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In This Issue
KYSITE PTOE Review Course
Highway Capacity Manual Workshop
ITE Election Results
Tech Article: Travel Time Data Collection
Member Profile #5 - Ron Herrington
In Memory of an ITE Fellow
Important Dates 
August 20-24:

Fall 2011:
KYSITE Fall Technical Meeting (TBA soon)

August 30:
PTOE Review Course
(Lexington)

October 12: 
HCM Workshop (Cincinnati)

November 10, 2011:
KYSITE Annual Meeting

April 15 - 18, 2012:
Quick Links

 

 

 

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The Changing Face of Transportation

Greetings!

Happy August Everyone!  
August

Album: August and

 Everything After (1993)



We have a great newsletter for you this week, including a feature column by long-time KYSITE member and supporter Ron Herrington. 

This newsletter features: 
  • KYSITE PTOE Review Course Announcement
  • Highway Capacity Maunal Workshop Announcment
  • ITE International Election Results
  • Travel Time Data Collection Tehnical Article
  • Member Profile #5  

Behind the scenes, we have some younger members taking on more responsibilities on the website, newsletter, and more. We appreciate their willingness to volunteer their time and you should start seeing results soon.

 

One last item, we try to track how many people read our newsletter each week.  When you read the newsletter, be sure to "download the content" in Outlook to ensure we capture you as a reader.

 

As always, contact us at kysite@kysite.com anytime!      

 

- KYSITE Officers

PTOE Review Course Announcement

 

KYSITE is pleased ton announce a day-long training coursePTOE in preparation for the upcoming PTOE Exam (exam window is October 1 - 31, 2011 - deadline to register is August 17, 2011). The course will be taught by Bob Flener, Paul Slone, and Adam Kirk, three local professionals with current PTOE certifications.  ITE review materials will be utilized. You will be able to talk directly to the instructors in person and ask them specific questions about the content and the exam itself.  For those not interested in certification, this is still a great opportunity to learn about traffic engineering or sharpen some skills.

 

Our KYSITE training is an alternative to the ITE webinar PTOE Review program, which occur for 1.5 hours one day a week for five weeks.  The cost for that online training is $625 ($781 for non-members).  The KYSITE program is CHEAPER, MORE CONVENIENT, AND PERSONALIZED FOR YOU!

 

Date: August 30, 2011

Time: 9:00 AM until 4:30 PM

Location: Parsons Brinckerhoff Lexington Office, 1792 Alysheba Way, Suite 230, Lexington, KY 40509 (Note: for those familiar with the PB Lexington Office, this is a new location!)

Cost - $100 for KYSITE members, $125 for non-members

PDH - 6 credit hours!

 

Lunch will be provided.

 

We need to know as soon as possible if you are interested in this course as we need to make sure we have a minimum in attendance to make it feasible.  So don't delay and sign up early!  The deadline to RSVP is August 26, 2011.  Please RSVP to kysite@kysite.com

 

For more information on the PTOE certification, please go to: http://www.tpcb.org/

 

2010 Highway Capacity Manual Workshop

A one-day 2010 Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) WorkshopHCM 2010 will be held on October 12 in Cincinnati, OH.  Please note that KYSITE is not hosting this workshop; however, we thought there might be some of our members that would be interested in such a workshop.

The workshop will provide an overview and technical information on the 2010 HCM to be published this year. Special attention will be given to those procedures that will change most, including Signalized Intersections, Urban Streets, Roundabouts and Freeway Weaving. The Highway Capacity Software (HCS 2010) will be previewed to demonstrate the new features being implemented in the 2010 version. The cost of the workshop is $150 and certificates will be distributed to document 6 PDHs.

 

You can read more about the training course content and register online at: http://mctrans.ce.ufl.edu/training

Please contact McTrans with any questions at 1-800-226-1013 or
mctrans@ce.ufl.edu.

Congratulations to International ITE Winners!

International President: Rock Miller 

 

RockMiller

 

International Vice President: Zaki Mustafa

 

Zaki2

Travel Time Data Collection

Author: Ron Herrington

GPS

In October 2009, the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding titled Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). To receive a portion of the funding the Division of Traffic Engineering was required to provide a complete scope of work including cost estimate, project time line, measures and anticipated benefits for an advanced traffic management software to control the traffic signal timing and operation of Lexington's 370 plus signalized intersections, to upgrade traffic signal controllers and to install the Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) at various locations in the city. The project goals are to lessen the number of vehicle stops and delay, fuel consumption, and travel times thereby conserving energy, and reducing harmful air pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

 

A requirement of the funding was to show reductions in travel times and fuel consumption savings to motorists. In order to determine direct benefits to the traveling public it was important to establish a "baseline" from which to measure. The "before" information was needed to determine that baseline for the measurable impact of improvements. The three-week period between April 11, 2011 and the end of April provided the best opportunity to collect travel time data as it was between spring break for the public school system, beyond winter weather, before the city's universities spring semester ended and prior to the construction work for the Diverging Crossover Diamond Interchange at Harrodsburg Road and New Circle Road.

 

The Division of Traffic Engineering decided to use theGeoLogger GeoStats GeoLogger technology to collect travel times along Lexington's arterial roadways because the LFUCG owned sixteen (16) of the units. The GeoLogger™ is a versatile GPS data logging device designed for collecting detailed vehicle travel data. This passive GPS data logger can record second-by-second position and speed data.  The GPS data loggers have been deployed in numerous travel behavior and travel time, speed, and delay studies within the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

 

Division staff took the lead in using the logging devices in personal vehicles for daily commutes along Lexington's arterial roadways and signalized circumferential routes (Man o' War Boulevard and New Circle Road) during the A.M. (7-9), noon (11-1) and P.M. (4-6) time periods.  The staff began using the GeoLoggers upon leaving home, taking a traffic signalized route, and turning them off once arriving at their work location for the A.M. commute.  The staff drove the same routes in the reverse direction during the P.M. commute. Other staff drove in the opposite direction in the A.M. and P.M. to get the most complete data and during lunch periods along routes.  Some data was also collected during evening hours and weekends.

   

At the end of April the raw data was downloaded by division staff to an Excel format. Scott Thomson, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, provided invaluable assistance in preliminary mapping of the travel time data.  He took the collected data, converted it and using TransCAD software mapped it graphically to depict the multiple runs along the various routes all on the same layer. This information presents a quick look at travel times along the routes. Scott's assistance was most appreciated.

 

The next steps are to further analyze these results, and document the impact of the controller upgrades, FYA installations, and timing plan changes at various congested locations in the city. In addition, the collected data is to be compared with state-owned travel data for the same time period in Fayette County. The final step will be to compare the before data with that collected after improvements and changes have been made within the Lexington traffic management system. This comparison will be made, probably using state data, in the next six to twelve months and reported to the U.S. Department of Energy. Similar efforts across the U.S. and Canada have shown the optimization of traffic signal timing and upgrade of traffic signal equipment reduces travel time and delay as much as 20% and fuel consumption savings as much as 15%.

 

Our fifth member profile is one of Ron Herrington, the Director of Traffic Engineering for LUFCG, and author of this week's technical article. 
    Ron Herrington Member Profile Pic

 

Place of Work: Lexington Fayette Urban Co. Gov't.

 

Title: Director Traffic Engineering

 

Degree(s): BSCE 1971 / University of Kentucky

MSCE 1978 / University of Kentucky

 

Place of Birth: Paris/Bourbon County, KY

 

Family: Oldest son Randy is a CPA & youngest son Jeffrey is an attorney

 

1. What do you do day-to-day?:

Direct a division of 32 staff whose main responsibilities are to provide for the safe and efficient traffic flow in Fayette County for motorists traveling arterial roadways and neighborhood streets.

 

2. What are your technical interests?:

Traffic Operations and Safety

 

3. What are your hobbies?:

Softball, golf, travel and my granddaughter

 

4. Favorites:

Color: Blue and White

Movie: James Bond, Forrest Gump, and Pink Panther movies

Music: Rock

 

5. Five Quick Questions:

A. Coke or Pepsi: Pepsi

B. Dogs or Cats: Cats (UK)

C. Telephone or Email: Email

D. Pen or Pencil: Pen

E. Cats or Cards: Cats

 

6. Other Information:

Two things come to mind:

 

a. In 1997 I was named one of the top ten public works leaders in the United States by APWA

 

b. I have portrayed Larry "The Crash Dummy" and "Superman" (see picture) to division staff to emphasize safety and efficiency and to applaud them as the real ones who actually make the city's traffic flow safer and more efficient through the work they do everyday.

 

[Editor's Note: Ron is another professional that has been an irreplaceable asset to the KYSITE organization.  This is evident by the naming of the KYSITE Younger Member Award to the "Ron Herrington Younger Member Award".  Ron has also been a great leader and coordinator for multiple webinars / CE credits over the last few years.  I appreciate everything that Ron has done for KYSITE as a whole as well as me as a professional.]

In Memory of an ITE Fellow
  

The transportation community lost a long-term and well-respected engineer in mid-July.  Mr. Charles C. Schimpeler passed away on July 13.   Over his 50 year career, he worked on project domestically and internationally in both public and private sectors. Mr. Schimpeler was a Fellow of ITE, a distinction held by a select group within our membership. 

 

Within Louisville, Mr. Schimpeler worked with TARC from its inception in the 1970's and continued working with the agency as it explored light rail concepts in the early 1990's. He worked on a variety of other engineering and planning projects throughout Louisville that set the foundation of transportation for the Metro area.

 

Outside of Kentucky, he worked on light rail projects in Miami and Detroit which helped set the stage for the systems in place today.  Internationally, he worked on projects in locations such as Vancouver and Bangkok. One of his favorite talking points was the work he did on the "Chunnel" between England and France.

 

[Editor's Note: Thank you to Bruce Siria for helping with this article and the positive reflection on Mr. Schimpeler's career.]

      In the Next Edition... 
Coming Soon 

- More announcements!

- Another Member Profile


Thanks for your continued support of KYSITE!  


2011 KYSITE Board; and

Scott Walker, Editor