UPDATE: Thursday, October 26th, 2017
On June 20th, 2017, the Steering Committee for the Western States Rural Transportation Consortium (WSRTC) gathered for the annual meeting. This meeting was held just prior to the 12th Annual Western States Forum. The agenda, meeting presentation, and the meeting minutes can be found here and on the WSRTC Documents page.
Photo by: Doug Galarus
Doug Galarus called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm Pacific Time. Introductions were made around the table as well as by those calling in. Doug went over the purpose of the meeting and the planned agenda.
First on the agenda was the 12th annual Western States Forum. Leann Koon gave a quick overview of the eight presentations that were on the technical agenda. This Forum had forty-eight participants representing seven western states, six state DOT’s, ten of the twelve Caltrans districts, several Caltrans divisions, FHWA, three universities, and the California Department of Water Resources. More about this year’s Forum, including the technical content and images from the event, can be found on the Forum website’s 2017 Past Forum page. You can also read about the 2017 Forum on the WSRTTIF’s project pages in the update from October 13, 2017.
Sean Campbell and Ron Vessey reviewed the status of the pooled fund and the three current task orders: WeatherShare Phase4, One-Stop-Shop Phase 3, and Meeting Coordination, Website, WSF Support, and Travel. The group discussed the benefits and contributions to the WSRTC, and agreed that supporting the annual Western States Forum is important. Information sharing and technology transfer through the Forum and the WSRTC are beneficial to the pooled fund members.
The group also discussed the Charter and membership of the WSRTC, particularly whether there was interest in expanding the Consortium to include additional member states. The rural perspective in the western region is a priority to maintain. Expansion could help improve diversity, bring in more and new perspectives, and increase information sharing.
Incubator projects were next on the agenda. Three projects were originally identified for work in this phase of the WSRTC: Rural Winter Travel Times, Chain-Up Delay Tracking with Bluetooth (Part 2), and Data Quality for Aggregation and Dissemination of DOT Traveler Information (Part 2). At this point, development of project work plans has been deferred considering anticipated staffing changes. Check back later for more information about the incubator projects!
Doug Galarus then reviewed the progress of several spin-off projects of interest to the WSRTC. These projects included Professional Capacity Building (PCB) for Communications Systems, California Oregon Advanced Transportation Systems (COATS), Integration of Aviation AWOS with RWIS, WeatherShare Integration with QuickMap, and Automated Safety Warning Controller.
The meeting concluded with the traditional roundtable discussion of projects that are being conducted across the WSRTC region. Take a look at the meeting minutes to see what the member states are working on.
The group acknowledged Ian Turnbull’s pending retirement and the key role he played in the development and success of the WSRTC. Thank you, Ian, for your leadership and vision! Jeremiah Pearce is now the Acting Chief of the Caltrans District 2 Office of ITS Engineering and Support. Don Anderson is the Caltrans Lead for the WSRTC and Chairman of the Rural Program Steering Committee. In the upper right of the photo below, Jeremiah (left) and Ian (right) are shown participating in last year’s WSRTC annual meeting.
Photo by: Doug Galarus
To review the meeting minutes, click here, or go to the Consortium’s Documents page. The presentation from the meeting is also on the Consortium’s Documents page.