07
Feb
Retirement Announcement
I am happy to share that I’m fully retired as of the start of 2024.
Category: Uncategorized
01
Dec
Webinar: Smart Work Zones and the WZDx Spec.
I’ve authored a forthcoming report that discusses five case studies of public agencies using smart work zone devices and/or implementing public data feeds that conform to the Work Zone Data exchange (WXDx) specification. The report is one of the eleven products that are being produced as part of NCHRP 08-119: Data Integration, Sharing, and Management […]
27
Nov
Webinar: Shared Mobility Data
I’ve authored two forthcoming guides dealing with managing shared mobility data: Shared Mobility Data: A Resource Guide and Managing Sensitive Shared Mobility Data. These guides are two of the eleven products that are being produced as part of NCHRP 08-119: Data Integration, Sharing, and Management for Transportation Planning and Traffic Operations. A webinar that summarized the […]
25
Jan
AV and EV Sentiment Tracking
I’ve just completed a side project some may find of interest. It tracks daily sentiment on Twitter concerning automated vehicles and electric vehicles. Early result show the effects of a news reports of a major crash involving a self-driving vehicle on the sentiment regarding AVs expressed on Twitter, as described in Observing the Effect of a […]
02
Dec
New Resource Guide for Managing Shared Mobility Data
Along with colleagues from AEM, I’ve recently completed authoring Shared Mobility Data: A Resource Guide. This report provides readers with a curated guide to over 40 online and other reference material related to the collection, management, and use of shared mobility data. It primarily covers micromobility data, but also includes information related to ridesharing and […]
01
Dec
Bid & Proposal Support
McGurrin Consulting recently provided Black Hat and Proposal support for a client’s successful major Intelligent Transportation Systems contract award with USDOT.
17
Apr
“66 Tolls”: An Alexa Skill Providing Real-Time Tolling Data
“There’s no future that doesn’t have ambient computing or voice activation… none.” Mark Cuban. Open data and voice interfaces will both have growing roles in transportation. As a consultant in the ITS field, I’ve always felt that there was great value in understanding multiple perspectives, from a high level down through implementation. With that in […]
16
Nov
Impacts and Costs of Connected and Automated Vehicles
One of my current projects is working with ICF and the EDR Group to calculate the infrastructure, vehicle, and user costs of multiple potential deployment scenarios for connected and autonomous vehicles. My role is as a subject matter expert on connected and automated vehicles, In addition to producing the cost estimates, we are developing an automated tool […]
26
Oct
2017 Freeway Management and Operations Handbook
As the TRB Freeway Ops Committe states, “The Freeway Management and Operations Handbook (FMOH) provides an overview of the institutional and technical issues associated with the operation of a freeway network. The FMOH provides an overview of the potential strategies, tools, and technologies that may be used to support the management and operation or be […]
11
Dec
DSRC vs. Waiting for C-V2V: Lost Benefits and a Proposed Dual-Mode Solution
There is an ongoing and intensifying debate between advocates of deploying Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) as the radio medium for vehicle to vehicle safety communications and those who advocate using a newly-emerging cellular technology, Cellular V2X (C-V2X) as the radio medium for such communications. One of the factors involved is timing. DSRC has been extensively tested, […]
18
Sep
FHWA publishes guide on the use of Scrum for ITS project development
The FHWA had published their first guide on applying agile techniques to ITS projects, Applying Scrum Methods to ITS Projects. To quote from the document’s abstract, ” The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed this document to help those interested in learning about Scrum Methods, one of the Agile Methodologies, and how to incorporate Scrum into ITS project […]
27
Jul
The Magic Behind Self-Driving Cars
Arthur C. Clarke wrote that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” For non-experts, that certainly seems to be the case for self-driving cars. But as in the case of magic tricks, we can begin to understand how self-driving cars work by breaking them down into component pieces and examining them individually. If you […]
27
Mar
The Three Ages of ITS
A while back, I worked with two of my colleagues (Greg Hatcher and Carolina Burnier, both of Noblis) to write an article for Thinking Highways magazine on the past 10 years of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) developments in the U.S. In developing that article, it occurred to me that at the risk of oversimplification, one […]
25
Mar
Connected Vehicle 101 Course
I’m looking forward to once again teaching the online, instructor led Connected Vehicle 101 course for CITE, starting next week. It provides a good introduction to connected vehicle technologies and applications, as well as the current status of USDOT-funded field tests and pilot deployments. The “blended” online format provides opportunities to teleconference with fellow students […]
13
Feb
A Brief Note on Modal Access Across America
Introduction The Accessibility Observatory at the University of Minnesota is one of, if not the, leading center for the research and application of accessibility-based transportation system evaluation. They have harnessed the growth of big data in transportation, along with cloud computing resources, to conduct multiple groundbreaking accessibility studies that are unprecedented in scope. As part […]
10
Jan
Uber and World Bank Launch Separate Open Traffic Data Initiatives
The announcement by Uber that they will provide free time of day travel time data could be a game-changer for free and open routing and planning tools, such as Valhalla and Mapzen’s isochrone tool. These tools use GTFS schedule data as a decent surrogate for transit travel times, and calculate walk and bike times, but […]
29
Dec
Transportation Performance Metrics: The Value of Accessibility
Back in 2013, I authored an article on the value of accessibility, aka access to destinations, as a transportation performance metric. Accessibility basically measures the ability to access jobs, goods, or services in a community. While there are many formulations, a simple accessibility metric would be the number of jobs reachable by a 30 minute […]
28
Dec
Providing Robot Drivers with ESP
There is considerable discussion and debate concerning the relationships between connected vehicle and automated vehicle technology. In an article from the fall 2015 edition of Thinking Highways magazine, I describe the results from a study of the interrelationships. A key take-away is that the two technologies have, in many ways, a synergistic relationship. Connectivity literally […]
28
Dec
Open Traffic Data
The theme of the October 2015 issue of Thinking Highways magazine is data, and it includes a think piece I authored on open traffic data. In the few short weeks after I wrote the piece, there were a couple of interesting announcements on the topic. While not open to other parties, TomTom is partnering with […]
22
Dec
Open Source Software
A significant portion of my work has been at the intersection of technical and policy issues. An example is my work on open data and open source policies for the USDOT’s ITS program. One artifact from that work is the Software Licensing Policy for the Open Source Application Development Portal (OSADP)