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Mobility Innovations: STEM Camp for Middle School Students Explores Innovation in Transportation
 The West Region Transportation Workforce Center will host two week-long summer camps for middle school students, which will integrate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning through the lens of transportation (see our NNTW webinar on this topic).
The camp will allow instructors participating in our Research Experience for Teachers in Innovative Transportation Systems program to implement lesson plans they develop based on their research experiences and for faculty and guest instructors from the transportation industry to share academic and career opportunities in the field of transportation with participating youth.
Transportation truly is a diverse field offering a wide breadth of opportunities, and the STEM camp will capture many of the subfields through fun, hands-on experiential learning. Among other multidisciplinary topics, participants will explore what structural engineers can learn from ecosystem engineers--plants or animals that maintain, modify or create habitats--by observing the behaviors of net-spinning caddisflies in a laboratory flume. They will conduct simulated habitat and wildlife migration surveys using drones to design and build appropriate wildlife crossing structures for roadways. They will develop a traffic calming "pop-up" project to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians based on a walk audit. And they will learn a software coding program and use it to develop a unique traffic safety story for their peers.
The camps are free to participants and will meet July 15-19 and July 22-26 from 9am to 3pm daily. For more information or to register:
http://wrtwc.org/center-initiatives/middle-school-summer-camp/
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New Resources for Building Transportation Career Awareness
Are you hosting your own K-12 educational outreach event? We've updated our website with links to transportation and STEM focused activities, lesson plans, and other career exploration resources to support transportation education efforts. Check them out at:
http://wrtwc.org/resources/for-educators/
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Transportation Safety Career Pathways Implementation Plan
 The WRTWC participated in the National Transportation Career Pathways Initiative, a two-year project funded by the Federal Highway Administration to establish a set of five discipline-focused career pathways for deployment at post-secondary education/training institutions nationwide, in order to develop forward-looking workforce pipelines that lead to critical occupations within the transportation sector. The WRTWC led research and development efforts for career paths in the field of transportation safety. The Center worked with an advisory group of national leaders in the field of transportation safety to identify critical occupations, core safety competencies, and gaps in existing education and training. Based on findings, the WRTWC developed an implementation plan for advancing career pathways in transportation safety. The implementation plan includes details on a proposed pilot demonstration project. The implementation plan and career pathway documentation (pathway map; sample job description, program of study; and opportunities for experiential learning and professional development) for each critical occupation identified can be reviewed on our website.
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Do you have a success story to share?
Let your peers know what has worked for you. You can now enter details about your workforce development successes online and we will showcase them on our website.
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Public Lands Transportation Scholars Program Accepting Applications
The Public Lands Transportation Fellows program is now accepting applications for the 2019 class. The two Fellows will be stationed at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Potomac River National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Woodbridge, Virginia. The Fellows position spans from July 8, 2019 to June 5, 2020. Compensation includes $33,000 for 10 months, benefits, relocation expenses, housing (differs for each position), and potential for Federal Non-Competitive Eligibility Status.
Please note that job offers will be made contingent on funding appropriations and applicant qualifications. Applicants to the Fellows program must be U.S. citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent resident aliens of the U.S.; be 30 years of age or under by the start date; and have at least a Bachelor's degree; however, the preference is for recent or soon-to-be Master's degree graduates.
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WSDOT Pre-Apprenticeship Support Services Program
 The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Pre-Apprenticeship Support Services (PASS) Grant Program, provides funding and support to non-profit organizations for outreach and training for women, minorities, and other socially and economically disadvantaged individuals desiring entry into careers in the highway construction industry. Proposal Submissions for the 2019-2021 PASS Program funding will be accepted beginning in mid-April.
To be ready to apply for PASS Program funds for the 2019-21 Biennium, your organization MUST be registered with Washington's Electronic Business Solution (WEBS). Please choose commodity code 924-86-00:
https://fortress.wa.gov/ga/webs/home.html
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Upcoming Trainings & Events
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Webinar: Creating Active Routes to Everyday Destinations
Date: May 2, 2019
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
Creating safe and convenient places for people to incorporate bicycling, walking and other forms of active transportation into daily life improves health. However, many communities lack the infrastructure that supports activity friendly routes that lead to everyday destinations and allows for safe, active transportation for regular trips. This webinar will focus on how we can expand opportunities for active transportation between home, school, work, and other everyday destinations.
Ken Rose and Chris Kochtitzky, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will share their organization's work, both directly and through their more than 60 state, university, and local grant recipients across the country. TJ McCourt, with the City of Raleigh's Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources, will describe his City's efforts to improve walkable connections to everyday destinations for all community members.
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Webinar: Speed Limit Setting Practices
Date: May 2, 2019
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
To provide participants an overview of terms related to speed limit setting, from design to operating speed, and approaches recognized for setting speed limits including engineering, expert and safe systems approaches. This webinar will include resources available for setting safe speeds and examples of successful speed limit setting programs and policies. The webinar is free and open to the ITE and non-ITE members thanks to funding by the Road to Zero Coalition.
For more information about this training, click
here
.
Link: https://www.pathlms.com/ite/courses/11638/webinars/5433
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Webinar:
Implementation and Progress Monitoring
Date: May 8, 2019
Time: 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: University of Minnesota, Center for Transportation Studies
Implementing too many strategies at once can stretch resources and reduce effectiveness. This webinar will demonstrate how to successfully implement safety strategies, introduce methods for progress monitoring and evaluation, and how to adjust when necessary.
For more information about this training, click
here
.
Link:
http://www.cts.umn.edu/events/nationalTZD/webinars/050819
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Webinar: Traffic Safety Culture: Review of Phase 1 Accomplishments and an Invitation to Join Phase 2 of this Pooled Fund Program
Date: May 9, 2019
Time: 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: Center for Health and Safety Culture
Growing "traffic safety culture" has been identified as a core strategy by the USDOT Safety Council, FHWA's Joint Safety Strategic Plan, the National Towards Zero Deaths (TZD) Safety Initiative, and the Road to Zero Coalition. Growing a positive traffic safety culture can support traffic safety goals by reducing risky behaviors and increasing protective behaviors; it can also increase public acceptance of other effective traffic safety programs.
In 2014, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) initiated a five-year transportation pooled fund program on traffic safety culture, partnering with the Center for Health and Safety Culture (CHSC) at Montana State University as the principal research entity. This program began as a cooperative effort among participating state DOTs and other (traditional and non-traditional) stakeholder organizations sharing a vested interest in the role of traffic safety culture to achieve the Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) vision.
Given the success of the current pooled fund program, the members have decided to continue another five-year cycle to begin October 1, 2019. This webinar will introduce the pooled fund program to state DOTs and other traffic safety stakeholders interested more information or wishing to participate in the new funding cycle. Learn more about the Pooled Fund Program.
For more information or to register, click here.
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Webinar: How AV Could Shape Our Cities - Research from the Netherlands
Date: May 10, 2019
Time: 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm MT/2:30 pm to 3:30 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC)
Automated driving has become a hot topic of research in different fields of science. Despite the great advancements in the vehicle technology itself, researchers are now concerned in figuring out what will be the impacts of these vehicles in life as we know it. These impacts can be rather broad from traffic safety to the economy. In this lecture, Goncalo will focus on the research that is being done at TU Delft, a leading university in automated vehicles' (AVs) impacts research, focusing on urban areas and how mobility, and even the city itself, can change with fully-automated vehicles. Goncalo Correia will be covering impacts on the value of travel time, traffic congestion, land use, among others. This is work in progress that requires the involvement of all researchers interested in the topic, thus, in that sense, the lecture is intended more to foster research questions and methods than on giving final answers, which are still a bit far away.
Kelly Clifton and Chris Monsere of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science will lead a discussion with Goncalo about various aspects of AVs and their impacts on the future transportation.
For more information about this training, click
here
.
Link:
http://bit.ly/2XH5EcI
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Webinar: Next Generation 9-1-1, FirstNet, and Connected Vehicles: Why They Are Important to Transportation Public Safety
Date: May 14, 2019
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm MT/3:00 pm to 4:30 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
The intended purpose of this webinar is to provide an overview of Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1), the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (FirstNet), and connected vehicles and explore why these emerging technologies are important to public safety responders on roadway incidents and the public who live, work and travel in the United States. It looks at the history of and vision for NG 9-1-1, FirstNet, and connected vehicles and presents an overall picture of where these technologies are today and what the near future holds.
For more information about this training, click
here
.
Link: https://www.pathlms.com/ite/courses/11765/webinars/5484
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Webinar: Taking Action to Reduce Rural Roadway Departures Systemically
Date: May 16, 2019
Time: 11:00 am to 12:30 pm MT/1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
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Webinar: Engaging with Elected Officials
Date: May 22, 2019
Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am MT/12:00 pm to 1:00 pm ET
Cost: Free
Organization: University of Minnesota, Center for Transportation Studies
Having the support of elected officials while developing and implementing your zero-fatality goal program is important. This webinar will share strategies for communicating with elected officials, as well as offer ways you can help elected officials learn what they need to know about your zero-fatality goal program.
For more information about this training, click
here
.
Link:
http://www.cts.umn.edu/events/nationalTZD/webinars/052219
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Training: Comprehensive Bikeway Design
Date: July 15-19, 2019
Location: Portland, OR
As communities have put bikeway plans into effect, we've learned what works and what doesn't - how to plan effectively, design correctly and make investments that get results. We've distilled those lessons into this course, which covers the fundamentals of bikeway design and planning through an intensive week of interactive classroom, field tours, and design exercises.
Instructors draw from their years of experience, along with project examples, to highlight practical applications of the principles and techniques covered. The pioneers and leading practitioners in the field will teach the fundamentals of bikeway planning and design through an intensive week of classroom sessions and tours. The instruction and interaction with other participants will bring you up to speed on innovative practice and research and teach you the skills and techniques you need to get started on your next project.
Over the years, the Portland area has implemented numerous types of innovative bicycle facilities and treatments, providing a unique "living laboratory" to study. Daily field tours provide first-hand experience with these facilities and projects discussed in the classroom. These tours showcase not just the operational qualities but also how bikeway planning affects community livability and economic development.
For more information, click
here.
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Training: Planning for Active Transportation: If You Build It, Will They Come?
Date: July 21-23, 2019
Location: Portland, OR
This three-day workshop offers strategies for building and strengthening communities around increased walking and bicycling. You'll learn and experience firsthand the design of various, successful active transportation programs that incorporate these strategies.
We'll kick it off with city staff on a behind-the-scenes learning tour of Portland's
Sunday Parkways, the city's premiere Open Streets initiative that attracts over 80,000 participants annually. The subsequent days will delve into other transportation demand management and transportation options programs that play a key role in helping more people to bike, walk, and use transit.
This course offers insights and strategies to make the case for policymakers, inspire communities, and build a movement toward healthier, more active cities.
For more information, click
here.
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Please check out our website for the most up-to-date news and activities.
Is your organization hosting an event or opportunity you would like to share with the regional network? Please contact us and we will be happy to help you distribute the information.
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