Year: 2016

The latest version of RSG’s smartphone-based travel survey app, rMove™, was recently released to the Google Play and iTunes stores. This latest update, Version 2.3, debuts rMove’s new branding and includes updates such as user interface upgrades, proxy reporting for children, and in-app help.

This release was planned in advance of the Ohio Moves Transportation Survey which launched yesterday. The data collected through rMove will be used to inform travel forecasting models and ultimately inform ODOT’s future investments in transportation.

The NHDOT recently released “Your Guide to Promoting Walking and Bicycling Accommodations in New Hampshire.” RSG worked with the NHDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Advisory Committee (BPTAC) to develop the guide. It is designed to help anyone interested in improving the conditions for bicycling and walking in their communities by providing useful information on how and when to get involved in projects, and the various ways a project can be initiated, planned, and built, as well as reasons why someone should care about bicycling and walking.

Earlier this summer, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) announced the release of their new app, MTA eTix®. The app allows New York’s Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad customers to purchase train tickets anytime, anywhere with their mobile devices. According to Governor Cuomo, “This new app puts riders first by eliminating the ticket line and helping New Yorkers and visitors get where they need to go with more freedom and convenience than ever before.”

RSG conducted significant market research to help design the software specs and the user interface to ensure the app is well received and heavily utilized by riders.

RSG Senior Consultant Ben Stabler is coordinating a working group to modernize an online repository for travel model networks for research, testing, and education, and to set up and maintain a community around it. This work is being done as part of the TRB Committee ADB30(4) – Transportation Network Modeling; Network Models in Practice Subcommittee. Interested contributors are encouraged to visit the site and share their networks with the community.

RSG is proud to have played a key role in the report Who’s on Board 2016: What Today’s Riders Teach Us About Transit That Works published by TransitCenter, an organization committed to improving transit through innovation. The study, released last week, offers several findings to inform how government agencies and elected officials approach transportation, land use, and development policy. In particular, it reveals that the most important factors in transit ridership are frequency, travel time, and walkability access.

RSG Senior Consultant Michelle Lee was recently named Chair of the Michigan State University Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Studies Alumni Board.

The Board is designed to assist students and faculty with a variety of initiatives, including connecting current MSU students to professions, increasing department visibility, and encouraging undergraduate enrollment. We are proud that Michelle is sharing her time and skill set to enhance Michigan State and facilitate continued learning.

An RSG project to optimize parking in downtown White River Junction, Vermont, was recently highlighted in the Rutland Herald.
 
RSG, with its headquarters in the historic White River Junction downtown, is partnered with neighboring business Vital Communities on the project. Together, the two companies will conduct a study to examine ways to improve current parking conditions and manage future demands for parking in the area.

RSG Senior Director Steve Lawson authored the article “A Systems-Based Approach to Address Unintended Consequences of Demand-Driven Transportation Planning in National Parks and Public Lands,” which was published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation.

The article introduces a systems-based transportation planning approach developed for the National Park Service to design and operate transportation in national parks according to management objectives for park resources and visitors’ experiences.

RSG Senior Director Steve Lawson authored the article “A Systems-Based Approach to Address Unintended Consequences of Demand-Driven Transportation Planning in National Parks and Public Lands,” which was published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation.

The article introduces a systems-based transportation planning approach developed for the National Park Service to design and operate transportation in national parks according to management objectives for park resources and visitors’ experiences.

This past weekend, the Burlington Free Press highlighted an RSG project for the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) and the positive anticipation around it. The “Crescent Connector,” designed for Essex Junction, Vermont’s popular Five Corner’s intersection, is expected to address concerns on several levels—reducing traffic congestion and frustrations as well as making the junction more appealing to pedestrians and bicyclists.

The overall project concept was developed by RSG in a scoping study led by RSG’s Mark Smith.