Sunday, January 22, 2012

#TRBAM Day 1 : Sunday - NACTO Bike Guide and Public Transit Presentations

I thought I would note a few lessons learned as I go about the TRB Annual Meeting. I have been carefully noting my twitter posts with the requisite hashtag #TRBAM. Sort of like microblogging, it is better than drifting off to sleep during a session (I have never had that problem). I was scheduled three presentations for Sunday, which was the maximum recommended. It's a bit of a crazy schedule, but my love for transportation is that wacky. Luckily, the first two were NACTO Bike Guide presentations and they were elements that I had covered before, so it was not as difficult to present the information there as it would be for a brand new topic. The third presentation was a quick summary of transit signal priority and its link to Connected Vehicle Technology  for the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Public Transit Committee.

Attendance at TRB is something that ages well. Part of the greatness of the meeting is the network of associates you gain after 15 years of consistent attendance. I find by just being here I refocus the efforts I have had and learn so much just by having short conversations. The presentations are a significant effort to organize ones thoughts into a coherent message when you get back home. At least I hope the messages are coherent.

In this Public Transit session, it is relevant to Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), which might be worthwhile for managing staff at PBOT. There is currently discussion about some small scale efforts to control fleets and even at a very small effort. At PBOT, we've been talking about improving our timesheets and moving toward electronic copies as opposed the five versions of paper and pencil that the staff currently have to do every single day to get paid.

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