We are thrilled to welcome Dana Lodico, PE, INCE Bd. Cert. as a Director at RSG. Dana brings 21 years of experience in acoustical consulting, civil engineering, and acoustical research. She is also Vice President of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering. Dana's experience and expertise will help us continue to identify creative solutions to acoustics problems.

Yesterday, during recorded testimony at the Vermont Senate Committee on Transportation, an employee of Resource Systems Group, Inc. (RSG) was overheard making an on-mic racial slur. In response to this, RSG CEO Stephen Lawe issued the following statement:

“On behalf of the entire company, I apologize to anyone affected by these deplorable remarks. The outburst by an employee of RSG is both regrettable and unforgivable. This kind of behavior is not at all tolerated and the employee was terminated immediately.

“RSG takes great pride in the quality of work and the quality of employees in our organization. We have immediately begun to put in place additional safeguards to assure that our current employees are aligned properly with our company values and uphold them – as well as assure that all future employees uphold those critical values.”

Activity-based models offer more functionality than standard trip-based models. However, user concerns about activity-based models’ cost, complexity, and support have limited their wider adoption.

ActivitySim is different. It is open source, purpose-built, and grounded in the principles of collaboration and modern software engineering.

ActivitySim was developed by RSG and is the product of a consortium of member agencies overseen by the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO). Most importantly to users, it is a state-of-the-practice modeling platform that is always improving.

Want to learn more? Check out our latest white paper that describes ActivitySim’s key advantages, applications to date, and future development.

We’re excited to moderate and present at the Transportation Research Board's (TRB's) 100th Annual Meeting this month. Our presentations will cover a range of topics—from mitigating the noise impact of drone deliveries to quantifying the impacts of COVID-19 on willingness to pay for travel time savings.

The event, which covers all transportation modes, normally attracts over 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world who gather in Washington, DC. For the first time in TRB's history, however, this will be a month-long virtual event! The TRB Annual Meeting program covers all transportation modes, with sessions and workshops addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions.

RSG President Tom Adler coauthored an article for the latest issue of TR News. The article summarizes research RSG conducted into how transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft have impacted airport revenues and operations. Specifically, it discusses findings from ACRP Research Report 215: Transportation Network Companies (TNCs)—Impacts to Airport Revenues and Operations—Reference Guide, which was published in 2020.

ACRP Research Report 215 follows work done as part of ACRP Synthesis 84: Transportation Network Companies—Challenges and Opportunities for Airport Operators, which was published in 2017. ACRP Synthesis 84 concluded more research was needed into the topic. In response, ACRP Research Report 215 describes strategic approaches and practical tools that airports can reference to develop ground access programs that align with their policy goals. Both ACRP Research Report 215 and ACRP Synthesis 84 surveyed 100 of the largest airports in the United States. These findings helped the research team understand TNC operations at each of these airports, the resulting access mode shares, and the revenues received from TNC fees. The data also helped the research team develop integrated supply and demand models to estimate the effects of TNC growth and TNC-related pricing policies on airport access mode shares and revenues.

The application of the models confirmed the complex (and often counterintuitive) relationship between pricing, revenue, and mode choice in the context of airport ground access. While the work completed for ACRP Research Report 215 occurred prior to COVID-19, the research team's methods remain relevant as airports look for ways to attract customers and increase revenue. Given these changes, airport operators can still consider the specific tools, guidelines, and policy levers described in ACRP Research Report 215 to support their decision-making in a rapidly evolving travel environment during and after the pandemic.

To learn more about how air travel is changing, visit RSG's COVID-19 Transportation Insights Panel page.

TR News is copyright, National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; posted with permission of the Transportation Research Board

RSG Consultant Alex Levin was recently nominated and selected by a group of industry peers to be featured in the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Young Member Council – Aviation (YMC-A) Quarterly Spotlight.

Since joining RSG in 2016, Alex has worked on several major airport ground access transportation projects across the United States. He played a major role in the Logan Airport Ground Access and Trip Reduction Strategy Study, which RSG completed in 2019. He also contributed to TRB's ACRP Research Report 215: Transportation Network Companies (TNCs): Impacts to Airport Revenues and Operations—Reference Guide.

Alex has a bachelor’s degree in geography and economics from McGill University and a master’s degree in sustainable urban development from DePaul University. He is a Chaddick Scholar and a StartingBloc Fellow.

Commercial drone technology is here to stay, with many US companies currently operating delivery drones in urban airspaces. In response, cities need to begin thinking about how they can proactively plan for commercial drone operations in their neighborhoods and downtown areas.

On Wednesday, December 16 at 1:00 p.m. ET, RSG Director Eddie Duncan and RSG Senior Director Ken Kaliski will discuss commercial drone noise and local noise ordinances during a webinar sponsored by the National League of Cities (NLC).

The event, titled “Planning for Drones: How Cities Can Get Ahead on Urban Air Mobility,” will also feature unique insights from several elected officials along with a groundbreaking announcement on the future of urban air from one of NLC's member cities.

Four RSGers led two sessions during the virtual 2020 Fall North Carolina Model Users Group (NCMUG) meeting, which was held on Wednesday, December 2 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. The 2020 meeting focused on COVID-19's impact on travel behavior and data collection as well as the use of passively collected data (“big data”).

The presentation given by RSG Director Michelle Lee and RSG Senior Analyst Abigail Rosenson, titled “Longitudinal Surveys to Understand Short- and Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19,” discussed survey methodology best practices to achieve representative samples using panels and described primary panel data applications. Their presentation also discussed COVID-19 travel implications nationally and in North Carolina, with a particular focus on demographic implications and attitudes about travel resumption. A recording of their presentation can be viewed here.

The presentation given by RSG Senior Consultant Stephen Tuttle and RSG Consultant Steven Trevino, titled “Big Data & Pivoting in the NC Statewide Model (NCSTM),” provided an overview of the location-based service data processing and expansion methodology used in the NCSTM. Their presentation detailed the application of passively collected data to the NCSTM via the pivot process, provided a review of the results from data expansion, and described future big data applications, including post-COVID-19 uses and forecast scenarios. A recording of their presentation can be viewed here.

About NCMUG: The vision of NCMUG is to provide a forum for sharing knowledge and experiences of using state-of-practice transportation modeling tools, techniques, and innovations appropriate to answer transportation planning and policy questions for the State of North Carolina, and promote its implementation across the State.

New mobility technologies and COVID-19 have dramatically accelerated the pace of personal travel behavior changes. This makes it increasingly important for practitioners to understand how and why people travel.

On Tuesday, December 15 at 1:00 p.m. ET, RSG Senior Director Mark Bradley will present tips on how to account for age-cohort-related differences in travel behavior in applied travel demand models. The presentation is part of a panel event sponsored by Zephyr.

Attendees will hear from several experts on how mobility technologies, along with shifts driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, have affected many of the behavioral dynamics that go into modeling individual travel behavior.

Seven Days newspaper recently published an article on the future of commercial drone delivery in Vermont. The article features an interview with RSG's Eddie Duncan who, along with Ken Kaliski and Erica Wygonik, authored RSG's recent white paper on commercial drone noise and strategies for mitigation.

More companies are beginning commercial drone delivery pilot programs across the United States as the technology matures and there is more of a demand for these types of services. RSG's white paper uses the Burlington, Vermont, region to demonstrate how community noise mapping can be used to plan for and mitigate (or mask) the potential noise from commercial drone delivery operations.