Happy Holidays / Merry Christmas to all. Yes, another year has flown by and I can't believe that we're wrapping up 2015. This year has been quite a journey to say the least. My key word for 2016 is 'stability' and a continued effort toward simplification. Have you identified your New Year's resolutions?

We hope that you have a safe and joyous holiday season. As is our new tradition, here's our greeting to you:

Happy Holidays!

I look forward to serving you in a new role in 2016 as your Secretary / Treasurer. For the good or for the bad, I'll still be working on the newsletter each month. And thanks for Meredith and Les for all they do on this newsletter -- they do great work on this every month. If you get a minute, please send them a note of thanks.

Scott

- Scott Walker, Editor

SDITE Presidential Message
By Bill Seymour, SDITE President

Season's Greetings!

It has been an incredible year serving as President of SDITE - full, interesting and rewarding. We focused on young members and first-time Annual Meeting attendees, on teen distracted driving, and on how we measure the progress and overall health of our organization. Organizational excellence ... we are blessed with it, and yet we focus on and strive for continuous improvement, as we should.

I had the privilege of serving alongside outstanding people, many of whom contributed much in time and effort. My deepest thanks go to each and every one of you. But then, that's what makes our profession and our organization what they are - our people.

We are indeed part of a very essential and noble profession and part of a great organization. I feel fortunate to be part of each, and very fortunate to have developed friendships in the nine states of SDITE. Again, thank you for the opportunity of serving this past year.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a great 2016. May the season and your new year be filled with Peace, Hope, Love and Joy.

SDITE 2016: Call for Abstracts

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!!!!!!!

The Tennessee Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, in cooperation with the SDITE Technical Knowledge Team, is now accepting abstracts for the 2016 SDITE Annual Meeting.

The 2016 Annual Meeting will occur on April 10-13, 2016 at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

Below are suggested topics:

Transportation & Urbanization (a.k.a. Cityfication)
Transportation Funding
Traffic Control Devices (e.g. Traffic Signals, Roundabouts)
Safety
Bicycle / Pedestrians
Transit
Multi-Modal / Complete Streets
Land Use & Transportation
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Connected or Autonomous Vehicle Technology

Abstracts should contain the following:

Title of Presentation and/or Session
General area or topic of presentation
Brief Abstract/Summary explaining the Subject Matter (250 words or less)
Preferred Presentation Format (e.g. presentation, poster, workshop)
Special Presentation Needs (e.g. audio, visual)
Name and Contact Information of Presenter(s)

Please submit your abstract in PDF format by Friday, January 22, 2016 to the e-mail address

brad.waldschmidt@kimley-horn.com

For questions, please contact Brad Waldschmidt (Technical Committee Chair) at brad.waldschmidt@kimley-horn.com or at 615-564-2701.

SDITE Performance Measures

Twelve (12) Performance Measures were approved by the SDITE Board at the Spring Board Meeting in 2015. The measures are to be used to help track organizational excellence, improvement and efforts to meet organizational goals.

Performance Measure Champions were also approved at the meeting. Performance Measure Champions will be responsible for gathering and maintaining data, for developing charts necessary to track performance measures and for reporting on performance measures. The approved Performance Measures and Performance Measure Champions are shown below:

Annual Meeting Attendance (by Category): SP Annual Meeting Chair
Annual Meeting Evaluation:SP Annual Meeting Chair
Total Number of Members (Annually):Memb. Comm. Chair (VP)
Reserve Fund: Sec./Treas. & Dist. Admin.
Number Trained in Leadership Training (By Year or Section): SP Ldrshp. Training Chair
Number of Students Reached and Number Active Member Engaged in Outreach (Middle and High School): IC&O Chair
Number of Opens of Monthly Newsletter: IC&O Chair
Student Chapter Vitality:Ed. & Student Chapter Chair
Number of Attendees at Each Technical Session at Annual Mtg.SP Technical Knowledge Chair
Evaluation of Technical Sessions at Annual Meeting:SP Technical Knowledge Chair
Number Trained in Professional Skills:SP Work Force Develop. Chair
Number Trained in Core Competencies: SP Work Force Develop. Chair

The SDITE Vice President will be the Performance Measure Coordinator responsible for assuring the organizational-level performance measures are kept, prepared and provided to the District Administrator for placing in the Board Meeting notebooks

Nominations Open for SDITE Awards

The SDITE Awards Committee is taking nominations for SDITE's annual awards. Any SDITE member can nominate another member from their section or other sections. We have six award categories for which we solicit nominations. The nomination form is included with this article. The categories are:

Herman J. Hoose Distinguished Service Award (2014 Winner - Tim White)
Marble J. Hensley Outstanding Individual Activity Award (2014 Winner - Jonathan Kiser)
Joseph M. Thomas Outstanding Young Member Award (2014 Winner - Meredith Van Duyn)
John F. Exnicios Government Employee Outstanding Service Award (2014 Winner - Tim Foster)
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)). Details will be sent to the section Presidents and Section Reps later this month. Please contact your Section Representative for more information. The format will be the same as last year with some changes as specified by ITE HQ's.

Preview: ITE Award Nominations

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

Burton W Marsh Award (last SDITE winner - Hibbett Neel, 2011)
Theodore Matson Award (last SDITE winner Herman Hoose, 1986)
Wilbur Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award (last SDITE winner Mashrur Chowdhury, 2015)
Section Activities Award (last SDITE winner was the Georgia Section, 2009)
Rising Star Award (last SDITE winner Scott Walker, 2015, first year of award)
District Section Newsletter Awards, by circulation size (last SDITE winner for less than 250, Georgia Section, 1998 and for between 250 & 500, SDITE, 2004)
Honorary ITE Member (last SDITE member selected was John Exnicios, 2002)

Please follow the instructions on the ITE website for each award. The deadline for nomination are from Feb. 1 to May 1 for most awards, see the ITE website for details on dates. Criteria for these awards are provided on the ITE website at http://www.ite.org/awards/index.asp.

If you have any questions about the SDITE or ITE Award nominations, please contact the 2015/2016 SDITE Awards Committee Chair, Martin Bretherton at wmbengineering1995@gmail.com.

Policy and Legislative Updates

Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed a 5-year, $305 billion transportation act in early December, the first overhaul of national transportation funding in a decade. The law was dubbed the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST), and it assures states that federal help will be available for major projects.

Critics said the act doesn't include as much money or last quite as long as many lawmakers and the Obama administration would have liked. Nor does it resolve how to pay for transportation programs in the long term. However, the 1,300-page bill was hailed by industry and public officials as a major accomplishment that saves the federal Highway Trust Fund from insolvency.

The new law can be read here. The International ITE website provides a summary and some links for more information. And Bud Wright, executive director of AASHTO, posted some of his thoughts about the future of transportation under the new law.

Traffic Fatalities Show Upward Trend in 2015

While a slight decrease in traffic fatalities occurred in 2014, there has been a reversing of that trend this year. USDOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced recently that this increase reveals a need to reinvigorate the fight against deadly behavior on America's roads.

NHTSA's Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) figures for 2014 show 32,675 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2014, a 0.1-percent decrease from the previous year. The fatality rate fell to a record-low of 1.07 deaths per million vehicle miles traveled. But estimates for the first six months of 2015 show that the fatality estimate is up 8.1 percent from the same period last year. NHTSA experts cautioned that while partial-year estimates are more volatile and subject to revision, the estimated increase represents a troubling departure from a general downward trend.

NHTSA has launched a series of safety initiatives in recent months, including efforts to speed technology innovations that can improve safety and the agency's first comprehensive effort to fight drowsy driving.

And in news that may be related, the Federal Highway Administration released data showing that traffic on U.S. roads is growing at the fastest rate in since 1997. Factors such as cheap gasoline and a strong economy are believed to be encouraging motorists to use their cars more.

Please be safe during any holiday travels this winter break!

ITE's Position on FHWA's Proposed Change to Design Standards

Written by: Jeff Paniati, ITE Executive Director & CEO

Recently, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a Federal Register notice proposing a significant change to federal design standards. This change would provide our members with greater design flexibility in applying best engineering practices in the planning and engineering of safe street infrastructure, conducive to the creation of "complete streets" environments. ITE is committed to the advancement of "complete streets" concepts in coordination with the application of innovative multimodal transportation solutions, which are supported by this proposed change in regulation.

Included in this post you'll find a letter from ITE International President John J. Kennedy outlining ITE's strong support for this proposal. I encourage you to review the proposed change and consider submitting your own comments by the December 7, 2015 deadline.

Read and comment on the Federal Register Notice here.

It is my intent to keep you informed of other future relevant regulatory and legislative proposals as they emerge. ITE will seek to be an effective conduit for informing our membership about these proposals, and most importantly, ensuring that our members voice is heard on issues that which will affect the future of our profession and the mobility and safety of our citizens.

Jeff Paniati

ITE Executive Director & CEO

New Pedestrian Safety Feature Debuts in California

CalTrans is testing a new pedestrian safety feature called the Yellow Pedestrian Border (YPB). This is a yellow border of LED lights that appear around the signal head when a pedestrian hits the call button. It alerts drivers who plan to turn that someone is approaching to cross the street.

The YPB was designed by Caltrans Senior Transportation Engineer Rob Stinger to prevent conflicts between pedestrians and motorists. CalTrans has made presentations about the new device to the California Traffic Control Devices Committee (CTCDC) in Sacramento and to the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices in San Antonio, Texas. Watch the video below for more information.

Self-Propelled Mechanical Model Locomotives

Fans of building models may be interested in a new company on Kickstarter. UGEARS is creating kits for self-propelled, mechanical 3D wood models for self-assembly without glue. Watch the video to see the locomotive model in action and find more info here.

Quick Hits

Zig Zag Road Striping Calms Traffic in Virginia

Cities and States Try to Crack Down on Distracted Bicycling

Peas and guac? That was far from the first time ADOT made a gag

NCDOT Engineer Receives National Award of Excellence For Work Along Area Highways

A State-by-State Look at Traffic Deaths

How Washington, D.C.'s Broken Bikeshare Program Became a National Leader

Georgia DOT's HEROs Debut Larger, Safer Trucks

A Look at the Legal Environment for Driverless Vehicles

DOT investigates possible civil rights violations in Alabama

Have You Seen This?

In honor of the new Star Wars movie, I'd thought we'd go a little more obscure on this month's video. Wes Anderson is a movie director with a very unique style and approach to this movies. You may have seen The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, or my personal favorite, Moonrise Kingdom. This video below does a brief, but good, assessment of what happens if Mr. Anderson were directing the new Star Wars movie.

And since it's the holidays and the first video may be outside our interest, I've added an hour of silly cats. Enjoy! : )

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