President Kirsten Tynch s Message Summer Meeting Sheraton Oceanfront June Volume 40, No. 1 Newsletter Editor, Chris Lawrence Spring 2008

Transcription

1 THE TRAFFIC LITE Virginia Section Institute of Transportation Engineers Volume 40, No. 1 Newsletter Editor, Chris Lawrence Spring 2008 We continue preparation for the SDITE 2010 Annual Meeting in Portsmouth (April 9-13, 2010). Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, June 26th during the VASITE Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach. Anybody interested in participating in the conference planning is encouraged to attend. See the VASITE Annual Meeting agenda for additional details. I look forward to seeing each of you in Virginia Beach in a few weeks! Please remember to register for the conference by June 16th to take advantage of the reduced registration rates! Kirsten President Kirsten Tynch s Message Welcome to our first newsletter of 2008! I would like to thank our outgoing officers for all of their hard work in 2007 and welcome our new officers for We have big shoes to fill! 2008 Summer Meeting Sheraton Oceanfront June The year has started off with a successful Spring Meeting held in March in Richmond. I have been told we had over 70 attendees were on hand to hear some very interesting topics. On a personal note, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Vice President, Tim Foster, for standing in for me so effectively at the Spring Meeting, the SDITE Annual Meeting, and the weeks following while I was out on maternity leave. Thanks Tim! We have been busy planning an Annual Meeting that will be the highlight of our year. The agenda is filled with a wide array of topics that will appeal to our entire membership. Brian Sewell will once again be performing during our reception prior to the banquet, and we are planning additional free time at lunch to allow our attendees and their families to enjoy the beach. I am delighted to announce that our ITE International President, Alf Guebert, will be joining us for our Annual Meeting this year. Alf will also be our speaker for the banquet on Thursday evening. This is a rare opportunity to meet and interact with our ITE President. Please see the VASITE website at for more details! VASITE Newsletter 1 Spring 2008

2 In this issue: New Members...2 Continuing Education Secretary s Message Treasurer s Message Spring Meeting Pictures VASITE Fall Meeting Presentations...4 Southern District ITE....7 Corporate Sponsors Officers: President. Kirsten Tynch, P.E.,PTOE Woolpert LLP Vice President...Tim Foster, P.E. Henrico County Secretary John Yorks City of Hampton Treasurer...John Hendrickson, P.E. PB Past President.Chris Gay, AICP VHB Southern District Rep.Bryant Goodloe, P.E. Bryant B. Goodloe, P.C. Southern District Rep... Mike Corwin VDOT New Members - Luke Drylie, Student Rachel Elizabeth Abel, VHB Christopher Wright, VDOT Amy Carol Hamlin, Woolpert Marc Lipschultz, McCormick Taylor Enrique Burgos, City of Richmond Terrell Hughes, Timmons Rebecca Golden, County of Spotsylvania Continuing Education - The VASITE Continuing Education Committee plans and conducts training courses on relevant topics for the VASITE membership. Through a Transportation Safety Project Grant from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), VASITE is able to offer safety-related continuing education courses at an affordable cost to attendees. Typically, the DMV Safety Grant covers over half of the course registration costs. VASITE is very appreciative of the DMV for their generous support of our training courses to improve safety across the Commonwealth. The Continuing Education Committee tries to offer three courses per calendar year. Currently, the committee is working on the courses for the 2008 calendar year. In the past few years, the Continuing Education Committee has offered courses on design topics such as Traffic Signal Design, Roundabout Design, Roadway Lighting, Roadway Safety Audit, and Roadside Design. The Committee has offered software training for packages such as Synchro, CORSIM, and HCS. Please contact Kathryn Brown (Chairman) if you have course topics that you would like to see taught in the near future. If you are interested in joining this committee, please contact Kathryn Brown at or kbrown@clarknexsen.com From the Secretary: Reminder that dues have to be paid in full in order to take advantage of the reduced membership registration fees for each conference and continuing education course. To check your membership status or make any changes to your contact information, please contact John Yorks at jyorks@hampton.gov From the Treasurer: As of December 31, 2007, the VASITE account balance is $28, VASITE Newsletter 2 Spring 2008

3 Spring VASITE Pictures - VASITE Newsletter 3 Spring 2008

4 Spring Meeting Presentations The 2008 Spring Meeting was held in Glen Allen at the Hilton Garden Inn. The following articles highlight the presentations. Mixed Use Developments & New Urbanism Daniel K. Slone McGuireWoods LLP generation with this type of zoning. However, this type of zoning should greatly enhance the walkablity of the area thereby reducing automobile trips. He also explained how traditional zoning encourages automobile usage by separating land uses and thereby making walking unfeasible. New Urbanism Paul Trapp Managing Principal Timmons Group Mr. Slone represents developers and communities in overcoming the land use and environmental permitting impediments to small and large-scale projects such as new towns, utilities, and industrial facilities. He also provides a wide range of services for developers of New Urban and sustainable projects with a related focus on the convergence of communication, power and essential services. He has assisted clients in dealing with wetland permitting and enforcement for more than a decade. Mr. Slone gave a thorough explanation on New Urbanism and form based zoning. Form-based codes create a predictable public realm primarily by controlling physical form, with a lesser focus on land use. This type of zoning is difficult for governments to deal with from a traffic perspective because there is no effective way to quantify trip Timmons Group has been involved in the design of several new urbanist style multi-use (residential/office/commercial) communities recently proposed in and around Richmond. These projects include: Rocketts Landing 45-acres in Richmond/Henrico County West Broad Village 113-acres in western Henrico County Tree Hill Farm 500-acres in eastern Henrico County Roseland 1,400-acres in central Chesterfield County Analyzing the potential traffic impacts of these developments has been challenging for us and others involved. That challenge has been even greater with the recent Chapter 527 regulations. VASITE Newsletter 4 Spring 2008

5 Hurricane Evacuation Tidewater Perspective Dennis W. Heuer District Administrator VDOT, Hampton Road District Hurricane Evacuation Central Virginia Perspective Robb Alexander Traffic Operations Manager VDOT, Richmond District Mr. Heuer gave a presentation on hurricane evacuation procedures from the Tidewater area. He explained how I-64 eastbound from the HRBT to Richmond would be reversed to operate westbound prior to a storm once the Governor has made the call for evacuation. However, once the winds reach the approximately 39 mph the crews (VDOT, State Police, and National Guard) operating the gates at interchanges would shut down the reversal and leave their post. Routes 17, I-64, and 460 serve as major evacuation routes for the Tidewater area. He also explained many of the Mr. Alexander gave a presentation on the hurricane evacuation procedures from the Central Virginia perspective. His presentation focused on largely on shelters especially given the large number of people expected to be evacuating from the Tidewater area towards Central Virginia. He noted that there is no where near the number of needed shelters and hotel rooms in the Central Virginia area to support the number of people evacuating from Tidewater. He also noted the flooding problems that have occurred in downtown Richmond with various tropical events. VASITE Newsletter 5 Spring 2008

6 Drive Smart Virginia Janet Brooking Executive Director Drive Smart Virginia Proposed Bus Rapid Transit in Richmond Larry Hagin Director of Planning and Government Affairs GRTC Ms. Brooking gave a presentation on driver safety. She presented many statistics on driving safety. One interesting statistic is 94% of all crashes are caused by driver error. Mr. Hagin gave a presentation on the proposed Bus Rapid Transit in Richmond. He spoke about how it will relate to the existing service and the potential routes and costs. There was also detailed discussion of a new transfer station in downtown. VASITE Newsletter 6 Spring 2008

7 New Access Management Regulations Tim White T3 Design, Inc SDITE Annual Meeting Update Our planning of the 2010 SDITE Annual Meeting in Portsmouth, VA is off to a great start. We still have a few committee co-chair positions open and are always looking for volunteers to staff any and all committees. The dates for the 2010 SDITE Annual Meeting are April 11 14, Please mark your calendars. We will need everyone s help to make this a successful event. Mr. White gave a presentation on VDOT s new Access Management Regulations. Mr. White served as an advisor on the committee that developed the regulations. He spoke of how the committee took a large survey of other state s regulations as well as federal guidelines in the development of VDOT s own regulations. The new regulations provide more detail on how entrances to VDOT roads will be permitted. They also have increased the spacing requirements between most access points from the previous regulations. We would like to encourage any VASITE member, but especially the SDITE 2010 committee chairs and cochairs, to attend this year s SDITE Annual Meeting in Charleston, SC on March 30 to April 3. This is a great opportunity to see a SDITE Annual Meeting in action, and will help with planning our conference in The characteristics of Charleston and Portsmouth are similar, so it should give an invaluable opportunity to preview our conference. In addition, the 2009 SDITE Annual Meeting will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, and the registration and travel costs will be much higher in Birmingham than Charleston. The 2008 SDITE meeting should be a great event. Please try to attend if at all possible! VASITE Newsletter 7 Spring 2008

8 Advertising with VASITE Contact Kelli Stamm VASITE - Public Relations Phone: (757) kstamm@precisionmeasurements.com Bryant B. Goodloe, P.C. VASITE Newsletter 8 Spring 2008

9 Intermodal Engineering, P.C. VASITE Newsletter 9 Spring 2008

10 Virginia Geotechnical Services, P.C. Glenn & Sadler, A Division of TranSystems Corporation VASITE Newsletter 10 Spring 2008

11 VASITE has a "Job Posting" area. The cost per ad is $75.00 and it will run for 90 days. This ad will run in both the Newsletter and the Website. The point of contact for further information is: Public Relations Chair for VASITE Kelli Stamm with Precision Measurements. kstamm@precisionmeasurements.com (757) We want to also advertise on the Website the opportunity for companies to become corporate members. This is $ for the year. This covers inclusion in the three (3) Newsletters that are planned each year, the Membership Roster and your Company Logo and Profile Information on the VASITE Online web site, including a hot link to your company s web site. See how others are benefiting from this opportunity. Visit and click on Sponsors at the top of the page. Please complete and mail the accompanying form to place your Ad. Please send your Business Card Artwork, Company Logo and Profile Information to Public Relations chair for VASITE Kelli Stamm with Precision Measurements, Inc. via me at kstamm@precisionmeasurements.com or you can contact me at If you would like to contribute to the next VASITE newsletter, please send articles and information to: Chris P. Lawrence, P.E. URS Corporation Rock Landing Drive, Suite 306 Newport News, VA Chris_lawrence@urscorp.com THE TRAFFIC LITE is the official publication of the Virginia Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (VASITE), which is a professional society of persons involved in transportation engineering activities in Virginia. It is affiliated with the ITE, which is an international professional society of transportation engineers. The primary goal of VASITE is to promote sound transportation engineering practices in planning, design, operation, and management of transportation facilities and equipment for the safe, convenient and efficient movement of people and goods. VASITE Newsletter 11 Spring 2008