RSG Senior Consultant, Vince Bernardin, will present at the 2014 Indiana MPO Conference in downtown Columbus, Indiana. The presentation titled “New Modeling Data, Techniques and Capabilities in MACOG, MCCOG, and Beyond” will review recent work for the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) and Madison County Council of Governments (MCCOG) in the context of new exciting developments in the field of travel data and modeling.

RSG Senior Consultant, Elizabeth Greene, co-authored the article “Long-Distance Work and Leisure Travel Frequencies” which was published in the latest issue of Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. In the article, Elizabeth and her co-authors explored factors influencing non-distance-based definitions of long-distance travel to help long-distance survey designers know which demographic factors they should include in their surveys. The findings suggest that future data collection for long-distance travel can be tailored to address the specific definition being studied.

RSG Director, Marc Aquila, was recently announced as a ‘Rising Star’ by Vermont Business Magazine. The 2014 ‘Rising Star’ award recipient list is comprised of 40 winners under the age of 40. Award recipients were selected by a panel of judges for their commitment to business growth, professional excellence, and involvement in their communities.

The National Park Service (NPS) recently selected RSG to serve as the nation’s lead contractor for visitor use and social science research in the national parks through a five-year, up to $20 million contract. This provides RSG with a unique opportunity to help the NPS with the stewardship of America’s national treasures, the national parks.

RSG Analyst, Nagendra Dhakar, co-authored the article “Route Choice Modeling Using GPS-Based Travel Surveys” which was published in the latest issue of Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Nagendra and co-author Sivaramakrishnan Srinivasan combined data from a large-scale GPS-based travel survey and geographic information system-based roadway network databases to develop models for route choice. These models produce statistically significant and intuitively reasonable effects that are sensitive to basis of trip and traveler characteristics

RSG Analyst Ben Cummins co-authored the article “Why Do Voters Support Public Transportation? Public Choices and Private Behavior” which will be published in the next issue of the journal Transportation. In it, Ben and co-author Michael Manville examine American support for transit spending, in particular the support for financing transit with local transportation sales taxes. The findings suggest a collective action problem; people support transit for its collective benefits, but these benefits are realized through increased ridership, which does not necessarily result from increased funding. The findings were also mentioned in CityLab’s recent article “If So Many People Support Mass Transit, Why Do So Few Ride?” which explores the same concern.

RSG is proud to have played a key role in the Who’s on Board: The 2014 Mobility Attitudes Survey commissioned by TransitCenter, an organization committed to improving transit through innovation. The study, released today, is the first to compare rider and non-rider attitudes by age, income, education, family status and ethnicity, and to examine both cities and suburban areas across various regions of the U.S. The study reveals that Americans from regions coast to coast think about and use public transit in remarkably similar ways.

RSG is thrilled to receive the ‘Planning Project of the Year’ Award from the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association (NNECAPA). The award honors the Bedford, NH Pedestrian/Bike Master Plan which RSG worked on in partnership with Jeff Taylor & Associates.

RSG Senior Director, Ken Kaliski, will present at NoiseCon 2014 – The Institute of Noise Control Engineering’s annual conference – on September 9th in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The presentation titled “The Massachusetts Research Study on Wind Turbine Acoustics – Methods, Goals and Preliminary Findings” will outline the methodologies and preliminary results of a study that RSG is working on with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to provide a quantitative basis for testing and evaluating pre-construction and post-construction wind turbine noise.

RSG Senior Director, Michael Geilich, was recently certified as a ‘Project Management Professional (PMP)’ by the Project Management Institute. The PMP recognizes demonstrated competence in leading and directing project teams.