Gregory Winfree, J.D. and Larry Head, Ph.D. recently co-authored an article in The Hill describing the benefits of  DSRC technology application over 5G.  According to the authors, a recommendation to supplant DSRC with 5G has nothing to do with the underlying technology and everything to do with the inevitable delay — and continued loss of life on our roadways — as 5G technology is readied for widespread implementation. .

The safety messages enabled by DSRC can help to prevent up to 80 percent of the roadway crashes that don’t involve impaired drivers. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 37,461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016. The sooner that DSRC is implemented, the sooner we can begin to prevent up to 20,000 roadway deaths a year, along with their immense emotional toll and the $800 billion yearly cost of U.S. car crashes.

The entire article can be found here

Waymo’s early rider program launched in Chandler last April and has been shuttling over 400 riders all around the Phoenix area over the past year.

According to the article on Medium.com, Waymo’s current U.S. fleet of cars log more than 24,000 miles per day, an equivalent of an around the world road trip! The article shares the riders experience, what Waymo has learned and what’s next.

Waymo’s program continues to take applications, so feel free to apply!

Read the entire article here..

Arizona ITE is once more hosting its Summer Breakfast Series and ITS Arizona is again co-sponsoring this great series.  This year’s theme is focused on university research.

Dr. Brendan Russo, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at NAU will kick off the series on June 20th as he discusses current and recent transportation research at NAU. Topics will include application of vehicle-based sensors for assessing pavement conditions, development of a resilience metric for bridge management, Arizona dust storm modeling and prediction, analysis of factors affecting the frequency and severity of freight-related crashes along the Arizona I-10 corridor, and analysis of the impacts of distracted pedestrians on traffic safety and operations at signalized intersections.

Register Now!

Next in the series is an update from The University of Arizona on July 25th by Dr. Yi-Chang Chiu and from Arizona State University on August 22nd by Dr. Ram Pendyala.

Automated vehicles have the potential to significantly transform the nation’s roadways. They offer potential benefits in safety but also introduce uncertainty for the agencies responsible for the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the roadway infrastructure. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is initiating a national conversation with partners and stakeholders to better understand the implications of highway automation to facilitate innovation and inform the Agency’s role in this area. This National Dialogue on Highway Automation represents a series of meetings held across the country to facilitate information sharing, identify key issues and prepare the infrastructure and the broader transportation community to safely and efficiently integrate automated vehicles into the road network. Input received during the National Dialogue will help inform national research, policy, and programs and will aid in the development of a national transportation community for automation.

This National Dialogue will engage an expanded set of stakeholders, beyond FHWA’s typical stakeholders, in order to ensure that this issue has broad input. These stakeholders will include but is not limited to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), technology suppliers, transportation network companies (TNCs), associations, and public-sector partners.

The meetings will be held in different locations across the country, running from June 2018 through the end of 2018. These meetings will be conducted as 1 to 1.5 day events and generally include 100 to 150 participants. These meetings are meant to gather input and information from stakeholders and will include significant interactive components, such as breakout discussions and listening sessions.

The objectives for the National Dialogue include the following:

1. Listen: Gather input from a broad group of stakeholders on key issues, challenges, and concerns in highway automation, such as infrastructure readiness, traffic operations, transportation planning, and other topics impacted by automation.
2. Engage: Facilitate information sharing between industry, public agencies and others to understand the current state of automated driving systems and roadway capabilities and inform FHWA actions.
3. Evolve: Update institutional structures for working with existing and new stakeholders. Aid in developing new partnerships and strengthening coordination channels between industry, associations, public agencies, and other key groups.
4. Inform: Raise awareness of FHWA and USDOT activities in automation and emerging technologies. Identify opportunities for strategic partnerships between Federal activity and State, local, and industry activity.

Upcoming Events: Getting Involved in the National Dialogue

• June 7, 2018 – National Dialogue Launch Workshop, Detroit, Michigan
  • Select “National Dialogue Launch Workshop, Detroit, Michigan” to be redirected to ITS America’s Annual Meeting Registration Page. Select “Attendee Registration & Housing”. Choose “Registration” and complete the required information.
  • If you are not attending the full conference, select “Workshop Only (Non Member)”.
  • If you have previously registered for the ITS America Annual Meeting but would like to add the National Dialogue Launch Workshop, you can log into the ITS America registration site and modify your registration at no charge.
  • During this registration process, you will have the option of reserving a hotel if desired.
• June 26-27, 2018 – National Workshop 1: Policy and Planning, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (registration open by May 21^st)

National Dialogue on Highway Automation Workshops: Tentative Schedule

Note that National Workshop 4 will tentatively be held in conjunction with the upcoming National Rural ITS and ITS Arizona Annual Conference + Exhibit.

Full details of the National Dialogue, along with recordings of webinars and other materials, are available online.

Register today to join more than 300 attendees October 21-24 at the We-Ko-Pa Conference Center in Fort McDowell, AZ to learn about creative intelligent transportation systems (ITS) implementation solutions for your community.

The theme of this year’s conference – Creating ITS Implementation Solutions for All Communities – underscores the conference’s goals of providing participants with a one-stop resource focusing on ITS implementation in local communities and the opportunity to hear new and thoughtful perspectives from a wide variety of ITS topics. Elected and appointed officials, business and community leaders and emergency responders and public safety personnel will contribute to the rich dialogue while learning about the technical challenges facing the transportation community.

The conference program is designed to appeal to a wide audience. In addition to traditional ITS topics of interest to Arizona transportation professionals, this event will bring together both traditional and non-traditional users to address such issues affecting rural and small communities. Program topics will interest those in the public and private transportation, transit, tourism, enforcement, freight industry, public safety and medical service professionals engaged in the operations, maintenance and use of our transportation system.

Visit the National Rural ITS and ITS Arizona Annual Meeting + Conference page for more information.

Register Online

The summer meeting of TRB’s Traffic Signal Systems Committee (AHB25) will be held July 22–24, 2018 at the High Country Conference Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.  This year’s theme “Smart Traffic Signal System Management: Raising the Floor” will include sessions focusing on intersection performance, alternate control methods and system management. Prior to these sessions, the committee’s subcommittees and full committee will convene. A technical tour to Grand Canyon National Park has been planned for Tuesday, July 24. For registration, program, and hotel information, visit the conference website. For technical content, please contact edward.smaglik@nau.edu.  Register by May 19 to take advantage of the reduced Early Bird rate.