coordinating council provides timely information and services for the membership, The

Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal, Oct 1997 by Hanks, James R

TE is an organization that works for its membership. Much of this work is accomplished by the Coordinating Council and its constituent councils.

The Coordinating Council, and vision for all of the ITE councils, brainstorms issues and develops options to address those issues. It both stimulates and facilitates the development and delivery of needed goods and oversees the quality control to ensure that final products meet ITE standards. The volunteers that serve in leadership roles and on committees with support from ITE staff have produced a plethora of products and services. Here is an overview of their recent accomplishments.

The Coordinating Council, led by John R. (Jack) Freeman, Jr., HNTB Corporation, Orlando, Fla., USA, as Chair and Thomas F. Larwin, San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board, San Diego, Calif., USA, as Vice Chair, is responsible for developing the technical program for annual meetings and facilitating technical activities at the chapter level. The Coordinating Council is composed of the chairs of each of the councils, a representative of the Transportation Research Board, Richard A. Cunard, and the ITE President as an ex off cio member. It serves to coordinate council activities and products, thus ensuring that the many diverse groups within ITE are heard and their needs recognized.

Wayne K. Tanda, City of San Jose, Calif., USA, oversees the Traffic Engineering Council (1,200*). This council represents the traditional backbone of our organization. Its members are working on projects ranging from access management, pedestrian facilities, safety, traffic calming and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Recently released products include: Traffic Calming Seminar at the 1997 Annual Meeting, Guidelines for the Design and Application of Speed Humps, A Recommended Practice (RP-023A); Traffic Signing Handbook (IR092); Traditional Neighborhood Development Street Design Guidelines (RP-027); and Preemption of Traffic Signals at or Near Railroad Grade Crossings with Active Warning Devices (RP-025A).

Robert P Jurasin, Wilbur Smith Associates, New Haven, Conn., USA, leads the Transportation Planning Council (930). This council is working on topics as diverse as developing a comparison of forecasting models, developing guidelines for traditional neighborhoods, street design and preparing a database on six congestion management success stories. Most ITE members are familiar with the Planning Council's work on trip generation, where they have both an advisory committee for development and a focus group reviewing the recommendations contained in the Trip Generation Manual.

The Transit Council (380) is headed by Leon Goodman, Parsons Transportation Group, New York, N.Y., USA, and is involved with public transportation systems, including transit, both bus and light rail, rapid transit, rail and bus, high occupancy vehicle facilities, people movers, waterborne transit and related multimodal interface.

The Transportation Safety Council (278) is headed by Richard A. Retting, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Arlington, Va., USA. It is working on encouraging the implementation of road safety audits, working on school zone speed limits, reviewing bicycle safety measures and conducting a statistical evaluation of traffic engineering safety studies.

The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Council (740), headed by S. Edwin (Ed) Rowe, Odetics, Anaheim, Calif., USA, has current projects involving such topics as the advanced traffic controller, capacity and levels of service at toll plazas, the development of ITS standards and transit ITS. This council's recent product is Transit ITS Compendium (IR-091).

Joseph E. Hummer, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., USA, leads the Transportation Education Council (140). This council covers all issues related to enhancing the professionalism and education of transportation professionals. They are developing a white paper on tenure track requirements, a directory of graduate and undergraduate programs in transportation engineering and an update of the Student Chapters manual.

C. Kenneth Orski, Urban Mobility Corporation, Washington, D.C., USA, chairs the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Council (200). They are developing a position paper on travel demand management and planning an ITS/TDM symposium.

The Goods Movement Council is the newest council recognized by the ITE Board. This council, chaired by Marsha D. Anderson, STREET SMARTS, Duluth, Ga., USA, is looking into ways that ITE members can advance the movement of goods along the surface transportation network.

The Transportation Expert Witness Council (420), headed by Sheldon I. Pivnik, Legal and Engineering Consultant, Miami, Fla., USA, covers issues related to expert testimony and enhancing professional growth and technical expertise of those serving as expert witnesses. The council has compiled a directory of forensic experts in transportation engineering which is on the ITE web site (http://www.ite.org) and is also putting together an expert witness informational notebook.