Section News

Northern Alberta Section

The CITE Northern Alberta Section continued to hold webinars between January and April in 2022.

Our activities for the year started with a February webinar on “The Next Generation of Road Safety Audits: Automated Road Safety Assessment using LiDAR Data” presented by Amr Shalkamy of Mott MacDonald. The presentation demonstrated the value of using LiDAR data in aiding road safety reviews and identifying potential collision causes through the automated safety assessment of roadway conditions.

The March webinar was presented by Wayne Gong, P.Eng, and Mary Elbech of Mobycon. The presentation provided an overview of international expertise in the planning and design elements that make for seamless connections between active transportation and public transit in multi-modal transportation hubs. Some of the themes addressed included active transportation networks and safe street design, station access by foot and bike, and bike parking facilities.

The last event held within the spring 2022 period was an in-person joint luncheon which was organized by both Alberta Professional Planning Institute (APPI) and NACITE that on Apr 12, 2022. The luncheon was hosted by APPI. Howaida Hassan and Pablo Orozco with the City of Edmonton, presented on the development process of The City Plan and some of the corresponding implementation initiatives and programs underway to ensure the benefits for Edmontonians described in The City Plan begin to become reality.

NACITE was able to host a variety of topics in webinar and in-person formats that engaged members. Looking forward, NACITE hopes to incorporate more in-person events that allow members to connect with a better way for the rest of 2022.

Southern Alberta Section

From February to March 2022, the Southern Alberta Section (ITE SA) held its last two (hopefully!) online monthly webinars in place of our pre-COVID monthly luncheons. We welcomed Jen Malzer (Program Coordinator – City of Calgary) for the February webinar, to give an overview of the City of Calgary’s Neighbourhood Streets Pilot Policy. In March Liza Cohen (Senior Associate - Stantec) and Jason Schrieber (Senior Principal - Stantec) from Boston, Massachusetts were invited to share insights and recommendations for the future of multi-modal transportation planning in a post-pandemic world. If you missed any of the presentations, the recordings of each webinar can be found on the CITE YouTube page. We would like to thank everyone that presented through our online platform over the last two years and our membership that continued to attend each month! You helped to keep the spirit of the Section alive and we hope this grows even more as we move back to in-person events! In April we had our first in person ITE SA event in 2 years! We explored a new downtown venue which was well received. Ryan Vanderputten (Director of Transportation Planning – City of Calgary) gave a two-part presentation on (1) the departmental reorganization of the City of Calgary and (2) on updates from CITE and the upcoming CITE Annual (in person!) Conference in Vancouver.

Upcoming events for the Section include a virtual workshop hosted in partnership with the City of Calgary on protected intersections. In this exciting session, Alta Planning + Design will be sharing their knowledge on the topic along with benefits, trade-offs and design considerations. Additionally, on May 11, ITE SA will have its second in person luncheon of the year. This luncheon will include our annual capstone project presentations from University of Calgary transportation engineering students. We are excited to hear about new research and ideas in the transportation industry!

Ryan Vanderputten, CITE President and City of Calgary Directory of Transportation Planning, presents at ITE SA’s April meeting

Saskatchewan Section

On March 24th, the Saskatchewan Section hosted its first Student Presentation Competition. There were student entries from both the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina.

Duha Abdullah from the University of Regina received 1st prize for a presentation on the City of Regina’s On-Demand Transit Pilot Program.

The 2nd prize went to Dominic Tran from the University of Saskatchewan for a presentation on Post-Covid Transit Stops.

Mohammad Majid Abedi from the University of Saskatchewan received the 3rd prize for a presentation on Evaluating Subjective Road Safety Using Crowdsourced Data. Sheliza Kelts (SK-ITE Vice President) hosted the competition, and the presentations were evaluated by three judges: Bruce Belmore (KGS Group), Harold Retzlaff (Ministry of Highways), and Nathalie Baudais (City of Saskatoon).

The event was a huge success, and the Saskatchewan Section hopes to hold annual Student Presentation Competitions in the future. We would like to thank the students and judges for taking time to participate in the competition.

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Manitoba Section

ITE Manitoba held our annual Kean Lew Memorial Student Paper and Presentation Competition this spring. Students from the University of Manitoba were invited to submit a transportation themed paper that they authored within the past year. Submissions were evaluated by a panel of judges and the authors of the top three papers were invited to present their work to the judges. Congratulations to this year’s winners:

1. Navoda Rillagodage, Safetyanalysisof drivingunderadverseroad-weather conditions 2. Navoda Rillagodage, Areliability-based weather-responsivevariablespeedlimit systemforruralhighwaysusingconnected vehicletechnology 3. Trevor Nickel, AProceduretoRelateRail

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A cash prize is awarded to the top three authors, while first place also gets the opportunity to present to ITE Manitoba and is entered into the draw for the CITE Student Presentation Competition. Navoda Rillagodage claimed first and second prize this year for papers related to her safety research on road-weather conditions and variable speed limits. The judges agreed it was a timely topic, particularly given recordsetting highway closures this year in Manitoba due to extreme winter road conditions. Thank you to all students who submitted their work and to our judges for their time and interest. ITE Manitoba was happy to partner with the Saskatchewan Section to plan a half-day joint virtual event on April 26th. The event featured five speakers and was followed by a networking session using the platform, Wonder.Me. Thank you to the speakers who provided interesting and engaging presentations:

• Winnipeg Transit - Kevin Sturgeon:

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Design,andUse • City of Regina - Scott Thomas, Ian Cantello, and Hari Patel: RecentlyImplemented

BikewaysinRegina • Landmark Planning & Design - Donovan

Toews: IntegrationofStakeholder

EngagementandTransportation • Associated Engineering - Shawn Fehr:

HighwayNo.3TwinningDesign • WSP - Diana Emerson and Erin Toop:

FeasibilitystudyofpublictransitinPortage laPrairie

The CITE/CARSP 2023 Joint Annual Conference local arrangements committee continues to meet and get ready for next year’s conference. We look forward to hosting everyone in Winnipeg in 2023!

National Capital Section

The National Capital Section kicked off its annual programming with a technical webinar in March. The webinar topic was the recent Bus Alternative Energy Systems (BAES) project where the City of Ottawa retained a consultant to assist with research into the selection of bus propulsion technologies to meet its carbon emissions goals in line with its Climate Change Master Plan, adopted in 2020. In addition to the immediate technical considerations of the various propulsion options, the implications for garage infrastructure, off-site infrastructure, and staffing needs also needed to be explored to arrive at the best alternative for the City’s specific needs and geographical context. The webinar was wellattended both live on the day and for the archived video on the event page, and engagement was lively.

In April, the Section then presented the A.M. Khan Lifetime Achievement award for the third time. The recipient was Sean Rathwell, a 35-plusyear veteran of the industry, a National Capital Section Past President, and an executive of ITE’s former Transit Council, among his innumerable other achievements. Sean was also the consultant lead on the BAES project and one of two presenters for that webinar.

Immediately following the presentation of the Award, a second technical webinar of the year was held on the new City of Ottawa Protected Intersections Design Guide. The evolution, rationale, and recommendations behind the guide were explored as various implementation examples were presented. Discussion was provided on protected corner types and selection, accessibility considerations, new functional guidance including minimum cycle track radii, corner aprons, centreline hardening, and signalization measures. As is typical with presentations to the National Capital Section on new guidance from the City of Ottawa, the level of interest for this event was high.

In addition to planning the next technical webinar, the National Capital Section is now actively looking at options for hosting outdoor networking event in the summer.

Atlantic Provinces Section

Happy Spring fellow CITE members!

In the previous edition of TransportationTalk, we teased the return of our annual Spring Technical Session in Halifax after a two-year COVID hiatus.

Well, we are pleased to announce that you can now officially mark your calendar, book your hotel, call your babysitter, buy your boss treats, and/or make whatever other necessary arrangements to join us at Dalhousie University on Thursday, June 9th for the return of this popular event! (A big THANK YOU to Dr. Ahsan Habib and our friends at DALTrac for hosting again this year.)

Similar to previous years, this event will feature a jammed-packed day of technical sessions, poster presentations, and a lunchtime technical tour – 100% focused on the same transportation topics we (as transportation professionals) love to speak so passionately about, only to receive eyerolls and looks of pure indifference from our family and friends! Let’s face it, when was the last time you enjoyed an engaging mealtime conversation with these folks about MMLOS, BRT Lanes, or Roundabout ICDs??? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered at this event!

Keeping with recent tradition, we will also be hosting a Social Event the evening prior (Wednesday, June 8th) at HaliMac Axe Throwing. Drinks and munchies will be available on site. Even if you’ve never thrown an axe before (which is completely understandable), you won’t want to miss out on this fun networking opportunity!

More details about these events will be communicated via email in the coming weeks. If you are not currently a member of our mailing list and would like to be added, please drop us a line at atlantic@cite7.org. This invitation is extended to any transportation professionals from outside Atlantic Canada who think a midJune trip to the east coast sounds like a fun idea! We’d love for you to join us…as long as you sign a waiver!