UPDATE: Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
The National Rural ITS Conference was in Biloxi, Mississippi, this year and members of the WSRTC met and presented at the event. On September 19th, the WSRTC held a regular Steering Committee meeting. The meeting agenda and the meeting presentation can be reviewed here or on the Consortium’s Documents page.
Doug Galarus called the meeting to order with a welcome, introductions were made around the group, and the agenda was reviewed for any additions or corrections.
Discussion and wrap-up of the 2012 Western States Forum were first on the agenda. Leann Koon gave an overview of the event including attendance statistics, a review of the speakers and their presentations, and the primary tenets of the Forum.
Save the Date for the 2013 Forum to be held in Yreka, California, June 18-20!
Sean Campbell, Ted Bailey, and Doug Galarus discussed the current status, future tasks, and participation in the Pooled Fund. David Veneziano reviewed the progress and status of the Year 1 incubator projects – Survey of Safety Warning Devices, Regional ICM Planning. The group discussed potential project contacts and exchanged information. Discussion moved to the next round of incubator projects and the need for a road map for the next several years. Doug and Sean commented on various related projects of interest to the group, including work that is on-going as well as potential projects coming up in the future.
The traditional roundtable discussion of rural ITS projects the group is involved with closed out the meeting. Each member has a number of active projects underway.
To review the meeting minutes, click here, or go to the Consortium’s Documents page.
At NRITS this year, the Western States Forum was recognized with a Best of Rural ITS Award for Best New Innovative Product, Service or Application. Sean Campbell and Leann Koon described the Forum at the opening session of NRITS. Here, they accept the award from Steve Albert (left), Rural SIG Chair, and Scott Belcher (right), President of ITS America.
Photo by Doug Galarus
The WSRTC was also part of one of the NRITS sessions - “Multi-Agency Collaboration: Leveraging Resources and Improving Services for the Traveling Public.” On behalf of the Consortium, Doug Galarus presented The Western States Rural Transportation Consortium—An Implementers Pooled-Fund to Tackle the Challenges of Rural ITS. Here, he is explaining the concept behind the Consortium’s incubator projects and describing in more detail the Safety Warning Device Survey incubator project.
Photo by Leann Koon
Consortium members joined in the discussion during the session and added perspective from their individual states. Pictured below, Ron Vessey and Ted Bailey from WSDOT and Sean Campbell from Caltrans listen and answer questions from the audience. Right behind Sean is Ismael Garza from the Nevada DOT.
Photo by Leann Koon
NRITS was well-attended this year by ITS professionals from around the country and abroad. Session topics were diverse and informative. Doug Galarus also presented the Augmented Speed Enforcement (aSE) Smart Drums project in one of the Communications sessions called “Need to talk? Solutions to Communication Problems in Remote Areas.” Tony Leingang from Washington State DOT gave a presentation titled Multi-agency Coordination for Direct Storm Management with Limited Resources during the “Innovative Approaches to Rural Traffic Management” session.
Here’s Doug as he shows project team members at work:
Photo by Leann Koon
And here’s Tony explaining the concept for WSDOT’s Olympic Region Storm Management Center (SMC):
Photo by Leann Koon
These presentations and others from the conference can be found in the Proceedings of the 2012 NRITS Conference.