Message from Acting Director Mike Cassidy
The academic year has drawn to a close, and I’m happy to announce that it has been marked by a good many favorable developments for the Institute. Last month, for example, the U.S. DOT awarded its inaugural Safe Trip 21 grant, a competition that encourages partnerships for innovative technology, to a public-private consortium that includes two ITS centers: the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT) and California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH).
The grant funds the next phase of CCIT’s ground-breaking research that taps the potential of cell phone networks to both collect and share real-time information on traffic conditions and transit operations. CCIT, in partnership with Nokia, Navteq, Nissan, Caltrans, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and others, will demonstrate work at this November's World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems.
The Safe Trip-21 award also provides key support for PATH researchers to build upon their ongoing work to enable communication between vehicles and roadway infrastructure (e.g., to alert drivers to road hazards). PATH is also gearing up to move its bus rapid transit guidance system off of the Richmond Field Station and onto city streets and highways. A summer demonstration along an AC Transit route in San Leandro, Calif., will launch the deployment phase of the technology's development, which gets underway in July with sponsorship from the Federal Transit Administration, the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
Our UC Berkeley Volvo Center for Future Urban Transport has also seen its share of success. In May, for example, it hosted the Volvo Foundation's annual conference and workshop on urban transport. It was an outstanding event by all accounts. On a similar note, earlier this year UC Berkeley was named to host the 19th International Symposium of Traffic and Transportation Theory, to be held in July 2011. The symposium is a premier event among transport theorists (so mark your calendars!).
I'm also pleased to report that the Institute has added a key member to its staff. Ann Brody Guy joined us in November as the new Communications Director and has since been doing a terrific job in strengthening and developing communication links, both within the Institute and with the outside world.
Not all the news has been happy. This year we have also been touched by profound sorrow. I'm speaking here of the unexpected death of Professor Alex Farrell, who directed the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Alex was an exceptionally fine young scholar—a real rising star—and was the best kind of colleague. His passing leaves a hole that will never really be filled. And yet, the Sustainability Center will continue its important work, as it must. In this regard, we are indebted to doctors Susan Shaheen and Timothy Lipman, who have stepped in to jointly serve as the Center's acting directors.
Speaking of acting directors, the close of the academic year means that my tenure as Acting ITS Director is nearing its end. Samer Madanat returns this summer and will resume his leadership of the Institute. I'm grateful for having had the chance to fill in during Samer's absence, and I have greatly enjoyed the added opportunities this has given me to work with the people who make up ITS.
Have a good and productive summer,
Mike Cassidy, Acting Director (but only for another month or so!)