RSG’s Karl Washburn was recently co-awarded US Patent 9,438,991, “Sound feedback system for vehicles”. This patent links autonomous “follower” agricultural equipment to a person monitoring their activity and health. Co-inventors include Karl’s former colleagues at Deere & Company – Julian Sanchez, Kristin Sullivan, and Noel Anderson.
RSG Director Vince Bernardin and Consultant Steve Tuttle will present this week at the 2016 Indiana MPO Conference on big data in activity-based models and travel time reliability for travel models. We’re honored to be a sponsor of the event taking place in South Bend, Indiana from September 20-22.
RSG’s Kordel Braley spoke with Brigham Young University’s ASCE Chapter yesterday in Provo, Utah. He discussed RSG’s recent work on the Provo-Orem Transportation Improvement Project (POTIP), which will add general purpose lanes and bus rapid transit (BRT) along a congested corridor between Provo and Orem. RSG performed micro-simulation analysis, ridership forecasts, and analyzed the effects of transit signal priority (TSP).
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.
RSG consultants will lead four sessions this week at the 15th National TRB ‘Tools of the Trade’ Conference in Charleston, SC. The conference is designed to share knowledge on factors affecting the planning, development, programming, and implementation of multi-modal transportation facilities for small and medium-sized communities.
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 sponsor the 2016 Summer Conference on Transportation Planning and Air Quality. The event will take place in Minneapolis from August 4th-5th and the spotlight theme is “The Changing Landscape of Transportation and Air Quality: Confronting the Challenges at the Global, Regional, and Local Scales.” RSG’s Bob Chamberlin will be in attendance.
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.