TRB A3A18 Meeting

Marriot Wardman Park Hotel

Wilson Room

 

Annual Meeting Minutes

 

January 13, 2003

 

1.      1.      Welcome and Call to Order

  • Tom Urbanik called the meeting to order at 1:36pm.
  • Attendants introduced themselves.
  • Tom Urbanik introduced the 6 new members of the committee
    • Larry Cochran, Douglas County Colorado
    • Ahmed Aburahmah, City of San Diego
    • Brian Van DeWalle, TxDOT
    • Roelof Engelbrecht, TTI
    • Jim Williams, UT Arlington
    • Brian Park, University of Virginia

2.      2.      Approval of Minutes

3.      3.      Best Paper Award

  • Peter Koonce presented an award to Gary Long, for his best paper entitled “An Easy-to-Apply Solution to a Persistent Safety Problem –Clearance Time for Railroad-Preempted Traffic Signals”

4.      4.      Raj Ghaman, FHWA Update (Attach)

  • Status ACS projects (VFC-OPAC, RHODES, RTACL)
  • Adaptive control handbook is in preparation
  • Revised Detector Handbook will be available in June 2003.
  • Dynamic Traffic Assignment Prototypes are planned.
  • Quickzone software has been further revised (v 1.2)
  • Field operation tests of ramp metering are planned for FY 04.
  • Contract for Next Generation of Simulation Models (NGSIM) has been awarded to Cambridge Systematics.
  • June 2-4, 2003 Modelers workshop in Seveille, Spain.

5.      5.      Pam Crenshaw, FHWA Update (Attach)

  • Adding Instructors to the NHI Traffic Signal Systems Course (12-24 offerings per year)
  • Provided written updates on the following:
    • Transportation Management Systems (TMCs)
    • Freeway Management and Operations
    • High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Facilities
    • Traffic Incident Management
    • Emergency Management and Security
    • Traveler Information
    • Arterial Management and Traffic Signal Control Systems
    • Performance Measurement and Asset Management
    • Work Zone Mobility and Safety
    • Road Weather
    • Demand Management
    • ITS Deployment & Integration Initiatives
    • Other Cross-cutting Operations Initiatives

6.      6.      ACS-Lite, Felipe Luyanda-Andino and Larry Head (Attach)

  • Presented a PowerPoint presentation on ACS-Lite

7.      7.      Problem Statements, Jim Powell (Attach1, Attach2, Attach3, Attach4)

  • Recapped research problem statements over the past 3 years
  • Discussed Web based submittal of Synthesis Need Statement (http://www4.nas.edu/trb/synthrep.nsf )
  • Proposed adding specific Research Need Statement Root Level to Web Site
    • Kent Kacir volunteered to help with organizing problem statements
    • Roelof Engelbrecht volunteered to help organize web site structure
  • Urbanik suggested the mid-year meeting will likely lead to some new problem statements.
  • Les Kelman – indicated some research problem needs may come out of his effort evaluating the impact of ITS on signal systems.

1.      8.      Paper Review Process, Larry Head

  • 34 papers were submitted
  • 26 accepted for presentations
  • 19 resubmitted for publication
  • Publication decisions will be made by February 1, 2003.
  • Poster and presentations sessions are consider equal.  Sessions are typically formed when there are “themes” that logically fit together.  Poster sessions are often formed when they do not fit a “theme”
  • Nate Gartner, suggested that more effort be devoted to verbal “discussion” of papers in the sessions.
  • Rich Cunard indicated that 1000 word discussions of the paper can be submitted to the TRB Journal.

2.      9.      TRB Report, Rich Cunard

  • In 2004 their will be no sessions on Thursday
  • TRB Committees may be restructured in March 2003, a little shuffling may occur in operations so the A3A18 number may change.
  • In 2005 TRB will host a mid year meeting outside of the DC area.
  • TRB was anticipating a reduction in attendance this year, but pre-registration was up 10% and attendance is on track to meet the 9200 attendants last year.
  • 2100 papers were submitted, approximately 65% being presented (1380).
  • 30% of the papers are in poster sessions this year.
  • 2400 speakers
  • 96% of papers are on CD Rom.

3.      10. Strategic Plan Update, Les Kelman (Attach)

  • Discussion of the document  “TRAFFIC SIGNALS AND ITS”
  • Based upon mapping of ITS User services to 1) Traffic Signal Systems and 2) Research Need

4.      11. January Workshop, Paul Olson

5.      12. Summer Meeting for 2003 in Portland Oregon, Peter Koonce (Attach)

  • July 27-29, 2003 at The Benson Hotel
  • Web page for the workshop will be http://signalsystems.kittelson.com/   (Roeloff will add a link to http://signalsystems.tamu.edu/ )
  • Monday: Workshop on signal design
  • Tuesday: Technical tours and HILS workshop
  • It may be desirable to generate a white paper to be presented at the annual meeting based upon the workshop.
  • Kelman and Denney expressed concern about getting away from “System Features”
  • Bullock and Ehler supported a focus on individual intersection parameters (presence, delay, extend, lock, gap extension, volume density……)

6.      13. Hardware in the Loop Symposium, Engelbrecht (Attach)

  • To be held on Tuesday 7/29.

7.      14. Possible topics for Summer Meeting in 2004

  • Rick Denny: Continuing with signal timing, perhaps in coordination concepts
    • Review Pignataro, Webster, existing concepts
    • Rick Denney volunteered to assist with organizing the meeting
  • Larry Head proposed session on transition logic
  • Olson proposed San Francisco
  • Craig Roberts proposed Las Vegas
  • Las Vegas in 2005 may be an option as their new center will be completed.
  • Toronto may be an option in 2004.

8.      15. Ray Derr (Attach)

  • NCHRP Update

9.      16. Lessons Learned

  • Several “Lessons Learned” were reported by members in attendance

10. 17. Adjourned at 5pm