AGENDA
2009 Joint Meeting of
TRB Operational Effects of Geometrics Committee (AHB65) TRB Geometric Design Committee (AFB10)
J. Eric Jonsson Center--Woods Hole/Falmouth, Massachusetts July 10, 2008
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
1. Call to Order (Krammes): Ray Krammes called the meeting to order.
2. Welcome and Introductions (Ray/Krammes): Brian Ray and Ray Krammes welcomed the 23 committee members and 4 friends in attendance, and circulated an attendance
roster.
3. Joint Subcommittees (Krammes)
a. 4th International Symposium on Highway Geometric Design (Harwood): Doug
reported that the Symposium will be Wednesday to Friday June 2-4, 2010 in
Valencia Spain. Workshops will be offered Wednesday morning; workshop
topics include: visualization, crash modeling, and (tentatively) managed lanes and
freeway systems. The Symposium proper runs Wednesday afternoon June 2
through Friday morning June 4. It will feature an opening plenary session, 15
concurrent podium and 1 poster sessions, and a dinner Thursday evening. On
Saturday June 5 a technical tour will be offered featuring freeway projects in the
Valencia area. There’s also the possibility of a seminar Tuesday June 1 on the
Highway Safety Manual. The registration fee will be approximately US$500,
including Thursday lunch, Thursday dinner, and technical tour. There will be
additional fees for the Workshops and Highway Safety Manual seminar. Hotel
rates will be no higher than Woods Hole (approximately 90-100 Euros). The call
for papers resulted in 179 abstracts from 30 countries, of which accepted 110
review. In addition, 18 country report abstracts accepted. Transportation to
Valencia usually includes connections through Madrid, Paris or Frankfurt. Delta
has nonstop flights from New York to Valencia. A show of hands indicated 14
definitely planning to attend and 11 giving serious consideration.
b. Joint Subcommittee on Intersections (Knapp): Keith reported that the Joint
Subcommittee is helping with white papers and updating needs statements, and
this activity will be continuing for next 6 months. The Joint Subcommittee is also
coordinating on 2 possible 2010 Annual Meeting sessions: one on systematic
versus hot-spot improvement strategies, and the other on accessibility at
intersections.
4. Strategic Geometric Design Research (Ray)
a. 2009 Mid-Year Meeting: Recap and Follow up (Donnell): Eric indicated that
recorders would pull information together and get to group leaders as soon as
possible. There was discussion of problem statement submissions for the FY
2011 NCHRP program and how many should be submitted. Brian Ray, Doug
Harwood, and Jim Brewer agreed to coordinate communication with Mark Marek
of the AASHTO Technical Committee on Geometric Design. Will ask Mark
when need. Jim will also engage in discussions with TC. Next, there was
discussions of priority research needs of the TRB committees that we believe are
of interest to AASHTO. The committee will recommend the following to the
AASHTO Technical Committee (names in parentheses are the individuals who
volunteered to draft the problem statements): Vehicle paths at curves (Larry
Shannon); Multilane loop ramps (Geoff Millen, Joel Leisch); Auxiliary turn
lanes (Pat Hasson, Jim Brewer, Marcus Brewer, Keith Knapp); Safety effects of
ramp and ramp terminal design (David McDonald, Joel Leisch). Eric will add
these problem statements to TRB’s Research Needs Statements web site.
Regarding NCHRP synthesis topics, group leaders were charged with prioritizing
which topics are recommended for submission and drafting sythesis topic
descriptions by the annual meeting. We will shoot for submission of 4-5 synthesis
topics by Feb. 1.
b. Possible 2009 Mid-Year Meeting Webinar (Ray): There was discussion about a
possible webinar to seek input from folks who were not able to attend the
mid-year meeting. A decision will be made by September on whether on not to hold a
webinar.
c. Obtaining input from others (i.e, AASHTO, ITE, other TRB committees) (Ray)
i. After 2010 TRB: Feb or March?
ii. 2011 Mid-year meeting follow up: hope to have finalized by then
iii. New ways to get engaged for next update of Green Book
iv. Share with other TRB committees; ITE, ASCE etc. How? What
do at 2010 Annual Meeting. For ITE, work through relevant councils:
Traffic Engineering, most other than Safety, Kay will be point of contact
with Traffic Engineering. ITE practitioner network wide. APWA through
Marshal Elizer.
5. TRB Staff report (Cunard): Rich indicated that the Annual Meeting paper submission is August 1. The Hilton will be undergoing major renovations; as a result, TRB will be
losing 50 percent of the meeting space in Hilton. A combination of measures is
envisioned to accommodate the lost space: (1) Reduce the number of sessions by 10
percent, (2) Limit committee meetings to only 1 hour 45 min; (3) Move the Human
including Wednesday and some committee meetings on Thursday; (5) Schedule more
papers in poster sessions; and (6) Use smaller meeting rooms.
6. Planning Issues—Activities during 2010 TRB Annual Meeting (Krammes) a. Workshops:
i. The Operational Effects of Geometrics Committee plans 2 workshops:
Alternative Intersections and Interchange: Informational Report, and
Implementing Self-Enforcing, Self-Explaining Roads in the USA
ii. The Geometric Design Committee plans 1 workshop: Graduate
Student: methodology
b. Sessions:
i. Operational Effects of Geometrics Committee is considering sponsoring or
co-sponsoring the following sessions:
1. Effective Utilization of Freeway Cross Section (lane and shoulder width issues)
2. Emerging Needs for and Sources of Traffic Data: Regional Transportation Systems and Operations. Opportunity to express needs for safety prediction models.
3. Freeway Safety & Operations: Effective use of the cross section: examples of projects that have addressed issues with lane width and shoulder width: 3 speakers on particular projects. Joint with Managed Lanes & HOV Systems. Jerry will help.
4. Self-Enforcing Contextual Geometrics
5. Strategic Geometric Design Research Agenda (e.g., a panel consisting of white paper group leads)
6. Intersections Joint Subcommittee: 2 possible topics:
a. Systematic versus hot-spot improvement approaches (possibly jointly with Transportation Safety Management) b. Accessibility at Intersections (with Accessibility &
Pedestrian committees)
ii. Geometric Design Committee is considering sponsoring the
following sessions:
2. Paper submissions
3. Fall back on strategic research
4. HSM geometric design issues
7. Announcements and Other Issues of Joint Interest
a. 4th Urban Street Symposium (Gattis/Fitzpatrick): Jim and Kay are reaching out to
practitioners by coordinating with an ITE district meeting; Jim met with the board
of the Midwest District, which tentatively agreed to hold the Symposium jointly
with their district meeting on June 25-27, 2012. There was discussion about
whether 2012 was an appropriate date, and whether the Symposium could be
financially viable given the current state of the economy. Rich Cunard will need
to negotiate with the ITE district on financial issues and logistics responsibilities.
There was also discussion of where to hold the Symposium. Chicago was
recommended, given the committees’ connections there. Rich suggested Boston,
Orlando, Atlanta, and Minneapolis as alternatives.
b. 9th Access Management Conference will be held Oct 10-13, 2010, in Natchez,
MS.
c. The TRB Access Management Committee is planning to co-sponsor an
International Conference on Access Management in Athens, Greece during June
2011.
d. The AASHTO Technical Committee on Geometric Design is working on the next
edition of the Green Book. They will meet in the October – November time
frame. Their goal is to have the document ready for balloting in early 2010.
e. Our 2011 mid-year meeting may be held jointly with the AASHTO Technical
