October 5, 2015
WELCOME NEW CUTR EMPLOYEES
October
Birthdays
Oana McKinney
Lazara Stinnette
Emmeth Duran
Diana Bynes
Jeanne Kean
Jennifer Jimenez
Megan Cott
David Hill
Ebbin Daniel
Brad Rechkemmer
October
CUTR Anniversaries
Rob Gregg—15 yrs
Ann Joslin — 14 yrs
Molly Buffington — 14 yrs
Cheryl Thole—13 yrs
Pei-Sung Lin — 11 yrs
Julie Bond — 10 yrs
Brian Pessaro — 6 yrs
Todd Parsons — 6 yrs
Donny Hayward — 5 yrs
Jana Huss — 3 yrs
Andrew (Mitch) Spicer was recently hired as a Research Associate
for the Transit Management and Innovation team. He is originally
from Crothersville, IN. He received his Bachelor of Science in Infor-
matics from Indiana University in 2011 and his Master of Science in
Information Systems from the Indiana University Kelley School of
Business this year. He previously worked for the Indiana University
Campus Bus Service as a Bus Operator and Student Supervisor, as well
as Campaign Manager for an Indiana House Representative in 2012. He is interested in
photography, graphic design, media production, local/state/national politics, class and
modern rock music, pop culture, and analogue technology. He looks forward to expand-
ing his knowledge base to enhance what he gained from working at the IU Campus Bus
and the State of Indiana. Welcome, Mitch!
Kevin Salzer, Senior Research Associate, received his Master of Science
in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University. He is an
American Planning Association Certified Planner. Kevin has worked at
the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) coordinating
multiple departments including service planning, operations, and IT.
This experience served him in his role as a transportation and logistics
consultant. He now is using his experience in Transit Operations and
Service Planning on behalf of CUTR. Kevin will be working with Rob Gregg’s Transit
Management and Innovation team. Welcome, Kevin!
The following student was recently hired by Chanyoung Lee: Stevenson Morency;
Pei-Sung Lin recently hired the following students: Ebbin Daniel, Jagadeesh Kanne,
Sahithi Kolagani, and Raghavendra Reddy Nalla. Welcome!
CUTR TRANSPORTATION ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS EVENT
Mark your calendar — November 2, 2015 at the USF Marshall Students Center,
Tampa Main Campus starting at 5:30 pm for the reception with the program beginning at
7:00 pm. CUTR will recognize Bill Johnson, Florida Secretary of Commerce,
President & CEO, Enterprise Florida, Inc. This award is presented annually to an
individual who has made a significant contribution to the transportation field. All CUTR
personnel must register to attend. A link will be e-mailed to CUTRites closer to the time of
the awards event.
AEGIS Timesheets
Pay period 9/25/15 to 10/08/15
AEGIS submission date is Tuesday,
October 6th at 10 am.
Pay period 10/09/15 to 10/22/15
AEGIS submission date is Tuesday,
October 20th at 10 am.
Pay period 10/23/15 to 11/05/15
AEGIS submission date is Monday,
November 2 at 10 am.
Alma Mater Days
SHOW YOUR ALMA MATER
PRIDE: Wear your favorite college t-
shirt, sweatshirt, and the like (must
display the College’s logo or name)
the first Friday of every month.
Friendly banter on performance of
affiliated sports teams or alumni news
is also highly encouraged. If you want
to add a banner or anything to your
door, that’s great too. Dress code
restrictions on sleeveless shirts,
shorts or sandals will remain en-
forced. Jeans can, of course, be worn
(with a reminder that a contribution
($1) is appreciated).
GO BULLS!!!
Alma Mater Days:
November 6
December 4
CUTR STUDENT POSTER COMPETITION—ABSTRACT DEADLINE 10/15
The 2nd Annual CUTR Student Poster Competition will be held at the CUTR Transpor-
tation Achievement Awards event on November 2, 2015 from 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm in
the USF Marshall Student Center. Posters must be prepared by the students them-
selves. Faculty is not allowed to assist students with preparing posters for the compe-
tition. Students are able to present research that he/she has performed together with
their advisor; however, advisors shall not consult with students in regards to the prep-
aration of the poster. There will be monetary awards for the first, second, and third
place poster winners in the amounts of $300, $200, and $100, respectively. For more
information, please visit the CUTR Website for general information, poster
sizing rules, and evaluation criteria at : http://www.cutr.usf.edu/2015/09/2nd-annual
-cutr-student-poster-competition-information/. If you have any questions regarding
the 2015 CUTR Student Poster Competition, please contact the technical committee,
Dr. Pei-Sung Lin at [email protected] and/or Dr. Seckin Ozkul at [email protected].
UPCOMING EVENTS October 13 CUTR Managers Meeting, CUT207, 1:30 pm
October 20 CUTR Staff meeting, CUT102, 9:00 am
November 2 CUTR Advisory Board, Boardroom, 2:30 pm
November 3 NCTR Advisory Board, Boardroom, 9:00 am
CUTR WEBCASTS AT NOON TIME October 15 Incentivizing Off-Peak Delivery of Freight; Presenter: James
LaBelle, Urban Transportation Center University of Illinois at
Chicago
October 29 Integrated Modeling of High Performance Passenger and Freight
Train Operation Planning on Shared Use Rail Corridors: A Focus on
the U.S. Context; Presenter: Dr. Bo Zou, Urban Transportation
Center, University of Illinois at Chicago
GRADUATE TRANSPORTATION SEMINAR ON FRIDAYS,11 AM, CUT202
October 9 Autonomous Vehicles and any Potential FDOT Plans to incorporate it
in FDOT Highway System, Presenter: Paul Steinman, FDOT District
7 Secretary
October 16 Design and Reconstruction of the Runway Intersection at Tulsa
International Airport, Presenter: Manuel O. Bejarano, Engineer IV,
Pavement Engineer, Aviation Services, Atkins
October 23 FDOT Airport Sustainability Planning Guidebook, Presenter: Jim
Halley, Aviation System Manager, Aviation Office/FDOT Central
October 30 Future Proofing Transportation, Presenter: Chris Francis, Senior
Transportation Specialist, FDOT Transportation Statistics Office
November 6 Time-Geography-Based Mobility Measures for Geo-tagged Twitter
Data, Presenter: Mohsen Parsafard, USF Graduate Student
KUDOS
Congratulations to Sean Barbeau, Nevine Georggi, Miguel Labrador, Rafael Perez, and Phil Winters
on their 16th patent — System and Method for Rendering a Distributed Location—Aware System.
More information can be found at this link: https://www.locationaware.usf.edu/publications/
Julie Bond was interviewed about the 50th Street pedestrian safety enhancements, which were officially unveiled on
September 16th. The new pedestrian safety beacons have been installed along a one-mile stretch of 50th Street
between Fowler and Fletcher Avenues in North Tampa. The goal is to help prevent accidents such as the one that
involved a USF student who was seriously injured in November 2014 while crossing the busy two-lane thoroughfare.
These projects are funded and supported by a consortium of organizations, including CUTR, Hillsborough County
Sheriff’s Office, and the FDOT. Another major advocate is WalkWise Tampa Bay, which aims to educate local citizens
on pedestrian safety. This organization also offers free personalized pedestrian safety presentations.
Alexandria Carroll was a panelist at the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) Summit in
Portland, OR and gave a presentation on integrating freight into livable communities. She also participated in a work-
shop hosted by Portland Bureau of Transportation, Metro, and Portland Business Alliance to explore smart urban
freight strategies.
Katrina Corcoran was selected as the 2015 recipient of the Florida Public Transportation Association Scholarship.
The scholarship awards presentation will be held during the Celebrating Tomorrow’s Leaders: Leadership APTA & the
American Public Transportation Foundation Awards Ceremony at the APTA Annual Meeting on October 6, 2015 in San
Francisco, California. Congratulations, Katrina!
Rob Gregg’s team put together a transit development plan for Flagler County. The group has spent 5 years examin-
ing Flagler County’s pre-scheduled, demand-response transportation system. The plan will serve as a 10-year outlook
for the county’s public transportation network. County Commissioners approved measures to move the transit plan
forward to the FDOT for review.
Ric Hartman, JD, AICP will be teaching a new course in the Spring 2016! The course is titled, Planning for
Healthy Communities and will be taught on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 am—10:45 am, CRN 21975. This
course applies an elective to the Health Management concentration in the Health Science degree. More information
can be found here: Course Information
Dr. Seckin Ozkul, who is a fellow of the Inter-
national Road Federation (IRF), was invited for
a presentation and multiple technical session
moderations at the 1st IRF Europe and Central
Asia Regional Congress in Istanbul, Turkey that
took place on September 15-18, 2015. Dr. Ozkul
presented his research titled “Logistics Led
Economic Development: Success Factors for
Infrastructure Investments” and also moderated
Technical Sessions TS 2.1 Transportation Planning and Economics and TS 2.2 Transport Planning, Systems and Oper-
ations.
KUDOS
On September 12, the Tampa Bay Clean Cities Coalition (TBCCC)
participated in two Tampa Bay area Drive Electric Week events in Oldsmar and
St. Petersburg.
The National Drive Electric Week is a nationwide celebration to promote aware-
ness of the widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and display the benefits of
all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more.
TBCCC pitched a tent at the City of Oldsmar’s second annual Drive Electric
Week event, which featured dozens of area sustainable businesses, an electric
vehicle showcase with production and conversion vehicles, electric bicycles,
entertainment, and vendors offering local sustainable food and beverages.
The event included displays by automakers Tesla, Porsche, BMW, Toyota, and
Cadillac. Among the dealer-featured EVs were a Cadillac ELR, a BMW i8, and a
BMW i3. Tampa Bay area industries, organizations, and residents turned up to
showcase their electric vehicles. A fleet of Nissan Leafs, Chevrolet Volts, and
Tesla Model S cars lined up in front of the Oldsmar Public Library as electric
vehicle owners eagerly shared their love of EVs.
In addition to the meet-and greet with local EV owners, enthusiasts who braved
the weather enjoyed dealer-sponsored drive-and-rides and firsthand Charge-
Point demonstrations.
Tampa Bay Clean Cities is part of a national network of nearly 100 Clean Cities
coalitions working to advance the use of alternative and renewable fuels, idle-
reduction measures, fuel economy improvements, and emerging transportation
technologies
Joel Volinski presided over a teleconference of the Executive Committee of the Council of University Transportation
Centers to discuss the organization budget, increasing membership, improving member services, and its Winter Awards
banquet. He also chaired a teleconference of the Research, Education, and Training, Reauthorization Coalition to
discuss strategies and actions to promote the cause of continued federal funding for the university transportation center
program.
He met with staff members of the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) who were enthusiastic about hosting
a bus exhibit to attract more young people to transit. This exhibit will be assembled with bus parts donated by transit
agencies and bus manufacturers, with HART playing a leading role in helping to assemble the front end of a bus and
complementary technology.
He served as a member of the Transit Cooperative Research Program Screening Committee for the 15th consecutive year
to help identify the projects to forward to the TOPS committee for ultimate selection.
Volinski welcomed attendees to the bi-annual GIS in Transit conference held in Washington, DC, and talked with
Terese McMillan, Acting Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, and along with Dennis Hinebaugh,
met with Amy Stearns of OST-R to discuss NCTR progress and CUTR’s Directors search.
He attended a meeting of the FPTA held in Vero Beach, Florida to secure commitments for helping to fund the bus
exhibit at MOSI, and to nominate the next candidate for the FPTA Hall of Fame (Lorraine Syzms).
KUDOS
The fourth annual Bulls Walk and Bike week was
successfully held from September 1-3, 2015. CUTR had
high expectations for this year, and we had tremendous
support from the FDOT Central office and District 7,
Hillsborough County MPO, TBARTA, the College of
Engineering, USF Police, EH&S, College of Public
Health, Bull Runner, Administrative Services, and
Student Government. Thank you for promoting and
reinforcing our message to, “Discover Your Role: Walk
Wise, Bike Smart, and Drive Carefully.” The week
kicked off with a Press Conference and stroll around
campus with President Judy Genshaft. Following
events included a Complete Streets Open House at the
Marshall Center, Walk Wise and Bike Smart safety
presentations, and a Bicycle Celebration event with
speakers including NASCAR driver Scott Lagasse, Jr.
We gave away numerous rewards for participation
throughout the week including t-shirts, water bottles,
first aid kits, reflective gear, helmets, and six free
bicycles! Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the University of South Florida a safer place to walk and
bike. For more information, visit the Facebook link: ttps://www.facebook.com/AlertTodayFlorida
A special thank you to those who contributed to this year’s Lee National Denim Day! You helped raise $165
towards cancer research! A huge “THANK YOU” to Lisa Ravenscroft for her coordinating efforts and to LaToyia for
collecting the donations.
KUDOS to the following CUTR contributors:
Sean Barbeau, Katrina Corcoran, Jan Davis, Melissa De Leon, LaToyi Fipps,
Jodi Godfrey, Dennis Hinebaugh, Matthew Kessler, Jeff Kramer,
Kristin Larsson, Stephanie Lewis, Brentin Mosher, Victoria Perk, Reena Raturi,
Lisa Ravenscroft, Uday Ranga BHaskar Siramdasu, Lazara Stinnette, Cheryl Thole, Behzad Karimi Varzardoliya, Joel
Volinski, and Phil Winters.
Volinski attended the Livable Communities Summit at Portland State University in Oregon and participated as a
member of the Executive Committee while meeting with the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Transporta-
tion and Communities.
Kristine Williams was a panelist at NITC Summit in Portland, OR and gave a presentation on Florida’s mobility
fee concept. She was also a panelist in a workshop hosted by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, Metro, and Port-
land Business Alliance to explore smart urban freight strategies. Kristine is also leading two workshops at the 2015
National Access Management Conference in Seattle.
INFORMATION
If you are on FaceBook, Like Us at this link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Center-for-Urban-Transportation-Research/318839614894743
Enjoy!
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If you have information that you would like to share and include in the monthly issue of the CUTRConnections—CUTR
Employee Newsletter, please send an email with the information to Grace Hunt at [email protected].
General information on CUTR procedures:
Have a question, check out the wiki site to find your answer: https://sites.google.com/site/cutrwikisite/
Hiring a new employee? The wiki site is the place to find the form and submit it electronically:
https://sites.google.com/site/cutrwikisite/admin-group-page/ken-short/hr-tasks/hiring-new-people
CUTR AWARDS/CONTRACTS
Project Urban Circulator Impact Assessment
Sponsor Federal Transit Administration
PI(s) Concas/Reich
Value $76,835
Project Community Traffic Safety Support
Sponsor Florida Department of Transportation
PI(s) Lin
Value $15,000