Episode 15: What's the news from TRB?

10/11/18 • 19 min

The Transportation Research Board is a lot more than the week long Annual Meeting that happens every January. Listen in as SICOP Talks Winter Ops with James Bryant, TRBs Maintenance and Preservation Engineer, as he shares whats on the calendar this next year for the TRB committees on Winter Maintenance and Surface Transportation Weather.

The TRB eNewsletter is another way to keep on top of all the activities and offerings of the TRB throughout the year. Anyone can subscribe through the link https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USNASTRB/subscriber/new

Want to take an active role in the winter committees, AHD65 Winter Maintenance and AH010 Surface Transportation Weather? Head over to “My TRB” at https://www.mytrb.org and sign up as friend of the committee to get involved.

Sign up for email notifications on future episodes and other communications associated with winter maintenance and winter weather management by clicking on subscribe on the Talkin' Winter Ops website at TalkinWinterOps.com
Thanks for listening in and stay safe out there!

Previous Episode

Episode 14: Oral history of winter maintenance in the US

How did the evolution of modern winter maintenance take place? What significant milestones ushered in the tools that make up the modern winter maintenance tool box? Lee Smithson, formerly of the Iowa Department of Transportation and a past SICOP Coordinator, was one of the few individuals leading the charge that produced significant advancements in winter maintenance technologies. Listen in as SICOP Talks Winter Ops with Lee Smithson, as he shares his recollections on how we got where we are with winter maintenance in the US.

Next Episode

Episode 16: Winter Maintenance and the Social Sciences

Why do travelers make the decisions they do during bad weather is a much more difficult question than many transportation agencies are geared up to answer. The trinity of successful winter operations is the maintenance operation, the road weather, and the motorist. Highway agencies have focused much resource on the maintenance operation and road weather but not so much on understanding why motorists do what they do.

The National Academy of Sciences impaneled a project team to explore opportunities to integrate social and behavioral sciences in the weather enterprise during 2016-17. I had the privilege and honor to serve on this panel co-chaired by Dr. William “Bill” Hooke, American Meteorological Society, and Dr. Ann Bostrom, University of Washington. Our final report, Integrating Social and Behavioral Sciences within the Weather Enterprise, has implications for surface transportation.

In this episode Dr. Hooke draws some parallels from his past experiences making the case that if we focus some more energy on the motorist we can have a better winter maintenance operation.