The theme of this issue of ITE Journal and this month’s Virtual Spring Conference capture the essence of what ITE is about from a technical perspective. What has always attracted me to ITE is that we are an organization that finds the best practices and puts them to work for our members and the traveling public. While it is critical for ITE to be on the leading edge of our profession, keeping pace with the latest trends, what sets us apart is our focus on taking this new knowledge and moving it into practice.
The Council Leadership Team is exceling at finding new knowledge and making it work for our members. The annual Developing Trends Report (available at www.ite.org/devtrends2021) provides a mechanism for our Councils and Committees to look out and identify those trends that ITE members need to be aware of. This product has spawned initiatives in the areas of Mobility as a Service/Mobility on Demand, Big Data and Data Analytics, and Transportation Equity, and also helps the individual Councils and Committees identify what’s next on their agenda.
While identifying innovations is important, converting this knowledge into useable pieces is where our Councils and Committee shine. Our robust webinar program, now free to members, lets participants learn from leading practitioners who are applying these innovations. Quick Bites have also become a great way for our Councils and Committees to provide members with short bursts of information. These two-page summaries provide a bite-sized piece of knowledge. Our newest product, the Tech Brief, provides more in-depth coverage of a topic in four to 15 pages, allowing this new information to be quickly assembled and provided to members. The recent Tech Brief from our Safety Council, Incorporating Safety into Transportation Impact Analysis, is a great example.
This year’s Virtual Spring Conference, March 15-16, follows the same theme. Through the leadership of our Councils and Committees, we are bringing you new knowledge and innovation, but with an eye toward helping you put it to work in your jurisdiction or practice. You can find the agenda and registration information on page 14. Our Spring Conference is structured to provide lots of time for questions and answers, and foster interaction between presenters and participants. All the sessions during this 2-day, two-track meeting will be recorded, so if you can’t choose between the tracks or need to step away for part of the meeting, it will be right there for you to access through ITE’s Learning Hub. We have kept the registration fees low, and are continuing to provide discounts to public sector agencies with five or more participants.
In our opening session, Mayor James Brainard and City Engineer Jeremy Kashman from the city of Carmel, IN, USA—known as the “Roundabout Capital of the United States”—will talk about their highly acclaimed effort to implement roundabouts on a widespread basis. While in many places roundabouts are still seen as unusual, we know that they save lives and are a model example of applying the Safe System Approach. Mayor Brainard will explain how Carmel has been able to build support for the widespread use of roundabouts, and Mr. Kashman will share lessons learned in the planning, design, and operation. The Carmel story is a perfect example of putting an innovation to work. As always you can reach me on the ITE e-Community or on Twitter: @JPaniatiITE.
This is the director's message from the March issue of ITE Journal.