Last week, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) issued a statewide news release titled “Updated research looks in-depth at how poor road conditions will impact Oregon's economy.” As the title suggests, the release explains that funding shortfalls for infrastructure will have significant negative impacts on the state economy and resident’s quality of life.

One of the reports that the release references, “Rough Roads Ahead 2,” relied on the Oregon Statewide Integrated Model (SWIM) to study an issue that many state DOTs are facing—declining revenue accompanied by increasing costs due to the need to maintain and/or replace deteriorating infrastructure. RSG’s Joel Freedman and Ben Stabler helped build the model that was used for the analysis, and—along with RSG’s Nagendra Dhakar—assisted Oregon DOT staff define alternatives to be tested in the model, analyzed model outputs, and interpreted results.

See Oregon's Rough Roads/Pavement Reports website for more information.

Two RSG-involved projects received recognition at the American Council of Engineering Companies of NH (ACEC NH) Engineering Excellence awards banquet last week.

RSG assisted AECOM by collecting and analyzing traffic and survey data for the “NH Statewide Rest Area and Welcome Center Study,” which received an honorable mention.

In addition, the RSG project “Your Guide to Promoting Walking and Bicycling Accommodations in New Hampshire” received a Silver award. The guide, completed in collaboration with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) and its Bicycle & Pedestrian Transportation Advisory Committee (BPTAC), informs bicycle and pedestrian stakeholders on how to most effectively engage in the transportation project planning and design process. The final product marries complex technical content with reader-friendly design and language, serving as both an outreach and educational resource for the public.

RSG’s proprietary location-aware market research app, rMove, was featured on NBC San Diego last week. RSG is conducting a household travel survey for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and, as the segment explains, is using rMove to allow for participation via smartphone. rMove is a platform that collects data on participants’ day-to-day movements and motivations to help organizations confidently plan for future transportation needs.

The study, which is taking place from August 2016 to March 2017, is projected to include data from 5,500 households. Compared to traditional survey methods, data collection via rMove will provide more accurate and robust data as well as more enjoyment and convenience for participants. Find out more at meetrmove.rsginc.com.

RSG’s proprietary location-aware market research app, rMove, was featured on NBC San Diego last week. RSG is conducting a household travel survey for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and, as the segment explains, is using rMove to allow for participation via smartphone. rMove is a platform that collects data on participants’ day-to-day movements and motivations to help organizations confidently plan for future transportation needs.

The study, which is taking place from August 2016 to March 2017, is projected to include data from 5,500 households. Compared to traditional survey methods, data collection via rMove will provide more accurate and robust data as well as more enjoyment and convenience for participants. Find out more at meetrmove.rsginc.com.

RSG Senior Director Steve Lawson's appointment as adjunct faculty at the University of Vermont (UVM) was recently renewed by the university. In this role, Steve serves on graduate student committees and provides opportunities for professional experience to graduate and undergraduate students in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (RSENR). In addition, he serves in this role as a liaison with the school for collaboration on research, scholarship, and consulting projects.

Steve's adjunct faculty appointment at UVM reinforces RSG's commitment to its academic roots and the scientific rigor of our work.

RSG Director Ben Stabler presented last week at the Global City Teams Challenge Super Action Cluster Summit on Transportation. His presentation, “Developing the ActivitySim Open Platform for Travel Demand Modeling,” shared why the transportation industry needs ActivitySim and why a transparent and open software focused project is important. The summit, which focused on exploring opportunities for collaboration related to intelligent transportation solutions, took place February 1-2 in Portland, OR.

RSG Sr. Director Bob Chamberlin presented last month at the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Utah Chapter Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. He gave two presentations at the conference—“Work/Life Balance & Five Learnings” and “Road Usage Charging: Trends and Techniques,” the latter of which shared the effects of electric vehicles and the gas tax funding research RSG completed for the Utah Department of Transportation.

RSG Director Joel Freedman presented “Enhanced Methods to Forecast Travel Behavior in Response to Travel Time Reliability and Pricing” at last week’s Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) webinar.

His presentation, which had 121 attendees, described the work undertaken to enhance the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) activity-based model’s sensitivities to priced infrastructure and travel time reliability. The enhancements implemented during this project are based on research conducted under the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) C04 track to improve understanding of how highway congestion and pricing affect travel demand.