Volpe Center Highlights
Human and Natural Environment
Focus |
Safety |
Mobility |
Human and Natural Environment |
Economic Growth and Trade |
National Security |
Published and Presented
Protect and enhance communities and the natural environment affected by transportation. |
Computer Donation Program
The Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Subcommittee on Community Outreach, chaired by Ms. Lynn Murray, of the Communications and Technology Outreach Division, has established a Computer Donation Program in which the Chamber will act as the liaison and coordinator between the Cambridge business community and the Cambridge schools. This program, slated to go into effect this month, is based on the model used by the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board. Ms. Murray, with the support of Dr. Peter Manning, of the Transportation Strategic Planning and Analysis Division, played a key role in the development of the New England region's federal computer donation program. Under the program, the Cambridge schools will present and continually update a listing of computer needs to the Chamber. The Chamber will then match excess computer equipment available from the business community to the needs list from the schools. It will also encourage businesses to donate training support and technical expertise to the schools, to further develop public school computer capabilities.
National ITS Architecture Consistency Outreach (FHWA)
Mr. Andrew Johnsen and Ms. Cynthia Maloney, both of the Plans Office, are providing on-going support to the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office's (JPO) National ITS Architecture Consistency Management Group. The group has been holding outreach meetings to gain stakeholder input and feedback on a concept for ensuring consistency with the National ITS Architecture. The first of these sessions recently was held at the Volpe Center. Representatives from federal, state, and local governments; planning organizations; academia; and consultants participated, along with Regional and Division Administrators from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Additional meetings are being held around the country to assist the development of policy guidance on this issue. Among the many Volpe Center attendees at this event, Ms. Olive Lesueur, Systems Planning and Integration Division, attended the meeting in her capacity as task manager of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Professional Capacity Building (ITS/PCB) Seminar, Workshop, and Course Tracking, Analysis, and Evaluation task. Discussion by the participants indicated that ITS skills at the state, local and metropolitan planning organization levels are very limited. By providing skills in the short term and teaching them in the long term, trainers may complement the participants limited knowledge. Many of the training needs identified through this outreach effort will be addressed through future PCB activities.