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Annual Meeting Workshops

WORKSHOPS
Preliminary Agenda

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Aviation; Bituminous Materials; Concrete Materials ; Construction; Data and Information Systems; Design; Environment and Energy; Freight Systems; Geology and Earth Materials; International Activities; Maintenance; Management and Leadership; Marine; Operations; Pavement Management; Pedestrians and Cycles; Public Transportation and Ferries; Rail; Research and Education; Safety ; Security; Social, Economic, and Cultural Issues; Soil Mechanics; Structures; Systems Planning, Policy, and Process; Taxation and Finance; Transportation Policy; Travel Analysis Methods; Trucking; Users

Aviation
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Safety Management Systems Implementation
Varma, Amiy, presiding
An airport safety management system (SMS) provides a systematic framework and a proactive approach to help address hazard, risk, and severity of aircraft accidents and incidents; runway incursions during approaches; takeoffs; and ground operations. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has adopted a standard for SMS that has been applicable to international airports since November 2005. The FAA has developed guidance on SMS implementation in the United States and is in the process of updating the SMS Advisory Circular (AC 150/5200-37, Introduction to Safety Management Systems for Airport Operators). Airport operators in the United States have safety programs in place that have resulted in today’s high level of aviation safety. These programs can form the basis of a more comprehensive SMS, development of which is relevant for both big and small airports and will require effective and innovative partnerships among FAA, ICAO, airport authorities, airport consultants and contractors, researchers, and various other stakeholders with an interest in enhancing airport safety. During this workshop, perspectives of ICAO, FAA, the National Association of State Aviation Officials, and Airports Council International will be presented. In addition, some implementations of SMS will be discussed, including a recent SMS at Abu Dhabi International Airport, in the United Arab Emirates. Progress on and results from two current Airport Cooperative Research Program efforts on development of SMS will also be presented. This workshop is along the spotlight theme of TRB 2008 Annual Meeting -- Partnership for Progress in Transportation.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Aviation Planning for Sustainability
Zarubiak, Darcy, presiding
This workshop is designed for aviation industry professionals that are attempting to integrate sustainability in to their daily business decisions. Decision criteria that will be examined will include economic, environmental and social sustainability. The workshop will feature a series of short presentations by aviation professionals describing their experience at applying sustainability and how it has impacted corporate decision making and their budgets. The workshop will also examine how the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" management approach, typical of an EMS (environmental management system), can be applied to sustainability. Finally, the workshop will describe triple bottom line decision making and how to approach life cycle cost analysis.

Bituminous Materials
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Doctoral Student Research in Bituminous Materials and Mixtures
Diefenderfer, Stacey, presiding
This workshop provides the opportunity for doctoral students to present the results of their ongoing research in asphalt materials and mixtures. The presentations will help students by giving them feedback on their research efforts, allowing them to develop and practice presentation skills, and give them the opportunity to meet and interact with graduate student peers.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Validation of Advanced Flexible Pavement Modeling with Accelerated Pavement Testing Data
Al-Qadi, Imad, presiding
The state of the art of modeling pavement materials and pavements continues to advance as formulations for inelastic constitutive modeling take cues from thermodynamics, chemistry, and other sciences. Such advanced models provide better numerical tools to describe the behavior of pavement materials in primary response (strain, stress) and secondary response (distresses, cracking, permanent deformation). However, the laboratory setting is more often the choice to validate advanced models, and if validation is done appropriately, it should be under conditions that are considerably different from those for calibration--different temperature, load rate, stress conditions, and sample geometry conditions. The ultimate condition for validation is in the field, where layered pavement structures are loaded by live tires repeatedly. Increases in computational power also provide more opportunities to apply advanced models where it has been traditionally too costly in time. However, it is generally understood that direct application and prediction of pavement structural responses throughout a meaningful period with advanced material models is still out of reach for real pavements under operating conditions. Considering the impact of the major variables--such as traffic load and axle and tire spectra, temperature fluctuations and gradients, aging, and so forth--is not realistic. Fortunately, accelerated pavement testing (APT) experiments control many of these variables, providing a common ground for APT and modeling. Sufficient variables may be eliminated that an advanced materials model can be applied to a meaningful scenario, allowing the costs (time and money) associated with developing and validating advanced pavement material models to be evaluated in terms of potential benefits of improved pavement response prediction and also provide means to make necessary alterations and adjustment to advanced pavement material models. This workshop will focus on the relationship between recent model development and the data collected for APT and its utilization for the validation of the developed models. The workshop will cover the following areas: (a) identification of specific aspects of APT that are important to the modeling community--materials scientists, computational mechanics, chemists, and others--and which aspects of APT are of lesser concern; (b) development of realistic material characteristics that would be required for laboratory calibration of an advanced model; (c) discussion of appropriate APT experiments for advanced model validation and identification of which variables are controlled and what is being measured in the APT (instrumentation); (d) current experience in model validation and prediction based on APT experiments; and (e) identification of areas in which models can be improved when APT data are available.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
How to Achieve Smoothness in Asphalt Pavements
Decker, Dale, presiding
The purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum for the discussion of various construction techniques and measurements of pavement smoothness that influence pavement performance. Smoothness is an important pavement characteristic because it affects not only ride quality but also vehicle operating costs, fuel consumption, and maintenance costs. Smoothness can be defined as the variation in surface elevation that induces vibrations in traversing vehicles. The international roughness index (IRI) is one of the most common ways of measuring smoothness in managing pavements. The new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide defines pavement functional adequacy by an acceptable IRI at the end of design life.

Concrete Materials
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
The Promise of Nanotechnology for Concrete
Grove, James, presiding
The mechanical behavior of concrete materials depends to a great extent on structural elements and phenomena that are effective on a micro- and nanoscale. Recent research on nanotechnology-based modification and engineering of concrete materials presents a breakthrough in materials engineering. The basic concept behind nanomodification of materials is that of “bottom-up” engineering. It starts with engineered modifications to the molecular structure with the aim of affecting the bulk properties of the material and can significantly improve mechanical performance, volume change properties, durability, and sustainability. The introduction of nanotechnology into concrete materials promises to deliver high-performance, sustainable, "designer" materials for specific applications and needs. This workshop highlights the practical implications of nanotechnology for concrete materials. The presenters will be key industry leaders in the cement and admixture industries as well as researchers working in this rapidly emerging area.

Construction
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Technologies and Connection Details for Accelerated Bridge Construction
Kannankutty, Ramankutty, presiding
The purpose of this workshop is to present technologies and connection details that are available for development of accelerated bridge construction projects. Included will be presentations on accelerated bridge techniques, equipment, and connection details. The new FHWA manual titled "Connection Details for Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems" will be used as the basis for the discussion, which will include an example of an accelerated bridge project. Connection details will be selected and a full schematic bridge design will be developed. Case studies of past accelerated bridge projects will also be presented.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Construction of Concrete Unbonded Overlays: Don’t Miss the Opportunity
Dean, Gregory, presiding
Agencies today do more pavement rehabilitation and less new construction than ever before. As infrastructure ages and requires renewal, concrete unbonded overlays are a viable option, but many agencies are not well versed in this construction technique. In this workshop the unique aspects of unbonded overlays will be explained and the many success stories and new construction techniques will be described. The workshop will also discuss the design decision to use overlays that are thinner than typical concrete pavements. Key criteria that make unbonded overlays an appropriate solution will be discussed and case studies will be shared.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
How to Achieve Smoothness in Asphalt Pavements
Decker, Dale, presiding
The purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum for the discussion of various construction techniques and measurements of pavement smoothness that influence pavement performance. Smoothness is an important pavement characteristic because it affects not only ride quality but also vehicle operating costs, fuel consumption, and maintenance costs. Smoothness can be defined as the variation in surface elevation that induces vibrations in traversing vehicles. The international roughness index (IRI) is one of the most common ways of measuring smoothness in managing pavements. The new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide defines pavement functional adequacy by an acceptable IRI at the end of design life.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Issues in Highway Quality Assurance
Riley, Orrin, presiding
Technical and economic issues associated with highway quality management programs will be addressed. A panel of agency and industry personnel who have been instrumental in the development and implementation of statistically based quality assurance specifications will lead the discussion. Likely issues to be addressed include the following: percent within limits necessity, effectiveness, and alternatives and effectiveness and cost of contractor acceptance testing. These topics should be of interest to agency and industry personnel who routinely deal with construction and materials testing.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Using Information Technologies to Support Better Construction Management IV
Williams, Trefor, presiding
This popular half-day workshop will examine emerging technologies and technology tools for improving data collection, communications, and management as well as automation of information management and knowledge discovery that will improve the way construction projects are managed. The participants will examine technologies that are in various phases of development for use on construction job sites. It is expected that examining technologies at various points along the development pipeline will allow the workshop attendees to better understand which new technologies can be leveraged today to increase the production of construction and which technologies might likewise be used in the future. Topics of interest include on-site and site-office communications; intelligent automation of construction tasks; knowledge extraction and management; infrastructure conditioning assessment, modeling, and sensing; integration of project information into visualization and simulation models; project control systems and field management technologies; and communication, collaboration, and coordination technologies. Workshop participants will be asked to generate a list of research topics.

Data and Information Systems
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Application of Passenger Travel Data for National, State, and Local Congestion Performance Measurement
Passenger travel data like the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) coupled with other data programs like the Census Transportation Planning Product (CTPP) and Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) provide a wealth of information about the people who use the system under congested conditions. This workshop will address how passenger travel data can be used to evaluate potential programs, forecast program outcomes, set baseline travel demand measures, and measure performance. The core focus of the workshop will be on how data programs such as NHTS, HPMS, and census data can be used to set baseline measures of the demand-side causes of congestion. The workshop will also touch on behavioral travel demand measures in the areas of safety and intermodalism.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Changes to the DOT National Crossing Inventory File and Certain State Initiatives
Hall, James, presiding
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory File database is available on the FAA website, which governmental agencies, railroads, and independent researchers can use to research the many aspects of any of the 277,000 crossings in the nation. Combined with the Crossing Accident-Incident File, the inventory file identifies the most risky crossings for improvements by using the Accident Prediction Model. This workshop will cover the background and purpose of the file, how it works, how updates are obtained, how crossing numbers are assigned, and how to access data. It will include explanations of the DOT accident prediction formula, the GradeDec software, the responsibility for updating (state or railroad), policy and procedures for updating, the new revised inventory form with the added data elements, and the revised file structure. The workshop will include state transportation agency perspectives on the maintenance, management, and use of the rail-crossing file.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Data Stewardship: Lessons Learned and Benefits
Stickel, Jack, presiding
Data stewardship is key to successful and efficient decision making--especially in road inventory and asset management. This workshop is the culmination of a trilogy of workshops jointly sponsored by TRB committees on asset and information systems, which began in 2006 with a session on defining and understanding requirements of data stewardship. That workshop was followed by a another in 2007 on benchmarking data stewardship best practices from other industries. The current workshop aims at showcasing actual cases of data stewardship in state departments of transportation, including description of data stewardship organizational architectures, technologies used, and implementation practices. The workshop will also address the role of metadata and data standards in the successful implementation of data management systems. The topics will also focus on documented lessons learned and best practices gained through actual implementation of data stewardship. Presentations will include discussions of data stewardship benefits and the means for quantifying such benefits, as well as discussion about road maps for effective implementation of data stewardships and troubleshooting tools.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Traffic Sensing: Application of Sensing and Planning
Cooper, James, presiding
The workshop is intended to provide an overview of the transportation applications of the current and new generations of sensing equipment and the role these may have in the development of planning tools and live diversion advice. This overview will encompass the development of live information feeds that have played a role in guidance and traffic information systems, but will also look at the potential for intelligent sensing, which can be further applied to the creation of live traffic restriction (of the types used in London and proposed in some other U.K. cities). The presentations will provide a strong introduction to the forms of technologies currently in use and begin to introduce the theories behind them.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Transforming Transportation Organizations: Strategic Executive and Data Partnerships
Reeder, Jill, presiding
This workshop continues the dialogue from the TRB 2007 summer meeting in Chicago on transforming transportation organizations. Organizational transformation is one of TRB's critical issues and the focus of two of the three topics identified for the 2006 AASHTO CEO Forum. This workshop will feature three cases where senior executives have championed successful implementation of information initiatives that strategically used data to make major positive impact on their organizations in a partnership with their technology/data leads who delivered the results. They will share with workshop participants the ingredients that made their initiatives succeed and share lessons learned. The second part of the workshop will have the audience and panelist dialogue about what future opportunities exist for new successes in strategic executive-data partnerships and what research is needed.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Using Information Technologies to Support Better Construction Management IV
Williams, Trefor, presiding
This popular half-day workshop will examine emerging technologies and technology tools for improving data collection, communications, and management as well as automation of information management and knowledge discovery that will improve the way construction projects are managed. The participants will examine technologies that are in various phases of development for use on construction job sites. It is expected that examining technologies at various points along the development pipeline will allow the workshop attendees to better understand which new technologies can be leveraged today to increase the production of construction and which technologies might likewise be used in the future. Topics of interest include on-site and site-office communications; intelligent automation of construction tasks; knowledge extraction and management; infrastructure conditioning assessment, modeling, and sensing; integration of project information into visualization and simulation models; project control systems and field management technologies; and communication, collaboration, and coordination technologies. Workshop participants will be asked to generate a list of research topics.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Observing Complex Choice Behavior with Stated-Preference Experiments: Innovations in Design
Timmermans, Harry, presiding
This workshop focuses on the tension that exists between extended stated-preference (SP) experiments that allow the study of complex behavior and the limited information processing capacities of decision makers. Although extended SP experiments potentially result in more valid models, they often involve more complex measurement tasks with higher respondent burden and decreased reliability as a result. Recently, various experimental design methods have been proposed that aim at limiting the measurement task and respondent burden, such as uniform designs and D-efficient designs. In this workshop on SP design, contributions to this topic are made by two tutorials on extensions of standard SP experiments and by two tutorials on recently proposed methods to limit the measurement task. Papers on each of the tutorials will be available in advance of the workshop at http://www.travelsurveymethods.org/SP.asp.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Remote Sensing Technologies for Transportation Applications
Walker, Robert, presiding
This half-day workshop will consider practical uses of satellite and airborne collected remotely sensed data, its derived information, and attendant geographic information system (GIS)-based algorithms and software tools for use in transportation department functions. Other technologies developed by the U.S. Department of Defense such as RADAR and infrared tags that have transportation applications will be reviewed. Results of the Transportation Applications of Restricted Use Technology (TARUT) Study funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Michigan Department of Transportation will be discussed with an emphasis on lessons learned and next steps. Additional case studies will be presented to demonstrate the broader application of these emerging tools. Implications of the adoption of these new technologies on information technology systems and emerging Internet map services for visualization will also be presented.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Improving Geospatial Safety Data for Transportation Planning, Design and Operations
Pulugurtha, Srinivas, presiding
Geospatial analysis has become a mainstay of traffic safety planning and analysis. However, safety analysts, engineers, and planners often have to deal with inaccurate and incomplete data. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum for a broad range of transportation stakeholders and researchers to identify critical geospatial data needs in support of improved transportation safety. The objectives of the workshop are 1) to identify critical geospatial issues such as procedures, technology, and accuracy of data that are being or need to be collected to support transportation safety, and 2) to recommend actions that may be taken over a three year period to improve geospatial analysis of transportation safety problems at the local, state and national level.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Integrating Archived Traffic Operations Data into Planning Data Systems
Turner, Shawn, presiding
As the role of traditional data programs continues to evolve in state transportation agencies, data program managers may be asked to explore alternative data sources to supplement or improve upon existing sources. Archived operations data potentially could be a rich source of traffic data to be integrated into planning data systems. There are several benefits to integrating traffic operations data, but in some cases, there are several institutional and technical barriers. This session includes speakers who will talk about their experiences, their successes, and the barriers they are working to overcome.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Observing Complex Choice Behavior with Stated-Preference Experiments: Innovations in Design
Timmermans, Harry, presiding
This workshop focuses on the tension that exists between extended stated-preference (SP) experiments that allow the study of complex behavior and the limited information processing capacities of decision makers. Although extended SP experiments potentially result in more valid models, they often involve more complex measurement tasks with higher respondent burden and decreased reliability as a result. Recently, various experimental design methods have been proposed that aim at limiting the measurement task and respondent burden, such as uniform designs and D-efficient designs. In this workshop on SP design, contributions to this topic are made by two tutorials on extensions of standard SP experiments and by two tutorials on recently proposed methods to limit the measurement task. Papers on each of the tutorials will be available in advance of the workshop at http://www.travelsurveymethods.org/SP.asp.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
How to Make Maximum Use of Qualitative Information
Kikuchi, Shinya, presiding
The information used in transportation takes many forms. Traditionally, the data that take the form of natural language, approximate numbers, and incomplete data are considered difficult to deal with or sometimes not precise enough, and thus they are often discarded or not seriously taken into account. Yet, after all, most transportation analyses involve data and knowledge bases that are perceptive, language-based inference, and language-based interpretation of the results. In recent years, various artificial intelligence (AI) methods have been developed to treat these nonquantitative data and argue for the scientific credibility of the analysis. This workshop presents the current developments in handling different types of data and knowledge and shows how to apply such techniques to transportation analysis. Included in the presentation are fuzzy set theory, possibility theory, probability theory, data mining, and other techniques for formalizing informal knowledge. Expert presentations will be followed by an audience discussion and exchange of experiences on real-world application of such approaches.

Design
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Future of Geometric Design and Graduate Student Research Summaries
McDonald, David, presiding
In this two part workshop, there will be discussion on the committee’s vision of geometric design and research reports on graduate student geometric design research.
Part A. How can we support the future needs of Geometric Design?
The AFB10 committee addresses the design of highway and street geometric elements that affect efficient traffic operations and safety. The committee focuses on the research, development, documentation, and presentation of geometric design criteria, standards, and methods. The committee also encourages the adoption of revised geometric design criteria, standards, and methods into operational guides for both state and local governments. The challenge is to create a framework to enhance geometric design by leading the development of criteria and guidelines for safe and efficient roadway space sensitive to user needs, vehicle characteristics, and the human and natural environment.

The workshop will begin with an overview of the Geometric Design committee’s evolution over the past year.
• Process taken to reorganize the committee,
• Revised organizational structure,
• Goals and vision of the committee (including how to support geometric design research, how this committee will interact with other TRB committees / subcommittees, how we will interact with AASHTO, and how to engage people in our activities), and
• Time for consensus building.

Part B. Graduate Student Research.
Graduate students will report on geometric design research. Reports of recently completed or nearly complete dissertations and theses will be presented.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Context-Sensitive Solutions and Managing Effective Public Involvement: Stop the Pain and Increase the Gain
Bradley, Scott, presiding
Context-sensitive solutions (CSS) is a collaborative, multidisciplinary, and integrated approach that relies heavily on meaningful stakeholder and public involvement to plan, develop, and maintain transportation systems and facilities in a manner that preserves or enhances aesthetic, scenic, historic, environmental, and community assets in balance with safety and mobility needs. At the very least, meaningful public involvement should be a purposeful planning and implementation of a program for engagement of potentially affected stakeholders and interested parties in transportation decision making, planning, and project development. Meaningful public involvement should improve and sustain processes and decisions in seeking out and co-creating solutions; it should not sell solutions. Public involvement is required by federal law, and the federal rule making for the recent SAFETEA-LU transportation reauthorization legislation further heightens the requirements and expectations for public involvement in transportation planning and project development. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) has been among the leaders in both CSS and public involvement and published “Hear Every Voice: A Guide to Public Involvement at Mn/DOT” in June 1999. Mn/DOT has undertaken a renewed effort, with the assistance of the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) past president and certified master trainer Patricia Van Gorp, to create and deploy Hear Every Voice II as a total revamping and updating of their guidance, as a statewide public involvement plan, with a comprehensive training curriculum offering to mainstream current best practices and SAFETEA-LU compliance. Scott Bradley, of Mn/DOT and TRB Context-Sensitive Design and Solutions Task Force chair, and Patricia Van Gorp, of Beacon Associates International and IAP2, will lead this interactive workshop to share and discuss critical aspects, foundations, best practices, and the appropriate selection of techniques from the toolbox for this approach to planning and managing effective public involvement in transportation.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Guidelines for Historic Road Corridors
Hadlow, Robert, presiding
NCHRP is currently developing guidelines for managing and improving historic road corridors. The effort focuses on the development of guidelines and management recommendations that will integrate safety, roadway performance, and historic preservation for historic roads. The first part of the workshop will provide participants with an overview of the current state of the practice in historic road corridor design and management. Results from an extensive survey of professional practitioners involved in historic roadway management and design will be shared. A list of issues and needs related to design and management identified in the research of current practices will be presented. The second part of the workshop will include small-group facilitated sessions to gather ideas from participants on potential design recommendations and guidelines to address the issues and needs of historic corridors.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS C. Developing Useful Human Factors Guidelines for Transportation Systems: Practical Tools and Procedures
Campbell, John, presiding
There is a growing information gap between the advanced and diverse status of human-machine systems and the availability of human factors design criteria that can be used during the system design process. In response to this gap, both industry and government have initiated a number of recent efforts to develop human factors guidelines. Historically, however, human factors guidelines have not always been well received by system designers because of such factors as weak research support, limited applicability, restrictiveness of design standards, and difficulty of developing repeatable performance standards. By using a series of case studies drawn from recent guideline-development efforts, this session will describe the role of human factors guidelines in system design, obstacles to the acceptance of guidelines, and the art and science of developing effective human factors guidelines. Participants can expect to be involved in exercises and group discussions on selecting and evaluating both guideline content and presentation formats for guidelines. This session is aimed at both developers and end users of human factors guidelines and will emphasize practical tools for guideline development.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS E. Digital Billboards on the Highway: A Bright Future?
Wachtel, Jerry, presiding
Billboards have existed since there were roadways. Although their pros and cons have been debated for 60 years, it is their influence on traffic flow and safety that has been most controversial. Now this controversy is being renewed thanks to the advent of large digital billboards that can display extremely bright images of broadcast quality. This workshop will consider the evolution of roadside billboards and the technologies now in use and under development and will examine the issues from all perspectives. The goal will be recommendations for how, when, and under what circumstances digital roadside billboards might be used and the conditions under which they should be restricted.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Design for Fish Passage at Roadway-Stream Crossings
Hotchkiss, Rollin, presiding
FHWA is in the process of developing a hydraulic engineering circular on the design for fish passage at roadway-stream crossings. The proposed circular (Phase II) will use a recently completed FHWA synthesis report (Phase I) on the topic as a base reference. This workshop will present the issue of fish passage at culverts using the completed synthesis report and will cover the following topics: culverts as potential barriers to fish passage, creation of a culvert inventory and assessment and priority-ranking of culverts for rehabilitation or replacement, currently available design procedures for culvert design for fish passage, and construction, maintenance, and inspection issues. Completed examples of projects will be shown and an open discussion will be held on research needs for the future.

Environment and Energy
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Addressing Data and Integration Issues for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency MOVES Model
Byun, Joon, presiding
The workshop will investigate the latest research and cooperative efforts to ensure that transportation and air quality agencies have or are developing sufficient data sources so that the U.S. EPA MOVES model will produce robust results when used for regulatory and planning purposes. The workshop will also look at the challenges of integrating the MOVES model with in-use transportation models for analysis at both the metropolitan and regional levels as well as at the project level.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Transportation in Developing Urban Areas: Addressing Air Quality and Climate Change Issues
Schipper, Lee, presiding
Developing countries will see a dramatic increase in urban population in the coming decades. The population increase will be accompanied by income growth, which is the basis for the expected strong increase in private car use. Demand management in developing countries seems to be even more difficult than it is in developed countries. What are the opportunities to avoid congestion and local air pollution, which strongly restrict the functionality of cities and their contribution to national economic development? What is urban transport policy’s contribution to reducing CO2 emissions?
The workshop is designed to help practitioners and researchers to find answers to these questions and to help identify an urban transport policy agenda for rapidly-growing metropolitan areas.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Integration of Planning and Environmental Analysis in Transportation
Opperman, Antony, presiding
This workshop is designed for both practitioners and researchers to provide an understanding of how resource planning and transportation planning are being integrated to ensure coordinated, transparent, and balanced results yielding solutions that protect the environment and advance the delivery of transportation projects. Joint planning (in keeping with Sections 6001, 6002, 3005, and 3006 of SAFETEA-LU) has received increasing emphasis.
The workshop will provide:

A broad overview of the regulatory intent and objectives of the planning regulations in 6001, 6002, 3005, and 3006 of SAFETEA-LU;
An overview of conservation tools in place and how they can be used to aid the integration of various planning processes;
A brief overview of case studies from around the country;
A forum for sharing experiences involving efforts to integrate natural resource, cultural resource, and social environments into transportation planning to facilitate the environmental review process; and
Identify potential new research or process initiatives that can enhance effectiveness of balanced and streamlined decision-making.

Workshop participants will be invited to share experiences, provide insights, make recommendations and provide valuable perspectives for enhancing the effectiveness of transportation decision-making.
Whether you are attending or not, please enrich the workshop by sharing your experiences and insights by e-mailing your thoughts to Martin Palmer at palmema@wsdot.wa.gov by December 15, 2007.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
How to Design and Build Quieter Pavements
Rochat, Judith, presiding
This full-day workshop has two primary objectives: to educate the transportation industry about the fundamentals of tire-pavement noise and quieter pavements and to update the transportation industry about the state of the practice in designing and building quieter pavements. The morning session, Tire-Pavement Noise 101, will be based on the successful FHWA workshop of the same name, managed by Mark Swanlund of the Office of Pavement Technology and Mark Ferroni of the Office of Natural and Human Environment. Instructors will include Rob Rasmussen, of the Transtec Group; Bob Bernhard, of Purdue University; and Paul Donavan, of Illingworth & Rodkin. The afternoon session, on the state of the practice, will include a practicum session that brings in additional invited speakers including Andre Smit, of the National Center for Asphalt Technology; Paul Wiegand, of the National Center on Concrete Pavement Technology; representatives from state departments of transportation; and national and international leaders in this field. Specific topics will include better practices for designing and building quieter pavements, available measurement technologies, and the status of quiet pavement research programs both nationwide and worldwide.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 12:15 p.m.-5:30 p.m., Hilton
Cutting Carbs in the Transportation Sector: International Efforts to Address Global Climate Change
Sadik-Khan, Janette, presiding
Global climate change is an issue that transcends national and international borders and involves all modes of transportation. This workshop will offer the current thinking on global climate change and showcase specific legislative and programmatic actions being taken around the world to cut carbon emissions generated by the transportation sector. Key public officials, private-sector operators, researchers, practitioners, and subject matter experts will highlight efforts in their domain that focus on cutting carbon emissions.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Benefits and Costs of Freight Movement: How Do We Balance Environmental Costs and Benefits?
Wakeman, Thomas, presiding
The environmental challenges attached to freight gateways and freight corridors have become increasingly complicated in terms of public health costs, public health perceptions, Not-in-My-Backyard reactions to freight projects, and a NEPA process that has become an extremely costly series of legal challenges. This workshop will consider new approaches to measuring the benefits and costs of freight movement and assess the growing impact that environmental issues, particularly air emissions, have on efforts to expand freight capacity and efficiency.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Wayside Transit Noise Predictions Used to Supplement the FTA Noise Impact Methodology
Wolf, Steven, presiding
Some of the practices currently used to supplement the FTA transit noise guidance methodologies will be presented. Topics include vertical propagation of wayside train noise; evaluation and prediction of wheel squeal noise; prediction of at grade and grade crossing noise; wayside noise from train horns; and innovative wayside noise mitigation measures.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Remote Sensing Technologies for Transportation Applications
Walker, Robert, presiding
This half-day workshop will consider practical uses of satellite and airborne collected remotely sensed data, its derived information, and attendant geographic information system (GIS)-based algorithms and software tools for use in transportation department functions. Other technologies developed by the U.S. Department of Defense such as RADAR and infrared tags that have transportation applications will be reviewed. Results of the Transportation Applications of Restricted Use Technology (TARUT) Study funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Michigan Department of Transportation will be discussed with an emphasis on lessons learned and next steps. Additional case studies will be presented to demonstrate the broader application of these emerging tools. Implications of the adoption of these new technologies on information technology systems and emerging Internet map services for visualization will also be presented.

Freight Systems
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Review and Analysis of Freight Transportation Markets and Relationships
Bingham, Paul, presiding
The purpose of this workshop is to review an interim report of the National Cooperative Freight Research Program Project, "Review and Analysis of Freight Transportation Markets and Relationships," in order to gather input from a representative cross section of freight industry stakeholders and constituents, including federal, state, and local transportation agencies and economic development offices; transportation academic institutions; freight carriers; shippers; industry associations and trade groups; environmental groups; and appropriate community groups. The review of the interim report will be a major step toward completion of the project's objective, which is development of a freight primer that will offer public-sector decision makers a deeper understanding of the importance of freight, the factors that drive private freight decisions, and the interaction of public policy with the public- and private-sector decision-making processes. The primer will provide guidance and a discussion framework for public-sector decision makers with an improved understanding of how public policies influence freight transportation markets and private freight decisions.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Assessing the Costs of Railroad Freight Service
The workshop will focus on the economics of railroad freight operations, including both fixed and variable cost components, with an emphasis on local and regional railroad freight operations. Economic fundamentals for various types of rail operation will be presented and compared, including movement of traditional carload freight, intermodal freight, and unit bulk freight. Differences between Class I and shortline economics will be discussed. Rail costs will also be compared with those of competing modes. The workshop should help attendees interested in funding or promoting rail freight operations to better assess the financial implications.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Benefits and Costs of Freight Movement: How Do We Balance Environmental Costs and Benefits?
Belzer, Michael, presiding
The environmental challenges attached to freight gateways and freight corridors have become increasingly complicated in terms of public health costs, public health perceptions, Not-in-My-Backyard reactions to freight projects, and a NEPA process that has become an extremely costly series of legal challenges. This workshop will consider new approaches to measuring the benefits and costs of freight movement and assess the growing impact that environmental issues, particularly air emissions, have on efforts to expand freight capacity and efficiency.

Geology and Earth Materials
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Recent Developments in Characterization of Aggregate Shape, Angularity, and Texture
Tutumluer, Erol, presiding
Particle shape, texture, and angularity are among the aggregate properties that have a significant effect on the performance of hot-mix asphalt, hydraulic cement concrete, and unbound base and subbase layers. These aggregate properties vary widely with the type and source of aggregates and processing techniques. Several new methods for measuring aggregate shape, texture, and angularity characteristics have been developed and refined in recent years. This workshop is intended to bring recent ready-to-implement developments and discoveries in this field to highway engineers, researchers, and the aggregate industry. The workshop will cover the following topics: aggregate composition and its effects on shape, texture, and angularity; review of the influence of aggregate shape, texture, and angularity on material properties and performance of pavement layers, including resistance to pavement distresses and the contribution of aggregates to pavement skid resistance; analysis methods for measuring the shape, texture, and angularity of aggregates; systems for measuring aggregate shape, texture, and angularity, including optical, X-ray CT, and laser-based systems; use of the recently developed analysis methods and systems in aggregate specifications and in quality control and quality assurance procedures; and development of performance models for pavement layers that account for aggregate characteristics.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Inclinometer Instrumentation for Transportation Projects
Machan, George, presiding
The last national publication on inclinometers was in 1977, and applications and practices have expanded and improved since then. In 2007 the workshop-sponsoring committees developed a Transportation Research Circular on the use of inclinometer instrumentation on transportation projects. This workshop provides information on the state of the practice through presentations on key topics by authors of the circular and experts in instrumentation. The following aspects will be presented: overview of the new circular, three representative applications (guidance based on case histories), data evaluation and diagnostics, automated data acquisition, and developing technology (inclinometer arrays). The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion.

International Activities
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Bus Rapid Transit Issues and Answers: Applications in Africa, Asia, and South America
Zimmerman, Samuel, presiding
The issues associated with the successful planning, implementation and operation of Bus Rapid Transit are not only technical, but include complex policy and institutional challenges as well. Given the large number of cities in the developing world contemplating some type of BRT system and the relative newness of the mode, there is a continuing need for the exchange of information among those that have been through planning and development to successful operation and those that are in process. The workshop is intended to be a relatively informal forum for these two groups organized around issues, not specific case studies.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts
Flintsch, Gerardo, presiding
Output- and performance-based road contracts (OPRCs) developed from the earlier contracts for performance-based management and maintenance of roads (PMMR). They are an alternative to the traditional works contracts under which payment is based on the quantity of work executed. Under OPRCs, contractors are paid for achieving specified outcomes, such as a certain road condition over a prolonged period of time, which is normally several years. If structured correctly, OPRC programs can effectively maintain pavements while at the same time contribute to improved social welfare and local economic conditions. OPRCs are now increasingly used worldwide to rehabilitate, upgrade, and maintain roads, and there is an increasing demand for such operations.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Impacts of Rural Roads
Keller, Gordon, presiding
This workshop is designed for professionals working on rural road issues in developing country contexts. The workshop will draw on recent research and may include highlights from the Low-Volume Roads Conference held in June 2007 in Austin, Texas. Case studies investigating both the macroeconomic effects of rural road programs and studies of the local impact of road investment will be considered. In addition, there will be a discussion of the methodologies employed. Since millennium development goals were adopted in 2000 as the world’s common goal for poverty alleviation, rural roads have been receiving renewed interest in their role of helping to reduce poverty and assist with social service delivery. To this end, governments and donor agencies are currently spending many billions of dollars on rural road programs in developing countries and it is important that effective planning procedures be adopted. This year marks the halfway point toward the target year of 2015, making this workshop particularly timely and an opportunity to reflect on how rural roads have contributed to the agenda, as well as to exchange ideas on how to move forward in achieving solid outcomes through rural roads.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Innovations in Transportation for Developing Countries
Bennett, Christopher, presiding
Many developing countries are adopting new and innovative technologies for resolving their transport problems. They are able to leapfrog the traditional long development cycle by implementing proved solutions from developed and other developing countries. This approach is enabling them to become more efficient and competitive in the delivery and management of their transport services and infrastructure.
This workshop will present examples of innovative technologies adopted as part of transport projects financed by the World Bank from around the world. It will be of interest to both practitioners and researchers interested in experiences from different countries.
The workshop will cover technologies in road management, intelligent transport systems, traffic management and public transport, as well as the integration of transport into E-government solutions.
The workshop will include information to assist policy makers and public institutions manage the transition and expectations, as well as avoid the pitfalls that can plague implementations of new technologies.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Transportation in Developing Urban Areas: Addressing Air Quality and Climate Change Issues
Kopp, Andreas, presiding
Developing countries will see a dramatic increase in urban population in the coming decades. The population increase will be accompanied by income growth, which is the basis for the expected strong increase in private car use. Demand management in developing countries seems to be even more difficult than it is in developed countries. What are the opportunities to avoid congestion and local air pollution, which strongly restrict the functionality of cities and their contribution to national economic development? What is urban transport policy’s contribution to reducing CO2 emissions?
The workshop is designed to help practitioners and researchers to find answers to these questions and to help identify an urban transport policy agenda for rapidly-growing metropolitan areas.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Corruption Risk Management in the Transportation Sector
Irigoyen, Jose Luis, presiding
This workshop is designed for professionals working on Transport in developed as well as developing countries.
The proposed session will be jointly co-sponsored by the International Activities Committee and the Committee on Transportation in Developing Countries. The workshop will draw upon the comparative experience and approaches developed by a variety of country at different levels of development to ensure that transport investments derive maximum value for money and avoid corruption.
Transport budgets in developed and developing countries often account for up to 10-20 percent of the national budget. Leakage due to corruption may range between 5 to 20 percent of transaction costs and even more in some instances. A 2006 estimate by the American Society of Civil Engineers suggests that 10% of the US$ 4 trillion spent annually on construction worldwide is lost to corruption, or between US$390 and 400 Billion. The international business community, the public opinion, sector agencies and governments are increasingly concerned about public investment and development aid effectiveness and integrity. The Transport sector, because of its size is a primary target of attention. At the same time, it has been a leading sector in the development of gradually more sophisticated procurement and risk management procedures in response to the growing public expectations of transparency, efficiency and good governance. This workshop is designed to highlight the vulnerabilities to corruption in the transport sector and methods, mechanisms, and approaches that are currently being used to mitigate and manage such risk in a variety of country situations. The workshop sessions will cover risk management areas such as cost estimation and improved business practices in road agencies, risk smart procurement, prevention of collusion, involvement of civil society, and comprehensive corruption action planning and implementation as have been used by a variety of governments and agencies in the transport sector, particularly in World Bank financed projects. A number of lessons are expected to emerge from this session which will be of relevance to practitioners in the sector at large.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Global Road Safety
Wegman, Fred, presiding
The workshop will address the growing global road safety crisis and its projected impact on vulnerable road users. Innovative developments in the provision of safer infrastructure for vulnerable road users will be presented and a panel discussion will then address and lead discussions on the issues raised. The workshop has been structured to allow ample time for participants to engage fully in this dialogue with the panel members and workshop presenters.

Maintenance
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts
Flintsch, Gerardo, presiding
Output- and performance-based road contracts (OPRCs) developed from the earlier contracts for performance-based management and maintenance of roads (PMMR). They are an alternative to the traditional works contracts under which payment is based on the quantity of work executed. Under OPRCs, contractors are paid for achieving specified outcomes, such as a certain road condition over a prolonged period of time, which is normally several years. If structured correctly, OPRC programs can effectively maintain pavements while at the same time contribute to improved social welfare and local economic conditions. OPRCs are now increasingly used worldwide to rehabilitate, upgrade, and maintain roads, and there is an increasing demand for such operations.

Management and Leadership
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Transforming Transportation Organizations: Building and Sustaining Relationship Networks
Park, Hyun-A, presiding
This workshop continues the dialogue from the TRB 2007 summer meeting in Chicago on transforming transportation organizations. Organizational transformation is one of TRB's critical issues and the focus of two of the three topics identified for the 2006 AASHTO CEO Forum. Much of the attention to date has been centered on service delivery and management of the transportation system. This workshop will focus on developing and leveraging external partnerships to address the needs of transportation agencies to adapt their organizations to meet the challenges of 21st-century transportation: less money, growing congestion, aging infrastructure, and information integration, among others. The need to build and maintain relationship networks is going to be key for the progressive organization in getting more done with fewer resources and for DOTs to become better at reaching, influencing and building creditbility with their partners. DOTs need to learn to identify which issues are better addressed with partnerships, how to identify what partners are needed and what roles each partner (including the DOT) is best positioned to serve. There’s a growing sophistication that DOTs can achieve more through partnership on some issues and that partners can reach places DOTs can’t. This workshop will have three presenters who will describe the relationship network used to address specific transportation situations. Participants will learn how to apply relationship mapping and management techniques to any business area in their organization. The second part of the workshop will have groups develop a relationship network using real situations in their organizations. This workshop will bring together practitioners with hands-on experience and researchers to share and discuss ideas for proactively managing organizational improvements through stronger partnerships - legislators, local government officials, environmental interest groups, other state agencies, etc.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Remote Sensing Technologies for Transportation Applications
Walker, Robert, presiding
This half-day workshop will consider practical uses of satellite and airborne collected remotely sensed data, its derived information, and attendant geographic information system (GIS)-based algorithms and software tools for use in transportation department functions. Other technologies developed by the U.S. Department of Defense such as RADAR and infrared tags that have transportation applications will be reviewed. Results of the Transportation Applications of Restricted Use Technology (TARUT) Study funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Michigan Department of Transportation will be discussed with an emphasis on lessons learned and next steps. Additional case studies will be presented to demonstrate the broader application of these emerging tools. Implications of the adoption of these new technologies on information technology systems and emerging Internet map services for visualization will also be presented.

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Building the 21st Century Workforce: Creating a National Strategy
Benz, Gregory, presiding
The transportation workforce has been a key topic of discussion in recent years. Several initiatives have led to the conclusion that the transportation workforce is critical to all transportation organizations, whether public, private, or academic. The Transportation Research Board Executive Committee identified the workforce as a critical issue for the transportation industry, and TRB standing committees recently confirmed that it remains a critical issue. The cross-group session on the 21st century workforce at the 2007 Annual Meeting was a success, resulting in more than 120 participants, who met for four hours. Key points raised by the panel and recommendations raised by breakout participants are as follows: (a) drawing on key issues identified in the session on building the 21st century workforce at the 2007 Annual Meeting, draft a strategic plan for building the national transportation workforce; (b) share the draft with transportation industry groups such as AASHTO, the American Public Transportation Association, the American Road Builders Association, and others; TRB groups; and participants from the 2007 21st century workforce session; discuss and strengthen the plan and especially develop the objectives and actions in the proposed 2008 Workshop on the 21st Century Workforce; form a 21st century transportation workforce community to implement the final national plan for the 21st century workforce.

Marine
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Review and Analysis of Freight Transportation Markets and Relationships
Bingham, Paul, presiding
The purpose of this workshop is to review an interim report of the National Cooperative Freight Research Program Project, "Review and Analysis of Freight Transportation Markets and Relationships," in order to gather input from a representative cross section of freight industry stakeholders and constituents, including federal, state, and local transportation agencies and economic development offices; transportation academic institutions; freight carriers; shippers; industry associations and trade groups; environmental groups; and appropriate community groups. The review of the interim report will be a major step toward completion of the project's objective, which is development of a freight primer that will offer public-sector decision makers a deeper understanding of the importance of freight, the factors that drive private freight decisions, and the interaction of public policy with the public- and private-sector decision-making processes. The primer will provide guidance and a discussion framework for public-sector decision makers with an improved understanding of how public policies influence freight transportation markets and private freight decisions.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS B. Identifying Safety Trends and Accident Precursors for Proactive Prevention
Shelton, Terry, presiding
Participants will analyze how best to develop robust safety trend and accident precursor information for accident prevention. Innovative combination and interpretation of various safety data sources can enable safety professionals to proactively justify appropriate safety-based initiatives without the heretofore obligatory precursor accident. With the understanding of how to combine and better mine data from the host of data sets that are available as its goal, the workshop will be a combination of presentation, case review, and group discussion.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Benefits and Costs of Freight Movement: How Do We Balance Environmental Costs and Benefits?
Wakeman, Thomas, presiding
The environmental challenges attached to freight gateways and freight corridors have become increasingly complicated in terms of public health costs, public health perceptions, Not-in-My-Backyard reactions to freight projects, and a NEPA process that has become an extremely costly series of legal challenges. This workshop will consider new approaches to measuring the benefits and costs of freight movement and assess the growing impact that environmental issues, particularly air emissions, have on efforts to expand freight capacity and efficiency.

Operations
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Future of Geometric Design and Graduate Student Research Summaries
McDonald, David, presiding
In this two part workshop, there will be discussion on the committee’s vision of geometric design and research reports on graduate student geometric design research.
Part A. How can we support the future needs of Geometric Design?
The AFB10 committee addresses the design of highway and street geometric elements that affect efficient traffic operations and safety. The committee focuses on the research, development, documentation, and presentation of geometric design criteria, standards, and methods. The committee also encourages the adoption of revised geometric design criteria, standards, and methods into operational guides for both state and local governments. The challenge is to create a framework to enhance geometric design by leading the development of criteria and guidelines for safe and efficient roadway space sensitive to user needs, vehicle characteristics, and the human and natural environment.

The workshop will begin with an overview of the Geometric Design committee’s evolution over the past year.
• Process taken to reorganize the committee,
• Revised organizational structure,
• Goals and vision of the committee (including how to support geometric design research, how this committee will interact with other TRB committees / subcommittees, how we will interact with AASHTO, and how to engage people in our activities), and
• Time for consensus building.

Part B. Graduate Student Research.
Graduate students will report on geometric design research. Reports of recently completed or nearly complete dissertations and theses will be presented.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Guidelines for Historic Road Corridors
Hadlow, Robert, presiding
NCHRP is currently developing guidelines for managing and improving historic road corridors. The effort focuses on the development of guidelines and management recommendations that will integrate safety, roadway performance, and historic preservation for historic roads. The first part of the workshop will provide participants with an overview of the current state of the practice in historic road corridor design and management. Results from an extensive survey of professional practitioners involved in historic roadway management and design will be shared. A list of issues and needs related to design and management identified in the research of current practices will be presented. The second part of the workshop will include small-group facilitated sessions to gather ideas from participants on potential design recommendations and guidelines to address the issues and needs of historic corridors.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management: Safety, Clearance, and Communications
Paesani, Gordon, presiding
The National Traffic Incident Management Coalition (NTIMC) is working to establish a National Unified Goal (NUG) for traffic incident management. This goal centers on three major issues: responder safety, safe quick clearance, and prompt reliable interoperable communications. This workshop will answer questions such as what NUG is, why it is needed, how will it be achieved, and what future directions are. In addition, the workshop will present lessons learned in scene management from the perspective of traffic management systems and traffic operations centers and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as it relates to traffic incidents.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Doctoral Student Research in Transportation Operations and Traffic Control
Noyce, David, presiding
This half-day workshop consists of reports of Ph.D. student research on transportation operations and traffic control. Reports of recently completed (or nearly completed) Ph.D. dissertations and research in progress are welcome.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Output- and Performance-Based Road Contracts
Flintsch, Gerardo, presiding
Output- and performance-based road contracts (OPRCs) developed from the earlier contracts for performance-based management and maintenance of roads (PMMR). They are an alternative to the traditional works contracts under which payment is based on the quantity of work executed. Under OPRCs, contractors are paid for achieving specified outcomes, such as a certain road condition over a prolonged period of time, which is normally several years. If structured correctly, OPRC programs can effectively maintain pavements while at the same time contribute to improved social welfare and local economic conditions. OPRCs are now increasingly used worldwide to rehabilitate, upgrade, and maintain roads, and there is an increasing demand for such operations.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Traffic Sensing: Application of Sensing and Planning
Cooper, James, presiding
The workshop is intended to provide an overview of the transportation applications of the current and new generations of sensing equipment and the role these may have in the development of planning tools and live diversion advice. This overview will encompass the development of live information feeds that have played a role in guidance and traffic information systems, but will also look at the potential for intelligent sensing, which can be further applied to the creation of live traffic restriction (of the types used in London and proposed in some other U.K. cities). The presentations will provide a strong introduction to the forms of technologies currently in use and begin to introduce the theories behind them.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration and Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance Systems: Current Status and Future Research Needs
Vehicle-infrastructure integration (VII), cooperative intersection collision avoidance systems (CICAS), and more general vehicle-infrastructure cooperative (VIC) systems, if fully deployed, will enable nearly ubiquitous vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications with the potential for far-reaching changes to transportation operations and management. It is anticipated that applications using these communications systems can significantly improve transportation safety, mobility, and productivity. In this workshop, results from the VIC and CICAS summer workshops (held in San Jose, California, in July 2007) will be presented. These presentations will include the status of the VII and CICAS initiatives, including the road map for deployment, preliminary results of proof-of-concept tests, and current research activities being conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, FHWA, state departments of transportation, industry, and universities. Results of workshop breakout discussions about the most important remaining research needs will also be presented.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS E. Digital Billboards on the Highway: A Bright Future?
Wachtel, Jerry, presiding
Billboards have existed since there were roadways. Although their pros and cons have been debated for 60 years, it is their influence on traffic flow and safety that has been most controversial. Now this controversy is being renewed thanks to the advent of large digital billboards that can display extremely bright images of broadcast quality. This workshop will consider the evolution of roadside billboards and the technologies now in use and under development and will examine the issues from all perspectives. The goal will be recommendations for how, when, and under what circumstances digital roadside billboards might be used and the conditions under which they should be restricted.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS G. Roundabouts: Shared Use by Pedestrians and Drivers
Hughes, Ronald, presiding
While modeling and simulation tools are frequently used to address vehicle interactions (i.e., traffic), they have not traditionally been used to address interactions between pedestrians and vehicles. Researchers involved in NCHRP Project 3-78 have been working on quantifying critical behavioral and system-level attributes of such interactions, one of the most poorly understood from a data standpoint being the likelihood of drivers' yielding to pedestrians. The researchers will talk about work currently being conducted in this area and go over the analytical and human factors rationale for the treatments to be evaluated by Project 3-78 in the field. They will discuss the VISSIM modeling work that has been done to support the proposed treatments. Results from several research studies on driver and pedestrian behavior will be presented, followed by discussion of pedestrian and driver attributes and issues in coding interactions in simulation programs. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of the type of research that is needed to improve capabilities to effectively represent pedestrian-vehicle interactions as a component of overall system-level design and evaluation.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Simulation Modeling and Analysis for Traffic Evacuation
Colyar, James, presiding
There is substantial interest in traffic evacuation throughout the traffic analysis and simulation community. Many public agencies and research institutions have been using simulation modeling to prepare traffic evacuation plans for a wide range of scenarios. However, there are many technical challenges for an analyst in conducting such an analysis. The purpose of this workshop will be to highlight best practices, lessons learned, innovative applications, and recent research regarding this topic. A variety of issues will be covered, such as individual facility evacuations, large regional evacuations, contraflow lane modeling, traveler information strategies, multimodal evacuation strategies, driver behavior during evacuations, and calibration and validation of simulation models for evacuations.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Using Information Technologies to Support Better Construction Management IV
Williams, Trefor, presiding
This popular half-day workshop will examine emerging technologies and technology tools for improving data collection, communications, and management as well as automation of information management and knowledge discovery that will improve the way construction projects are managed. The participants will examine technologies that are in various phases of development for use on construction job sites. It is expected that examining technologies at various points along the development pipeline will allow the workshop attendees to better understand which new technologies can be leveraged today to increase the production of construction and which technologies might likewise be used in the future. Topics of interest include on-site and site-office communications; intelligent automation of construction tasks; knowledge extraction and management; infrastructure conditioning assessment, modeling, and sensing; integration of project information into visualization and simulation models; project control systems and field management technologies; and communication, collaboration, and coordination technologies. Workshop participants will be asked to generate a list of research topics.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Street-Running Bus Rapid Transit and Light-Rail Transit Operations
Zimmerman, Samuel, presiding
The workshop will focus on best practices for accommodating bus rapid transit (BRT) and light-rail transit (LRT) in on-street operation in urban areas. Issues to be addressed will include desirable street characteristics to accommodate premium transit, effective traffic signalization, parking control, general traffic accommodation strategies, safe accommodation of pedestrians to and from stations, and overall safety considerations in design and operation. Several speakers from successful BRT and LRT operations and those in final planning and design will share their experiences. This workshop will be of particular interest to those planning new BRT and LRT systems for which substantial on-street running is anticipated, including those from underdeveloped countries in which allocation of street space for transit is most difficult because of the sheer number of pedestrians, bicycles, and general traffic sharing the roadway.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Remote Sensing Technologies for Transportation Applications
Walker, Robert, presiding
This half-day workshop will consider practical uses of satellite and airborne collected remotely sensed data, its derived information, and attendant geographic information system (GIS)-based algorithms and software tools for use in transportation department functions. Other technologies developed by the U.S. Department of Defense such as RADAR and infrared tags that have transportation applications will be reviewed. Results of the Transportation Applications of Restricted Use Technology (TARUT) Study funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Michigan Department of Transportation will be discussed with an emphasis on lessons learned and next steps. Additional case studies will be presented to demonstrate the broader application of these emerging tools. Implications of the adoption of these new technologies on information technology systems and emerging Internet map services for visualization will also be presented.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Recommended Revisions to AASHTO Guidelines for Traffic Data Programs
Kreideweis, Jonette, presiding
The first edition of the AASHTO Guidelines for Traffic Data Programs was published in 1992. Since then many advances have been made in traffic monitoring procedures, so an updated Recommended Guidelines document was recently completed as an NCHRP study. The objective of the guidelines is to improve the quality of the traffic information that supports decisions at all levels of the transportation profession. To realize this objective, this document is a reference for professional traffic monitoring and establishes recommended national traffic monitoring practices that reflect advances made in the last several years. This workshop will provide an overview of the Recommended Guidelines and feature speakers at the national and state levels to discuss the new guidelines.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Integrating Archived Traffic Operations Data into Planning Data Systems
Turner, Shawn, presiding
As the role of traditional data programs continues to evolve in state transportation agencies, data program managers may be asked to explore alternative data sources to supplement or improve upon existing sources. Archived operations data potentially could be a rich source of traffic data to be integrated into planning data systems. There are several benefits to integrating traffic operations data, but in some cases, there are several institutional and technical barriers. This session includes speakers who will talk about their experiences, their successes, and the barriers they are working to overcome.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 4:00 p.m.-5:45 p.m., Marriott
So You Want To Be a Transportation Professional?
Aspiring transportation professionals have many possible career paths in front of them, and they can benefit greatly from the experience of others who have gone before them. The purpose of this workshop is to give undergraduate students, graduate students, and others who are thinking about entering the transportation field an opportunity to hear from and speak to professionals who currently work in the public, private, and academic sectors. Each speaker will describe the essential work and environmental characteristics associated with a particular career path, identify the key traits that employers typically look for in employees, and discuss key issues and characteristics that employees should look for in prospective employers. The workshop concludes with a period of open discussion in which the audience is invited to engage the speakers and other sector representatives in additional dialogue and discussion.

Pavement Management
Saturday, January 12, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., Shoreham
DAWG Forum on Pavement Performance Data Analysis
Raab, A., presiding
The TRB Data Analysis Working Group (DAWG) will sponsor this forum to discuss methods of analysis of pavement performance data. Briefings will be presented on techniques for extracting, processing, and analyzing pavement performance databases as well as on preliminary results of applications of these techniques. Pavement researchers, designers, and managers and others interested in the analysis of data describing the development of distresses in pavements are encouraged to attend.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Using a Pavement Management System to Locally Calibrate Models in Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide
Stephanos, Peter, presiding
This workshop will present best practices to locally calibrate the performance models within the new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide by using a pavement management system. The workshop will include presentations on best practices used across the country to calibrate models, guidance on effective approaches to calibrate models, case studies from lead states that have taken steps to calibrate models, and elements of a pavement management system that are essential to effectively calibrate models.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Validation of Advanced Flexible Pavement Modeling with Accelerated Pavement Testing Data
Al-Qadi, Imad, presiding
The state of the art of modeling pavement materials and pavements continues to advance as formulations for inelastic constitutive modeling take cues from thermodynamics, chemistry, and other sciences. Such advanced models provide better numerical tools to describe the behavior of pavement materials in primary response (strain, stress) and secondary response (distresses, cracking, permanent deformation). However, the laboratory setting is more often the choice to validate advanced models, and if validation is done appropriately, it should be under conditions that are considerably different from those for calibration--different temperature, load rate, stress conditions, and sample geometry conditions. The ultimate condition for validation is in the field, where layered pavement structures are loaded by live tires repeatedly. Increases in computational power also provide more opportunities to apply advanced models where it has been traditionally too costly in time. However, it is generally understood that direct application and prediction of pavement structural responses throughout a meaningful period with advanced material models is still out of reach for real pavements under operating conditions. Considering the impact of the major variables--such as traffic load and axle and tire spectra, temperature fluctuations and gradients, aging, and so forth--is not realistic. Fortunately, accelerated pavement testing (APT) experiments control many of these variables, providing a common ground for APT and modeling. Sufficient variables may be eliminated that an advanced materials model can be applied to a meaningful scenario, allowing the costs (time and money) associated with developing and validating advanced pavement material models to be evaluated in terms of potential benefits of improved pavement response prediction and also provide means to make necessary alterations and adjustment to advanced pavement material models. This workshop will focus on the relationship between recent model development and the data collected for APT and its utilization for the validation of the developed models. The workshop will cover the following areas: (a) identification of specific aspects of APT that are important to the modeling community--materials scientists, computational mechanics, chemists, and others--and which aspects of APT are of lesser concern; (b) development of realistic material characteristics that would be required for laboratory calibration of an advanced model; (c) discussion of appropriate APT experiments for advanced model validation and identification of which variables are controlled and what is being measured in the APT (instrumentation); (d) current experience in model validation and prediction based on APT experiments; and (e) identification of areas in which models can be improved when APT data are available.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Marriott
Fundamentals of Pavement Deflection Analysis: Methods for Backcalculation with Application to Mechanistic Pavement Design
Richter, Cheryl, presiding
Pavement deflection testing has become a common and reliable tool for pavement evaluation. But how should the data be evaluated? As the move is made toward the use of mechanistic design for pavement rehabilitation projects, it is important to understand the fundamentals of deflection data analysis. The workshop will begin with a general overview of the subject, followed by an introduction to data analysis methods and advice on how to interpret the results. Examples of mechanistic pavement design applications at the project level will be given. A period for general discussion will be included. The need for screening of data to avoid spending time analyzing poor data will be emphasized and illustrated with real project data. Several computer programs used for backcalculation will be demonstrated.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
How to Design and Build Quieter Pavements
Rasmussen, Robert, presiding
This full-day workshop has two primary objectives: to educate the transportation industry about the fundamentals of tire-pavement noise and quieter pavements and to update the transportation industry about the state of the practice in designing and building quieter pavements. The morning session, Tire-Pavement Noise 101, will be based on the successful FHWA workshop of the same name, managed by Mark Swanlund of the Office of Pavement Technology and Mark Ferroni of the Office of Natural and Human Environment. Instructors will include Rob Rasmussen, of the Transtec Group; Bob Bernhard, of Purdue University; and Paul Donavan, of Illingworth & Rodkin. The afternoon session, on the state of the practice, will include a practicum session that brings in additional invited speakers including Andre Smit, of the National Center for Asphalt Technology; Paul Wiegand, of the National Center on Concrete Pavement Technology; representatives from state departments of transportation; and national and international leaders in this field. Specific topics will include better practices for designing and building quieter pavements, available measurement technologies, and the status of quiet pavement research programs both nationwide and worldwide.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
ProVAL: Profile Viewing and Analysis Software
Chang, George, presiding
This workshop is designed to familiarize attendees with the current version of FHWA's Profile Viewing and Analysis (ProVAL) software; refresh some of the key fundamentals of pavement profiling and analysis methods; inform attendees of the advantages, limitations, and pitfalls related to analyzing and interpreting pavement profiles; and provide an interactive and hands-on approach throughout the workshop.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m., Marriott
Long-Term Pavement Performance State Coordinators' Meeting
Mendez, Victor, presiding
As in the past, this annual LTPP State Coordinators' Meeting provides an excellent opportunity for all attendees to discuss LTPP plans, progress, and experiences with federal, state, provincial, industry, and academic colleagues. This year’s meeting includes presentations reviewing the activities and accomplishments of the previous year, plans for this year, and major issues concerning LTPP data collection, analysis, and product development.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Advanced Pavement Analysis Methods for Backcalculation and Mechanistic-Based Design
Tutumluer, Erol, presiding
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) and computational intelligence-based analysis and modeling have been emerging areas of importance and interest in geotechnical and pavement engineering. Several factors have stimulated this interest, the most notable being the recognition of the promise of certain information-processing characteristics apparent in the brain that have eluded capture within conventional computing schemes. These notable advantages include the ability to learn and generalize from examples, to produce meaningful and cost-effective solutions to various problems even when input data contain errors or are incomplete, to adapt solutions over time to compensate for changing circumstances, and to process information rapidly. These nontraditional computational intelligence techniques have already proved to outperform traditional modeling counterparts in solving various complex engineering problems. The recent adoption and use of ANN modeling techniques in the new NCHRP Project 1-37A Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide for AASHTO has especially emphasized the successful use of neural nets in geomechanical and pavement systems. Yet many practitioners still have a lack of understanding and are currently skeptical of the use of ANNs and other computational intelligence systems. This workshop is intended to help overcome these obstacles by providing practicing engineers with sources of necessary background information and an overall better understanding and at the same time to foster the use of ANNs and other nontraditional computational intelligence techniques in geotechnical and pavement engineering applications related to transportation facilities.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Automated Survey of Pavement Distress
Wang, Kelvin, presiding
Survey of pavement distresses is a critical component in pavement evaluation and rehabilitation. State and local highway agencies are increasingly relying on distress data for their pavement management systems. In recent years, there have been substantial progresses in data acquisition and data automation. In particular, laser based illumination technology has solved decades old problem of not being able to obtain shadow-free images of pavements. Software based processing techniques allow comprehensive evaluation of various types of pavement distresses. This workshop will review the state-of-the-art developments for automated distress survey, including data collection and data interpretation. Another main thrust of the workshop is the presentations by government and research agencies on their experiences in using various techniques in data acquisition and processing. Developers and vendors of technologies will demonstrate their latest wares during the presentation.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Workshop
Fults, Kenneth, presiding
The workshop will include topical areas covering local calibration, materials characterizations, and traffic and axle weight data and will feature a discussion by at least two state departments of transportation on implementation issues. Time will be set aside for questions and answers.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Street-Running Bus Rapid Transit and Light-Rail Transit Operations
Zimmerman, Samuel, presiding
The workshop will focus on best practices for accommodating bus rapid transit (BRT) and light-rail transit (LRT) in on-street operation in urban areas. Issues to be addressed will include desirable street characteristics to accommodate premium transit, effective traffic signalization, parking control, general traffic accommodation strategies, safe accommodation of pedestrians to and from stations, and overall safety considerations in design and operation. Several speakers from successful BRT and LRT operations and those in final planning and design will share their experiences. This workshop will be of particular interest to those planning new BRT and LRT systems for which substantial on-street running is anticipated, including those from underdeveloped countries in which allocation of street space for transit is most difficult because of the sheer number of pedestrians, bicycles, and general traffic sharing the roadway.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Workshop
Fults, Kenneth, presiding
The workshop will include topical areas covering local calibration, materials characterizations, and traffic and axle weight data and will feature a discussion by at least two state departments of transportation on implementation issues. Time will be set aside for questions and answers.

Pedestrians and Cycles
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS G. Roundabouts: Shared Use by Pedestrians and Drivers
Hughes, Ronald, presiding
While modeling and simulation tools are frequently used to address vehicle interactions (i.e., traffic), they have not traditionally been used to address interactions between pedestrians and vehicles. Researchers involved in NCHRP Project 3-78 have been working on quantifying critical behavioral and system-level attributes of such interactions, one of the most poorly understood from a data standpoint being the likelihood of drivers' yielding to pedestrians. The researchers will talk about work currently being conducted in this area and go over the analytical and human factors rationale for the treatments to be evaluated by Project 3-78 in the field. They will discuss the VISSIM modeling work that has been done to support the proposed treatments. Results from several research studies on driver and pedestrian behavior will be presented, followed by discussion of pedestrian and driver attributes and issues in coding interactions in simulation programs. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of the type of research that is needed to improve capabilities to effectively represent pedestrian-vehicle interactions as a component of overall system-level design and evaluation.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Accessible Transportation and Pedestrian Infrastructure in Less-Developed Countries
Mitchell, Christopher, presiding
Steps to make public transport and pedestrian infrastructure more accessible and safer in less-developed countries helps the whole population because a majority of all journeys are made on foot or by bus or train. This workshop will provide presentations on accessible bus rapid transit in less-developed countries, the mobility and safety of older and disabled pedestrians, international experience with accessible public transport and taxis, and the development of accessible bus stops and low-floor buses in India. It will include a summary of the main outputs from the 11th International Conference on Transport and Mobility for Elderly and Disabled People (TRANSED 2007).

Public Transportation and Ferries
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Bus Rapid Transit Issues and Answers: Applications in Africa, Asia, and South America
Zimmerman, Samuel, presiding
The issues associated with the successful planning, implementation and operation of Bus Rapid Transit are not only technical, but include complex policy and institutional challenges as well. Given the large number of cities in the developing world contemplating some type of BRT system and the relative newness of the mode, there is a continuing need for the exchange of information among those that have been through planning and development to successful operation and those that are in process. The workshop is intended to be a relatively informal forum for these two groups organized around issues, not specific case studies.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Using Taxis Effectively in Paratransit Services
Ellis, Elizabeth, presiding
The workshop will focus on how paratransit systems can use taxis
effectively, either as a supplement to paratransit services or integrated with paratransit services. The perspectives of the paratransit operators and taxi companies will be presented, along with the results of the TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program Research Report B-30 "Optimal Split of Dedicated and Nondedicated Service for Demand-Responsive Paratransit."

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Measuring and Managing the Shared Use of Rail Infrastructure
Perl, Anthony, presiding
The financial, management, and policy principles and practices behind shared use of rail infrastructure in North America will be explored. There will be presentations on the economics of sharing rail infrastructure, the best practices in negotiating and implementing shared use arrangements, and the potential for new approaches to shared use by intercity, commuter, and freight rail operators. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to engage team members from the recently launched NCHRP Project 08-64, "A Guidebook on Improved Principles, Processes, and Methods for Shared-Use Passenger and Freight Rail Corridors."

Rail
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Changes to the DOT National Crossing Inventory File and Certain State Initiatives
Hall, James, presiding
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory File database is available on the FAA website, which governmental agencies, railroads, and independent researchers can use to research the many aspects of any of the 277,000 crossings in the nation. Combined with the Crossing Accident-Incident File, the inventory file identifies the most risky crossings for improvements by using the Accident Prediction Model. This workshop will cover the background and purpose of the file, how it works, how updates are obtained, how crossing numbers are assigned, and how to access data. It will include explanations of the DOT accident prediction formula, the GradeDec software, the responsibility for updating (state or railroad), policy and procedures for updating, the new revised inventory form with the added data elements, and the revised file structure. The workshop will include state transportation agency perspectives on the maintenance, management, and use of the rail-crossing file.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Measuring and Managing the Shared Use of Rail Infrastructure
Perl, Anthony, presiding
The financial, management, and policy principles and practices behind shared use of rail infrastructure in North America will be explored. There will be presentations on the economics of sharing rail infrastructure, the best practices in negotiating and implementing shared use arrangements, and the potential for new approaches to shared use by intercity, commuter, and freight rail operators. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to engage team members from the recently launched NCHRP Project 08-64, "A Guidebook on Improved Principles, Processes, and Methods for Shared-Use Passenger and Freight Rail Corridors."

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Shoreham
Review and Analysis of Freight Transportation Markets and Relationships
Bingham, Paul, presiding
The purpose of this workshop is to review an interim report of the National Cooperative Freight Research Program Project, "Review and Analysis of Freight Transportation Markets and Relationships," in order to gather input from a representative cross section of freight industry stakeholders and constituents, including federal, state, and local transportation agencies and economic development offices; transportation academic institutions; freight carriers; shippers; industry associations and trade groups; environmental groups; and appropriate community groups. The review of the interim report will be a major step toward completion of the project's objective, which is development of a freight primer that will offer public-sector decision makers a deeper understanding of the importance of freight, the factors that drive private freight decisions, and the interaction of public policy with the public- and private-sector decision-making processes. The primer will provide guidance and a discussion framework for public-sector decision makers with an improved understanding of how public policies influence freight transportation markets and private freight decisions.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Increasing Utilization, Impact, and Effectiveness of Research and Development: Stakeholder Involvement Strategies in Evaluation
Coplen, Michael, presiding
For R&D to be useful, stakeholder involvement is crucial. This workshop discusses different evaluation methods for involving stakeholders throughout the entire R&D life-cycle--from design to implementation to final products and reports--to increase the utilization, impact, and knowledge transfer of federally funded R&D programs in transportation.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS B. Identifying Safety Trends and Accident Precursors for Proactive Prevention
Shelton, Terry, presiding
Participants will analyze how best to develop robust safety trend and accident precursor information for accident prevention. Innovative combination and interpretation of various safety data sources can enable safety professionals to proactively justify appropriate safety-based initiatives without the heretofore obligatory precursor accident. With the understanding of how to combine and better mine data from the host of data sets that are available as its goal, the workshop will be a combination of presentation, case review, and group discussion.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Shoreham
Assessing the Costs of Railroad Freight Service
The workshop will focus on the economics of railroad freight operations, including both fixed and variable cost components, with an emphasis on local and regional railroad freight operations. Economic fundamentals for various types of rail operation will be presented and compared, including movement of traditional carload freight, intermodal freight, and unit bulk freight. Differences between Class I and shortline economics will be discussed. Rail costs will also be compared with those of competing modes. The workshop should help attendees interested in funding or promoting rail freight operations to better assess the financial implications.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Hilton
Wayside Transit Noise Predictions Used to Supplement the FTA Noise Impact Methodology
Wolf, Steven, presiding
Some of the practices currently used to supplement the FTA transit noise guidance methodologies will be presented. Topics include vertical propagation of wayside train noise; evaluation and prediction of wheel squeal noise; prediction of at grade and grade crossing noise; wayside noise from train horns; and innovative wayside noise mitigation measures.

Research and Education
Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Hilton
Innovative Doctoral Transportation Research by Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship Recipients
Sutton, Gwen, presiding
This workshop features innovative research by advanced Ph.D. Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship students on a broad array of significant transportation topics.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
Increasing Utilization, Impact, and Effectiveness of Research and Development: Stakeholder Involvement Strategies in Evaluation
Coplen, Michael, presiding
For R&D to be useful, stakeholder involvement is crucial. This workshop discusses different evaluation methods for involving stakeholders throughout the entire R&D life-cycle--from design to implementation to final products and reports--to increase the utilization, impact, and knowledge transfer of federally funded R&D programs in transportation.

Sunday, January 13, 2008, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Marriott
HUMAN FACTORS H. Toward Best Practices for Ethical and Privacy Issues in On-Road Driving Research
Sayer, James, presiding
As increased availability of low-cost video and vehicle instrumentation enables researchers to gather enormous amounts of detailed information about driver behavior, researchers are in a good position to address a complex array of associated ethical and privacy issues. With case studies and other past experience, the workshop will concentrate on the identification of ethical and privacy problems, ideas, and solutions with the a