Cal Poly Alum Returns

We were very happy to welcome Mr. Robert (Bob) Preston, P.E., T.E., PTOE, back to Cal Poly on January 26, 2016. Mr. Preston was a Transportation Engineering graduate in 1974 and worked in the transportation profession including many years as the Alameda County Traffic Engineer. Students and faculty enjoyed hearing about his experiences and about his love for Cal Poly. He encouraged us to think about priorities and people, and to always make sure we have a mentor. We hope he will visit us again soon!

Randy Iwasaki Visits Cal Poly

As always we were extremely happy to have our "rock star" alumnus Randy Iwasaki, Director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and former Caltrans Director visit our campus on Thursday January 21, 2016. Randy spoke to my CE 523 Transportation Systems Planning class and to the ITE student chapter and toured TESPA. We are very grateful for his support!

Great Cal Poly Participation at the ITE Student Leadership Summit

A total of 27 students and faculty from Cal Poly SLO Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) student chapter actively participated in the Third Annual ITE Student Leadership Summit, held January 22-24, 2016 at Cal Poly Pomona. There were about 150 students from 15 universities in the western U.S. I was pleased to participate as a member of a Leadership Panel. The future is bright with such energetic and passionate future leaders in transportation!

95th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C.

As always it was a wonderful and busy week at the Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting held January 10-14 in Washington, D.C. I was a co-author on 7 presented papers, chaired two sessions and led the Operations Section Executive Board Meeting. It was wonderful to have 5 current Cal Poly students and 2 faculty colleagues in attendance. Here are some of the highlights:

Measurement and Assessment of Driver Compliance with Variable Speed Limit Systems: Comparison of United States and Germany (Paper 16-3032)

Gary Riggins, Technical University Munich
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University
Williams Ackaah and Klaus Bogenberger, Universität der Bundeswehr München

Assessing the Harmonization Potential of Variable Speed Limit Systems (Paper 16- 2688)
Williams Ackaah, Gerhard Huber and Klaus Bogenberger, Universität der Bundeswehr München
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University

Bus Transit Service Reliability: Understanding Impacts of Overlapping Bus Service on Headway Delays and Determinants of Bus Bunching (Paper 16-2059)
Ehab Diab, University of Toronto
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University
Ahmed El-Geneidy, McGill University

Toward Assessing State Department of Transportation Readiness for Connected Vehicle and Cooperative System Deployment Scenarios: Oregon Case Study (Paper 16-2057)
Robert L. Bertini and Kevin Carstens, California Polytechnic State University
Haizhong Wang, Oregon State University
Anthony Knudson, Oregon Department of Transportation

Development of a Transportation System Simulation Manual (TSSM) Framework: From Theory to Practice (Paper 16-3600)
George List, North Carolina State University
Mehdi Mashayekhi, North Carolina State University
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University
Brandon Nevers, Kittelson & Associates, Inc. (KAI)

Perspectives on Transit: Potential Benefits of Visualizing Transit Data (Paper 16- 5474)
Ehab Diab, University of Toronto 

Ahmed El-Geneidy, McGill University
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University
Colin Stewart

Capturing Benefits of Variable Advisory Speed System in Portland, Oregon: Empirical Before-and-After Evaluation (Paper 16-0687)
Matthew Downey
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University


Freeway Traffic Control (Session 323)
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University, presiding

Operations Section Executive Board (AHB00)
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University, presiding

Applications for a Connected Transportation System (Session 465)
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University, presiding

Macroscopic Features of Traffic Flow (Session 694)
Robert L. Bertini, California Polytechnic State University, presiding

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

TRR Review Advisory Board, Robert. L. Bertini, Member

Constantinos Antoniou and Loukas Dimitriou Visit Cal Poly

Dr. Constantinos Antoniou of the National Technical University of Athens and Dr. Loukas Dimitriou of the University of Cypress visited Cal Poly on Friday January 15, 2016. Dr. Antoniou presented “Making Connected Vehicles Succeed: Beyond the Core Technical Challenges,” to the CE 523 Transportation Systems Planning class and to our Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) student chapter. We were very happy to welcome Dr. Antoniou and Dr. Dimitriou to campus and we hope this will lead to further collaboration in the future!

Presentation to ITE Student Chapter

I was very happy to present "Lessons from Taking the Fork in the Road" to the Cal Poly Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) student chapter on January 7, 2016.