Headlines from Anaheim...

I wanted to update you on the general headlines that came out of the International Board of Direction Meeting in Anaheim this past weekend, as well as some other items that occurred during the Annual Meeting itself:

1. Strategic Plan -- The International Board of Direction (IBOD) continued its review of ITE's Strategic Plan. Final review and possible acceptance of the plan will occur at the fall IBOD meeting.


2. Annual Meeting -- A "perfect storm" occurred this year -- bad economy, continued agency travel restrictions, and a neighboring hotel that decided to drastically reduce their hotel rates during remodeling. Therefore ITE was not able to meet its commitment of sleeping rooms at the Anaheim Marriott. The price competition resulted in ITE meeting less than 50% of its sleeping rooms, while it was contracted for 85%. The attrition resulted in ITE facing a sizable penalty. To offset this penalty, Tom Brahms negotiated a settlement that allows ITE to pay nothing now, but requires ITE to host another conference at the Anaheim Marriott and Convention Center within 8 years (and at a reduced commitment of sleeping rooms). This settlement will require the shuffling of host cities (probably Toronto) for 2016. Ironically, the final attendance at the Anaheim will be one of the highest -- over 2100 delegates.


3. Annual ITE Dues -- Annual Membership Dues will increase in 2009 by $5 for the grades of Member, Fellow, and Institute Affiliate. The dues for Retired Members will increase by $2.50. Dues will not increase for students.


4. New Mega Issue -- The IBOD has adopted a new Mega Issue -- Energy, Environment and Land Use Issues (i.e., Sustainability) -- to go along with our existing Mega Issues -- Safety; Management and Operations; Designing for all Users; Workforce Development; Public Information/Public Relations; and, International Aspects of ITE.


5. Membership -- ITE Headquarters has a new Membership Director - Bill Baldwin. He is an eager young man who is excited about the idea of working with all of us, across every district, section and chapter, to retain current members and to add new ones. He is eager to work with local sections and chapters to capture students as they enter the job market and shortly thereafter -- when young engineers have finished "test driving" ITE and face their first real dues notices.


6. Young Engineers -- ITE will be hosting a Student/Young Engineers Conference. Each District will nominate a student and/or young member to represent them at the meeting. ITE will bring them all together in conjunction with Strategic Advance (an annual meeting each April for the Executive Committee of ITE), then spend a day discussing issues vital to youth. More information will be forthcoming on this.


7. Traffic Bowl Competition -- Starting next year, the ITE Annual Meeting will host a Traffic Bowl Competition (see attached), pitting teams from every district against one another in various "heats" culminating in a championship round. There will be awards for the competition. (MWITE will need to decide very soon whether we wish to host a qualifying traffic bowl competition at our Annual Meeting in Wisconsin Dells. If so, we will need to work with ITE HQ and other districts to acquire or develop the equipment needed to hold the competition.)


8. Elected Leadership Forum -- This annual forum is an opportunity for elected leaders from districts, sections and chapters to interact face-to-face with Tom Brahms, the International President, V.P., and Past President. I was proud that MWITE was the best represented district at this year's forum. In attendance were John Davis, Wayne Sandberg, Armapal Matharu, Matt Selinger, Tom Campbell and myself. In the past, dozens of people from across the country wound sit in on this forum, and share ideas. This year, unfortunately, only a handful of people outside of MWITE members bothered (or remembered) to attend. I realize that this meeting gets buried with all the other sessions and meetings people attend, but it can be one of the most informative and memorable opportunities our elected leadership can have. I will work with ITE staff to see that this forum is more heavily promoted in the future.


9. MWITE Welcome Reception -- Our district hosted another successful reception this past Monday night. While the number of attendees was down from the Pittsburgh meeting (+ 60 vs. + 75), the event was well received by those who attended. I even heard from two new vendors (Siemens and Trafficware) who say they would be willing to help sponsor the event next year. Regarding next year's Welcome Reception in San Antonio, we may need to move our welcome reception to a different night because the Texas District may be hosting a Texas BBQ or Roadhouse Dinner that Monday night. Stay tuned.

Something to Think About...

Hello from Anaheim, site of the 2008 ITE Annual Meeting. As the International Board of Direction begins its meetings, I wanted to share something that is quite powerful and enlightening.

Mark Norman, ITE Coordinating Council Chair, shared a YouTube link as a means to generate discussion regarding potential outreach to younger people. The link, called "Did You Know 2.0" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U) , was developed by educators in Colorado to stimulate discussion about what we should be teaching our young children to better prepare them for tomorrow. It is fascinating!

For instance, the video states, "We live in exponential times... THe first commercial text message was sent in December 1992... The number of text messages sent and received today exceeds the population of the planet". Also, it states, "...If MySpace were a country, it would be the 8th largest in the world."

Please watch the video and share it with others. It will certainly make you think about our role in the future!

A New Book For Your Library...


A Washington Post Book Review by Jonathan Yardley

Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page BW15
(Reprinted from the Washington Post website , 08/08/08)

"TRAFFIC", By Tom Vanderbilt
Knopf. 402 pp. $24.95

Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic -- engagingly written, meticulously researched, endlessly interesting and informative -- is one of those rare books that comes out of the depths of nowhere. Its subjects are the road and the people who drive it, which is to say Traffic gets about as close to the heart of modern existence as any book could get, yet what's truly astonishing is that no one else has done it, at least not on the scale that Vanderbilt has achieved. We've had road novels (On the Road) and road movies ("Two for the Road") and road songs ("On the Road Again"), but nonfiction studies of "why we drive the way we do and what it says about us" -- to borrow Vanderbilt's subtitle -- have been almost entirely limited to dry, impenetrable engineering and psychological treatises. Yet think about it, which Vanderbilt obviously has done at great length and to immensely rewarding effect. "Many of us," he writes at the outset, "myself included, seem to take driving a car fairly lightly, perhaps holding on to some simple myths of independence and power, but it is actually an incredibly complex and demanding task."

Then, a bit farther down the road, at the beginning of a chapter entitled "Why You're Not as Good a Driver as You Think You Are," he continues: "For those of us who are not brain surgeons, driving is probably the most complex everyday thing we do. It is a skill that consists of at least fifteen hundred 'subskills.' At any moment, we are navigating through terrain, scanning our environment for hazards and information, maintaining our position on the road, judging speed, making decisions (about twenty per mile, one study found), evaluating risk, adjusting instruments, anticipating the future actions of others -- even as we may be sipping a latte, thinking about last night's episode of American Idol, quieting a toddler, or checking voice mail. A survey of one stretch of road in Maryland found that a piece of information was presented every two feet, which at 30 miles per hour, the study reasoned, meant the driver was exposed to 1,320 'items of information,' or roughly 440 words, per minute. This is akin to reading three paragraphs like this one while also looking at lots of pretty pictures, not to mention doing all the other things mentioned above -- and then repeating the cycle, every minute you drive."

Get only a few pages into Traffic and you'll begin to understand something that probably has never crossed your mind, unless you're a traffic engineer, a behavioral psychologist or a law-enforcement officer: The road is an incredibly complicated place, and driving -- which, after the initial rush of passing the driver's test, most of us take for granted for the rest of our lives -- is fraught with danger and uncertainty at every turn of the wheels. Vanderbilt, a freelance writer who specializes in complex and sometimes arcane subjects, posits "a simple mantra you can carry about with you in traffic": "When a situation feels dangerous to you, it's probably more safe than you know; when a situation feels safe, that is precisely when you should feel on guard. Most crashes, after all, happen on dry roads, on clear, sunny days, to sober drivers."

By way of illustrating the point, Vanderbilt describes "a driving trip in rural Spain" during which a promising shortcut turned out to be "a climbing, twisting, broken-asphalt nightmare of blind hairpin turns" with "few guardrails, just vertigo-inducing drops into distant gulleys." Because "there was little to keep me from tumbling off the edge of the road," Vanderbilt "drove as if my life depended on it," which of course it did. Another time in Spain, he drove "a smooth, flat road with gentle curves and plenty of visibility," and "I just about fell asleep and ran off the road."
By any standard measurement, the first road was "incredibly dangerous" and the second "of course the more objectively safe," yet Vanderbilt argues -- and many traffic specialists agree -- that the first road made him a better driver because it put him on high alert while the second nearly lulled him to sleep. He writes: "The things that work best in the traffic world of the highway -- consistency, uniformity, wide lanes, knowing what to expect ahead of time, the reduction of conflicts, the restriction of access, and the removal of obstacles -- have little or no place in the social world."

That's just one of the many useful tidbits that await you in Traffic. For instance: "Anonymity in traffic acts as a powerful drug, with several curious side effects. On the one hand, because we feel that no one is watching, or that no one we know will see us, the inside of the car itself becomes a useful place for self-expression. . . . The flip side of anonymity . . . is that it encourages aggression." The risks of anonymity are among the almost literally uncountable distractions of the road: "As the inner life of the driver begins to come into focus, it is becoming clear not only that distraction is the single biggest problem on the road but that we have little concept of just how distracted we are." People "drive as if the world is a television show viewed on TiVo that can be paused in real time -- one can duck out for a moment, grab a beer from the fridge, and come back to right where they left off without missing a beat."

Keeping traffic moving safely and freely is the responsibility of traffic engineers, yet most of us are clueless about their daily impact on our lives. They are involved in everything from synchronizing (or not synchronizing) stoplights to building gentle curves into straight interstates in order to reduce boredom and sleepiness. But they aren't perfect: "As a profession, traffic engineering has historically tended to treat pedestrians like little bits of irritating sand gumming up the works of their smoothly humming traffic machines. With a touch of condescending pity, pedestrians are referred to as 'vulnerable road users.' . . . As a testament to the inherent bias of the profession, no engineer has ever written a paper about how 'vehicular interference' disrupts the saturation flow rates of people trying to cross the street."

One of Vanderbilt's best chapters is "How Traffic Explains the World: On Driving with a Local Accent," in which he shows how everything from road signs to motorists' behavior varies from city to city, country to country. It's not all that hard for the traveler to adapt to the basics, as I discovered a couple of years ago while driving on the "wrong" side of the road in Scotland, but the subtleties are something else: "Traffic is a sort of secret window onto the inner heart of a place, a form of cultural expression as vital as language, dress, or music. It's the reason a horn in Rome does not mean the same thing as a horn in Stockholm, why flashing your headlights at another driver is understood one way on the German autobahn and quite another way on the 405 in Los Angeles, why people jaywalk constantly in New York and hardly at all in Copenhagen. These are the impressions that stick with us. 'Greek drivers are crazy,' the visitor to Athens will observe, safely back in Kabul."

As for accidents, Vanderbilt declines to call them that as they are almost always the result of behavior that is not accidental. He calls them crashes, and reports that "more people were killed in the United States on Saturday and Sunday from midnight to three a.m. than all those who were killed from midnight to three a.m. the rest of the week." Stay home on the Fourth of July, "statistically, the most dangerous day to be on the road," and Super Bowl Sunday: "Nearly twenty times more beer is drunk in total on Super Bowl Sunday than on an average day." The drivers most likely to be involved in crashes on those days are males, frequently young ones, especially those driving pickup trucks, "the most dangerous vehicle on the road." Indeed, pickups are more dangerous than big trucks, because "car drivers have less to fear from [big] trucks than from what they themselves do around [big] trucks," which tends to be to drive dangerously. Pickups "are high, heavy, and have very stiff front ends -- meaning other vehicles have to absorb more energy in a crash."

All the above is just a sample of what's to be learned from Traffic, which touches just about every imaginable base, always authoritatively. As a Washingtonian who is both a motorist and (more often) a pedestrian, I wish he'd looked into the tendency of suburbanites to bring bad suburban driving habits into more demanding urban streets -- yes, Maryland and Virginia license plates, I'm talking about you-- but that can be inferred from other discussions in the book. Read it and you're likely to come away a better driver, more cautious and more alert. Certainly I like to think it's made me a better driver, but then as Vanderbilt says, we all think we're better drivers than we really are.

Washington Post excerpt of Chapter 1 of "Traffic": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/traffic.htm?sid=ST2008080801427&pos=list

(I'm sure I can speak for several fellow traffic engineers who say, "Why didn't I think to write this! -- SJM)

Miserable Traffic Costs Chicagoans Billions...

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI Transportation Reporter, Chicago Sun-Times

August 6, 2008

(Photo by Keith Hale/Sun-Times file)

STUDY SAYS $7.3 BILLION A YEAR

Area's clogged roads eat up time, fuel, productivity and pollute air

The toll --
The Metropolitan Planning Council study Tuesday found that congestion costs the Chicago area $7.3 billion a year and 87,000 jobs. The total includes the following:

• $6.98 billion in lost time.
• $354 million in wasted fuel, based on 2005 prices. With today's prices, the cost would be about $681 million.
• $33 million in environmental damages.

The report also found that the cost of wasted time per car due to congestion averages $1,579 per year. Congestion adds 22 percent to travel times during the rush hour, or about 66 minutes each week for the average driver.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For Aaron Miller, who owns Base Limousine Service in Skokie, traffic congestion isn't just aggravation -- it's money. He says it could cost his company about $1,350 a day. "We probably lose the ability of doing two trips a day, per car," Miller said.

Miller said he's been losing money since the Dan Ryan Expy. went under construction three years ago, and the drain has continued with construction on the Edens and I-294. Miller's experience supports a Metropolitan Planning Council study Tuesday that found traffic congestion in the Chicago area costs $7.3 billion a year in lost time, fuel, productivity and environmental damage. The cost is nearly twice the largest previous estimate. That figure is expected to grow by 55 percent by 2030, to $11.3 billion, if nothing is done to solve it.

Up to a point, the more people and goods move through an area, the healthier its economy is, said planning council President MarySue Barrett. "But many of our roads have reached the tipping point, where the costs of congestion outweigh the benefits," Barrett said. "As a region, we must start to identify and invest in smart solutions."

Conducted for the planning council by HDR Decision Economics, the report figures that each vehicle-hour lost to congestion costs $24.03. Congestion on arterial routes like La Grange and Roosevelt roads is actually a bigger problem outside of Cook County than expressway jams, and lead to more air pollution, the report found.

The report notes that congestion solutions must not just take traffic off expressways and dump it onto arterials. Congestion solutions must be regional in scope, and must address wasted time as well as fuel, the report found.

Robert Adelman, president of Roadco Transportation Services, said that congestion has definitely gotten worse in recent years and impacts his Cicero truck company's ability to be on time. He has seen businesses move away from Chicago to Wisconsin or Indiana, to get away from both congestion and Cook County taxes. Adelman thinks the solution is to get more people off the roads and onto mass transit. "But the state doesn't want to fund it, and the U.S. doesn't want to fund it," Adelman said. "Only in America -- other countries fund mass transit."

Roundabouts Take Off But Leave Drivers a Little Loopy...

Since the roundabout on 66th Street near Hwy. 77 in Richfield opened in October, the revamped intersection has had six accidents, transportation engineer Tom Foley estimated. The problem? Foley thinks some drivers don’t understand cars in the inside lane have the right of way. (Photo by Kyndell Harkness, Star Tribune)

By MARY JANE SMETANKA, Minneapolis Star Tribune
(Reprinted from www.startribune.com, August 4, 2008)

Judy King of Stillwater is no neophyte driver. But she didn't like the intersection she encountered when she drove to a soccer field in Woodbury. It was a roundabout, one of the circular intersections that are popping up in Minnesota as an alternative to traditional intersections with stop signs or traffic lights. "I've been driving for 30 years, and I don't really know how I'm supposed to go through it," King said. "I think a lot of people are confused."

The chance to be confused is growing, because Minnesota road officials have fallen in love with roundabouts. As of March, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, 86 roundabouts had been built, were under construction or were planned in the state. That was up 39 percent from a tally made just eight months before. Blaine, Burnsville, Rochester, Brooklyn Park, Rosemount and Cottage Grove all have roundabouts. Last year, Edina opened three roundabouts within half a mile on a retail strip of W. 70th Street between York and France Avenues.

One of the most ambitious recent projects is in Richfield, where a two-lane roundabout is replacing the city's most dangerous intersection, at Portland Avenue and 66th Street. The old intersection had traffic lights but no left-turn lanes. It was made riskier by a hill that prevented some drivers from seeing approaching traffic. There have been about 30 crashes there each year, some of them severe.

A roundabout should be "a tremendous improvement," said Richfield transportation engineer Tom Foley. "We have no worry about people zipping through a yellow light like they do at an intersection."

Seeing fewer crashes

National data indicate crash rates drop 35 percent and severe injuries decrease by 76 percent when four-way intersections are converted to roundabouts. MnDOT's analysis of a roundabout built at the intersection of Hwy. 13 and County Road 2 in Scott County shows a similar reduction in crashes. In the five years before the roundabout was built, the intersection had two fatal accidents, 26 crashes with injuries to 50 people, and nine accidents that resulted in property damage. Since the roundabout opened in 2005, four crashes have been reported, with three resulting in injury and none in fatalities.

Near Edina's three single-lane roundabouts, Police Chief Mike Siitari said, there have been eight minor accidents in nine months. "There does not appear to be a significant problem with accidents there," he said. "It slows the traffic significantly."

Therein lies the attraction for traffic engineers: Ideally, traffic never stops moving in roundabouts, but they're quite safe because drivers must slow to 15 to 20 miles per hour to enter the circles. Accidents usually are fender benders.

In Maple Grove, where three roundabouts opened on busy roads in 2005, there haven't been any serious accidents, said city traffic engineer Marc Culver. "Every once in a while we would see a piece of a turn signal [lying in the road]," he said. "We did have an initial negative reaction, but there haven't been any big complaints in 18 months. They've been working very well."
But drivers are still getting used to them, Culver said. "Sometimes at peak hours we'll see a car stop and two or three cars stop behind them," he said. "Generally, it clears out very quickly. But for some people, the comfort level's not there yet."

Education on the round

In Richfield, a two-lane roundabout on 66th Street opened in October outside the new Cedar Point Commons retail development. Foley estimated six accidents have happened there. The biggest problem for drivers, he said, is understanding that cars on the inside lane have the right of way when exiting.

Many drivers seem go out of their way to be considerate, he said. He's seen some drivers who have the right of way encourage timid drivers by stopping and tooting their horn to get them to enter the circle. "It's kind of a community education program," Foley said.
King wants more than courtesy from other drivers. She thinks a public service campaign is needed to explain how roundabouts work. She was impressed when she saw drivers in Australia smoothly navigating two-way roundabouts. "Everyone knew what that inside lane was used for," King said. "Here, it's very, very new. Everyone is just a little puzzled."

Traffic moved toward the roundabout on 66th Street near Hwy 77 in Richfield.
(Photo by Kyndell Harkness, Star Tribune)

Cities have started to use "fishhook signs" that illustrate how traffic is supposed to flow in two-lane roundabouts. In Washington County, where a two-lane roundabout opened last year at Radio Drive and Bailey Road in Woodbury, the county has changed pavement striping and signs to help people understand how to approach the roundabout. They've run "Roundabout U" sessions and are doing newsletters on the subject, too.

While there have been 22 crashes in the roundabout, they've been "minor fender benders," said Cory Slagle, county engineering and construction manager. At the old intersection, drivers going at least 50 miles per hour on both roads ran the risk of T-bone crashes if someone ran a stop sign. Slagle said the rules in a two-lane roundabout are simple: Yield to drivers already in the circle. If you're going straight or making a right turn, stay in the right lane. If you're making a left turn, you should be in the center lane. You can also go straight. "There is a learning curve here," he said. "But crashes should go down."

(Photos from Minneapolis Star Tribune website, 08/01/08)

One Year Later...

Disaster struck I-35W bridge a year ago today
By Elizabeth Mohr and Debra O'Connor Pioneer Press
Article reprinted from Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 08/01/08)

It was 6:05 p.m. a year ago today when the Interstate 35W bridge in downtown Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River. Thirteen people died; 145 were injured. The scene of twisted metal and bloody agony shocked the nation. Victims were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A new bridge is quickly taking shape. But lives aren't fixed so easily. The collapse left the victims to cope with financial, physical and psychological problems. The effects were as varied as the people who experienced the disaster. Some seem to have moved on with few scars. But the lives of many were forever changed.

(Note -- This bridge disaster has become an emotional and political lightning rod for this area -- one that will not end any time soon. People are still grieving and politicians are still arguing over monies to fix all the other infrastrucutre needs in the state. Nevertheless, on this date, in a little over an hour from now, we Minnesotans will pause... pray... and remember... -- SJM)

Institute of Transportation Engineers
International Director Report
(This is the report that the International Director writes prior to ITE International Board of Direction Meetings to brief the ITE staff and others on the Board as to what is happening in their District.)

International Director: Stephen J. Manhart, P.E., PTOE, PTP
Date Submitted: July 22, 2008
District: Midwestern District (MWITE)

I. Issues or topics discussed at chapter, section and district board meetings that may need to have ITE Board and/or staff discussion/action (please list for each issue/topic—the chapter, section or district person to contact for further information):

a. MWITE Strategic Plan -- This effort was begun by the MWITE Board in December 2006, when Ken Voigt led the District Board through the planning efforts. Board members are at the point of adoption of the District Strategic Plan, but will wait to incorporate elements of the Institute’s recent Strategic Plan Update into their own.

b. FOLLOW-UP -- Personal Employment Advertising in District and Section Newsletters – Last spring, I discussed this item with the Board, and had promised to keep everyone informed of this new service, and subsequent reaction from the membership. To review, this past February, Illinois Section President Amarpal Matharu informed the District Board that he had received two requests from Illinois Section members to post personal ads for employment in the Illinois Section Newsletter, Items. He asked the District Board for direction on whether he should post these ads. After much deliberation among the District Board, I asked the IBOD to share any experience their districts or sections had with posting personal ads for employment. Many of you replied, and asked others from your districts to reply. In the end, the spring issue of Items was published with the two personal ads included. I was told one of the two individuals was hired, but it is unknown whether his hire was the result of his ad. The Midwestern Newsletter Editor has kept this option open for others to use, but no one else has requested an ad.

c. FOLLOW-UP -- Transportation Lobbying – This past May, ITE HQ hosted a webinar for the elected leadership regarding Lobbying and Advocacy. The webinar was well attended by many chapter, section, district and IBOD elected members. It was an informative session that basically allowed ITE units to support and/or promote legislative issues pertinent to the organization, but warned of monetary restrictions, as well as against promoting particular candidates. This information provides ITE units with legal guidance as they consider future lobbying or legislative advocacy in their areas. Thanks to the ITE Staff for hosting this important webinar for all to hear.



II. “New” topics and papers that you feel the other Board members and ITE Staff should be aware of that were presented at one of the chapter, section or district:

§ Illinois Section presentation – The Illinois Section hosted the recent Midwestern District Annual Meeting at the Hard Rock Hotel in downtown Chicago, IL. The two keynote speakers during the opening session spoke on two large-scale issues. Mr. John Murray, Chief of Bid Operations for the 2016 Olympic Bid Committee spoke of Chicago’s activities involved in bidding to be the host city for those Olympic Games. Ms. Rosemarie Andolino, Executive Director of the O’Hare Modernization Program, spoke of that airport’s efforts to leap into the 21st Century, and to increase capacity for the future. Both presentations provided the attendees with information on how traffic and transportation improvements assist with each interrelated activity.

§ North Central Section presentation – “How ‘Forgiving Highways’ Can Help Prevent Needless Deaths”, by Mike Dreznes from the International Road Federation. At the April 2008 Section Meeting, Mr. Dreznes’ presentation focused on highway safety by design. His presentation focused on lane departure problems and solutions since one-third of all single vehicle fatal collisions were the result of a vehicle leaving the roadway. His informative presentation laid out the six AASHTO options for increasing safety effects of roadside obstacles. He also detailed the recent improvements in impact attenuators, His presentation was well received, and has been recommended to other groups.


III. Student Chapter or student-related innovative activities and/or products that the ITE Board and/or staff should be aware of:

§ Nothing at this time.


IV. Unique programs or projects of the chapter, section or district:

§ MOVITE Section – Make a Difference -- MOVITE is going MAD this year with some group volunteer activities taking place at the chapter level. MOVITE Section President Matt Selinger has challenged his section and chapters with the following: Find a need in your community that is related to transportation and creates a way to make a difference for the public or for those in need. Each chapter has been contacted and will be proceeding as they desire. The Lincoln and Omaha, NE local chapter, LOCATE, has a MAD Committee put together and they have decided to conduct presentations at the local high schools on seat belts, drinking & driving and driver distractions with the goal of saving lives. By the time the fall section meeting is here, they will have presented this life saving message to hundreds (or maybe thousands) of teens in Nebraska and Iowa. What about your chapter? How can you make a difference in 2008?

§ NCITE New Member Welcome Packets – At the recent Midwestern District Board Meeting held in Chicago, North Central Section President Wayne Sandberg discussed a new effort to welcome new members to NCITE and ITE. He showed off a smart-looking backpack emblazoned with the NCITE logo. He stated that each new member will receive one of these new bags, as well as a Section Membership Certificate and welcome letter from the section president, and several pieces of information to orient the new member with ITE and the North Central Section. Wayne stated that so often in the past, new members never knew whether they were officially members of the section – they would start receiving the ITE Journal and meeting notices, but there was no official notice. It is intended that these new Welcome Packets will increase Section affiliation and loyalty – important early factors toward member retention!


V. General Comments / Other Significant Issues to bring to the attention of the Board and HQ Staff:

§ Talking Traffic Blog – I was searching around the internet for some traffic information, and stumbled upon a very interesting blog that a fellow traffic engineer has posted. The website is http://www.talkingtraffic.org/ and is posted by Bill Rusham, P.E., PTOE, from Marietta, GA. He is currently employed by Greenhorne & O'Mara, inc., and previously worked in the Traffic Office of the Texas Department of Transportation in the Lubbock District. Bill says his professional focus areas are traffic operations, traffic impact studies and highway design.

The interesting thing about Bill's blog is that he has posted several "episodes" involving traffic engineering topics. Not only are these episodes in print, but he has posted audio MP3 files that are playable and downloadable from his website. He narrates each topic himself. His episodes cover a range of topics from "Functional Classification" and "Project Development Process" to "How to Get a Signal Installed" and "Institute of Transportation Engineers".

I e-mailed Bill and complemented him on his blog. I asked him if he would mind if I promoted his blog on my blog (http://www.midwestern-ite.blogspot.com/). He replied, "... I've no problem with you discussing Talking Traffic on the MWITE blog. I'm always happy to find another transportation engineer's webspace as it makes me feel I'm not alone out in the cold, cruel web 2.0." You are not alone, Bill, you are not alone... I invite you to go to Bill's blog, read it over, listen to some of his episodes, and then e-mail him. Let Bill know that "web 2.0" is not so cold and cruel after all!