1. STOPS and the FTA Capital Investment Grant Program
2. How STOPS works
1. Overview
2. Evolution of STOPS
3. Some details of Version 1.5
1. Transit network and path-building
2. Travel demand
3. Mode-choice
4. Automatic adjustments with local data
5. Special markets
4. National Calibration
3. How to work STOPS
1. Basic installation
2. Implementation
3. Preparation of forecasts
4. Output reports and graphics
4. Experience with initial STOPS applications
1. Individual project sponsors
2. FTA
5. Technical Q & A session for current and prospective STOPS users

National Transit Database (NTD)
Andy House - Program Manager for Transit Technical Assistance Program, AASHTO

Originally designed for very specific solutions, the NTD (like most data sets) is being stretched to its limit to answer questions it was not initially designed for. How is it responding? Will it expand, to meet the demand, what's the plan?

Online Non-motorized Traffic Count Archive
Krista Nordback OTREC Portland State University

Plans are underway for an archive that will include online input, data reformatting and validation functions, data visualization and analysis tools, and the ability to download user-specified data and exchange the data with other databases and applications.These features will provide safety researchers with a measure of exposure to collisions, will give educators data to better include cycling and walking in their curricula, will provide local agencies with seasonally adjusted estimates of daily non-motorized traffic at their short duration count sites, and will provide policymakers and transportation professionals with basic information on cycling and walking that will inform decisions and plans around the country.

Census Transportation Planning Products Program (CTPP)
Penelope Weinberger - CTPP Program Manager, AASHTO

ACS for transportation planners, flow from home to work, how to access it, how to use it, what to know about it, what's coming. What reasearch, training and data you need to know.

National Household Travel Survey (NHTS)
Krishnan Viswanathan, CDM Smith

The NHTS is underway, what data will it yield, how big is the sample, who are the add-ons, how can I get the data? A talk on special queries, data availability, timing.

The American Community Survey (ACS)
Penelope Weinberger with content from The Census Bureau

The Census' Imperial Cruiser, all the demographic data your heart desires, A Census person (or a Storm-trooper representing them) will discuss the collection, manipulation, questions, process of the ACS.

“On Atlantic City”
Donald A. Guardian, Mayor, Atlantic City, New Jersey

Don Guardian was sworn-in as Mayor of Atlantic City on January 1, 2014. Prior to that, he was the Director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority’s Special Improvement Division, formerly known as the Atlantic City Special Improvement District (ACSID). As ACSID Director, Don was instrumental in developing program concepts and standards for environmental services, landscaping, and Ambassador programs for Atlantic City. During his tenure at ACSID, Don was able to add information services, street-scaping and site improvements, staff development, business support services, economic development initiatives, and over 120 facades for businesses, and support for special events. Mayor Guardian previously served as the Executive Assistant to the President of the Claridge Casino Hotel. While in that position, his duties included corporate development as well as civic involvement on behalf of the company’s President and Board Chairman. Don is an active member in numerous local civic, business and community organizations. He is past President of the Rotary Club of Atlantic City and past District Governor of Rotary District #7640, past President of the South Jersey AIDS Alliance, and Vice President/Secretary of the Metropolitan Business and Citizens Association (MBCA). He received the MBCA Community Spirit Award in 2014.In addition, Mayor Guardian is a past President of the Gardner’s Basin Board of Directors and a Board Member of the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce.

“Connecting Multi-Modal Transportation in New Jersey: Now and Future”
Dr. Peter J. Jin, Assistant Professor, Rutgers

Dr. Peter J. Jin is a new assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and an affiliated member of the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT). He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and B.S. in Automation from Tsinghua University in China. He worked as a research associate at Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin. From 2013-2014, he was the project manager in the Texas Technology Task Force project for FHWA and Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to develop strategic business plan and whitepapers for implementing connected, autonomous, and electrical vehicles, crowdsourcing and cloud computing. He developed multiple connected vehicle V2I applications for freeway merge control and intersection control. Earlier this year (2015), he organized the proposal in collaboration with NJDOT, Port Authority, ITS NJ, and multiple private and academic partners, in response to FHWA connected vehicle pilot deployment RFP. His other interests include transportation big data analytics such as cellphone location and social media data mining for traffic operation and planning applications.

Committee on Travel Survey Methods – Mid Year Meeting

Open Matrix Meetup
Open Model Data

Come join the developers of the Open Matrix project. Ask questions. Talk about problems and solutions. Brag about cool stuff you've done with Open Matrix.

1. Leave on Train #4624, which leaves Atlantic City Rail Station (across the street from the Sheraton) at 12:29 PM
   Tom Marchwinski gives the history of the Atlantic City Rail Line
2. Train arrives in Pennsauken Transit Center at 1:37 PM.
   Neil Fitzsimmons, New Jersey Transit, leads the tour of the facility
3. Board 2:17 pm Southbound River Line Light Rail train for Camden
4. Arrive at E-Center 2:34pm
5. Depart E-Center at 2:58 pm on Northbound River Line Light Rail train for Pennsauken Transit Center
6. Arrive Pennsauken Transit Center at 3:13pm
7. Depart Pennsauken Transit Center at 3:40pm and arrive in back in Atlantic City at 4:52 pm

To reserve a spot, please follow this link. Please book by May 1 to guarantee your place.

TFResource: Are you being served?

We want to make sure that the community is serving you, that you are served some refreshments, and that you are serving the community too!

The Travel Forecasting Resource (www.tfresource.org) is a collection of resources for travel forecasting practitioners. It has evolved with guidance by TRB Committee ADB45 (Special Committee for Travel Forecasting Resources) and support from FHWA over the last few years.

We’ll start this event with refreshments and provide highlights of new features, updates, and progress; including introducing the new question and answer functionality. Then we will collectively start hacking away at TFResource (www.tfresource.org ) Bring your laptops. There are pages to clean up. There are pages to be improved. And there are questions to be asked and answered.

Prizes will be awarded to the users who increase their participation score the most during the session. We will wrap up the evening with time for participants to provide feedback on ways to improve the Resource to better meet the needs of the community.

This session is open to all, but pre-registration is required as seating is limited. So sign up today! (And do not forget to bring your laptop!)

This is the true story... of when planners... picked to deliver results... work together... to find out what happens... when people stop following all the rules... and start planning for real...

This is an “un-session,” a small version of an “un-conference” like TransportationCamp, that will be held during the last day of the conference. This is not a traditional session with a pre-planned agenda, speakers and a podium. It is an opportunity for attendees to suggest topics during the conference, as they listen and respond to presentations. A large board will be placed in the conference hall that will allow participants to stick ideas using large post-it notes. A few passionate household names in transportation planning will help to cultivate and select ideas for discussion.

Why are we doing this? Much of what defines our success as planners does not fit into a formal structure or is ill suited to the one-way nature of a podium session. Topics such as tools, efficiency tricks, navigating politics, and artful communication are all integral toward providing useful information to the public and decision-makers. However, these factors are rarely discussed outside office walls. The conference planners wanted to provide an opportunity to facilitate focused discussions on these issues.

What will we discuss? Any topic the unsession attendees think warrants discussion! Past unconferences have never suffered a dull moment and often spawn more discussion than can be covered during the time allotted. We have primed the pool with some big name experts to lead discussions, but the remainder will be decided on by you!

How does it work? We encourage you to discuss ideas with each other ahead of time. During the conference, attendees will be able to post ideas on a wall using large post-it notes. Each post-it note should have the proposer’s name, session title, and any other important details. On the morning of the unsession, the “lead conductor” and fellow “instigators” will cultivate the topics based on the level of interest and diversity of subject matter. It is highly possible that multiple session ideas may be combined together. Once selected, the topics and locations will be announced and attendees can go to a session of their choosing.

Acknowledgements:

This group of “unsessions” has been inspired by success of many years of Transportation Camp combined with the positive reaction from the “meta modeling sessions” held at the TRB Innovations in Travel Modeling conference in 2014. To find out more about Transportation Camp, visit TransportationCamp.org.

Session Organizers:

• Nick Wood
• Elizabeth Sall
• Julie Dunbar
• Kathie Haire
• Charles Gorugantula
• Pat Coleman
• Andrew Rohne
• Chris Pulchalsky