From the Managing Director

By Tom Kern

In the previous issue of our newsletter, I shared some background on the workforce development challenges facing the TSM&O community as captured in the first of three White Papers that have been prepared for the June NOCoE Workforce Development Summit. The second White Paper addresses the needed staff competencies and related education and training. Previous NCHRP studies have identified key staffing needs – as related to key program functional areas – such as policy and strategic considerations, program planning, systems development, project management and real-time operations and typical staff positions such as an ITS Project Manager, a Traffic Operations Engineer or an ITS Technician.

The white paper notes that the TSM&O workforce development challenge is a combination of competency needs, the source of recruits and their backgrounds, and the size and location of the demand. Expansion of TSM&O staff has been modest in light of overall agency constraints and TSM&O lack of program status within most transportation entities.

In general, there has been limited experience with a systematic approach to recruitment and to addressing competency gaps of either existing staff or potential recruits. Very few agencies have been granted additional slots – most staffing has been in response to retirement and made from internal transfers. Please click here to read more.  

FHWA Webinar: TSM&O: What Does it Mean for Planners?

Thursday, June 16th 2:00- 3:30 p.m.,EST, FHWA will present a webinar on Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O) and what it means for planners. FHWA has partnered with a few Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) that have made strides in mainstreaming TSMO in traditional planning and programming. This webinar will cover the following topics: how these MPOs are organized to mainstream TSMO; how these MPOs are using TSMO strategies in planning, and how are these agencies using TSMO to evaluate projects as well as short-term planning. Please click here for more information and here to register. 

2017 TRB Annual Meeting: Paper Submission Site Now Open

On June 1, 2016, TRB began accepting papers for consideration as part of the program for the 96th TRB Annual Meeting, January 8–12, 2017, in Washington, D.C., and for publication in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRR).

The spotlight theme for the 2017 TRB Annual Meeting is Transportation Innovation: Leading the Way in an Era of Rapid Change. 

All papers—whether for presentation at the 2016 TRB Annual Meeting or publication in the TRR—must be submitted in PDF format directly to TRB’s paper submission website no later than August 1, 2016.

Reminder! USDOT Hosting Free ITS Deployment Day Workshop June 12th 

The U.S. Department of Transportation will partner with ITS America to host a free daylong event focused on connected vehicle deployment. This Accelerating Intelligent Transportation Systems Deployment Day will take place on Sunday, June 12th, during the 2016 ITS Annual Meeting in San Jose, CA, USA. Please click here for more information.

USDOT Creates Library for Connected Car Technology

The U.S. Department of Transportation has published a library of materials on connected cars to help groups maintain and use these vehicles. GovTech.com reports that part of the process will include testing such cars in Florida, New York, and Wyoming. The new library includes information regarding those specific pilot projects.

Register with NOCoE and Join the Discussion Forums!

We hope you find the NOCoE (http://www.transportationops.org/) a place where you can share information as well as receive it – we encourage you to register and share in our discussion forum your latest work plan, specific challenge you are facing with an operations practice or new technology, or techniques you’ve used to empower your staff. This is your transportation operations resource and we are interested in your feedback to continually improve our portfolio of services. Please feel free to contact the Center with your suggestions, either through the website or at TKERN@transportationops.org.