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Promising Practices and Solutions in Accessible Transportation: Online Conference on Accessible Transportation |
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Easter Seals Project ACTION in Partnership with the Transportation Research Board Session 2: Tuesday, Aug. 3 Session 3: Wednesday, Aug. 4 Session 4: Thursday, Aug. 5 All of the sessions are audio conferences. Instructions for dialing in will be provided to those who register. Busy work schedules and limited resources often prevent transit professionals, disability service providers and advocates from attending professional conferences. While in-person conference participation may be a preferred way to increase professional knowledge and networking, it is not the only way. To this end, ESPA will co-host an online conference that draws from accessible transportation presentations delivered at the Transportation Research Board’s 89th Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C. in January 2010. Learners enrolled in the online conference will have the opportunity to ask questions during the presentation and will be encouraged by the ESPA facilitator to share ideas and best practices. In addition, ESPA will explore social networking strategies to encourage additional learner interaction following the online conference. Each one-hour session will begin at 2 p.m. EST on the scheduled date. Resources related to the presentation will be posted on this page approximately two days before each session. These materials are intended as additional resources to provide more in-depth information and it is not necessary to download them for the presentation. In order to give presenters an opportunity to learn about the interests of participants, everyone is invited to email their areas of interest and/or questions one week prior to the conference to espadistancelearning@easterseals.com. The presenters will review these comments and do their best to address these issues during the presentation. Please type "Online Conference on Accessible Transportation" in the subject line and submit no later than July 23. Session Descriptions Session 1: Accessible Taxis Getting the Cabs into Service on the Street Resource materials for this session
About the presenters Wendy Klancher is a Principal Transportation Planner for the National Capital region’s metropolitan planning organization (MPO). She has been with the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board staff since 1998. Wendy manages the Human Service Transportation Coordination program including administering the JARC and New Freedom grants. Wendy has served as the project manager for the D.C wheelchair accessible taxicab pilot program since the project’s inception in 2008. She also manages the documentation and analysis of the long-range transportation plan. Wendy is a member of the National Steering Committee for Easter Seals Project ACTION and is a certified planner (AICP). She has a Masters degree in Planning from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute. Peter Schenkman…With more than two decades of Government and Private Sector Technical, Operational and Management experience, Peter Schenkman has developed a sharp eye for how businesses and government get bloated with inefficiencies, cross-purposes and miscommunication — and how they can retool for a sleeker, smoother, strategically focused organization. Most recently his forward thinking transportation policy initiatives as a Senior Bloomberg Administration Advisor have helped insure New York City will remain a world leader as it strives for a more efficient, cleaner and progressive transportation network. Prior to his appointment as Assistant Commissioner of Safety & Emissions for the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, Peter was an agency first responder on September 11, 2001 working in the Forward Emergency Operations Center as a supply line logistics coordinator as well as IT support. Peter next served as Director of Transportation Services, working with local and federal law enforcement to ensure safe transport of High Profile Officials around New York City. Peter has industry leading experience rolling out the nation’s largest hybrid and wheelchair accessible taxi fleets, both from public policy development to his current position as Chief Logistics Officer for Taxi Club Management, the largest taxi fleet in New York City. Ray Mundy, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Transportation Studies and the Barriger Endowed Professor of Transportation and Logistics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Dr. Mundy currently teaches courses in Supply Chain Management and Transportation. He has more recently authored numerous taxi industry reports for cities such as Miami, and Orlando, Florida; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Norfolk and Hampton, Virginia, Anaheim and Coachella Valley, California; Winnipeg, Canada; and co-authored a text on taxicab regulations (Ashgate Press, January 2010). He is currently conducting taxi studies for the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He is an active lecturer at national transportation and logistics seminars, and is a frequent contributor of articles to trade publications and journals. Currently Dr. Mundy sits on the editorial review boards of the International Journal of Transportation Planning and Technology and the Transportation Management Journal. He sits on several corporate boards including Forward Air, the largest non-integrated provider of timed-definite air freight. Dr. Mundy is also the Executive Director of the Airport Ground Transportation Association and Director of the Tennessee Transportation and Logistics Foundation. Dr. Mundy holds a BA and an MBA from Bowling Green State University and a PhD in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University. Session 2: Technology in Transit: Innovation and Evaluation This presentation discusses a test bed for an AVL deployment on the Advance Transit bus system in rural Vermont/New Hampshire with an emphasis on low cost, high reliability solutions. Technology on both the hardware side and software side is described. Our next presenter will focus on research related to citizen science methods to engage riders with disabilities and others in improving public transportation accessibility by documenting and assessing problems and good solutions throughout the system. The goal is to empower riders, resulting in a greater understanding of the transportation system, and improve the feedback loop between rider and provider. The presentation will cover research results related to multimedia methods for rider reporting and include an update on recent project progress. Resource materials for this session
About the presenters Robert Chamberlin PE/PTOE (B.E., M.S. Engineering Sciences, Dartmouth College) directs RSG’s Transportation Engineering practice. He has a professional interest in ITS applications for improving traffic flow and transit operations. Custom applications he has developed and directed include: the Congestion Analyzer for measuring saturation flow rates; an Above-Ground vehicle detector; and a custom AVL system for rural transit providers. He has managed numerous transportation planning and engineering projects since joining Resource Systems Group in 1991 including all of RSG’s traffic signal design and coordination studies. He is the former President of the Vermont Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Van Chesnut has served for 23 years as Executive Director of Advance Transit, a nonprofit rural public transit agency in the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont. The Upper Valley is best known as the home of Dartmouth College. Advance Transit is known for high ridership growth and fare free transit service. Van has 31 years experience in passenger transportation management. Van serves as the Chair of the New Hampshire Transit Association and serves on the boards of the Vermont Public Transportation Association and the Upper Valley Transportation Management Association. Van also chairs the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission’s TAC (Transportation Advisory Committee) Van has received the Founder’s Award from the Community Transportation Association of America. and has participated in the International Transit Studies Program. Aaron Steinfeld, Ph.D. is a Systems Scientist in the Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his BSE, MSE, and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and completed a Post Doc at U.C. Berkeley. He is the Co-Director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation (RERC-APT) and the area lead for transportation related projects in the Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center (QoLT ERC). Session 3: Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines for Roundabouts and Intersections Lois Thibault, with the U.S. Access Board, will draw on her extensive knowledge of intersection design and access for people with disabilities developed through years of research and experience. She will address standards drafted by the Access Board around this issue and the relevance to pedestrian access for everyone. Lukas Franck, with the Seeing Eye Inc., will address research and standards developed for the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), and how these standards reflect the growth of the industry in understanding the needs of pedestrians with disabilities and the integration of solutions into effective intersection design. He will also touch on research on roundabouts and right channelized turn lanes conducted for the National cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), as well as other lessons learned from his years of experience in training people who are blind or visually impaired to navigate intersections using dog guides. Donna Smith with Easter Seals Project ACTION will provide a quick introduction to the techniques used by people who are blind or visually impaired when making decisions about when to safely cross a street. Donna will draw on her personal experience to describe this process. Resource materials for this session
About the presenters Lois Thibault…After a decade's work in the private practice of architecture and six years at The American Institute of Architects, Ms. Thibault joined the US Access Board in 1992 to direct its training activities, taking on the Board's research program in 1998. She also assists in agency rulemaking, currently working on Public Rights-of-Way and Classroom Acoustics; develops advisory material on ADAAG provisions; provides technical assistance to public and private entities; and conducts training. In 1999 she authored 'Accessible Rights-of-Way', a design guide for pedestrian facility accessibility. Lois also serves on the board of The Washington Ear, a radio reading service for persons with visual impairments. Lukas Franck has worked for The Seeing Eye for 32 years. His current title is Senior Special Projects Consultant. He is also a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) having gotten his Mobility degree at Western Michigan University in 1987. His job responsibilities include providing follow up services with some of the 1700 Seeing Eye graduates in the US and Canada. As a result of this exposure he has been interested in the impact of traffic engineering and intersection design on the independence of blind and visually impaired people for about 15 years. He is a member and past chair of the Environmental Access Committee of AER’s Orientation and Mobility Division. He has worked with the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, and served on the Public Rights of Way Access Advisory Committee ( PROWAAC). He is a member of two federal research oversight panels on Accessible Pedestrian Signals and Roundabouts. Donna Smith is the training manager for Easter Seals Project ACTION. Donna has 31 years experience as a professional in the field of disability advocacy with 26 of those years as a training and technical assistance specialist on disability-related laws and issues, including 8 years specifically devoted to transportation issues. Her areas of knowledge pertinent to accessible transportation include human service transportation coordination, ADA rights and responsibilities, coalition building, the transit experience from the customer’s perspective, the increasing role of technology in transportation access, and the accessible pedestrian environment. Her strongest skills are the ability to communicate clearly and to help diverse groups find common ground from which to seek and create solutions. Donna understands firsthand the essential role of accessible, affordable transportation in the lives of people with disabilities, and it is both her job and her passion to help find solutions to transportation needs. Donna is a graduate of Mississippi State University and has a daughter who lives in Jackson, MS. Donna has a Seeing Eye dog and lives in Arlington, VA. She enjoys books, music, audio described movies and travel. Session 4: The Role of Transit-Oriented Development: Livable and Sustainable Communities Resource materials for this session
About the presenters Lilly Shoup is the Research Director at Transportation for America focusing on federal transportation policy. She recently completed "Dangerous by Design" an analysis of pedestrian safety trends nationwide, and "Stranded at the Station" documenting the impact of transit service cuts and fare increases on vulnerable populations. Prior to joining the Transportation for America Campaign, Lilly consulted on affordable housing, transportation, and economic development projects at ICF International. Nat Bottigheimer is a transportation planner with extensive experience coordinating transportation service and infrastructure planning with local economic and real estate development. At Metro, Nat oversees the agency’s long range planning and land development and disposition functions. Prior to joining WMATA in 2005, Nat worked at the Maryland Department of Transportation overseeing a group that focused on transportation and land use development planning, particularly transit-oriented development. Nat has also worked as a real estate economics consultant to FTA, EPA, developers, toll authorities, and local governments. He received a Masters in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and a Bachelor's in Government from Harvard University. Mary A. Leary, Ph.D. joined Easter Seals, Inc., Office of Public Affairs in November 2007, as the senior director of Easter Seals Project ACTION, the National Center on Senior Transportation and other Transportation Initiatives. She has over 25 years of experience in federal government programs through private and public sector roles and has worked to expand transportation options for all at the federal level since 2004 when she served as a member of the United We Ride interagency initiative. Before joining Easter Seals, Mary served as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Aging where her activities included management of several major program evaluation projects, the development of transportation projects with key partners including n4a and APTA. She served as a member of the United We Ride initiative for the Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging, and co-chaired the Consolidated Access Workgroup where she helped drive the development of the United We Ride logic model. Prior to her career in the public sector, she was in senior management in the information technology industry. Mary holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University, a Gerontology Masters Certificate from George Mason University, an M.A. in Administrative Science from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.S. from James Madison University. How to participate Sign up for the Online Conference on Accessible Transportation before July 28. You may participate in any combination of sessions that you choose. Only one registration is required. After you register, related information, including dial-in instructions, will be provided via email on or before July 30. If you and other members of your organization wish to participate, we encourage you to register once and to use one phone line, inviting others to join you in the room. This will allow for maximum participation. If you have any questions regarding this event, contact Kristi Ross at 800-659-6428 or espadistancelearning@easterseals.com. About our Partner The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council, which serves as an independent adviser to the federal government and others on scientific and technical questions of national importance, and which is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to provide leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange, conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary, and multimodal. The Board is supported by state transportation departments, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation. Each year, TRB’s varied activities engage more than 7,000 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest by participating on TRB committees, panels, and task forces. Others get involved and support TRB activities by becoming a TRB Affiliate; participating in TRB-sponsored conferences and workshops; authoring technical papers and contract research reports; and more. Start Date:
Monday, August 2, 2010
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