ATPIO Member Discusses Colorado’s Proposed High Speed Transit HYPER LOOP project.

(credit CBS News)

The Colorado Department of Transportation is one of 35 semi-finalists in a global competition, and one of two semi-finalists in Colorado, for the new technology which would provide a safer and faster commute.

Shailen Bhatt, Executive Director of Colorado State Department of Transportation and a member of ATPIO, discusses Colorado’s proposed High Speed Transit HYPER LOOP project. This project is sort of “bullet train” that will move people and freight inside capsules at a speed of up to 700mph. The funds will come from both taxes as well as private funding from the Hyperloop One company. Bhatt said the pipeline is a suspended vacuum tube that will move people and things inside capsules at a speed of up to 700 mph.

“You can put people in them. You can put freight in them. There’s a lot of applications. So it’s kind of like the railroad- only a couple hundred years later, and it’s a new technology,” said Bhatt.

 

For more information visit the following link:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/01/07/colorado-one-step-closer-to-supersonic-transit-with-hyperloop/

Member Profile: Dr. Chandra Bhat

Dr. Chandra R. Bhat is the Director of the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) and the Adnan Abou-Ayyash Centennial Professor in Transportation Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has a joint appointment between the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) and the Department of Economics. Bhat is a world-renowned expert in the area of transportation and urban policy design, with far reaching implications for public health, energy dependence, greenhouse gas emissions, and societal quality of life. Methodologically, he has been a pioneer in the formulation and use of statistical and econometric methods to analyze human choice behavior. His current research includes the social and environmental aspects of transportation, planning implications of connected and automated smart transportation systems (CASTS), and data science and predictive analytics. He is a recipient of many awards, including the 2017 Lifetime Achievement in Transportation Research and Education Award (Academic) from the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). This award is to “identify individuals who have had a long history of significant and outstanding contribution to university transportation education and research resulting in a lasting contribution to transportation.” He also received the 2015 ASCE Frank Masters Award and the 2013 German Humboldt Award. In 2016, he was listed as the top ten transportation thought leaders in academia by CUTC and The Eno Foundation. He is a top-cited transportation engineering researcher.

Graduate Student Receives TRB Travel Support from ATPIO

Mr. S. Marisamynathan, who is completing his doctoral research at IIT Bombay was selected by ATPIO to receive partial travel support for presenting his paper at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, January 8-12, 2017.

The paper presented at TRB by Mr. Marisamynathan was titled “Modeling Pedestrian Level of Service
at Signalized Intersection Under Mixed Traffic Conditions” and was co-authored by Prof. P. Vedagiri of IIT Bombay.   Based on peer-reviews by the TRB standing committee on Transportation in the Developing Countries, it was also later accepted for publication in the Transportation Research Record Journal of TRB.  The paper can be obtained at http://trrjournalonline.trb.org/doi/abs/10.3141/2634-13

A native of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Marisamynathan completed his BE in Civil Engineering at Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering and Technology, Karaikudi, and his M.E. in Transportation Engineering at the College of Engineering, Guindy (Anna University), Chennai.  He is completing his PhD in Transportation Systems Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, under the advise of Prof. P. Vedagiri on “Modelling pedestrian crossing behaviour and level of service at signalized intersections”.

A cash award and certificate was presented to him by Dr. Vijay Gopu and Salil Gokhale of the ATPIO Board at the annual meeting of ATPIO at TRB, on January 8, 2017.   ATPIO welcomes sponsors and hopes to provide such support for graduate students in the future as well.

ATPIO Annual Meeting to be Held at TRB Conference 2016, Washington D.C

December 2016

ATPIO Board of Directors, Members and Friends will meet during the 95th Transportation Research Board Conference in Washington D.C., in January 2016. During this meeting the board of directors will discuss the activities of the past year and plans the upcoming activities for next year. The meeting is scheduled on Sunday, January 10th, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM. The meeting will happen in Room 102B at the the Convention Center.

Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting Dates The TRB Annual Meeting is held each year in Washington, D.C. in January. Please visit http://www.trb.org for detailed information about the Transportation Research Board and follow the links to the Annual Meeting to learn more about the size, scope, and activities/sessions/workshops of the Annual Meeting.