ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine April 2013

ITS Georgia
President Scott Mohler

ITS Georgia has a broad mandate to advance the state of the art of intelligent transportation solutions in our state and region.  Over the years we have helped to start a new chapter in Tennessee, encouraged ITS deployment in the Carolinas and partnered with Florida on a biennial congress called TRANSPO.

We pride ourselves in our annual meetings, which routinely draw well over 100 participants. In 2013 the annual meeting and exposition is scheduled for September 14-17 at Callaway Gardens. Participants hear and see the latest in ITS solutions and technology.

An important part of our mission is to reach out to policy makers and let them know about the benefits of ITS. For the second year in a row, we co-hosted a legislative reception for state leaders. An estimated 100 people, including Gov. Nathan Deal, GDOT Board Chairman Johnny Floyd, GDOT Board Members and Members of the General Assembly gathered in February to talk transportation issues facing the state. Sponsored by ITS Georgia and Georgia Section ITE, the event was the second annual supported by World Fiber Technologies. Chairman Floyd introduced the Governor who spoke about transportation programs of his administration and the need to come together to support improvements in transportation infrastructure. After remarks, ITS and ITE members networked with state and local 

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal addresses the
ITS Georgia/ITE transportation reception.

transportation officials and policy makers.

This year we continue to hold monthly meetings that allow members to network and hear about the latest in ITS solutions. Our topics this year have included, video analytics software in Buckhead that more accurately account for vehicle activity at intersections, the latest in big screen display technology and what type of infrastructure will state and local governments need in place to support the rapidly approaching connected vehicle highway.

Please join us at our monthly meetings and bring a friend. We’ll keep you posted on times and locations on our web site and by email. If you are not on our email list, then visit www.itsga.org, or scan the QR code and enter your information via smartphone.

Our monthly meeting dates for the remainder of 2013 are:

April 25

May 23

June 27

July 25

August 29

September 14-17 Annual Meeting

October 31

Suggest that your organization join ITS Georgia so that all of your fellow associates may enjoy the benefits of membership.

ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine February 2013

ITS Georgia
President Scott Mohler

Your ITS Board of Directors recently held a meeting to review our progress in 2012 and plan for what we believe will be an exciting 2013 for our members. It will be hard to top 2012, our 15^th year of operation and the year we received our second ITS America Outstanding State Chapter of the Year Award.

We held eight chapter meetings in 2012 with an average registered attendance of almost 55 per meeting. We also held our first legislative reception, and we had an informal after work social event. Our annual meeting was a great success with a 97 percent rating of meeting or exceeding expectations.

  

Other highlights from 2012 annual meeting include:

·         125 registered attendees

·         24 exhibitors and 17 sponsors

·         5 technical sessions and 22 speakers

·         7.5 professional development hours for Professional Engineers

Following closely with our Mission Statement, we plan to build on 2012 with more opportunities to network, learn about new solutions, educate decision makers about the benefits of ITS and further our members’ professional growth.

In 2013, we plan on having more monthly meetings, a half-day technical training session, a meet and greet with state lawmakers (co-branded with Georgia ITE) and a return to Callaway Gardens for our 2013 annual meeting September 14-17.

Our monthly meeting dates for the remainder of 2013 are:

February 28

March 28

April 25

May 23

June 27

July 25

August 29

September 14-17 Annual Meeting

October 31

Please join us at these meetings and bring a friend. We’ll keep you posted on times and locations on our web site and by email. If you are not on our email list, then visit www.itsga.org, or scan the QR code and enter your information via smartphone.

I also want to welcome new members to our board whose two-year term begins in 2013. Winter Horbal, Temple, Inc.; Michael Roberson, Georgia Department of Transportation; David Smith, DeKalb County Department of Transportation; and Prasoon Sinha, ACRADIS, join the board and officers. 

ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine December 2012/January 2013

ITS Georgia
President Scott Mohler

An innovation in safety and efficiency is coming to Interstate 285 in 2014 and ITS Georgia member organizations are at the heart of the new driving experience that, proven successful, may become the norm for metropolitan Georgia freeways in the future.

The concept is simple – utilize technology to vary the real-time speed limit to improve traffic flow and create safer driving conditions. Reducing speeds and harmonizing the flow of traffic upstream of an incident makes for safer driving conditions and ideally prevents secondary accidents that arise from stop-and-go conditions.

 Changes coming to I-285

As part of the program, the overall speed limit will be raised to 65 MPH for the 260,000 or so daily vehicles on I-285, with the variable speed limit zone encompassing the northern section from I-20 in the east to I-20 in the west. Depending on traffic conditions, the speed limit will be adjusted up or down in 5 MPH increments.

“You’re able to move more traffic through” with the variable sign system, GDOT Commissioner Keith Golden told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “If you’ll slow down you’ll actually get there faster,” Commissioner Golden said, quoting traffic reporter Herb Emory of News Talk WSB radio.

The technology behind the system is developed by ITS Georgia member Atkins and is called Advanced Traffic Demand Management (ATDM). The ATDM system, managed at GDOT’s Transportation Management Center senses conditions on I-285 and then calculates the optimum speed per segment to move the most vehicles, the most efficiently.

"Atkins is honored to work with GDOT and bring our worldwide ATDM resources to bear on this important project,” said John Hibbard, Atkins ITS Practice Manager and longtime ITS Georgia Board member.

ITS Georgia member Brooks-Berry-Haynie was selected to handle the hardware and installation of the system. BBH project manager Bill Gunter knows it is high-profile and important for the state and region.

“Variable Speed Limit Systems are a first for Georgia and therefore need a team that is up for the challenge. Brooks-Berry-Haynie looks forward to bringing our expertise in ITS and working with our design team, Atkins, to deliver this project to GDOT on time and on budget,” Bill said.

We look forward to keeping you updated on progress and results once the system is in place. To find out more about ITS Georgia members who are on the forefront of safety, innovation and efficiency in Georgia scan the QR, or visit http://itsga.org/our-members.html.

  

2012 Annual Meeting Follow Up –

I mentioned last time that I felt our 2012 annual meeting at Callaway Gardens was a success. Well we verified that with an attendee survey. Of those taking the survey, 45% said the meeting exceeded expectations with 52% indicating the meeting met expectations. Eighty-three (83%) percent rated the vendor exhibits as excellent, with 69% indicating the meeting contained the right balance of networking, sessions and vendor time allocation. Ninety percent (90%) of attendees indicated they wanted to hold the conference at Callaway in 2013, so we’ll see you in Pine Mountain next year.

To keep up with the latest ITS Georgia news, please visit our web site (www.itsga.org), join us on facebook or follow us on twitter @ITSGA.

ITS Georgia Chapter Leadership

President

Scott Mohler, URS

Vice President

Tom Sever, Gwinnett DOT

Secretary

Kristin Turner, Wolverton Associates

Treasurer

Christine Simonton, Delcan

Immediate Past President

Marion Waters, Gresham Smith & Partners

Directors

Mark Demidovich, GDOT

Susie Dunn, Atlanta Regional Commission

Eric Graves, City of Alpharetta

Carla Holmes, Gresham Smith & Partners

Winter Horbal, Temple, Inc.

Keary Lord, Douglas County DOT

Michael Roberson, GDOT

David Smith, DeKalb County Transportation

Prasoon Sinha, ARCADIS

Grant Waldrop, GDOT

State Chapters Representative

Kenny Voorhies, Cambridge Systematics, Inc.

Ex Officio

Greg Morris, Federal Highway Administration

Andres Ramirez, FTA

Our 2012 Sponsors

Control Technologies

Metrotech

Temple

Arcadis

Gresham Smith and Partners

HNTB

World Fiber Technologies

Atkins

Delcan

Kimley-Horn and Associates

Sensys

Southern Lighting and Traffic Systems

URS

Telvent

Cambridge Systematics

Grice Consulting

Wolverton & Associates

ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine October/November 2012

ITS Georgia
President Scott Mohler

The ITS Georgia 2012 Annual Meeting and Exposition, held at Callaway Gardens in early fall this year, can be called nothing but an unqualified success. More than 130 attendees got a briefing on everything transportation from the national perspective, from ITS America President Scott Belcher, to ITS applications and future at the state, regional and local level.

Our attendees got to put their hands on the latest ITS hardware, available from the 24 vendors on hand in the Exhibition. A total of 17 sponsors provided crucial financial support, including our three Diamond sponsors, Control Technologies (www.cttraffic.com), MetroTech (metrotech-partners.com) and Temple, Inc. (www.temple-inc.com). Additionally, our five sessions, featuring 22 speakers, provided attendees with 7.5 professional development hours credit.

Dreihaup Award winner Todd Long, Center, 

with Marion Waters and John Hibbard..

The annual meeting also provides valuable time for face-to-face meetings between fellow transportation professionals where problems are presented and solutions are created.

We also take time at the meeting to recognize outstanding individuals and organizations who are leaders in the industry. This year’s winners are:

Larry R. Dreihaup Award – Todd Long, GDOT.  The ITS Georgia Larry R. Dreihaup Award recognizes an individual or an organization who has provided leadership, professionalism, and dedication in promoting ITS in the State of Georgia during the previous 12 months.

Outstanding Public Member Agency Award – GDOT.  Leadership in promoting ITS and/or ITSGA goals during the previous 12 months.

Outstanding Private Member Award – Atkins Global.  Leadership in promoting ITS and/or ITSGA goals during the previous 12 months.

One of the highlights of this year’s meeting was to reward a promising transportation student in the Georgia University System with our third-annual Wayne Shackelford memorial scholarship. This year’s winner is Bhargava Rama Chilukuri, PE, a doctoral candidate at Georgia Tech, who is currently working on ramp metering and travel time estimation improvement projects.

Last, but not least, we announce the results of yearly elections at each meeting. Elected to the board of directors were Eric Graves, City of Alpharetta; Winter Horbal, Temple, Inc.; Keary Lord, Douglas County Department of Transportation; Michael Roberson, Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT); David Smith, DeKalb County Department of Transportation (DeKalb); and Prasoon Sinha, ACRADIS.

We are very pleased to be joined by this great group of newly-elected directors and are grateful for the contributions of our retiring board members.  ITS Georgia has always attracted the best leadership and provided a vehicle for professional growth and career development.

Retiring from the board are Kenn Fink, Kimley-Horn; Patrece Keeter, DeKalb, Bayne Smith, GDOT, and John Hibbard, Atkins.

You can see we pack a lot of learning, networking and business into a short time. So, we hope you can join us next year!

To keep up with the latest ITS Georgia news, please visit our web site (www.itsga.org), join us on facebook or follow us on twitter @ITSGA.

ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine August/September 2012

ITS Georgia President
Scott Mohler

Congratulations to us! ITS Georgia has been recognized as Outstanding State Chapter of the Year by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. Special recognition is in order to past-president Marion Waters, the board of directors, committee volunteers and our hard working members for winning this prestigious award.

We were up against the largest chapters in the country including California, Texas, New York and Florida, among others. This is the second top prize awarded our chapter and reflects the quality of the organization and the leadership position taken by our state when it comes to innovation in transportation.

To read more about the accomplishments of our ITS Georgia state chapter, visit http://www.itsa.org/aboutus/statechapters/award-winners.

ITS Georgia Board Member
John Hibbard

2012 Annual Meeting and Expositions (September 9 – 11)

We are very excited about our upcoming annual meeting to be held September 9 – 11, 2012 at beautiful Callaway Gardens.

Our theme, “Connecting DOTs...Connecting people to technologies,” will challenge our conference attendees to think out of the box in new ways to connect the public with existing and future ITS technologies.

As always, the conference will provide a variety of technical sessions featuring leading transportation professionals from Georgia and around the country, with informative presentations and thought-provoking panel discussions.  There will be numerous opportunities for professional networking and our valued exhibitors will be on hand presenting the latest ITS products and services. 

We will also install new directors, present the best of ITS awards and name our 2012 Wayne Shackelford Scholarship winners.

Among some of the confirmed presenters is ITS America President Scott Belcher who was heavily involved in getting a federal transportation bill passed. We’ll also look over the horizon at future vehicle technology and research at Georgia Tech. GDOT and local transportation agencies will tell us their plans and we’ll learn about the latest ITS apps.

To keep up with the latest ITS Georgia news, please visit our web site (www.itsga.org), join us on facebook or follow us on twitter @ITSGA.

ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine

Scott Mohler
ITS Georgia President

Congratulations to newly appointed Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Keith Golden and new Northeast Georgia District Engineer Bayne Smith. Georgia is indeed fortunate to have these two professionals in top leadership positions within the department. Both are uniquely qualified to successfully manage the mobility challenges we face in Georgia.

Commissioner Golden rose through the ranks of the department serving in planning and operations. He was Director of Operations before becoming Deputy Commissioner and Interim Commissioner last year. He knows the value intelligent transportation solutions bring to address issues of safety, efficiency and congestion mitigation in our surface transportation system.

Commissioner Golden said that he has personal experience with benefits of ITS solutions and will continue to support its deployment.

“Having worked in traffic operations during my career, I have firsthand experience with many of the benefits Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can offer in a transportation system. Georgia DOT consistently analyzes potential uses of ITS throughout our network of roadways. Many aspects of ITS – ramp meters, video detection devices and coordinated traffic signalization – can be successfully utilized on a daily basis to help manage traffic and congestion and keep motorists informed, Commissioner Golden told ITS Georgia shortly after being formally appointed by the state transportation board.”

New District One Engineer Bayne Smith is one of only three GDOT employees to hold both a PE and PTOE (Professional Traffic Operations Engineer) license.He is also on the board of directors of your ITS Georgia Chapter.

Bayne began his career working in Traffic Operations at GDOT and was instrumental in developing the NaviGAtor intelligent transportation management system. He also served as state traffic signal engineer until joining URS Corporation in 2001. At URS, Bayne led the national ITS practice and was instrumental in capturing best practices in ITS, and then bringing those best practices and cutting edge ITS ideas to Georgia and other clients all over the U.S.

We asked District Engineer Smith his thoughts for implementing new ITS solutions in his district.

“I am very excited at the opportunity to rejoin GDOT and help further the implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems throughout the State of Georgia. GDOT has done an exceptional job at constructing, operating and maintaining a successful ITS system and I am excited that future advances in technology will allow us to continue to enhance the system and provide valuable benefits to the motoring public.”

We appreciate Commissioner Golden’s and District Engineer Smith’s commitment to progress and stand ready with them to meet the challenges ahead. 

 
Take time to learn about and vote on the TSPLOST in July

On Tuesday, July 31, voters will decide if 12 designated districts across Georgia will be authorized to collect a one-cent sales tax for the next 10 years to be devoted exclusively to local and regional transportation projects.

Doug Callaway of the Georgia Transportation Alliance told a chapter meeting of ITS Georgia the impact of the TSPLOST, if passed, would be to generate almost 28,000 jobs for every $1 billion of revenue generated. The resulting improvements would enhance the safety and efficiency of the transportation system all while under local control. Funds collected in each district could only be spent in the district where they are collected and only to move forward projects chosen by local elected officials. Additionally, watch dog groups in each district would monitor and report to the public how funds are spent.

More than 1,600 local projects throughout the state have been selected by city and county leaders. To learn more about the Transportation Investment Act (TIA) referendum and to review proposed projects in your area, please visit: http://www.it3.ga.gov/Pages/default.aspx. Pass this information along to your friends and neighbors, too.

To keep up with the latest ITS Georgia news, please visit our web site (www.ITSGA.org) or follow us on twitter @ITSGA.

ITS Georgia President's Message from Georgia Engineer Magazine

Scott Mohler
ITS Georgia President

It is an honor and privilege to have been elected president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of Georgia (ITS Georgia) and to represent this great chapter and its important work.  Over the next two years, I plan on sharing with you the many accomplishments of the chapter and our member organizations.

ITS Georgia is fortunate to have had quality leadership since its inception from the late Wayne Shackelford as founding chairman to my immediate predecessor, Marion Waters. Marion has been a model President for the past two years, and I want to extend an enormous thank you for all of his hard work and dedication to the betterment of ITS Georgia.  His leadership in ITS Georgia and in the ITS industry are invaluable, and I’m thankful that Marion will remain a member of the Board during my presidency.

I also want to thank outgoing board members Marwan Abboud and Ron Boodhoo, and the new and returning officers and directors who are listed below.

2012 and Beyond –

Over the next two years we plan on turning our mission and goals into facts and accomplishments.

Our Mission: Promote and educate people about ITS and encourage incorporation of ITS into transportation projects.

Our Goals:

1.  Provide forums to share and coordinate ITS Georgia member missions and experiences
2.  Educate our members on national directions and technologies
3.  Develop a broader ITS constituency
4. Educate policy makers on benefits of continued operations and maintenance and how ITS can help

We did a great job in 2011 on Goals 1 and 2 and an okay job on Goal 3. In 2012, we will continue to provide our members with forums to network and learn about new technologies and lessons learned from our colleagues from around the state and the nation.  We also plan on reaching out to new member organizations and to increase participation from existing members, especially younger associates and students.

Goal 4 has been a challenge and we need to do more to get decision makers to understand the benefits of ITS solutions and the value they bring to state and local transportation infrastructure. To reach Goal 4, we are teaming with the Georgia Section Institute of Transportation Engineers and the TIME Task Force in a cross-organizational Public Officials Education Committee which I will chair.  We plan on conducting a training class on the benefits of ITS with county officials in April at the Association County Commissioners of Georgia Annual Meeting.  GDOT’s Todd Long has agreed to be the instructor for this class.  We think that is a good start.  Next are city and state decision makers.

On an organizational level, we plan on increasing chapter revenue so we can continue to fund scholarships and provide our membership with access to the latest in ITS technology and forums for networking and professional growth.  We also plan on expanding our membership outside the reach of our typical members to include the growing number of automotive and high tech companies in Georgia that provide traveler and fleet information.

In addition to providing scholarships to students studying ITS, we plan on increasing their involvement in chapter activities to facilitate networking and learn more about potential employers in the area to keep and attract talent to Georgia.

As always, our monthly and annual meetings will be packed with outstanding speakers and topics in 2012. We’ll learn about everything from how ITS solutions help move millions of tons of cargo in and out of Georgia’s ports to creative funding opportunities, how well our products and services stack up and what the future holds from our excellent research institutions.

Please visit our web site (www.ITSGA.org) for information about our monthly meetings for 2012.