RSG Senior Consultant, Michelle Lee, is attending the “Moving Active Transportation to Higher Ground” conference in Washington, DC this week.

The conference will focus on the evidence base as well as discussion of key tools and metrics for active transportation. Jointly sponsored and organized by ACSM and the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, the conference will bring together experts and constituents from transportation, urban planning, public health healthcare, and health economics to explore the practice of quantifying the public health outcomes of active transportation.

RSG Senior Consultant Michelle Lee was recently named to the Michigan State University (MSU) Department of Geography Alumni Advisory Board. Last week, Michelle traveled out to East Lansing, Michigan to volunteer on the board and at the annual MSU Geography Career & Internship Event.

The board is responsible for developing relationships between alumni, faculty, and students, developing fresh perspectives to address department issues and opportunities, and mentoring both graduate and undergraduate geography students.

RSG is excited for the upcoming 2015 George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites next week. RSG’s Steve Lawson, Brett Kiser, and Susie Irizarry will be in attendance.

Steve will lead a session on Sustainable Transportation for National Parks, act as a panelist discussing career paths in parks and protected areas management, and serve as a George Melendez Wright Scholarship mentor. Steve also will present a paper he co-authored with Brett as part of the session Conventional Transportation Planning in National Parks: Consequences and Alternatives. Susie will present both a paper titled, “A Novel Application of GPS and Sensor Data to Explore Micro-Level Site Displacement Among Yosemite Wilderness Visitors” and a poster on day hike trail choice decision making in Yosemite Wilderness.

RSG Senior Consultant, Jeffrey Dumont, and Director, Stephane Hess, co-authored the article “Individual Level Models vs. Sample Level Models: Contrasts and Mutual Benefit,” which was published in the latest issue of Transportmetrica A: Transport Science. In the article, Jeff, Stephane, and co-author Marek Giergiczny assessed the use of individual level estimates in transport applications. In particular, they explored a new technique for modeling that draws on the relative benefits of multiple modeling types for a more realistic, efficient result.

RSG Consultant Katlin Gnojek is attending the Sawtooth Software conference this week in Orlando, Florida. The Sawtooth Software conference is held every 18 months, and brings together over 200 of the best minds in marketing research to talk about practical issues in online interviewing and quantitative market research.

RSG Senior Consultant, Jeff Frkonja, will be presenting at the upcoming Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities. His presentation is titled “A Transportation Forecasting View of Bicycle & Pedestrian Data” and will cover the transportation, health, and safety data needs for bicycle-related analysis. Lifesavers is the premier national highway safety meeting in the United States dedicated to reducing the tragic toll of deaths and injuries on our nation’s roadways. Each year, Lifesavers provides a forum for the presentation of proven countermeasures and initiatives that address today’s critical highway safety problems.

RSG Senior Director, Peter Plumeau, will present at the VREF Conference on Urban Freight hosted at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Plumeau’s presentation is on March 5th and is titled “Urban Design: Making Freight and Logistics Work within the Urban Setting.” The conference is sponsored by the Volvo Research & Education Foundation (VREF); it will focus on two primary themes: (1) the importance of urban freight in long-term land use, city planning, and urban design, and (2) engaging relevant stakeholders to change behavior.

Three RSGers have helped found a Burlington chapter of the Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT). YPT Burlington is Vermont’s only organization providing professional development, fellowship, and networking opportunities to aspiring and current transportation professionals alike. The organization aims to help Burlington become a better place to start and sustain a career in all transportation-related fields. RSGers Nikhil Sikka, Tristan Cherry, and Ben Cummins join three other transportation professionals as the Board of Directors for this new chapter.

On February 26th, RSG Senior Consultant, Steven Gayle, will instruct the Traffic Incident Management for Responders course at Morrisville State College. This course was developed under the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) and is sponsored by the New York State Department of Transportation, New York State Police, and the New York State Division of Homeland Security. Participants will include representatives of law enforcement, fire, and EMS agencies; DOT; and towing and recovery companies.

RSG Transportation Engineer, Kordel Braley, and RSG Senior Consultant, Chad Worthen, are attending the ITE Utah Chapter Annual Seminar today at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Braley, as Vice President of the ITE Utah Chapter, is the conference chair. Worthen also served on the committee.

The ITE Utah Chapter Annual Seminar this year will focus on preparing to solve our transportation challenges by studying and understanding future trends.