Joint VASITE-WDCSITE Virtual Meeting Recap

WDCSITE and VASITE partnered to host a virtual technical meeting on Wednesday October 7 to highlight projects and efforts across Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The meeting drew over 150 attendees and featured three great presentations. Dr. Zhengtian Xu (Assistant Professor, George Washington University) presented on utilizing empirical data and algorithms to better optimize app-based ride-sharing services by reducing the magnitude of “empty miles” (i.e. miles traveled without passengers). His work detailed some of the physical and temporal frictions that separate drivers from customers and aims to better reposition themselves towards desired destinations.

David Petrucci (Senior Safety Engineer, Federal Highway Administration) followed up presenting on FHWA’s drive to incorporate more data-driven safety analysis into transportation impact studies. With updates to the ITE recommended practice on multimodal transportation impact analysis and other leading industry advancements like the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual, there is a new set of opportunities to evaluate roadway performance that can focus on conflicts and safety benefits.

Federico Tallis (Transportation Planner, VHB) wrapped the meeting by presenting on utilization of Capital Bikeshare’s opensource data to derive estimates on bicycle traffic activity and origin-destination analysis. He highlighted VHB’s work to help identify the potential number of users that would be using the new planned facility in-lieu of the status quo. They then used existing data to inflate that number to all Bike users and account for latent demand.

With a great turnout and question, we would like to thank our colleagues at VASITE for a great joint meeting and look forward to future collaborations in 2021!