RSG Senior Director Michelle Lee, GISP, PMP, will present at the 77th Annual Conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in Chicago, Illinois.

Michelle's presentation will discuss methods to improve equity and inclusion in travel surveys through the use of differential incentives. Incentives are offers (e.g., gift cards) that have been shown to encourage greater participation in surveys. Her presentation will describe two recent RSG-led travel surveys in Minnesota and Washington State that used differential incentives to encourage greater participation among historically underrepresented groups in particular. Her presentation will review the effectiveness of these approaches across both studies.

Who? Michelle Lee, GISP, PMP, Senior Director (RSG)

What? Presentation, titled “Improving Equity and Inclusion in Travel Surveys through Differential Incentive Offerings”

Where and When? The 77th AAPOR Annual Conference is in Chicago, Illinois. Michelle is presenting during a session on Friday, May 13 from 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. CT.

RSG Director Dana Lodico, PE, INCE Bd. Cert. authored an article on product noise rating (PNR) that was recently published in the National Council of Acoustical Consultants (NCAC) Newsletter.

PNR has been in development for nearly two decades. It would allow consumers to quickly and easily assess a product's sound (or lack thereof). The work on a PNR system started with volunteers for the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE-USA).

The PNR system developed through INCE-USA's work is ready. However, lack of funding has constrained deployment to date.

RSG Director Dana Lodico, PE, INCE Bd. Cert. will present as part of a workshop during the 2022 Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) Conference in Yosemite, California.

Dana's panel will discuss the use of 3 dBA (A-weighted decibel level) threshold for a potentially significant traffic noise increase as well as the use of tiered sets of thresholds. Such tiered thresholds could consider not just the overall increase, but also the existing and resulting ambient noise levels, to assess the significance of a permanent traffic noise increase. The panel will also cover effective vehicular noise mitigation strategies such as sound barriers and berms and quiet pavement in the context of the City of Newport Beach, which currently uses tiered traffic noise thresholds.

Who? Dana Lodico, PE, INCE Bd. Cert., Director (RSG)

What? Workshop, titled “The 3 dB Myth: Applying Tiered Traffic Noise Thresholds and Mitigation Strategies”

Where and When? The 2022 AEP Conference is in Yosemite, California. Dana is presenting during a workshop on Monday, April 11 from 1:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. PT.

RSG Senior Director Michelle Lee, GISP, PMP, will present as part of a panel during the Triangle Regional Model (TRM) User Forum. The TRM User Forum is a collaborative effort. It involves agency staff and consultants who work on and contribute to the development of the regional travel demand model in use in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.

Michelle's presentation will discuss data needs around special market models (specifically university models). This type of data is important to regional models given the special generator status of most large colleges and universities. Michelle will be joined by fellow panelists Vince Bernardin, PhD, and Greg Erhardt, PhD, who will discuss big data and combining data sources, respectively.

Who? Michelle Lee, GISP, PMP, Senior Director (RSG)

What? Panel Discussion: Traditional and Emerging Data

Where and When? The TRM User Forum is a virtual meeting. Michelle is presenting during a panel discussion on Wednesday, April 6 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET. For an invite, email leta_huntsinger@ncsu.edu.

The Zephyr Foundation has given RSG Principal Johanna Zmud, PhD, its Outstanding Industry Contributor Award. This annual award recognizes an individual who selflessly contributes to the travel demand modeling industry through their work.

Johanna has been at the forefront of applying survey science to the gathering of data on past, current, and future travel behavior to understand important phenomena, such as transportation mode choice, and to ascertain developing trends, such as propensity to use automated vehicles. Her recent research has examined how technology-enabled mobility impacts society. She has also researched the implications for transportation providers and agencies.

Zephyr Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. Its mission is to advance rigorous transportation and land-use decision-making for the public good. It does this by advocating for and supporting improved travel analysis and facilitating its implementation.

RSG Principal Johanna Zmud, PhD, will present as part of a panel during the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin, Texas. SXSW brings together people from all walks of life and industries to network, learn, brainstorm, and further creative endeavors.

Johanna's panel will focus on the intersection between technology and data as part of the SXSW Conference's Transportation Track. The panel, titled “Connecting the Mobility Dots Via Open Data,” will be led by MobilityData, which is a member of the industry coalition authoring the Mobility Data Interoperability Principles. Panelists will include both public and private sector stakeholders. Johanna will contribute her perspective on how the digitization of transportation has affected various facets of RSG's work, with specific examples from our projects.

Who? Johanna Zmud, PhD, Principal (RSG)

What? Panel Session, titled Connecting the Mobility Dots Via Open Data

Where and When? The SXSW Conference is being held in Austin, Texas. Johanna is presenting during a panel session at the Hilton Austin Downtown on Friday, March 18 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. CT). The SXSW Conference runs from March 11 to March 20. The full event schedule is available here.

RSG Principal Ken Kaliski and Senior Analyst Ryan Haac both coauthored a peer-reviewed paper, titled “In the shadow of wind energy: Predicting community exposure and annoyance to wind turbine shadow flicker in the United States,” which was published in the Energy Research & Social Science journal. The paper is also the subject of a webinar on March 11, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. PT). The webinar is free and open to the public.

Ken and Ryan worked with their paper's coauthors from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Vermont Environmental Research Associates, Inc. to model shadow flicker (SF) exposure. SF is the effect of sunlight passing through moving wind turbine blades, which can lead to annoyance among those exposed.

The team modeled shadow flicker exposure at nearly 35,000 US residences across 61 wind projects and surveyed 747 people. The results shed light on what contributed to perceived shadow flicker and annoyance. The team did not find a significant correlation between shadow flicker annoyance and exposure. Instead, the team's model identified a greater correlation with other factors among respondents. These included a person's level of education, age, perception of how wind turbines look, and annoyance at other human-caused sounds.

Research of this nature is increasingly important as the renewable energy market expands. By 2035, the installed capacity of wind energy in the United States will be 600 gigawatts (GW), up from 110 GW now. This will require thousands of new wind projects. To understand how those projects will affect nearby communities, additional research like that undertaken by RSGers for this paper will be necessary to better understand wind turbine shadow flicker exposure.

RSG is a certified Small, Women-owned, and Minority (SWaM) firm in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The certification was granted on February 2, 2022, by the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity.

RSG is eager to continue to offer our innovative consulting services and expertise to entities in Virginia through this important program. Through the SWaM program, RSG is authorized to provide traffic and transportation consulting services as a small business.

The Commonwealth of Virginia defines a “small business” as one that is at least 51% independently owned and controlled by one or more individuals who are US citizens or legal resident aliens, and together with affiliates, has 250 or fewer employees, or average annual gross receipts of $10 million or less averaged over the previous three years. Additional information about RSG's certification is available in the SWaM directory.

RSG SWaM Certification Number: 682999
Small Start Date: 02-02-2022
SWaM Expiration Date: 02-02-2027
NIGP Description and Code: Traffic Consulting (91894) & Transportation Consulting (91896)

RSG is sponsoring a webinar on Wednesday, January 26 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to discuss key findings from our COVID-19 Transportation Insights Survey and similar research conducted throughout the pandemic. RSG will moderate the webinar. It will include several industry experts, academics, and researchers who will present on COVID-19 travel behavior changes. The webinar is free and open to the public.

The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of California, Berkeley named RSG Principal Johanna Zmud, PhD, as an ITS Senior Fellow for 2022. Johanna is one of only five Senior Fellows selected this year. The award recognizes her extraordinary contributions and dedication to the transportation field.

As a Principal at RSG, Johanna supports clients' needs around transportation technology and emerging mobility. She has cofounded several firms and worked in both the public and private sectors on travel behavior and transportation research.

As an ITS Senior Fellow, Johanna will continue her important work at RSG while shaping the industry conversation. Senior Fellows can collaborate with ITS faculty, staff, and students to improve transportation education, research, and practice.