Spring 2008 - Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARYThe University of Calgary’s Student Chapter is Alive andWell!Since September 2007 we have sought and acquired corporatesponsorship from 18 local firms (Gold Level - Stantec, iTrans,ISL, Dillon Consulting, Focus, Urban Systems; Silver Level - ITESouthern Alberta Section, MMM Group, CH2M Hill, TSH,Morrison Hershfield, EBA, D.A Watt, Earth Tech; and BronzeLevel - Bunt & Associates, 3M and Alberta Traffic Supply). Thisgenerous support has made possible all that we’ve done so far.We’ve regularly held 11 of our 16 Industry Speaker Seriesluncheons. These always include pizza and pop. The speakershave been from both the private and public sector. They havealways been great opportunities to learn about projects, theindustry and the profession. We’ve hosted career nights wheresome of our sponsor companies come and introduce theircompanies to us. We’ve also had one ITE Webinar.Thanks to aggressive promotion of the chapter we’ve gone from0 to over 30 members strong and growing. It is made upprimarily of Civil Engineering undergrads minoring inTransportation Engineering but also includes graduate studentsin transportation as well as Urban Studies majors doing minorsin Transportation.One member attended the TAC conference in Saskatoon inOctober 2007, and in January 2008 our president, vice-president,secretary and past vice-president attended the TRB conference inWashington, DC. There are plans for non-executive members whohave volunteered their time to the Chapter to attend the CITEconference in Victoria this year.In February we were pleased to host the Montana StateUniversity ITE Student Chapter. On day one of the visit wetoured the driving simulator on campus, the City’s TransitOperations Centre as well as their Traffic Management Centre.This made for a long and interesting day. It was topped off withdinner with ITE President Alf Guebert. Day two involved a tour ofsome of the City’s extensive transportation infrastructure. Thetour was guided by the City’s Chief Projects Engineer,Mario Prezelj.Volunteer levels and chapter recognition are both rising. Ourwebsite (www.uofcite.ca) has received over 2500 hits since itsinception in September 2007. During the remainder of theWinter semester we’ll have 4 to 5 more luncheons, possiblyanother ITE Webinar, a few career nights ,and we’ll soon becompleting a school safety study for a local elementary schoolas well as doing a presentation to high school students on thehistory and importance of transportation as well as the roles oftransportation planners, designers and engineers.A big thank you to our sponsors and the ITE Southern AlbertaSection for all their support, advice and encouragement.UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBATransportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting inWashington, D.C.: January 13 - 17, 2008Once again our Student Chapter had a strong presence at theTRB Annual Meeting in Washington. Seven members of ourStudent Chapter attended the conference with three memberspresenting results from their research.• Jorge Arango, “Walking Speed of Older Pedestrians WhoUse Canes or Walkers for Mobility”. Presented in thePedestrian Aging and Accessibility Issues session.• Jonathan Regehr, P.Eng., “Longer Combination Vehicles andthe CANAMEX Trade Corridor: Understanding Their SafetyPerformance Relative to Other Trucks”. Presented in theSafety and Productivity of Large Commercial Vehiclessession.• Bjorn Radstrom, EIT, “Designing for SustainableTransportation and Transit In Winnipeg”. Presented at aposter session as the winner of the “Communicating WithJohn and Jane Public” national competition.TRB: left to right: Bjorn Radstrom, Garreth Rempel, JonathanRegehr, Dr. Jeannette Montufar, Professor Alan Clayton, JorgeArango, Aldo Nunez.This conference provided significant exposure to the latest intransportation research and development, and helped establishmany valuable relationships with other universities and industryleaders. One of the highlights for our Chapter members wasbeing invited to the Canadian Embassy and interacting withother Canadians attending the conference.Spring 2008 15