been a dramatic increase in bicycle lanes,including the innovative placement of thelanes between the curbs and the parked cars.There is the bike share program which is apublic-private partnership with Citibank.There is the Select Bus Service (SBS) whichthe rest of the world calls Bus Rapid Transit(BRT) in cooperation with the MTAs transitagencies. There is the closing and narrowingof roads available for motor vehicles and therelated proliferation of pedestrian plazas.Perhaps the most visible has been the

conversion of much of Times Square as wellas Herald Square-Greeley Square topedestrian zones. It will be interesting tosee who will become the next mayor, whohis/her transportation commissioner will be,and what policies will be advanced by thenew administration. As I attended the

From the EditorBy Mayer Horn, P.E., PTOE, PTP

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mayoral candidates forum earlier thissummer at Baruch College and listened toeach of the candidates (at least, those whoshowed up), I heard some strange anddestructive ideas, including an intention to

destroy what has been accomplished duringthe Bloomberg/Sadik-Khan period.

Governor Chris Christie has Newark MayorCorey Booker as his opponent. Both menhave national recognition and are likely to bethinking about the national election of 2016;the policies that the successful candidate willadvance are likely to be viewed in thecontext of the 2016 election. Will the twoJims of transportation Jim Simpson as NJDOT Commissioner and Chairman of NJ

Transit, and Jim Weinstein as ExecutiveDirector of NJ Transit continue in theirposts beyond 2013? Will there be policychanges?

Despite the gridlock in Washington, work onmajor projects in our region continues.These include the Tappan Zee Bridgereplacement, MTA Long Island Rail RoadsEast Side Access to Grand Central Terminal,MTA New York City Transits Second AvenueSubway and 7 Line Extension to the Javits

Center, and the widening of the New JerseyTurnpike to Interchange 6 (and the relatedconnection in Pennsylvania of the connectionand I-95). Other major projects are theextension of New Yorks Penn Station intothe Post Office Farley Building now knownas Moynihan Station and the proposed


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October 2013

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Gateway Project which would include twosingle-track tunnels under the Hudson River replacing the former proposal calledAccess to the Regions Core ARC which

had been advanced by NJ Transit.

The Barclay Center has opened at the edgeof Downtown Brooklyn and the basketballNets now call it home. The hockey Islandersare committed to join them when theNassau Coliseum lease terminates. ThatColiseum now has a developer to redevelopthis structure in Uniondale in central NassauCounty. Whereas the Barclay Center sitsatop numerous subway lines and a (still)major LIRR terminal, the Coliseum is beyond

walking distance from any of the railstations; transit is not a major access mode.

At our ITE Met Section, the focus is on theprograms for the last half of 2013, the 2014Northeastern District meeting which theMet Section will be hosting next May, andthe candidates for 2014 Treasurer. Thebylaws require at least two candidates forthe treasurer position and the nominatingcommittee has selected Tra Vu and KeithHall as candidates. (Other candidates can

get on the ballot by petition, according tothe bylaws.) Keith is serving on the MetSection Mentoring Committee and hasspoken at a Met Section meeting. Tra isserving on the Local ArrangementsCommittee for Long Island, will be greetingattendees at the September meeting, andhas received the Pignataro Award from theMet Section. We are fortunate that both aregood candidates, anxious to serve. Biosand pictures of the candidates appear inthis issue.

Comments on this article and othertransportation matters are welcome.


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Democrats and Republicans agree that Americastransportation infrastructure needs rebuildingand upgrading, but cant agree on how to dothis, especially as to how to pay for it. Thisagreement, and disagreement, was clearlyevident in the press reports of PresidentObamas March 29 infrastructure remarks at the

Port of Miami. To supplement state and federalprograms, the President proposed a series of taxbreaks and loans to stimulate private investment.Speaker John Boehner noted that Republicansalso want to upgrade American infrastructure,but only if it could be paid for.

Funding sources are certainly criticalconsiderations, but shouldnt we also beassuring that program costs are minimized,consistent with environmental goals? This can beachieved with multipurpose, innovative design,including value engineering and, wherever

possible, making the best use of availablefacilities and transportation rights-of-way (ROWs).Available ROWs include inactive or lightly usedrailroad lines. I refer to such ROWs astransportation rights-of-way because that termcaptures their potential for the 21st Century,rather than for their role in the 19thCentury orthe 20thCentury.

Recycling is a big part of sustainability and weneed to apply that kind of thinking totransportation planning. In transportationplanning, we should stop throwing awayperfectly usable transportation rights-of-way. Too

often, we build new rather than repurpose andimprove an existing channel, or we look to whatwas rather than fully exploring what might be.

I will be focusing here on several transportationprograms related to NYC and Long Island thatdid not or are not following these common senseprinciples. In one case, this resulted in project

By Leon Goodman, P.E., PTOE

costs way over what they might have been.Also, a current proposal for re-use of aninactive ROW will not achieve its fullmobility/community-serving potential, unlessits possible transportation function is fullyconsidered. In another case, involving a lightlyused rail ROW, there could be a missed

opportunity for a major multimodaltransportation/economic developmentinitiative.

Here are some situation where there was athrowaway or where, by using the full potentialof available rail rights-of-way, a throwaway canbe avoided now and into the future:

Air Train JFK (opened 2003)

This long-needed transit facility for JFK Airportprovides several functions: on-airportcirculation, connections to the subway and bus

systems, and connection to the Long IslandRail Road (LIRR). The 4 mile long link toJamaica cost about $900 million. This veryhigh cost was due to the link being built as acompletely new viaduct over the Van WyckExpressway and, at a third level, over thecross-street overpasses. Major funding for thislink came from the Federal AviationAdministration. That agency ruled that therecould be no local stations between the airportand Jamaica. Consequently, the local Queenscommunities bore the visual impact of three-level structures, but there were no transit

service benefits provided for thosecommunities.

During planning of this link, manytransportation planners, including me, urgeduse of the path of the inactive LIRR RockawayBeach Branch. That line, parallel to the VanWyck Expressway, runs fro the northeastcorner of JFK to the LIRR at Rego Park. That

We Need to Throw Away our

Throwaway Culture

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ROW, already completely grade-separated,provides a more direct route from Manhattan tothe airport as compared with the Van Wyckroute. Transfer to the LIRR could have beenprovided at a new LIRR Rego Park station alsoserving that community. The Rockaway BeachBranch route, essentially requiring onlyupgrading of the existing ROW, would haverequired a much lower construction cost,probably in the $200-$300 million range.

Inactive LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch (present)

In March of this year, The New York Timesreported on the QueensWay proposal, whichwould convert the still inactive ROW of the LIRRRockaway Beach Branch to a pedestrian/bicycletrain. QueensWay advocates compare this ideato the High Line in Manhattan, with food standsalong the way. But the Rockaway Beach BranchROW still has great transportation potential forresidents of the adjacent Queens communities.It should not be used only for a linear park andfood stands. This irreplaceable, publicly-ownedland could also serve to reduce auto traffic andincrease mobility in the local communities. Thiscould be achieved by using this Queens ROW fora modern, context-sensitive, grade separatedBus Rapid Transit (BRT) service with connectionto area bus and rail lines, including MetropolitanAve., Atlantic Ave., other major crossroads, andthe Queens Blvd. subway. This type of quick,reliable, environmentally friendly BRT systemhas been in service for years in many cities,including Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Miami.At Atlantic Ave. in Woodhaven, the BRT stationcould connect to a rehabilitated WoodhaenStation on the LIRR Brooklyn line. In this way,the Queens communities would gain the publictransportation service denied to them under theAir Train JFK program.

Both sustainability elements parks and high-quality transit could be achieved by the time-shared use of a single way within this ROW:

transit during weekday peak periods and apedestrian/bicycle train at all other times. Thetrail would therefore be available weekdays(midday and late afternoon), Saturdays,Sundays, and holidays (all day). When the waywas in use as a trail, BRT service would operatealong Woodhaven Blvd., with stops only at majorcrossroads.

Sponsors of QueensWay should consider both

elements, using funding from parks andtransportation programs. Moving this veryachievable idea forward would give Queensresidents two quality-of-life improvements inone program.

LIRR Bay Ridge Branch (The Gateway ProjectProposal)

The Bay Ridge Branch of the LIRR, traversingcentral Brooklyn, could play a key role increating:

1) Major multi-modal regional mobility andenvironmental improvements.

2) A new Brooklyn-Queens rapid transit service.3) A significant economic boost for Brooklyn,

Queens, and Long Island.

These benefits could be achieved by creating

The Gateway Project, which would includeBrooklyn Waybuilt almost entirely within theROW of this lightly used freight rail line.

Gateway, a published proposal, is a multi-modal transportation concept that woulddirectly address economic competitiveness andsustainability...and is very doable. It wouldaddress the cost-inefficiencies andenvironmental negatives of the major Southernmissing link in the regional transportationsystem. Gateway would have three elements:Brooklyn Way, Staten Island Transit, and LibertyTunnel. Gateways central element, BrooklynWay, would be the first state with the tunneland/or Staten Island Transit added later.

Brooklyn Way would provide a modern,electronically tolled, managed lanes roadwayfitting within the Bay Ridge Branch ROW, andwithin existing highway ROWs in southernBrooklyn and Queens, with virtually norelocations needed. Where needed, below gradesections could be decked over as part of itscontext-sensitive designs. New double stackclearance freight rail would be included,replacing the existing outmoded, low clearance

tracks.

The Staten Island Transit element would allowBRT services from Staten Islands northerly andsoutherly communities to operate to JFK Airport,via the Verrazano Bridge and Brooklyn Way.

The New York-New Jersey cross-harbor LibertyTunnel would include freight rail andelectronically tolled managed lanes.

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Combined, the three elements would provide:transit (BRT connections to many subway lines inBrooklyn); sustainable highway modes (managedlanes for HOVs, buses, and trucks, withelectronic toll collection) more energy-efficient

truck routing, and improved, double-stackclearance freight line. Toll revenues, fromLiberty Tunnel and Brooklyn Way, could be abase for public funding and/or public-privatepartnerships.

In summary, Gateway would achieve thefollowing:

1. Divert truck trips from many overloadedexpressways and reduce VMT (Vehicle-MilesTraveled) by creating a more direct route fortrips from the west destined to SouthernBrooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. A

significant number of these trips now travelalong circuitous, energy-wasting routesinvolving the George Washington Bride, theEast River toll bridges, and connectingoverloaded expressways.

2. Divert truck trips from the Staten IslandExpressway.

3. Improve freight rail for NYC and Long Island.4. Provide new transit connections for JFK

Airport and improve connections among theairports and seaports.

Create new transit service between Staten Islandand other boroughs. For the first time, Staten

Island residents would have, quick reliable transitaccess to the thousands of jobs at JFK Airport inQueens.

Two of the transportation right-of-wayconversations discussed here involve new BRT onformer rail rights-of-way. Other American cities

have successfully done this and here are a fewexamples:

1. Pittsburgh: the Martin Luther King, Jr. (East)Busway, on part of a Conrail ROW.

2. Los Angeles: the Orange Line Busway, on theformer ROW of the Southern Pacific Railroad.3. Miami: the South Miami-Dade Busway, on theformer ROW of the Florida East CoastRailroad.

One of the rail right-of-way conversions, BrooklynWay, created toll managed lanes. Some of theother area with tolled managed lanes areHouston, Miami, Minneapolis, San Diego, andSeattly.

For all of the inactive or lightly-usedtransportation ROWs noted here, use by new railtransit or by BRT services represents efficient,

forward-looking transportation development.Lets get serious about not throwing away theseirreplaceable resources. These old arteries canbe utilized to inject new vitality ito the nationseconomy, and to better our quality of life, byimproving urban mobility at relatively low costwith minimal environmental impacts. Lets fullyrealize the great opportunities for the future thatthey offer.

Leon Goodman, a transportation professor atPratt Institute, is a Past International Presidentof the ITE, a Past Met Section President, a Past

Chair of the ITE Transit Council, and formerManager of Transportation Planning for the PortAuthority of NY & NJ. He was the ProjectDirector for initiating several acclaimedprograms including the Exclusive Bus Lane at theLincoln Tunnel and One Way Tolls at twelveHudson River and Staten Island crossings.

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Comments from the Editor:

For a number of years, Lee Goodman hasused Gateway to describe his proposal for theBay Ridge Division. More recently, Amtrak hasused Gateway to describe its proposal foradditional Hudson River tunnels into PennStation, NY. The two projects are not related. Lee is correct in describing the Bay RidgeDivision as a lightly used freight line. At leastas recently as the 1960s, and perhaps later,there were diesel locomotive-hauled LIRR

freight trains serving local sidings and 8 to 10electric locomotive-hauled New Haven Railroadfreight trains of 130 140 cars on this linedaily. The freight service is currently operatedby the New York and Atlantic Railway which hasbeen growing its volume. The Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel has longbeen advocated by Gerald Nadler, both in theNew York State Assembly and then in the U.S.

House of Representatives. In the Congress, hewas able to secure $100 million for planning andenvironmental studies. These were originallyconducted by the New York City EconomicDevelopment Corporation and its consultants,and then transferred to the Port Authority. ThePort Authority has been focused on improvingthe car float operation across the harbor. Rail transit service along the Bay RidgeDivision had long been advocated by theCommittee for Better Transit, among others. Itwould connect with numerous subway lines inBrooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. A similarproposal has been made by one of thecandidates in the current mayoral campaign.Recently, Regional Plan Association has alsoproposed rail transit on this line. In addition,Metro North has proposed to route some of itsNew Haven Line trains via a portion of the HellGate Line to Penn Station when the LIRR reducesits service to Penn; this Metro North proposaldoes not appear to conflict with the others.

Joint Meeting with

the Highway

Capacity and qualityof service committeeAugust 1

st, 2013

Polytechnic Institute of NYU

On August 1st, 2013, TRB Highway

Capacity and Quality of Service

Committee hosted a joint meeting with

the MET section of ITE. The luncheon

featured short presentations by TRBCommittee members on current and

future activities, and by ITE met section

members, who discussed their experiences

and observations on the 2010 HCM.

Gregory Hass from NYCDOT and Robert Frazier from HDR Incpresented Experiences with the 2010 Highway Capacity Manual

Dr. Lily Elefteriadou, Chair of the Committee, a Poly graduate andnow Professor of Civil Engineering of University of Florida,

presented Efforts Towards a 2015 Update to the HCM

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CoVal Advanced Travel Advisory

SystemBy Richard Marsanico

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October 2013

provides the CATAS Current Message Report, which

shows the messages currently being displayed onthe signs entered into the system.

Key Processing FeaturesThe following points present some of the mostimportant tasks performed by CATAS:

Speed, Travel Time, and Status data forLinks of Interest (LOIs).

Each minute, LOIs are summed to obtainTrip travel times and statuses. Each minute, a message is composed foreach attached VMS. Message composition is versatile. Thisdisplay can be a simple, 2 character numerictravel time to a fully composed, multi-pagemessage utilizing numerous variables such asspeed, travel time, and distance. Message templates and operations areschedulable by time of day, day of week, and dayof year. Every enabled VMS receives a messageeach minute. The message is uploaded to thesystem to verify the correct message isdisplayed. CATAS Events as well as every statechange for message composition and

communication quality are stored in Archivefiles.

User Interface HighlightsCATAS provides a GUI for configuring andmonitoring the operation of the system.

The main window provides access todatabase configuration, data monitoring, andreport generation. Data lists are color-coded for immediatevisual recognition of faults. A snapshot of any report or list can beexported to HTML. Other output formats includeExcel, MS Access DB, Rich Text Format, PDF, andgraphical JPG. Real-time updated map with server sidetile-based distribution system

For more information on CATAS, check out theCoVal Systems website, www.covalsystems.net.

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Conveying the Benefits of Transit Signal Priority

Throu h Animated and Static Media

By Tra Vu, Ph.D.

Aimsun micro-simulationmodeling was utilized forthe design and analysis ofa new revolutionarywireless transit signalpriority (TSP) systemrecently deployed on theM15 Bus Rapid Transit linein Lower Manhattan, NewYork City. The goal of thedeployment is to decrease

transit travel times withoutcausing significant adverseimpacts to other traffic.To illustrate the benefitsof the recommended TSPsystem on transit traveltimes, we tracked and recorded the simulatedtrajectory of an M15 bus with and without TSP.The two animations are then tiled side by side forcomparison. As the TSP eligible bus crosses eachintersection, an on-screen message informsviewers how the TSP system responded and howmuch time the system has saved since thebeginning of the route. In the scenario captured,the TSP-equipped bus was able to save over 4minutes in travel time along a 2-mile stretch fromAllen Street & E. Houston Street to Water Street &Whitehall Street; which amounts to a 13%improvement in travel time.

Animated comparisons of these two movingbuses can easily engage the audience as it helpsviewers see just how much faster the TSP system

enables a bus to advance along the corridor.Furthermore, viewers can quantify the benefits ofthe TSP system for their specific needs based ontheir origin and destination stops. So in mostcases, animated visual aids are preferable;however, there are some instances where the useof video animation is restricted. We are thenfaced with the challenge to convey the sameeffect the animated video provides to its viewersbut only with the media of a single static poster.To achieve this goal, we took an aerial map of thecorridor and used it as the background of theposter and highlighted the M15 bus route. Wethen placed realistic 3-D model images of a TSP-bus and non-TSP equipped bus at strategiclocations throughout the map. Special care wastaken to ensure that the perspectives of thebuses were aligned in accordance to the directionof their travel. This also helped to create theillusion of moving buses. A time line was thendrawn and the representative pairs of buses wereplaced on the map to show how they traverseeach of the three main segments of the route.Using indicators, along with text captioning, wewere able to portray the increased spacingbetween the buses as the TSP-equipped bus pullsahead, and demonstrate the 13% improvement intravel time performance.


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October 2013


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Northeast

District Annual

Meeting

Amir Rizavi and Paul Eng-Wong presented

Transportation Alternatives for the Elderly

Ci Yang, student of Rutgers University, presentedher poster Analysis of taxi demand versus

subway accessibility in New York

May 22-24

Northhampton, MA

Leon Goodman presented The Staged Rail TrailConversion, Pedestrian/Bike and BRT

Michael Salatt i presented Signal Recovery

Reimbursement after Hurricane Sandy

Mark Yedlin presented Construction Staging ofNJ-495


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October 2013

Met section all day

technical ConferenceJuly 18, 2013

Skyline Hotel


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Section Calendar

October 2013

S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

December 2013

S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

November 2013

S M T W T F S

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

October 10th EmergingProfessionals Conference,Newark, NJ

October 16thSection Meetingwith career fair in the afternoonand Student Traffic Bowl in theevening at Authurs, Hoboken, NJ

November 1st Deadline forTransTalk December issue

November 21st SectionMeeting at Riccardos, Queens,

NY


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October 2013

Young MemberEvent

Ten young members

went to a golf outing at

Pier 25 after work on

September 20th(Well,

mini golf). They enjoyed

the nice Fridayafternoon as well as

some ice cream.

Student Chapter Happenings

The student chapter of

NYU-Poly went on atour at George

Washington Bridge on

April 10th, 2013.


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Sponsorships

The ITE Met Section Publishes TransTalkfour times each year. Support by

sponsors is encouraged. Business card

ads have been available at $200 per year

for all issues. This price is remaining the

same for 2013. In addition, larger size

ads are available at the following rates

approved by the Executive Board:

Business Card ad - $200

Quarter Page ad - $400

Half Page ad - $700

Full Page ad - $1200

If your company or agency wants to

renew its ad, place a larger ad, revise its

ad, or place a new ad, please email the

editor and have a check sent to the 2013

Met Section Treasurer:

Mr. Amir Rizavi, P.E.

Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, IncTwo Penn Plaza, Suite 2602

New York, NY 10121

[email protected]

If this is a revised or new ad, please email

the ad to the editor.

Note to Sponsors: Please check the

business card (or larger) ad in this issue.

If your office has moved, if the companyname has changed, if the business card is

for a person no longer associated with

your company, you might want to email

an updated ad to the editor.


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October 2013


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TransTalkExecutive BoardPresident Adam Allen

Vice President John BirontSecretary Luigi Casinelli

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Technical Projects Don Tone

Technical Projects Einah Pelaez

Action Calendar Andy Saracena

Pignataro Awards Marvin C. Gersten

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