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Vol. 10, No. 1 (quarterly email) Volume 9, Number 1 - Quarterly Email Update (HTML) Volume 8, Number 2 - Winter 2008 (HTML) Volume 8, Number 1 - Spring 2008 (PDF) (HTML) Volume 7, Number 4 - September/October/November 2007 (PDF) (HTML) Volume 7, Number 3 - April/May/June 2007 (PDF) (HTML) Volume 7, Number 2 - January/February/March 2007 (573 KB) Volume 7, Number 1 - October/November/December 2006 (601 KB) Volume 6, Number 4 - July/August/September 2006 (382 KB) Volume 6, Number 3 - April/May/June 2006 (224 KB) Volume 6, Number 2 - January/February/March 2006 (303 KB) Volume 6, Number 1 - October/November/December 2005 (210 KB) Volume 5, Number 3 - July/August/September 2005 (118 KB) Volume 5, Number 2 - April/May/June 2005 (137 KB) Volume 5, Number 1 - January/February/March 2005 (316 KB) Volume 4, Number 4 - July/August/September 2004 (420 KB) Volume 4, Number 3 - April/May/June 2004 (258 KB) Volume 4, Number 2 - January/February/March 2004 (836 KB) Volume 4, Number 1 - October/November/December 2003 (452 KB) Volume 3, Number 4 - July/August/September 2003 (438 KB) Volume 3, Number 3 - April/May/June 2003 (671 KB) Volume 3, Number 2 - January/February/March 2003 (574 KB) Volume 3, Number 1 - October/November/December (698 KB)
Winter 2008/2009 (Vol. 8, No. 21) view entire newsletter
Message from the President by Richard Hodges, ITS Rocky Mountain Chapter President
As I write this in early December, most of the West is still waiting for “real” winter to begin. Not that unseasonably warm temperatures are a bad thing when assessing snow removal budgets from last winter and looming budget cuts in nearly every state, county and municipality. Beyond waiting for the snowshoe to drop, there is a great deal of anxiety throughout the nation and in our region regarding falling government revenues, economic woes, hiring freezes and industry downsizing. We will have to continue...MORE>>
Wyoming Opens New Transportation Management Center by Bruce Burrows, Wyoming Department of Transportation
The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) took a big step forward in late 2008 with the start up of operations at the agency’s new transportation management center (TMC) in Cheyenne.
The center is housed in the basement of the former Qwest Building on Yellowstone Road in north Cheyenne, about a mile northeast of the WYDOT headquarters complex. The center houses both the emerging Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) operations function and a new dispatch center for the Wyoming Highway Patrol, which was .... MORE>>
Chapter Sponsors Students at NRITS Conference by Jenny Buddemeyer and Michelle Edwards
In September, we were given the great opportunity of traveling to Anchorage, Alaska for the National Rural ITS Conference. We are both graduate students at the University of Wyoming and are each working on projects concerning various ITS components on rural interstate corridors in southern Wyoming. Having been to numerous ITE and TRB meetings where much of the focus is geared toward urban issues, we greatly appreciated the rural focus of this meeting in Anchorage.... MORE>>
New Transit Systems Aid Rural Montanans as reported by the Montana Department of Transportation
With Montana’s wide open spaces and small population, access to medical facilities, employment, shopping, and educational opportunities can be difficult for many residents. In 2005, SAFETEA-LU increased federal transit funding over 200 percent for Montana’s non-urbanized areas (areas with fewer than 50,000 people). The additional funding has enabled MDT to help 24 communities create new community transit systems. Among the many beneficiaries are the residents of Bozeman, Granite County, and the Hi-Line.... MORE>>
Diverse Partnership Nurtures Development at Lewistown Facility by the editorial staff at the Western Transportation Institute
The Cold Region Rural Transportation Research Testbed., better known as the Lewistown Research Facility, has achieved some important milestones in recent months, thanks to a dedicated partnership of local, state and federal partners.
The testbed is a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary research facility located at the existing Lewistown, Montana airport. Using the runways, taxiways and other assets at the airport, researchers can study a wide... MORE>>
2008/2009 Chapter Elections by ITS Rocky Mountain Editorial Staff
2008/2009 Elections will be held via email ballot beginning December 23rd. Voting members of the ITS Rocky Mountain chapter will receive a ballot directly and are asked to review, complete and return the ballots by Friday, January 9th. For information purposes, we have provided a brief bio for each candidate as well as a summary of all current officers.
The property, affairs, and business of the Chapter are managed and controlled by its Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is limited in... MORE>>
News and Notes Articles include:
Spring 2008 (Vol. 8, No. 1) view entire newsletter
Message from the President by Richard Hodges, ITS Rocky Mountain Chapter President
Winter is still upon us, but some signs of spring are beginning to crop up in the region. Mountains of road salt have become hills, the number of storms has started to decrease (but not the volume of snow in the mountain passes) and snow removal budgets have melted away with alarming speed. We’ll soon see true spring pop-up as the pot-holes and orange barrels slowly emerge from their icy hibernation. In most of the West, we have struggled through one of the harshest winters in more than a decade and now it is time to begin to switch gears a bit as winter travel and maintenance programs transition into spring projects. What does this mean for us?...MORE>>
Busy Snow Season Impacts Member States
For those of us living in the West, this winter brought some pleasant - and not so pleasant - suprises. Numerous storms passed through our region transforming the landscapes into winter wonderlands, but also turning our roadways into sometimes impassable stretches of pavement... MORE>>
Winter Challenges Montana and Idaho by ITS Rocky Mountain Editorial STaff and MDT Newsline Staff
Snow and wind wreaked havoc across much of western Montana this winter and this was no more apparent than long the Idaho/Montana border. Heavy snow fall and unstable snow layers contributed to several avalanches on Highway 12 over Lolo Pass. The first slides occurred on January 31st, sweeping one truck loaded with lumber into the Lochsa River and stranding several other trucks between slides. Additional slides over the next few days kept the road crews.... MORE>>
Wyoming: 511 Travel Information Service Increases Customer Satisfacation? by ITS Rocky Mountain Editorial staff and as reported on WDOT's website
An effort undertaken last summer to improve WYDOT's 511 Travel Information telephone service is paying beneifts this winter, based on recent customer feedback.
With much of Wyoming experiencing storm after storm over the past two months, it’s not surprising that demand on the 511 system has increased substantially. Yet at the same time, the number of complaints about the system is significantly down... MORE>>
New Mexico Improves Road Advisory Hotline? as reported in the Winter Issue of NMDOT's Que Pasa? Newsletter
State Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught announced implementation of an improved road advisory hotline to report driving conditions and road information this winter beginning on December 17th.
The new system will incorporate Information from the Department’s road advisory website - www.nmroads.com - into the phone messages, and uses a test-to-voice speech engine.... MORE>>
Colorado: Why CDOT Decided to Close the Highway by Ward Lucas, 9NEWS Colorado
GOLDEN (12/31/2007)- The winter storm that stranded thousands of motorists along the I-70 corridor was constantly monitored by Colorado Department of Transportation employees in the Traffic Operations Center.
At the Golden center, a half-dozen employees have access to nearly 400 traffic cameras stationed around the state. Rod Mead, Traffic Operations manager, says his office got lots of complaints from motorists about the decision to close the highway.... MORE>>
News and Notes Articles include:
September/October/November 2007 (Vol. 7, No. 4) view entire newsletter
Message from the President by Richard Hodges, ITS Rocky Mountain Chapter President
Welcome to the late Fall newsletter of the ITS Rocky Mountain Cahpter. There is fresh snow on the mountains, the remaining fall leaves are fading fast and what better time to deliver a new ITS Rocky Mountain e-newsletter to your inbox.... MORE>>
Fast Tracked RWIS Training A Success by Keith Trimels, IDT Group
Over the course of the last year, the ITS Rocky Mountain Chapter (ITSRM) surveyed member states about training needs. One recurring theme in those discussions was weather related issues, and particularly Road Weather Information system (RWIS) equipment and operations. As a result, ITSRM staff set out to see if we could develop and deliver this training to our members.... MORE>>
Montana DOT's Strategic Plan for GIS Success by Marlin Sander & Don Kiel, Montana Department of Transportation
For many transportation agencies, the prospect of implementing or expanding enterprise GIS capabilities or applications can trigger more questions than answers. Where do you start? What are your current capabilities, and where do you want to go? What will work at your agency? How do you set realistic deadlines?
The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) GIS Section tackled those important questions in its efforts to expand its GIS. Enhanced GIS capabilities would streamline and support MDT's asset management, environmental studies, safety analysis and intelligent transportation systems (ITS).... MORE>>
Sensors to Detect Big Game Animals by Lisa Huyn, Montrose Daily Press
Without seeing incoming wildlife, drivers on a mile-long stretch of southwestern road will soon get amble notice that big-game animals are nearby.
An electro-magnetic field sensor the length of a mile will be installed east of Durango, between mile markers 95 and 96 on US Highway 160, as part of a Colorado Department of Transportation pilot program to prevent collisions between wildlife and vehicles ... MORE>>
Rural Transit Sessions Offer Lessons at NRITS by Richard Hodges, ITS Rocky Mountain Chapter President
Localities operating rural transit programs are all too familiar with the unique challenges posed by long distances, limited coordination, and increasing demand for mobility services. For each challenge faced, there are lessons learned and successes - such as those highlighted at the 2007 Natioanl Rural ITS (NRITS) Conference held October 7-10 in Traverse City, Michigan. This year's NRITS program hosted three sessions relating to rural transit issues. Peers and colleagues learned about several initiatives being deployed across the nation and listened as speakers identified how and to what extent intelligent transoprtation systems (ITS) applications have contributed (or may contribute) to the improvements of overall system performance.... MORE>>
News and Notes Articles include:
April/May/June 2007 (Vol. 7, No. 3) view entire newsletter
Message from the President by Richard Hodges, ITS Rocky Mountain Chapter President
Welcome to our latest newsletter. The theme of this newsletter is communications. My weathered Oxford American Dictionary defines communications as, "the imparting or exchanging of information or news." it further defines communication to be, "a means of connection between people and places," particularly in regard to sending and receiving information using various technological tools.... MORE>>
Leveraging Collaborative Communication Systems by Lynne Yocom, UDOT Traffic Operations Center
The Utah Department of Transporation (UDOT) uses fiber optics to manage a majority of the ATMS and ITS devices for the roads. Currently there is over 700 miles of fiber that help create the traffic management system network. This is a closed network used only for road traffic data. Fiber is what makes it possible to create this closed separate and secure network. Installing and managing this amount of fiber can get very costly.... MORE>>
MSU Student Chapter Tours Vegas by Susan Gallagher, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University
What do civil engineering students, electrical engineering students, and computer science students have in common? Potentially, future careers in the transportation field.
Seventeen students from Montana State University learned why during a recent field trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. The trip was the first official activity of the newly formed MSU ITS Rocky Mountain Student Chapter. The ITS-RM Chapter was formed as an interdisciplinary student organization with the goal of providing students with information about transportation career opportunities within the various engineering fields.... MORE>>
DOT Envisions New 911 System by Linda Dodge, US Department of Transportation
The 9-1-1 system has been an unqualified success story for more than 30 years, speeding emergency services in times of personal, regional and national need. Today, however, changes in the public's use of technology, the saturation of the mobile market, and the spread of VolP telephony, contribute to greater expectations for 9-1-1 .... MORE>>
5th Annual Spring Symposium Highlights by Robert Kochevar, City and County of Denver
The Rocky Mountain Chapter of ITS America, Colorado-Wyoming Section of ITE, and Colroado Chapter of WTS presented the 5th Annual Spring Transportation Symposium on April 13th at the Sheraton Hotel in Lakewood, Colorado..... MORE>>
News from around the region... Articles include:
