Four Geotrans members and two alumnae were among a record 10,500 transportation professionals who converged on Washington DC this past week for the 90th annual Transportation Research Board meeting. In sum, 3,382 peer-reviewed and accepted papers were presented in the span of the five day conference. Presentations by geotrans members included:
- Workshops: Dr. Kostas Goulias presented on “Travel Behavior Analysis in a Dynamically Changing Environment” in a workshop called Pervasive Data for Transportation: Innovations in Distributed and Mobile Information Discovery in Intelligent Transportation Systems and Location-Based Services
- Poster presentations: Srinath Ravulaparthy presented two papers, one on “Geovisualization of Opportunity Accessibility in Southern California: Exploration of Spatial Distribution Patterns Using Geographic Information Systems for Equity Analysis” by Pam Dalal (coauthor K. Goulias), and another on “Development of Opportunity-Based Accessibility Indicators” based on the SCAG SimAgent project by Yali Chen (coauthored by S. Ravulaparthy, K. Deutsch, P. Dalal, S.Y. Yoon, T. Lei, K. Goulias, R. Pendyala, C. Bhat, and H. Hu.), and Kriste Henson presented on “Travel Determinants and Multiscale Transferability of National Activity Patterns to Local Populations” by Kriste Henson (coauthored by K. Goulias)
- Podium presentations: Seo Youn Yoon presented on “Spatial Analysis of the Propensity to Escort Children to School in Southern California” by Seo Youn Yoon (coauthored with M. Doudnikoff of Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l’Etat, France and K. Goulias), and Kate Deutsch presented on “Modeling Sense of Place Using a Structural Equation Model” by Kate Deutsch (coauthored by S.Y. Yoon and K. Goulias).
In addition to the many presentations, activities included receptions and committee meetings, as well as discussions with collaborators and reunions of GeoTrans alumni and students of Kostas Goulias. “The GeoTrans Laboratory merges research and practice through collaboration of the academic, public, and private sectors in Transportation planning and operations. Co-directed by Professor Rick Church and Professor Kostas Goulias, the GeoTrans Laboratory is the confluence of two distinct and influential research fields in Transportation, each with unique foundations in quantitative geography. One is the logistics and transportation field, solving problems of spatial optimality through operations research techniques. The other is the travel behavior field, which is concerned with data collection, design of statistical and econometric models, and their use in policy and decision making.”
“The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to provide leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange, conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary, and multimodal. TRB is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council— a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academies in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The National Research Council is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.”
Editor’s note: Thanks to Kate Deutsch for providing the material and photos for this article.
