RSG Analyst, Chloe Ritter, was a member of a team who received an AICP Student Project Award for their work on the project “Connect Cascade Locks: A Recreational Trails Plan for Economic Development.” The award was presented this week at 2013 APA National Planning Conference in Chicago.

RSG's Kaveh Shabani will be presenting his paper, “Accounting for Special Commodity Movements in Statewide Freight Modeling: Coal, Oil & Gas in the Utah Statewide Freight Forecasting Model,” at the 54th Annual Transportation Research Forum. This work focuses on the reasons why additional data resources were needed in the Utah Statewide freight model and how these were used to overcome initial data deficiencies. The paper includes a description of the data and approaches used as well as a brief contextual overview of the Utah Statewide freight model, including an evaluation and discussion of the unique trends of coal movements in terms of value and tonnage shares compared to other states using Commodity Flow Survey data and the inter-modal considerations in the modeling process, its impacts on the accuracy of the model and the limitations of standard data sources in capturing inter-modal freight movements. Last, lessons learned are discussed to assist other regions seeking to develop similar freight modeling approaches.

RSG Director, Steve Lawson, and Senior Analyst Brett Kiser will present their paper, “Sustainable Transportation for National Parks: Evaluating the Long-Term Sustainability of Shuttle Service in Mount Rainier National Park.” This paper presents the results of a study in Mount Rainier National Park to assess the long-term sustainability of shuttle service options, not only in terms of operational requirements and financial feasibility, but in terms of crowding-related capacities for visitor destinations serviced by the shuttle system. Limitations and benefits of the approach are considered for planning sustainable shuttle systems in national parks.

RSG's Steve Lawson, Brett Kiser and Eric Talbot are scheduled to present their paper, “Sustainable Transportation for National Parks: Modeling and Mapping Visitors’ Exposure to Roadway Noise, Natural Sounds, and Quiet in Yosemite National Park,” at the 2013 George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites in Denver, Colorado. This paper presents the results of a study to assess transportation-related impacts to visitors’ opportunities to experience natural sounds and quiet in the Tuolumne River watershed within Yosemite National Park. Roadway noise modeling tools were used to map the spatial extent and intensity of roadway noise originating from Tioga Road and propagating across the landscape in the Tuolumne River watershed. Further, information from the roadway noise model was integrated with GPS-based hiking track data to model visitors’ exposure to roadway noise, natural sounds, and quiet while hiking.

RSG's Maren Outwater will present, “Analysis Toolbox for Smart Growth Development and Congestion Relief,” at the Institute of Transportation Engineers' 2013 Technical Conference. The Smart Growth Area Planning or SmartGAP tool provides planners with scenario-forecasting tools that allow them to estimate smart growth’s effect on peak-hour transportation, as well as its effects on sprawl, energy reduction, active travel, and carbon footprints. The new research report and software tool enable state transportation and regional agency planners to estimate the effects of different smart growth strategies on regional peak-hour travel demand and other transportation parameters. The SmartGAP tool allows a user to input different scenarios for land use, population growth, and transportation strategies, and then create a model of their effects on several critical performance areas. SmartGAP tracks individual households and firms in a region to determine transportation impacts from growth. The tool is free, open-sourced, and user-friendly.

RSG's Vice President, Kevin Hathaway, will give a guest lecture on visualization in business consulting presented to students participating in a Consulting Project Management course at Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

RSG Senior Engineer, David Saladino will be presenting an overview of the Streetscape Improvement Project that RSG led for a half-mile section of US Route 4 through Killington, Vermont. The project seeks to improve the village character, enhance safety and mobility for all modes, and encourage economic development in the area.