Southern District ITE Newsletter 
The Connector - November 2015 Editon
In This Issue
SDITE 2016: Nashville
2016 Executive Board
SDITE Award Nominations
ITE International Award Nominations
TransportationCamp DC 2016
Policy and Legislative Updates
Member Profile
10 Years of Fatal Crashes Mapped
Transportation + Art
Zombies Bring Awareness to Safety
Quick Hits
Have You Seen This?
Save the Date!!!
 
April 9 - 13, 2016
 
SDITE Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN

2015 Executive Board

President
Bill Seymour
 
    
Vice-President
Hollis Loveday
          
Secretary / Treasurer
  Jennifer Bihl 
  
  
International Director
Bob Murphy

      
Past-President
Kirsten Tynch

  


    District Administrator
Craig Hanchey
    
  
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Future Annual Meetings

  
2016 - Nashville, TN
 
2017 - Columbia, SC

Newsletter Staff

Editor
Scott Walker

 

Vice-Editor
Meredith Van Duyn
 
Content Entry
Leslie Tracey
  

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Radha Swayampakala
Lindsay Walker
Anne Warnick
  

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Welcome to November!
 
Just a couple of days ago, your SDITE Board met in Columbia, SC, for the annual Year End Board Meeting.   For those of you who have never been to one of these meetings, it is an intense discussion of everything related to SDITE crammed in a 24 hour period starting on Sunday afternoon and wrapping up at lunch on Monday.  If can be intense, but it sure can be fun too! 
 
The meeting takes place at the host hotel of the annual meeting that will take place nearly 1.5 years after the Board Meeting.  This gives both the LAC and Board the chance to get a feel of the layout of the meeting space as well as learn about working with the hotel.
 
At this meeting, President Bill Seymour did an outstanding job taking the Board through an aggressive agenda.  Highlights included:
 
- Overview of Executive Board summaries
- Overview of new SDITE Performance Measures
- LAC Reports (2015 Biloxi, 2016 Nashville, and 2017 Columbia)
- Section Reports
- 2016 Budget Discussions
- New Workforce Development initiative focusing on communication
- Rebranding of Strategic Plan teams into "Member Services"
- New Strategic Planning initiatives 
- Swearing in a new Executive Board and the passing of the gavel
 
We look forward to sharing more about the meeting in the next couple of editions. 
 
Thanks to Mike Ridgeway and Lori Campbell for hosting us.  The Marriott in downtown Columbia will be an excellent venue for the 2017 SDITE Annual Meeting. 
 
Scott
  
- Scott Walker, Editor  
SDITE 2016: Nashville   
        

Speaking of annual meetings, the next SDITE Annual Meeting will be April 9-13, 2016 in Nashville, TN.  The Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) is working extremely hard to deliver an exciting meeting. 

 

Swearing in of 2016 Executive Board
 
Past President Kirsten Tynch (VA) reading the SDITE Oath of Office to Hollis Loveday (TN), Jennifer Bihl (SC) and Scott Walker (KY).
    
SDITE President Bill Seymour passes the gavel to President-Elect Hollis Loveday.
 
Preview: SDITE Award Nominations   
    

This is a reminder that it is almost time to start soliciting nominations for SDITE's annual awards.  We have five award categories for which we solicit nominations.  The categories are:

  1. Herman J. Hoose Distinguished Service Award (2014 Winner - Tim White)

  2. Marble J. Hensley Outstanding Individual Activity Award (2014 Winner - Jonathan Kiser)

  3. Joseph M. Thomas Outstanding Young Member Award (2014 Winner - Meredith Van Duyn) (Note:  the Thomas winner will be submitted as the SDITE nominee for ITE Rising Star)

  4. John F. Exnicios Government Employee Outstanding Service Award (2014 Winner - Tim Foster)

  5. Excellence in Transportation Engineering Education Award (2014 Winner - Robert Vecellio) (the Education winner will be the SDITE nominee for the Wilbur Smith ITE Award)

Criteria for these awards are provided on the SDITE website at http://sdite.org/about-us/sdite-awards.

 

Section Presidents and Section Representatives should be preparing the section to complete the application for the Outstanding Section Award (Group 1 (4 largest) or Group 2 (4 smaller)).

Please begin thinking about SDITE members who have made outstanding contributions to our District or profession.  In the December newsletter, we will provide instruction for submitting nominations.

Preview: ITE Award Nominations   
 

ITE International has awards for ITE members that SDITE members are eligible to nominate.   The categories are:

  1. Burton W Marsh Award (last SDITE winner - Hibbett Neel, 2011)

  2. Theodore Matson Award (last SDITE winner Herman Hoose, 1986)

  3. Wilbur Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award (last SDITE winner Mashrur Chowdhury, 2015)

  4. Section Activities Award (last SDITE winner was the Georgia Section, 2009)

  5. Rising Star Award (last SDITE winner Scott Walker, 2015, first year of award)

  6. District Section Newsletter Awards, by circulation size (last SDITE winner for less than 250, Georgia Section, 1998 and for between 250 & 500, SDITE, 2004)

  7. Honorary ITE Member (last SDITE member selected was John Exnicios, 2002) 

Criteria for these awards are provided on the ITE website at http://www.ite.org/awards/index.asp 

Please begin thinking about SDITE members who have made outstanding contributions to ITE.  In the December newsletter, we will provide instructions for submitting nominations. The deadline for nomination are from Feb 1st  to May 1st for most awards, see the ITE website for details on dates.

ITE Partnering on TransportationCamp DC 2016

TransportationCamp 2016 will be held on Saturday, January 9, 2016 (the Saturday before TRB), at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. Registration is now open at transportationcamp2016dc.eventbrite.com.

More than 400 industry thought leaders, young professionals, and students from around the country are expected at the "unconference," where all of the sessions are created by the participants themselves. Tickets are $35 (there are a limited number of student tickets for $10), and include breakfast, lunch, and drinks at the reception afterwards. For more information, click  here.
Policy and Legislative Updates
      
Congress faces a Nov. 20 deadline to complete work on a comprehensive transportation bill, but the House and the Senate are still working out the differences in funding.

According to The Hill, The House approved a bill recently to spend up to $325 billion on transportation projects in a 363-64 vote. The bill calls for spending $261 billion on highways and $55 billion on transit over six years. The legislation authorizes highway funding for six years, but only if Congress can come up with a way to pay for the final three years

The measure must now be conferenced with a separate Senate measure on highways. The Senate bill also authorizes six years of funding, but only pays for three years. However, the Senate bill includes no trigger requiring that Congress find a way to pay for the final three years.
Member Profile  
   
1. Name - Christa Greene 
2. City / State - Wake Forest, NC
3. Place of Work - Stantec Consulting/4 years 
4. Title - Senior Traffic Engineer
5. Degrees / Year - NCSU, BS Civil Engineering ('90) and NCSU, Masters Civil Engineering - Transportation ('98) 
6. Certification- PE
7. Place of Birth/ Family - Raleigh, NC. Husband Ricky (recently retired from NCDOT), Daughter Samantha (Sophomore at Savannah College of Art and Design), Son Austin (junior in High School)
8. What do you do day-to-day? Lead the Transportation Operations and Safety Group for Stantec's North Carolina Office
9. Technical interests? Access Management/Corridor Studies
10. Favorite Color? Blue - NOT CAROLINA BLUE (I am still a true NCSU fan!! Red just is not my color!)
11. Favorite Movie? I have two - Shrek and A Knight's Tale
12. Favorite Music? Just about anything except classical
13. In what capacity have you served SDITE in the past? Most of my time has been focused on serving in numerous capacities within NCSITE with the most recent being the Secretary, Vice President, and am the current President. I also serve as the Volunteer Membership Coordinator for the International ITE Traffic Engineering Council. I will be serving as one of North Carolina's Southern District Representatives for the next three years, so I am looking forward to getting involved at the Southern District level soon.
14. Desired Superpower? Teleportation - every Mom needs this superpower! 
15. Five Quick Questions
a. Coke or Pepsi? Sweet tea with lemon - I'm a true Southern Girl! 
b. Dogs or Cats? Dogs 
c. Telephone or Email? Email  
d. Pen or Pencil? Pen 
e. Apple or Android? Apple
16. Three Interesting Facts About You:
a. I am the first 2nd Generation President of NCSITE (My Dad, Richard Atkins, was President in 1976 and I followed in his footsteps in 2015) 
b. I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane two times and did not mention it to my parents until several years later (or perhaps they are finding out just NOW!) 
c. I like to try new things ... I have tried making jewelry, knitting and making soap among a few, and have found out that I need to stick to engineering! 
10 Years of Fatal Crashes in the US Mapped

Metrocosm recently posted a macabre interactive map that shows every death on every US road between 2004 and 2013. There are 373,377 data points on the map. Seen zoomed out (above), the map looks like a population density map, but when the interactive feature is activated, the user can zoom in to individual streets and see where every reported death occurred.
Transportation + Art


Artist Manfred Stader uses chalk to bring regular pedestrian areas to life. Check out this 3D street art installation in Cannes in 2013 for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.  www.3d-street-art.com
Zombies Bring Awareness to Safety

For fans of the AMC show "The Walking Dead," Illinois DOT introduced a safety awareness campaign called "The Driving Dead," which focuses on preventing fatalities on the roads. "The Walking Dead" actor Michael Rooker participated in making a series of short films that provide information about safe driving and preventing accidents. Watch the first installment below and see all the films here.


Quick Hits
                    

Have You Seen This?

 

I haven't taken the kids to see it yet, but the new Peanuts movie has struck my interest.  But in the day and age of remakes and the continual thought that there are no new creative ideas in Hollywood, it's fun to go back and watch the classics. 

 

 

While visiting a friend's house this weekend, I looked outside the window to see my 8 year old son standing about 10 feet away from his 8 year old friend (a girl -- but no, not his girlfriend).  She was set up in the perfect Lucy pose of holding the football.  He set his feet in motion toward the football.  To my disappointment, she let him kick the ball, thus ending any hopes of seeing an unprompted Charlie Brown / Lucy moment.  I later had them try to recreate the scene, but the little girl thought that would be too mean.  Oh well, here's the best I could get out of them.

 

 

And for those of you still reading, check out this article.  If's a full history of the Charlie Brown / Lucy football incidents -- quite interesting information!  

We hope you enjoyed this edition.  Feel free to let us know what we are missing or if you want to help us out some time!

   
Sincerely,
 
   

Scott Walker, Editor
Southern District ITE