Start Date:
-Summary:
State Departments of Transportation, Regional and Local Transportation agencies address TSMO using various methods – however, TSMO struggles to rise to a level of primary focus within these agencies. In cases where TSMO has some visibility within an agency, it’s often vaguely weaved into the high-level agency goals or is a part of long list of projects/activities identified to address a specific issue, but not mainstreamed into the agency’s business architecture.
TSMO program plan lays out the important role of TSMO in the agency. It describes what the TSMO program seeks to accomplish, including strategic goals, objectives, and focus areas. As importantly, it describes how the organization is structured and how work is accomplished toward those objectives, who is involved and their roles; and what resources are needed and will be deployed. It may also include identification of investment priorities to support desired performance outcomes. TSMO program planning also sustains a TSMO mission within the agency and helps to ensure effective delivery of TSMO program services.
Continuing the discussion from the December 2017 roundtable - FHWA, AASHTO, the National Operations Center of Excellence NOCoE are sponsoring the PART -2 of the TSMO Program Plan Development Roundtable. To view the recording from PART-1, please visit here: TSMO Program Plan Development Roundtable Winter 2017/18 - Part-1
The SHRP2 Reliability (L06) effort – using a self-assessment tool known as the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) - assisted agencies in gauging their TSMO state of practice. Many of these agencies have developed TSMO Program Plans and/or developed procedures to deliberately integrate TSMO into their existing business processes. Recordings of earlier roundtables in the series are available at https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/plan4ops/resources/w_archives.htm.
Format
The sponsoring agencies are partnering with a handful of transportation agencies (States and MPOs) from across the country that are at various stages in their TSMO Program Plan development and/or have substantially integrated TSMO Program Plan elements into their existing business processes. These agencies will speak on issues encountered as they developed and used their plans to facilitate the integration and mainstreaming of TSMO within their agency.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
- Identify peer agencies that have developed TSMO Program Plans and/or integrated TSMO Program Plan elements into their existing plans and procedures
- Identify common issues encountered and their potential remedies to TSMO Program Plans to help mainstream TSMO in an agency.
Instructors:
Moderator
- Daniel Grate, Transportation Systems Management Operations Specialist; FHWA Resource Center Operations Technical Service Team
Roundtable Members
- Natalie Betteger, Sr. Program Manager; North Central Texas Council of Governments
Natalie Bettger is a Senior Program Manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG).Natalie is a NCTCOG’s Senior Program Manager for Congestion Management and Innovative Project Delivery Program Area. The Project Delivery program Area includes:(TSM&O), aviation, congestion management, safety, security, special events, public involvement and marketing.Natalie is active in the transportation profession and has served on the board of professional organizations including the Women’s Transportation Seminar, the Fort Worth Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Texas Chapter of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. Natalie has been with NCTCOG since May 1999. She received her Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Akron and a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography from Northwest Missouri State University.
- Marco D. Cameron, PE - Transportation Engineer for Traffic Operations; Texas Dept. of Transportation
Marco has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from Texas State University. Marco has been with TxDOT for over 5 years, all with the Traffic Operations Division. Prior to joining TxDOT, Marco led new product launches and oversaw quality assurance programs in the automotive and electronics manufacturing industries. During his time with TxDOT, Marco has provided engineering support and guidance to the TxDOT districts for the development of Plans, Specifications and Estimates (PS&E) for road construction projects that include Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Since June of 2016, Marco has fulfilled the role of project manager to develop a Statewide TSMO Strategic Plan and provide instruction on TSMO program planning to internal and external stakeholders around the state.
- Solomon Caviness, Special Projects Manager, Planning-Operations North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority
Solomon is Special Projects Manager of Planning-Operations at the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA). He brings a wealth of operating agency experience and business acumen to guiding performance-based transportation investments, especially those that leverage technology and operations.Mr. Caviness leads NJTPA’s TSM&O program and managed the development of “The Connected Corridor”, New Jersey’s statewide ITS Architecture.He received a BS from North Carolina A&T State University, a MS from the University of Tennessee, and has a MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.
- Monica Harwood, Traffic Operations Engineer; Washington Dept. of Transportation
Monica is a Statewide Traffic Operations Engineer for the Washington State Department of Transportation. In this role, she serves as one of the agency’s TSMO champions. She focuses specifically on TSMO integration within agency culture, business processes and workforce development. Recent work efforts include coordinating and using the results of WSDOT’s recent CMM reassessment, working with other agency divisions such as planning and design to ensure TSMO strategy incorporation, and developing traditional traffic engineering and more present-day TSMO focused training. She previously served seven years as the manager of a regional traffic management center.
- Tracy Bramble, Information Specialist Strategic Communication & Policy; Iowa Dept. of Transportation
Tracey is currently the Iowa DOT’s social media content manager, providing daily input into the agency’s Facebook and Twitter, as well as multiple blogs, strategically positioning messages to work together on various platforms to reach the intended audiences.Tracey is a 30-year veteran of public affairs and marketing, holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University and recently completed the Certified Public Manager program at Drake University.
- Kofi Wakhisi, Sr. Principal Planner; Atlanta Regional Commission
Kofi works in the Transportation Access and Mobility Division at ARC, supervising the Regional Planning and External Coordination section staff. This section serves as the primary transportation planning function for the Atlanta MPO. Prior to serving in this role, Kofi supervised the activity associated with the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and project delivery. Kofi holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering and a Master of City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech, as well as a law degree from Georgia State University. He’s a member of the Georgia Bar and the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).
- Paul Carafides, Senior Transportation Planner - Office of Transportation Operations Management; Delaware Valley Regional Commission
Paul is a Senior Transportation Planner with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.He has been with the Office of Transportation Operations Management for four years and has fourteen years of experience overall with DVRPC.Paul works closely with first responders through DVRPC’s Incident Management Task Force Program and he is also DVRPC’s project manager for both the PennDOT District 6-0 Traffic Signal Retiming Initiative and the NJ Traffic Signal Retiming Initiative.Paul has a BA in Geography and Planning from West Chester University, an MBA from Saint Joseph’s University and a Certificate in Transportation Planning from Temple University.Paul is also a 2016 graduate of the Operations Academy.
Target Audience:
Planners, Engineers/Operators at the MPO, Local Transportation Agency, and State DOT levels.