Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
District 6 (Western United States)
San Francisco Bay Area Section
Institute of Transportation Engineers,
San Francisco Bay Area Section
On October 16, 2008, the SF Bay Area ITE Section (SFBayITE) held a joint meeting with WTS San Francisco Chapter at the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.
Prior to the speaker presentations, Bond Yee, past Director of the San Francisco Parking and Traffic Department, led a remembrance of Bill Marconi, P.E., who passed away on October 8, 2008. Bill was a dear friend and a longtime respected leader in the Bay Area traffic community, having served as Director of Traffic Engineering for the City of San Francisco, international president of ITE, chairman of ITE's Western District, and past president of SFBayITE (1958-59). A graduate of Santa Clara University, he was known for his mentoring of countless young engineers, his encouragement to participate in ITE, his high professional standards, and his wry sense of humor.
Just in time for the November election, three speakers presented on upcoming transportation-related ballot measures. The first speaker was Lillian Hames, General Manager for Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART). SMART is proposing a 1/4-cent retail transactions and use tax on the November ballot that would require a two-thirds majority from Marin and Sonoma County voters for passage. The rail system would utilize modern diesel rail vehicles on an existing right-of-way and provide a valuable alternative to U.S. 101, the fourth most congested corridor in the Bay Area. SMART would run 70 miles between Cloverdale and Larkspur and include a parallel, continuous Class I bicycle / pedestrian pathway. The new rail line would also provide connections to local buses and San Francisco ferries. Provided that this measure passes, revenue operation is expected by fall of 2014.
The second presentation was by Jim Gleich, Deputy General Manager for the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit). Measure VV is a District-wide measure that would raise an existing parcel tax by $48 per year for 10 years. The tax is expected to raise about $14 million per year to fund daily operations. It requires a two-thirds majority for passage but has no organized opposition. Passage will help AC Transit continue to provide a vital public service to East Bay residents.
Carolyn Gonot, the Chief Silicon Valley Rapid Transit Program Officer of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) gave the final presentation on the proposed tax for the San Jose Bay Area Rapid Transit (SJ BART) extension. Measure B in Santa Clara County would levy a 1/8-cent sales tax over 30 years for the operation and maintenance of the proposed 16.1-mile SJ BART extension. The extension would connect the future Warm Springs Station in Fremont to the cities of Milpitas, San Jose, and Santa Clara. VTA would only be able to collect the tax if sufficient federal and state funds are secured to match local construction funds. This measure requires a two-thirds majority for passage.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
On September 18, 2008, the SF Bay Area ITE Section (SFBayITE) held its first monthly meeting of the 2008-2009 Section year at the Gordon Biersch Brewery-Restaurant in San Francisco.
Rich Haygood, past President of the Section, presented the ITE Life Membership Award to Mr. Richard (Dick) Tilles. Rachel Donovan presented the past year's financial report, which was distributed to everyone in attendance. Rich Haygood also announced that the Social Events Survey is on the Section website for members to provide input.
Rich also announced that Allen Huang and Andrew Kluter won the "Wisest and Windiest Scribes Award" at the ITE Western District meeting in Anaheim last August, in recognition of their comprehensive submittals to the WesternITE newsletter publication.
The winners of ITE Logo Contest, Tamara Zdvorak and Jane Bierstedt of Fehr & Peers, were awarded $500 for their design that features the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge. The logo will be used for the ITE Western District Annual Meeting in 2010.
After the new ITE San Francisco Bay Area Section officers were sworn in, there were two presentations. The first speaker was Mr. Tony Young, Assistant Engineer with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. The topic of his presentation was "Transit Signal Priority on San Francisco's Third Street Light Rail", which focused on light rail operation using VISSIM as the tool for analysis and evaluation. The overview included a demonstration of the Third Street Synchro and VISSIM models, transit signal priority elements, and travel time comparisons. He discussed the challenges of the process which include: conversion of network from Synchro to VISSIM is not exact, traffic counts can get outdated over time, and data collection is labor intensive and time consuming. He also discussed the next steps of the process, which include: collect auto travel time data, collect turn movement counts at key intersections, fine tune the signal timing, and implement the proposed changes.
The second presentation was made by Mr. Peter Martin and Mr. Valerio Oricchio, both Transportation Analysts with Wilbur Smith Associates. The topic of their presentation was "Traffic Integration Planning for Fort Mason Center Historic Streetcar Extension." In their presentation, they discussed the extension of San Francisco's historic streetcar service from its current terminus at Fisherman's Wharf to Fort Mason. The viability and benefits of semi-exclusive right-of-way operations and traffic priority were identified as key planning issues for this one-mile extension. Preliminary findings of the VISSIM analyses of these traffic integration issues were presented, including the streetcar travel times for mixed versus semi-exclusive right-of-way. The high pedestrian volume in the area was also identified as one of the modeling challenges.
Rich Haygood concluded the meeting by presenting certificates of appreciation to all of the speakers. The next monthly meeting will occur on October 16, 2008.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Afsaneh Yavari for this report.
On June 26, 2008, the SF Bay Area ITE Section (SFBayITE) held its final monthly meeting of the 2007-08 Section year at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's (MTC) MetroCenter Auditorium in Oakland. Prior to the monthly speaker presentation, two awards were given to longtime Section members who have made notable contributions to the Section over their careers.
On behalf ITE District 6, President Jennifer Rosales announced that the District Student Endowment Fund, which helps support the Student Initiatives Program, has reached more than 20 percent of its $500,000 goal. In other news, the District has established a Facebook page as a new medium for communication among members. She also announced that the District is seeking a new editor for the WesternITE bi-monthly newsletter.
Jennifer presented a District 6 Presidential Proclamation to Tom Clausen, P.E., P.T.O.E., honoring him for his longtime service to ITE and the transportation engineering profession. As an ITE member for 33 years, Tom has served as Section President, District President, and International Director representing District 6. He is an ITE Fellow and has worked for several Bay Area cities and the California Department of Transportation. He is also an instructor for the Tech Transfer program of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Tom additionally has the distinction of holding P.T.O.E. License No. 1.
Dalene Whitlock, Past President of District 6, presented the District 6 Lifetime Achievement Award to Wolfgang Homburger, P.E., an honorary member of ITE. The Lifetime Achievement Award is the District's highest recognition of professional accomplishment and outstanding service to District 6. For more than 35 years at U.C. Berkeley, Wolfgang has served as a lecturer, research engineer, acting director and assistant director of the Institute of Transportation Studies. He has also authored or edited several transportation textbooks.
Rachel Donovan, one of the SF Bay ITE Past Presidents, introduced the main meeting speaker: Therese McMillan, MTC's Deputy Executive Director of Policy. In addition to her MTC duties, Therese is also an instructor at the Mineta Transportation Institute in San Jose. Therese presented the findings of a recent study entitled Transportation for Tomorrow: Report of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. Steve Heminger, MTC's Executive Director, served on this special commission that was established by the recent federal SAFETEA-LU legislation and was charged with providing detailed recommendations for creating and sustaining a pre-eminent surface transportation system in the United States. The report is available at: www.transportationfortomorrow.org.
Among the commission's findings and recommendations:
- Between 1982 and 2005, the number of metro areas with average annual time spent in congestion of at least 40 hours increased from one (Los Angeles) to 30
- U.S. annual traffic fatalities over the last several years have held constant, while Great Britain has seen an overall decline each year
- Maintaining highways at their current state would cost approximately $175 billion; upgraded maintenance of the highway system would cost approximately $225 billion
- New Starts transit projects have been averaging 10 years for project delivery
- Establish a federal surface transportation commission
- Raise the gas tax by 25 to 40 cents to help with the anticipated future funding shortfalls
Rich Haygood, in his final act as this year's Section President, concluded the meeting by giving gifts of appreciation to all Board members for their service during the past year.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
Every April, the SF Bay Area ITE Section focuses on local transportation students. Each year, the Section invites local students to submit papers on a general transportation topic. This year, the Student Paper Competition topic was "Sustainable Living in the Suburbs". Students were asked to come up with policy recommendations related to transportation that would lead to "greener", or more environmentally sustainable, suburbs. The three prize winners presented their winning papers at the April Section meeting, held on April 24, 2008 at the Faculty Club of the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Robert Cervero, Chair of the City and Regional Planning Department at UC Berkeley, moderated the student discussion. He highlighted some of the general themes, including how to address the spatially dispersed nature of current suburban commute trips and how to redefine and adapt public transportation to fit the suburban environment.
Kitae Jung, a Ph.D. student in the Transportation Engineering program at UC Berkeley, was the Grand Prize Winner of a $1,000 Section scholarship for his paper entitled "Suburban Living: Public Transportation for Environmentally Sustainable and Healthy Communities". His paper highlighted the main suburban transportation challenge - how to serve origin-destination patterns that are scattered, or "many-to-many". Based on analysis of recent Bay Area Travel Survey and U.S. Census data, about 66 percent of BART commuters in Contra Costa County access their local stations by car, even though about half of County BART commuters live within three miles of them. He recommended short haul bus service that links suburban neighborhoods to BART stations as a potential solution to reducing auto usage.
Sahil Gulati, an undergraduate student in civil and environmental engineering at San Jose State University, won the Undergraduate First Prize, a $500 Section scholarship for his paper entitled "Managing Suburbia." His policy suggestions included financial measures such as location efficient mortgages and allocation of transportation funds in proportion to population. He also recommended planning measures such as smart growth, transit-oriented development, and regional transportation planning that links city centers. Sahil accepted the undergraduate award for a second consecutive year with his proud parents in attendance.
Eric Anderson, a Master's student in urban and regional planning at San Jose State University, won the Graduate First Prize (also a $500 Section Scholarship) for his paper "Policy Guidelines for Using Point and Line Geometries to Build a Greener Suburb". The main challenge identified was how to "densify" suburbs in order to better utilize the existing transit infrastructure. He compared San Francisco, which has hubs of commercial activity ("points"), to Fresno, a city where commercial activity has developed along arterial roadways ("lines"). He found that public transportation can more efficiently and effectively serve an area that is developed around "points" rather than "lines".
The three paper presentations were followed by a lively Q & A session between students and meeting attendees. For those interested in reading the winning papers, the Section has posted them online at:
Rich Haygood, Section President, announced that five Bay Area students, including the three award recipients, would be offered paid transportation, hotel, and student registration at the upcoming District 6 meeting to be held August 17-20, 2008 in Anaheim, California.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
On March 20, 2008, the SF Bay Area ITE Section (SFBayITE) monthly technical meeting topic was "Transportation and the Media". SFBayITE invited three of the Bay Area's top traffic news media experts to participate in a Q & A session with Section members on March 20, 2008 at New Delhi Restaurant in San Francisco. The panelists were Gary Richards of the San Jose Mercury News, who writes a popular column for the motoring public called "Mr. Roadshow"; Kim Wonderley, morning traffic reporter for KCBS-AM; and Stan Burford of ABC-7 Morning News and KGO-AM. Rachel Donovan of Caltrans, member of the ITE Section's Past President's Council, moderated the panel discussion. The forum provided an opportunity for the media panelists to relate what they are hearing from the public regarding traffic issues, as well as for transportation engineers to communicate ideas to the panelists for sharing with the public.
Mr. Richards' column relies to a great extent on the input of transportation engineers. Often, commuters write to him on specific traffic issues, such as the function of a particular freeway metering signal or progress of a roadway construction project. Answers to these questions require input from engineering officials. He expressed his appreciation for engineers' past help in answering reader questions.
Ms. Wonderley also provided helpful insights into the minds of commuters. Based on what she has seen as a traffic reporter, she suggested that more research should be done on effective use of major transportation corridors. Congestion pricing is one such measure that if planned effectively could provide travel with minimal delay on both weekdays and weekends. She also emphasized that transportation engineers should find more ways to encourage people to use carpool lanes in the Bay Area.
Mr. Burford provided a graphic for a proposed freeway route through San Francisco that would connect the Golden Gate Bridge to Daly City. The aim of his suggested route through the Sunset District, Golden Gate Park, and the Richmond District would be to remove regional traffic that currently uses local San Francisco streets. Bay Area transportation professionals with long memories will recall that a similar route was considered before the local freeway revolt in the 1950's and 1960's.
Mr. Burford also noted that the Bay Area freeway system is reaching the end of its lifespan, and engineers need to find effective ways to forecast freeway problems and upgrade the system accordingly. He emphasized the utility of having one transportation organization overseeing varied transportation services such as light rail, bus, and freeways. He cited Sydney, Australia as an example where light rail transit and local municipal transportation services are doing an excellent job in minimizing congestion within the city.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
How can the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) improve overall transit system performance? This question was the focus of the SF Bay Area ITE Section's monthly technical meeting held January 24, 2008 at the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. Britt Tanner, Associate Engineer for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), and Peter Strauss of Muni provided an overview of initial study findings from the Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP). The TEP is a joint effort of SFMTA and the San Francisco Controller's Office.
It has been over 25 years since the last comprehensive review of the entire Muni transit system. Initiated 18 months ago, the primary goals of the TEP are to make service more attractive to the public and to stabilize operating costs. The TEP is an ongoing process that has included review and evaluation of all aspects of the existing system, including service policies, operations, and management. TEP staff have also conducted a comparative analysis of other major transit systems, forecasting of future transit demand, and gathered extensive input from citizens and MTA employees.
Among Muni's current challenges is systemwide on-time performance, currently around 70 percent, which is below the recent voter-mandated goal of 85 percent. MTA found that overall, Muni service is approximately 10 percent slower than 10 years ago because of increased traffic congestion. Operational costs have risen the last several years, as costs such as health care have skyrocketed, while operational speeds have decreased, requiring more vehicles to keep up with current service obligations.
MTA collected real-time data using automatic passenger counters (APCs) that were installed on approximately 10 percent of Muni transit vehicles. The APCs are able to measure transit boardings and alightings, as well as dwell times of transit vehicles. These data provided very valuable information on current performance of select Muni lines. In addition, MTA facilitated several community workshops to determine rider expectations of the Muni system. First and foremost, Muni riders want reliability. They also would like quicker service.
Other current challenges for Muni include the need for additional schedulers to manage a system that has approximately 700,000 boardings per day, the most of any Bay Area transit system. Also, there is a need for improved transit vehicle operator availability, more route supervisors, and improved enforcement of double-parked vehicles blocking Muni routes and bus stops. Among the toolkit of options to improve system performance, San Francisco is launching a pilot project to install cameras that would help enforce double parking in transit lanes, similar to how red-light cameras are used.
For more information on the SF Transit Effectiveness Project, visit the project website at www.sftep.com. Ongoing project updates can be received by subscribing to the project newsletter at info@sftep.com..
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
The San Francisco Bay Area ITE Section (SFBayITE) and South Bay Traffic Officials Association (SBTOA) jointly presented their annual awards for Transportation Project of the Year and Transportation Professional of the Year at the monthly Section meeting held November 15, 2007 at the Silver Dragon Restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown. The main objective of the Awards Program is to recognize exceptional projects and individuals in the field of transportation during the past year. The Awards Program directors accepted nominations using an online survey for the categories of Transportation Project of the Year and Transportation Professional of the Year. A selection committee comprised of ten transportation professionals representing the public and private sector evaluated the nominated projects on the basis of innovation, challenges faced, cost effectiveness, and public acceptance.
Award co-chair Amit Kothari presented the Project of the Year award to California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) District 4 for developing and implementing an integrated corridor Transportation Management Plan (TMP) that was facilitated by Caltrans' Emergency Operations Center and was a key part of the multi-modal, multi-jurisdictional response to the MacArthur Maze Meltdown (I-80/I-580/I-880 interchange in Oakland) last May. During the emergency Maze reconstruction, the TMP prevented the traffic congestion that had been expected after the disaster, benefiting thousands of Bay Area residents and visitors while providing major time and cost savings throughout the region. SFBayITE / SBTOA also honored the many other agencies involved in the Maze response with special commendations, including the California Highway Patrol, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, and the Cities of Oakland, San Francisco, Emeryville, and Berkeley.
Sean Nozzari, Deputy District Director of Traffic Operations at District 4, and Barry Loo, Office Chief of Traffic Management at District 4, accepted the Project of the Year award and conducted a brief presentation detailing the traffic management and interagency coordination efforts during the MacArthur Maze reconstruction. Among its efforts, Caltrans activated 19 variable message signs and five highway advisory radios to keep motorists continuously informed during Maze detours. This kept traffic flowing until the Westbound I-80 to Southbound I-880 connector reopened in eight days, and the Eastbound I-80 to Westbound I-580 connector reopened in 26 days.
SFBayITE / SBTOA also awarded a special commendation to the City of Lafayette for its Bicycle Master Plan. Leah Greenblatt of the City of Lafayette accepted the award. The project was nominated for Project of the Year for its innovative approach towards promoting bicycle usage in a fiscally challenged and roadway capacity constrained environment.
Finally, award co-chair Shruti Malik presented the Professional of the Year Award to Ricardo Olea of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT). In 13 years with DPT, Mr. Olea has distinguished himself as a leader and mentor for transportation engineers throughout DPT and also as an expert in the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. During the past decade, his analysis of San Francisco's high accident locations has led to an annual decrease in reported pedestrian and injury collisions, amounting to an approximately 30 percent decrease overall during that period. He has also reengineered detour routes for the Central Freeway and completed one of the first City road diet projects on Arguello Avenue, which included the addition of bicycle lanes. Congratulations to Ricardo Olea on this distinguished award!
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
The October meeting was held in San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) Conference Room. More than 80 members showed up at the luncheon. This special event hosted jointly by the San Francisco Bay Chapters of ITE and WTS on the "HOT" topic of value pricing.
At the start of the meeting, outgoing ITE Past President Rachel Donovan presented the SFBayITE Past Presidents Plaque to Joy Bhattacharya. Joy will be serving as immediate Past President on the Section's Executive Board for the 2007-08 year. The plaque is engraved with the names of all SFBayITE Past Presidents, dating back to 1953, and is passed on from one Past President to another each year. Fellow members of the Past President's Council, Mark Spencer and Ray Davis, fellow joined Rachel in presenting Joy with the perennial Past President's plaque.
For the technical portion of the meeting, two topics were presented:
The event was moderated by Lisa Klein, MTC. She gave us a regional perspective about the background of congestion pricing.
In early 80's, the MTC evaluated a congestion pricing policy on the Bay Bridge. However, due to the lack of political support, the project was cool off since then. Recently, the Bay Area was fortunate to be named one of the 5 Urban Partners in the US, and is eligible to receive over $150 million in federal funds through the Urban Partnership program to jump-start some pricing initiatives.
The slide presentations are available at www.sfbayite.org/pastevents.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report.
The SF Bay Area ITE Section started a new September tradition, "Thirsty Thursday". This year, 19 Section members and non-members came to the Pacific Coast Brewing Company in Oakland on September 27 to mingle with fellow professionals in a relaxed social environment and to kick off a new year of Section activities.
Randy McCourt, District 6 International Director, swore in three new officers elected for 2007-08. Richard Haygood (President), Wing Lok (Vice President), and Nate Chanchareon (Treasurer) officially took the helm of their respective Section positions. Mike Dahlin, the Section's new Secretary, was unable to be present and will be sworn in at a future date.
The event also featured the presentation of the Traffic Bowl trophy, which the Section successfully recaptured at the District 6 Annual Meeting held in Portland, Oregon last July. The trophy had not been home in the Bay Area for several years! Congratulations to the victorious Bay Area team of Chris Pangilinan and Patty Camacho of DKS, Ray Davis of the City of Belmont, and Ricardo Olea of the City of San Francisco MTA!
The next Section meeting will take place at the San Francisco County Transportation Authority on Thursday, October 18. This joint meeting with WTS will feature presentations on value pricing of transportation facilities in the Bay Area, including specific applications currently under consideration in San Francisco and Santa Clara County. We hope to see you there!
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
On June 21, 2007, the ITE luncheon was hosted in Oakland Chinatown. At the meeting, the President of ITE District 6, Ms. Dalene J. Whitlock and the officers of the San Francisco Bay Area Section declared June 21, 2007 as the Wolf Homburger Day to recognize Wolfgang for his contributions to the Institute, and gratefully acknowledge his efforts in the betterment of the rewarding profession of transportation engineering.
Wolfgang S. Homburger, P.E., is an Honorary Member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), #1158. Since 1966 he has devoted untold hours of work in support of our transportation engineering profession. He has received the Burton W. Marsh Distinguished Service Award for his contributions over the years to advance ITE in an outstanding fashion and also ITE's 50th Honorary Member, which is ITE's highest recognition of notable and outstanding professional achievement.
Prof. Homburger has served as a lecturer, research engineer, acting director and assistant director of Institute of Transportation Studies during more than 35 years at UC Berkeley. He has written or edited a number of transportation textbooks, including the Fundamentals of Traffic Engineering (now in its 15th edition), Introduction to Transportation Engineering, Transportation and Traffic Engineering Handbook, and Residential Street Design and Traffic Control.
After the Proclamation of Homburger's Day, Mr. Randy Rentschler of Metropolitan Transportation Commission presented the highlights of transportation funding in the region. Last November, California voters approved state Proposition 1B, the $20 billion Transportation Infrastructure Bond measure. He talked about how the broad language on the ballot was translated into funding allocations among competing regions and agencies, and to specific highway congestion relief and transit projects and other programs.
Before the end of the meeting, the current Chapter's President, Mr. Joy Bhattacharya announced new elected officers of the next term. The following officers were elected: President, Richard Haygood; Vice President, Wing K. Lok; Treasurer, Nate Chanchareon; and Secretary, Mike Dahlin. At the end, Joy gave a bottle of champagne to each board member for her/his contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area Section.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report.
Also in the month of June: The ITE section co-hosted the second ITS technical workshop with the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT). The workshop, entitled "Real-time Traveler Information" was held on June 15, 2007 at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Auditorium in Oakland, CA, with approximately 50 attendees.
Real-time traveler information is the poster child of ITS applications. It promises to let commuters make trip decisions on the fly, thereby reducing delays and leading to optimal usage of transportation infrastructure. With the advent of mobile data telecommunications, traveler information is now available on the go, whether by cell phone or in car navigation systems.
At the same time, mobile terminals are starting to be used to collect traffic data from individual vehicles. This contributes to the forward-looking vision of a telecommunications network linking vehicles and the infrastructure, known as Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII). But whether the end users are compelled to take advantage of this offering or not still rely on the two most important features in traveler information systems, namely data quality and usability.
In keeping with the workshop series' focus on generating productive interactions between public and private organizations, this workshop showcased both government initiatives and commercial products in the area of mobile traveler information systems. Our panelists included Ms. Melanie Crotty, Director of Traveler Coordination and Information with MTC, Mr. Cooper Marcus, CEO of Spark Parking Inc., Mr. Andre Gueziec, CEO of Beatthetraffic.com and Mr. Steve Wollenberg, Founder and VP Business Development of Dash Navigation Inc.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report. The SF Bay Area ITE Section held its monthly technical meeting at California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) District 4 headquarters in Oakland. In what has become an annual tradition during the month of April, the Section invited local transportation students to submit papers on a general transportation topic. The Section awarded scholarships to competition winners and gave them the opportunity to present their papers at the April Section meeting.
This year, the students focused on Smart Growth and Transit-Oriented Development. Many of the papers addressed the potential for TOD around existing suburban stations of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) regional rail system. Such developments have the potential to reduce automobile trips given their characteristics of dense, mixed-use development, and they also promote use of alternative modes such as transit, bicycling, and walking. Three student scholarship recipients presented their winning papers at the April Section meeting, which was followed by a lively Q & A session between students and attendees. The scholarship winners and their paper topics were as follows: In addition to the above scholarships, the Section also offered the above three students an all-expenses paid trip to this July's District 6 Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. Due to the high quality of student papers this year, two additional students were awarded $100 Honorable Mention prizes at the April Section meeting:
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Andrew Kluter for this report.
February luncheon - Smart Growth: Coordinating Land Use and Transportation Planning was held in Ristorante Raphael in downtown Berkeley, California. Not only more than 60 transportation professionals attended, a lot of graduate students from U.C. Berkeley joined with us at this event as well. It was our honor to have Dr. Reid Ewing, Research Professor, National Center for Smart Growth, University of Maryland shared his knowledge with us. Dr. Ewing has written books for the major planning and development organizations: Developing Successful New Communities for the Urban Land Institute; Best Development Practices and Transportation and Land Use Innovations for the American Planning Association; and Traffic Calming State-of-the-Practice for the Institute of Transportation Engineers. His 1997 Journal of the American Planning Association article on sprawl is listed by APA as a "classic" in urban planning. His 2003 study of sprawl and obesity may have received more national media coverage than any planning study ever. It was the most widely cited academic paper in the Social Sciences as of late 2005, according to Essential Science Indicators. Dr. Ewing is a much sought-after speaker, delivering over 100 addresses in 30 states over the past five years. Venues for his featured addresses have included the National Press Club and Congressional committees. Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report.
The January meeting was held on the 18th at the New Delhi Restaurant on Ellis Street in San Francisco and over 50 members were able to attend the event. The topic of the luncheon was Traffic Calming: Citizen/Government Partnerships. Two speakers were invited to present on the subject: Ms. Leah Greenblat, a transportation planner for the City of Lafayette, and Mr. Manito Velasco, the Traffic Calming Program Manager for the City of San Francisco DPT. Ms. Greenblatt gave the first presentation which was entitled "Traffic Calming in a Small Town" and described the City of Lafayette's traffic calming program. The goals stated for the City of Lafayette were to improve the attention, awareness, and behavior of all users. The three tools available to implement these goals were educational programs, enforcement, and engineering. After their initial study they were able to develop a traffic calming guidebook for the City of Lafayette. Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report.
The November meeting was hold at Bella Mia Restaurant in downtown San Jose on November 14, 2006. More than 60 members joined this gathering. Our guest speaker was Mr. Robert Doty, the Director of Rail Operations, Engineering, and Construction, Caltrain. Robert has world-wide experience with rail systems. He had done various rapid transit projects in the Unite States, London, UK, and Taipei, Taiwan. Robert struck us with his opening speech: the United States is still a developing country in terms of the rapid transit rail systems and we are far behind European rail technologies. In California, we have the fastest growth rail ridership in the country. The current rail ridership is about 36,000 person trips every day. Based on Caltrain's projections, the ridership will be totally doubled in next 20 years. He also pointed out that rail system is 31 times safer than automobiles. In the last year under his management, Caltrain increased 16% ridership without added one employee or equipment. After the feature presentation, two awards were presented: Transportation Project of the Year and Transportation Professional of the Year Transportation Project of the Year Award is given to TravelChoice program. The program is to reduce driving and congestion while promoting healthy physical activity launched in the City of Alameda on April 3, 2006. The program is sponsored by the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, AC Transit, BART, and the Alameda County Public health Department and coordinated by the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. The program is funded through the sponsoring agencies, the Air District's Transportation Fund for Clean Air, and the City of Alameda. Transportation Professional of the Year Award is given to Mr. Zahir Gulzadah, City of San Jose, Department of Transportation. Zahir has distinguished himself in a number of ways. His duties include management of Traffic Operations Team, contractors and the City's Residential Permit Parking program. In addition to his administrative duties, he supervises traffic management during special events (markings, road closures, barrier installation and removal, bleachers installation and removal, course layout, parking access and paving rehabilitation), and also provides mentoring to the City's internship programs. Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report.
The October meeting was held on the 19th at the Gordon Biersch Brewery on The Embarcadero in San Francisco and over 50 members were able to attend the event. The topic of the luncheon was Downtown Parking Innovations: Avoiding the High Costs of Free Parking. Three speakers were invited to present on the subject: Ms. Valerie Knepper of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Mr. Michael Vecchio, the Transportation Specialist from the City of Walnut Creek, and Mr. Dan Zack, the Downtown Development Manager for the City of Walnut Creek. Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report.
The June meeting of the SF Bay ITE section was held at the Yoshi's restaurant in Oakland. About 55 attendees were present at the last meeting of the 2005-2006 year.
The meeting started with the San Jose "Traffic Jammers" performing some musical numbers on the Yoshi's Jazz Club stage. Hans Larsen, Deputy Director, Department of Transportation, City of San Jose made the presentation. Hans Larsen introduced the relatively new policy adopted by City of San Jose to proactively support its Smart Growth developments. Mr. Larsen introduced the salient features of this new policy and how it is facilitating transit oriented development and revitalization of Downtown San Jose. This traffic impact policy allows for "overriding" traffic level of service impacts in transit corridors and special infill development areas, and at the same time requires development projects to construct improved facilities for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users.
The meeting concluded with announcements of the election results. The newly elected officers for the 2006-2007 year were Joy Bhattacharya (President), Richard Haygood (Vice President), and Wing Lok (Secretary-Treasurer). Outgoing ITE Section President Rachel Donovan honored the ITE Section Board members with Hawaiian leis for appreciation of their efforts in the 2005-2006 year and in anticipation of the upcoming ITE District 6 Annual Meeting in Honolulu.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Pratyush Bhatia for this report.
The May meeting was held on 18th (The Bike to Work Day) at Caltrans District 4 Headquarters in Oakland. Over 50 attendees were present and some attendees rode their bikes to the meeting to support the Bike to Work Day. (See photos on www.sfbayite.org) The topic was Innovations in Bicycle Facility Design. Two speakers were invited: Mr. John Ciccarelli, Senior Planner with Korve Engineering. Mr. Mike Sallaberry, Associate Transportation Engineer with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Department of Parking and Traffic.
Mr. Ciccarelli presented FHWA MUTCD guidelines of designing bicycle facilities. John not only showed us a range of bicycle facility design samples in California, but also in other states, such as Portland, Oregon. He explained different functionality of various designs. John specifically pointed out the severity of "Dooring" related bicycle accidents and how to mitigate it.
Mr. Sallaberry gave us a nice introduction about bicycle programs and the vision of the City and County of San Francisco. He presented some on-going projects and also some future plans in the region. Mike also showed us various signages of bicycle facilities in the jurisdiction.
For detailed PowerPoint presentations of the meeting, please visit the Past Events page at www.sfbayite.org.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Allen Huang for this report.
The April meeting of the SF Bay Area ITE section was held at the San Francisco Transportation Authority in San Francisco. About 46 attendees were present.
The meeting featured a panel discussion on the Future of Congestion Pricing in the Bay Area. The panel included three students from UC Berkeley: Nicole Foletta, Megan Smirti and Wilson Tam who talked about their winning papers on congestion pricing. Rock Miller, ITE international Director for District 6 was the panel moderator. Recent road pricing projects across California indicate that congestion management and revenue generation are possible through innovative toll collection. The panel pointed out that parking management is one of the strategies that are often used in the Bay Area. The panel explored several interesting issues including past experiences with congestion pricing in the Bay Area and the opportunities and challenges facing its implementation in the Bay Area. The audience participated actively in the discussion with several interesting questions and comments.
The winning student papers are available at the section website www.sfbayite.org on the Students/Mentors page.
Many thanks to ITE Section Co-Scribe Pratyush Bhatia for this report.
The March meeting was a joint meeting of ITE/EBTE and was held on March 16 at the San Francisco Transportation Authority. About 26 attendees were present.
The meeting topic was Hydrogen Fuel Technology and Intelligent Transportation Systems with the speaker being Mr. Timothy Lipman who is a Research Engineer at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Lipman noted that hydrogen is a relatively clean fuel, depending on how it is produced and that its "mileage" rate is comparable to very efficient gasoline engines. He then demonstrated the ability of small solar panel to convert water to hydrogen, which was then used to power a small fan. However, he noted that due to the large amount of power needed to manufacture the hydrogen necessary to run a vehicle, the solar cells are too inefficient and too large in size for a real world application. It was also noted that one of the major problems with hydrogen is providing the infrastructure, namely the ability to distribute it to the traveling public. While some transit agencies do use hydrogen, they have a limited number of vehicles that typically return and start from the same place-hence refueling can be centralized. With the public however, they would need a support infrastructure similar to what is provided for gasoline-based engines. The question then becomes what comes first, the infrastructure or the vehicles? Mr. Lipman noted that if you had asked him earlier this year as to when hydrogen based vehicles will be available to the public, he would have said in 10 to 20 years. However, he noted that Honda just announced they would soon be marketing a home-based hydrogen fueled vehicle. Honda however has kept the details secret and no details are known.
Many thanks to ITE Section ITS Coordinator Syd Bowcott for this report.
The February meeting was held on the 16 th at Ristorante Raphael in Downtown Berkeley. Over 60 attendees were present including students of UC Berkeley. Jim Helmer, Director of Department of Transportation for the City of San Jose made the presentation. Jim identified the causes and factors leading to red light running. He presented engineering countermeasures to reduce red light running and introduced techniques to calculate change intervals for safe intersection operation.
Ken Ackeret, the ITE District 6 President traveled to the Bay Area to attend this meeting. Mr. Ackeret made a Presidential Declaration of Glenn Griggs Day in recognition of Glenn's achievements, and Glenn was presented with a framed certificate commemorating his years of service to the transportation community.
ITE Section President Rachel Donovan announced the sad news of the passing of ITE Section Past President Eric Mohr. Details on the funeral and contact information for condolences were made available to members on the sfbayite.org web site.
The first 2006 meeting was held on January 19 at the Silver Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Oakland Chinatown. Over 80 attendees were present. The meeting topic was Transit Oriented Simulation using AIMSUN and VISSIM. Two speakers were invited: Mr. Thomas Bauer, President, PTV America and Dr. Jia Hao Wu, Senior Associate, TJKM Transportation Consultants. Before the presentations, the President of Bay ITE, Ms. Rachel Donovan introduced the new elected board members to the audience. Mr. Bauer and Dr. Wu both talked about the overview of two software packages and then focused on Transit-related characteristics, including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Multimodal Transit Terminals. Both tools can evaluate traffic networks with transit operation and also demonstrate great graphical simulation outputs. The detailed PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded from http://www.sfbayite.org. The joint November meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area ITE Section and the South Bay Transportation Officials Association was held in the Rotunda of the new San Jose City Hall. The ITE section president, Rachel Donovan, began the meeting with an update on the ITE Student and Mentoring programs. Patty Camacho, STEP Mentoring program chair, said more volunteers are needed to be mentors. Visit www.sfbayite.org for information on how to sign up. Jim Helmer, City of San Jose, introduced the speaker. Rod Diridon served as a local elected official in Santa Clara County for several years early in his career. Throughout his political career, he showed a continual regional focus that included being the only local elected official to serve on the boards of Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District (SFBAAQMD), and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). He also demonstrated a long-term commitment to transportation, and was the chair of the first ever ½ cent sales tax program to fund transportation improvements that was passed by the voters. He is currently the executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San Jose State University. Mr. Diridon presented a summary of the security of transportation systems in the United States and the world, based on studies of over 1,000 terrorist attacks on surface transportation systems. Terrorist organizations such as Al Queda appear to be selecting targets to inflict large numbers of casualties, create widespread emotional shock, and long-term disruption of the transportation system. Their ultimate goal with this disruption may be financial failure of the United States. Recent incidents show a pattern of targeting US allies in Iraq to force them to withdraw troops. Some of the Lessons Learned from the review of recent attacks are as follows: • The highest threat is to "soft" targets with large numbers of passengers, such as subway systems. • "Hardening" targets reduces the threat and successfully thwarts attacks. The airline industry is such an example that has been upgraded. • Transportation industry staff need to be trained to recognize and respond to threats. • Transportation agencies need to review systems and develop plans to recognize and respond to threats and recover from incidents. The National Incident Management System (NIMS) has been developed to help with reviews and planning. • Field exercises are critical. They are the only way to confirm that reviews and planning are complete and training is adequate. The NIMS was implemented with a requirement that all public agencies develop adequate disaster response plans by November 2006 or face severe penalties. Penalties can include loss of all federal funding and individual liability for agency officials responsible for the plan. Many California agencies are close to meeting NIMS requirements because of the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) that has existed in this state for many years. The City of San Jose is an example of an agency that is one of the best prepared in the country. On October 21st, the Bay Area ITE and the Women's Transportation Seminar were jointly sponsoring an event about Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) by Mr. Randy Rentschler, Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Director of Legislation and Public Affairs, and Ms. Alix Bockelman, Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Director of Programming and Allocations. Mr. Rentschler and Ms. Bockelman highlighted the benefits, limitations, and program and funding changes in the transportation authorization legislation. Almost 100 attendees were present and the event was held in Auditorium at Metro Center in Oakland. The detailed presentation slide can be downloaded from www.mtc.ca.gov . The September meeting was held on the 15th at the New Delhi Restaurant in downtown San Francisco. Over 200 attendees were present.
At this meeting, the newly elected Section officers (Rachel Donovan, President; Joy Bhattacharya, Vice President; and Margaret Cortes, Secretary-Treasurer) were officially sworn in by ITE District 6 Vice President Dalene Whitlock. The new Section President gave a Powerpoint presentation highlighting the Section's goals for the upcoming year.
ITE Golf Chair Andrew Poster presented a check for $800 from the proceeds of the ITE Golf Tournament to representatives from Katie's Clinic for Rett Syndrome.
ITE Section President Rachel Donovan presented the ITE Life Member Award to Gary Kruger of TJKM Consultants. ITE members may become eligible for the Life Member award after reaching the age of 60 and being a member of ITE for at least 25 years.
The meeting's featured speaker was Albert Yee, Caltrans District 4, Deputy Director, Division of Operations. Mr. Yee presented the requirements for doing Freeway Corridor Studies and Traffic Analyses based on Caltrans' expectations. These requirements would help consultants streamline corridor studies through the Caltrans review process resulting in reduced delays and faster project delivery times. The Top 10 Do's and Don'ts for freeway corridor studies were shared with attendees. The presentation slide can be downloaded from the Past Events page at www.sfbayite.org. The June 2005 meeting was held at Yoshi's in Jack London Square in Oakland on June 23, 2005. The topic was "Transportation and Media." The meeting featured a question and answer session with the Bay Area's traffic reports. The panel consisted of Gary Richards, author of the Mr. Roadshow column for the San Jose Mercury News, Joe McConnel, traffic report for various Bay Area radio stations, and Stan Burford, helicopter traffic reporter for ABC-7 television station and 810 AM radio station. ITE Section Vice President Rachel Donovan moderated the panel discussion. The panel discussed the changes in their reporting over the last years and the relationship between traffic engineers and reports. In addition, Bond Yee of the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic was presented with a special award from David Parisi, the section president, who declared June 23, 2005 Bond Yee Day. The 2005 ITE Charity Golf Tournament was held on June 10, 2005 at the Monarch Bay Golf Club in San Leandro. The wind coming off the Bay helped to create a Scottish feel for the tournament. Many balls were lost and many golfers cursed their own skills. The Closest to the Pin contest was won by John Templeton of the City of Concord, who happily completed his pressure ridden birdie putt. The Long Drive was powered through the wind and onto the fairway by Mike Tassano of the City of Pleasanton. The grand prize of the team scramble format was taken with a low score of minus 6, by the threesome of Ray Davis (City of Belmont), Gary Tsunami (City of Stockton) and Ray Santiago (City of West Sacramento) who were forced to play without their anchor, John Kluga. Prizes consisted of golf hats and knick-knacks that no one ever really needs; the true prize was the spirit of camaraderie that we all shared that day. Virtually all the participants expressed positive feedback regarding the course, the event, the charitable causes, and their overwhelming desire not only to return next year, but to encourage more participants to join the frivolity in the future. The tournament raised over $1,500 which was evenly split between ITE Student Scholarship Fund and the charity Katie's Clinic for Rett Syndrome in Oakland. The May 2005 meeting was held on Bike to Work Day, May 19, 2005, at the Downtown Campus of the City College of San Francisco. Appropriately, this meeting was all about pedestrian and bicycle safety. Christina Atienza of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and Seleta Reynolds of Fehr & Peers Associates, unveiled the new MTC Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Toolbox. The toolbox, which can be viewed online at www.mtc.ca.gov/planning/bicyclespedestrians/tools.htm , consists of programs and policies that can be implemented by jurisdictions to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety. The toolbox describes 70 engineering, enforcement, and education tools. The advantages, disadvantages, and cost of each tool are described in detail, and examples are provided. David Parisi, of Parisi Associates, also provided an overview of ITE's new Safe Routes to School Toolkit. On May 12, 2005, the San Francisco Bay Area ITE Section in conjunction with the East Bay Traffic Engineers (EBTE), presented a joint technical workshop on the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) at the URS offices on Downtown Oakland. The speakers, Johnny Bhullar, a Senior Transportation Engineer with Caltrans Division of Traffic Operations in Sacramento, and Matt Schmitz, a Safety/Traffic Engineer with Federal Highway Administration's California Division Office in Sacramento, provided background information and details of the new 2003 California Supplement. The April 2005 meeting was held on April 21, 2005 at the URS offices in downtown Oakland. This meeting was all about students. Students from colleges across the Bay Area participated in the Student Paper Scholarship Award Contest. They were asked to write an essay on "Should solo drivers in hybrid cars be allowed in the carpool lane?" Adam Cohen, a senior at UC Berkeley, won this year's scholarship and presented his winning paper at the meeting. Patty Camacho, the student mentorship program chair, provided an overview of the Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning (STEP). Patty discussed the challenges and success of the program in its first year. Mark Spencer also introduced ITE's new one-on-one mentoring program for professionals. On March 17, 2005, the meeting was held at the New Delhi Restaurant in Downtown San Francisco. The topic was Red Light Photo Enforcement, which was discussed by a panel of experts consisting of Tabin Chung, Program Manager for the City and County of San Francisco, Glenn Goepfert, Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Cupertino, and David Huynh, a Senior Transportation Engineer with the City of Fremont. ITE Section Vice President Rachel Donovan moderated the panel discussion.
The panel discussed the challenges and successes of the red light photo enforcement in their respective communities. Each panel member gave an overview and answered questions regarding the implementation, enforcement, and results of the program.