January 15, 2013 - Issue 6
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Greetings!
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This issue features the 2nd Annual TransportationCamp DC, held this past Saturday. With just about every one of the 300-plus people in attendance agreeing that the event was phenomenal, there is little reason to cover much else this issue.
TransportationCamp (check out the Twitter hashtag #transpo) is the kind of event that transportation and technology experts across the country are beginning to explore. People love the flexibility and creativity that explodes out of an "unconference." There are no predetermined agendas or keynote speakers. Rather, attendees bring ideas, paste them on a board, sessions are organized around those ideas, and great advances in humankind ensue.
Paul Mackie, Mobility Lab Director of Communications
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Data Visualization Hack Day Announced for March 23
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Data visualization is the next subject for Mobility Lab's regular slate of Hack Day workshops.
Mobility Lab contributor Michael Schade, Justin Grimes, a data expert from the University of Maryland, and others will be on hand to discuss their visualizations and offer insights about the most effective tools to bring open data sets to visual life. Register now, bring your laptops, and start building your own visualizations during this informative, hands-on program. Past Hack Days have helped create some valuable transit technologies. Date: Saturday, March 23, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Place: Mobility Lab, 1501 Wilson Blvd, Suite 1100, in Arlington, Virginia (two blocks up Wilson from the Rossyln Metro)
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Mobility Highlights From Around the Web
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TransportationCamp In Photos and Video
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TransportationCamp provided great photo opportunities (and we'll have several video interviews ready soon). Looking around the web, here is a nice collection of more photos and other content about the unconference.
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Disney Trains, Google Transit, Flying Cars, and Metro Pac-Man at TransportationCamp
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Many, many places (maybe every place) throughout the country have a long ways to go to turn commuters off the car-first mindset and towards the multi-modal world of transportation options that many of us don't even know exist in our own neighborhoods.
Luckily, there are many smart people working behind the scenes to make this happen.
As a prelude to the giant Transportation Research Board annual conference, TransportationCamp provided a forum for dozens of exciting explorations of ideas that need to happen. Some themes included:
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Open Data Visualizations for Bikeshare, Bus, and Train
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Leading up to TransportationCamp, we've been highlighting some exciting transit visualizations.
Michael Schade's CaBi Trip Visualizer turns raw Capital Bikeshare data into a user-friendly map that shows where riders are coming and going.
And a Canadian Youtuber takes Washington D.C. trip-planner information and visualizes a time-lapse look at how the buses and trains move around throughout the nation's capital.
There will be a lot more of this coming out of Mobility Lab, with our March Hack Day focusing on data visualization.
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My Experience in Multi-Modal Copenhagen
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Rule #1 for biking in Copenhagen, according to the city's bike map, is "spread positive karma."
The city is known as "The City of Cyclists," and with good reason - a third of the population uses
bikes for transportation. Flat terrain and bicycle-friendly infrastructure are only two of the many reasons why biking is so popular in this city. However, the bicycle amenities are just part of the transportation attractions in Copenhagen - the public transit system is unusual and a joy to ride.
There are many elements of the Danish city's interconnected transport system that we in the U.S. can learn lots from.
Read more here.
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Mobility Lab's Partner Spotlight |
Young Professionals in Transportation (YPT), a co-sponsor of TransportationCamp DC 2013 provides networking, fellowship, and professional development opportunities for young people across the transportation field.
YPT provides a diverse range of programming, events, and publications. In just the next month, chapters across the country are planning an innovation workshop, a "Tweet Up" and happy hour, a "Shark Tank" entrepreneur competition, and a job fair.
YPT also produces the quarterly Mobility Matters, a key publication in the industry. The latest issue includes articles on the difference between roads and streets (from a Baltimore planner's perspective), San Francisco's soon-to-be-launched bikeshare, the commuter buses provided by high-tech and bio-tech firms in Silicon Valley, and much more.
With a national chapter and local chapters countrywide, there is something for everyone in YPT. To learn more or join YPT, visit yptransportation.org.
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Please Send Us Your Feedback
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We hope Mobility Lab Express, our events, and the research and case studies at our website will be "go-to" resources for you. In fact, we invite you to share your stories of how mobility improvements have been made in your communities. We'll publish your feedback, and together we'll strengthen the conversation on mobility for all!
Simply respond to this email or click here with any thoughts or suggestions.
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