2004 National Rural ITS Conference
Duluth, Minnesota - August 22-25

Conference Program and Presentations

Note: click on the presentation's title to view a pdf copy of the presentation. Some of the pdf files are very large and may take a long time to download. More pdf's will be added as they are available from the speakers.

Sunday, August 22

Welcome Reception - Lake Superior Railroad Museum

Monday, August 23

Welcome
Neil Schuster, President and CEO, ITS America
Herb Bergson, Mayor of Duluth

Keynote Address
Congressman James L. Oberstar

Technical Sessions

Emergency Response/Rural Incident Management

• Emergency Response: An Emergency Room Physician Perspective
  Dr. Pat Lilja, Minneapolis North Memorial Medical Center
• Rural Traffic Incident Management
  Mike Stephenson, Missouri DOT
• Rapid Incident Clearance
  Major Al Smith, Minnesota State Patrol

Rural Public Transportation I

• Client Referral, Ridership and Financial Tracking System (CRRAFT)
  Judith Espinosa, Alliance for Transportation Research, University of New Mexico
• ITS Architecture in Rural Transit Systems: The Case of Kearney, Nebraska
  David Ripplinger, Small Urban and Rural Transit Center, North Dakota State University 
• Kansas DOT Rural Transit Study
  Mark Gallagher, SRF Consulting Group, Inc.

Traveler Information

• Integrating Tourism Data with Regional Advanced Travel Information Systems
  Ram Kandarpa, Castle Rock Consultants
• National Experiences in Coordinating Tourism Promotion and Traveler Information
  Matt Burt, Battelle Memorial Institute
• ITS and New England Ski Resorts
  Randy Knapick, IBI Group

Solutions to Unique Rural Problems

• Mayday/911 – Implementing a Solution for Telematics
  Which Will Pave the Way for Nationwide Expansion
  Brad Estochen, Minnesota DOT
• Unique Solutions to Rural ITS Problems
  Mark Melnick and Gerald Okihara, Washington DOT
• Evaluation of the Rural ITS Systems Deployment in Washington State
  Fred Kitchener, McFarland Management

Regional ITS Initiatives

• Bingham County Line ITS Deployment Plan: Rural ITS Applications in Eastern Idaho
  Bob Koeberlein, Idaho DOT
• Pooled Funds and Partnership Benefits: Achieving More for Less
  Ram Kandarpa, Castle Rock Consultants
• Using ITS Regional Architectures to Sell ITS in Rural Areas
  Thomas Fowler, Kimley-Horn and Associates

ITS and National Parks

• Lessons Learned from Select California National Parks
  Chris Strong, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University
• Greater Yellowstone Rural ITS (GYRITS) Phase Two Results:
  Evaluation of Various Demonstrations
  Patrick McGowen, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University

Safety

• Providing Priority for Heavy Commercial Vehicles at Rural Signalized Intersections
  Roger Plum, Short Elliot Hendrickson, Inc.
• Improving VMS Legibility: Lessons from the Field
  Greg Stadjuhar, Skyline Products
• Intelligent System to Provide Advanced Warning for End of Green
  High Speed Vehicles and Trucks
  Ricky Parker, Texas Transportation Institute
  

Rural Intersection Collision Avoidance

• Assisting the Driver at Rural Intersections
  Craig Shankwitz, University of Minnesota
• Crash Analysis of Minnesota Intersections: Identifying Problem Sites
  Howard Preston, CH2M Hill
• Human Factors: Communicating to the Driver When to Enter the Intersection
  Max Donath, ITS Institute, University of Minnesota

Northland Advanced Transportation Systems Research Laboratories Tour,
University of Minnesota-Duluth

The Northland Advanced Transportation Systems Research Laboratories Tour will provide a tour of their Cloquet research facility and demonstrate the data acquisition capabilities from their on-site sensors.  Other research efforts will be discussed on the trip to Cloquet pointing out sensor applications along I-35, such as weather, fog, and snow projects.

Duluth Transportation Operations Communications Center (TOCC) Tour

This tour will take you to the Duluth TOCC, the dispatch center for both the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota State Patrol in northeastern Minnesota.  Currently DMS, CCTV, vehicle detection, AVL and CAD, among other technologies, are deployed to assist in traffic and incident management.

Duluth Transit Authority Technology Tour

The Duluth Transit Authority is a leader in rural transit, providing the Port Town Trolley, collegiate services, STRIDE, bike and bus, and charter services.  The tour will visit the center and details on the technologies deployed will be shared.

Intersection Collision Avoidance Demo

This demo will show the audience an intersection where that are gaps in traffic, monitored by radar units.  You will see a prototype driver infrastructure interface, which is a graphic display that communicates when it is safe to enter the intersection and when not.

6:30 - 9:30 p.m.
The Great Rural ITS Get-Together - Grandma’s Sports Garden

Tuesday, August 24

Technical Sessions

Weather and ITS

• Evolution of a Multi-State Maintenance Decision Support System
  Leon Osborne, Meridian Environmental Technology
• Automated Roadway Closure Featuring the Web Enabled Remote Control Gate Arm for Transportation Enhancement and Mini-Traffic Operations Centers
  Bruce Shriver, Thom Tech Design, Inc.
• Highway Visibility Conference
  Ray Murphy, Federal Highway Administration

Heavy Vehicles and ITS

• Narrow Oversize Vehicle Identification System
  Patrick McGowen, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University
• Lane Keeping Technology for Commercial Vehicles
  Fred Dock, Iteris, Inc.
• Drowsy Driver Warning System Field Operational Test
  Richard Hanowski, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Maintenance and ITS

• Maintenance of ITS Devices in Rural Areas: Case Studies
  Manjunathan Kumar, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University
• Dynamic Late Merge System
  Tait Swenson, URS Corporation
• Anti-Icing and Material Distribution Performance Measures for Achieving Level of Service
  Gregory Thompson, Thom Tech Design, Inc.

Planning for the Future of Rural ITS

• Moorhead, MN Area Integrated Train Detection and Traffic Control System
  Erik Minge, SRF Consulting Group, Inc.
• Low Cost Interoperability: Let’s Talk
  Brian Nicholson, ADDCO
• Minnesota DOT District 8 ITS Scoping Study
  Robert Green, Alliant Engineering

Railroad-Highway Crossing Safety

• Low Cost Active Railroad Crossing Signals
  Dave Huft, South Dakota DOT
• Operational Test of Low-Cost Active Warning System for Low-Volume Highway-Rail Intersections In Minnesota
  Dan Rickel, Twin Cities and Western Railroad
• Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (GPS)
  Len Allen, Federal Railroad Administration

Rural Public Transportation II

• Using ITS to Integrate Human Service Agency Benefit Card Technology in Rural Paratransit
  Ken Hosen, KFH Group, Inc. of Bethesda, Md.
• Mobility Management, Advanced Technology and Interagency Coordination along the (Forgotten) Rural California Frontier
  Pam Couch, Modoc County Regional Transportation Planning Agency
• ITS Applications to Enhance Rural Passenger Mobility
  Del Peteron, Small Urban and Rural Transit Center, North Dakota State University 

Traffic Management and Control Systems

• Duluth’s Example of Leveraging the Internet for Traffic Control
  Lisa Dumke, ADDCO
• Minnesota’s Traffic Operations and Communications Center (TOCC) Deployment:
  A Progress Report
  Mark Nelson, Minnesota DOT
• Aerial Surveillance Support for Traffic Management
  Captain Mark Dunaski, Minnesota State Patrol 

Vehicle Detection

• Portable Non-Intrusion Detection System (PNITDS)
  Jerry Kotzenmacher, Minnesota DOT
• Testing Vehicles As Sensors
  Jim Kranig, Minnesota DOT
• Commercial Vehicle as Probes
  Dan Murray, American Transportation Research Institute

Enterprise Roundtable Discussion

Hear from state, federal and international officials about this renowned, longstanding cooperative program to develop, evaluate and deploy ITS.

• Manny Agah, Arizona DOT
• Bill Legg, Washington DOT
• Henry Wong, Ontario Ministry of Transportation

Security

• Border Information Flow Architecture Working Group
  Jonathan Sabean, Transport Canada
• iFlorida - Florida MDI Update
  Anne Brewer, Florida DOT
• An Overview of Minnesota DOT’s Travel Information and Evacuation Routing (TIGER) Initiative
  Brian Scott, SRF Consulting Group, Inc.

Rural ITS Coalitions

• High Plains Coalition
  Dottie Shoup, Nebraska Department of Roads
• North/West Passage Coalition
  Mark Nelson, Minnesota DOT and Phil DeCabooter, Wisconsin DOT

Open Forum

• National 511 Update
  Peter Costello, PBS&J
• Status of Statewide/Rural ITS Deployment
  Steve Gordon, Oak Ridge National Lab
• The Concept for a Greater Yellowstone Tour District
  Lisa Ballard, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University

Closing Session

• Carol Molnau, Lieutenant Governor, State of Minnesota, and Commissioner, Minnesota DOT
• Invitation to the 2005 National Rural ITS Conference: Spokane, WA—Bill Legg, Washington DOT

6:00 - 8:00 pm
Lake Superior Harbor Dinner Cruise

Wednesday, August 25

Rural ITS Stakeholder Interest Group

Attendance at this meeting is targeted at a broad range of stakeholders including public safety, tourism, transit, trucking organizations, departments of transportation and others. All members and non-members are encouraged to attend and vigorously participate. At the meeting participants will discuss the recent congressional and US DOT Secretary Norman Mineta rural roundtable meetings, review the federal TEA-LU transportation bill to identify rural funding opportunities for safety, ITS and communication coverage opportunities, methods to raise awareness for rural needs and opportunities internally to ITS America and to external partners, and a Rural SIG Charter. The meeting will provide an opportunity for those interested in learning or sharing lessons-learned to exchange ideas and to make contacts with your peers.

Minnesota Guidestar Program Update

This Minnesota Guidestar Program has taken on the role of leader and innovator, not only in Minnesota but around the world as well.  This session will take a look into the future of the Guidestar program and provide some insight as to where the program is headed. Come learn the keys to success for Minnesota Guidestar and about current and future directions.  This session will provide keen insights into Minnesota Guidestar’s structure, history, partnerships and activities.  Hear about a new “Innovative Idea Program” initiated to foster new partnerships and innovative ITS applications.  Bring home fresh concepts and lessons learned from those on the front lines of statewide ITS implementation.