Joint Central Coast Section and Cal Poly SLO Student Chapter Meeting

Please join us virtually on Tuesday, May 25th for a joint meeting between the ITE Central Coast Section and the Cal Poly SLO ITE student chapter.

Sign up Here

Agenda:

11am-12pm: ITE Announcements & The Railroad Safety Trail (RRST) presentation by Bryan Wheeler, City of San Luis Obispo

12pm-1pm:  Social – Transportation Trivia

About the Presentation:

The Railroad Safety Trail (RRST) has long been one of the highest-priority multimodal transportation projects in the City of San Luis Obispo (City)—a crosstown, dedicated facility for pedestrians and bicyclists connecting the southern City limits north to California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). Over the past two decades, approximately 40 percent of the total four-mile trail has been completed and existing portions of the trail are enjoyed by over 1,000 pedestrians and cyclists per day.

The portion currently under construction extends from Taft Street (current end) to Pepper Street. Once completed, it will encompass about 0.4 miles, from the existing trail alignment to the edge of the downtown core. The segment will run along the west side of California Boulevard, near Taft Street, stretching south across the existing Highway 101 overcrossing. The segment then shifts away from California Boulevard behind the California Highway Patrol (CHP) property to a new bicycle/pedestrian bridge crossing over the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) and connects Phillips Lane to Pepper Street. Construction began in November of 2020, and is expected to be completed in September of 2021.

Bryan Wheeler has been a Transportation Planner / Engineer working for the City of San Luis Obispo since 2012. He graduated from Cal Poly in City and Reginal Planning in 2009, and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Civil Engineering form Cal Poly, graduating in June. His professional interests are traffic safety, sustainable transportation infrastructure, railway engineering, and traffic signal optimization.

About the Social:

The social portion of the joint meeting will utilize breakout rooms to split students and transportation professionals into groups for some transportation trivia. 

Membership Update

General

Beginning this year the Section has a new Membership Committee chaired by Faridur Rahman. The following update on current membership was provided at the Section Board Meeting in March:

As of March, 2021 ITE Central Coast Section has 129 total members. Members are broken down into several categories: student members, younger members, members, fellow members, and retired members. All membership levels are ITE International members and Section only membership is no longer provided.

In 2020 Central Coast Section added 11 new members. In 2021 we added 7 new members in the first two months of the year. Majority of members added this current year are students members from Cal Poly Student Chapter.

The full membership report is available here:

2020-membership-reportDownload

If you have any membership questions or ideas for increasing membership please contact Faridur Rahman.

President’s Message

General

From the desk (and kitchen table) of the President:

Welcome to the ITE Central Coast Section!

A silver lining of the Pandemic’s challenges has been the ability to reach more members by using a virtual environment for our meetings. Even after our Section resumes in-person meetings, virtual and hybrid events will play an important role in keeping us connected along the Central Coast. We all know that transportation is essential and that the work we do has a profound effect on the public. I encourage you to explore all the ways ITE can enhance your professional development and connect you with others.

We hope you can join us soon!

Travis Low, 2021 Section President

ITE Diversity Scholars Program Seeking Applicants

Notice

The ITE Diversity Scholars Program applications due March 15th.

The ITE Diversity Scholars Program supports increased diversity at the undergraduate level by increasing underrepresented populations participation in the transportation profession. There are four cornerstones to this program:

  • Financial support (a total of up to $20,000 in scholarship support: up to $4,000 annually per student for up to 5 years of undergraduate enrollment)
  • ITE Student Chapter engagement
  • Mentoring
  • Internship Opportunities

This scholorship program is open to any U.S. high school student of African-American; Native American, Alaskan, and Hawaiian; or Hispanic/Latino heritage with an interest in a career in transportation seeking to study transportation engineering, planning, or related-field at a school with an established ITE Student Chapter.

Free Training Available

Events

Subject: ITE SoCal Training Series – Introduction to ITS Networking, February 24

TE SoCal Training Series Please join us for the first training of 2021. “Introduction to ITS Networking” ·    Media types, MAC addressing, VLANs and IP addressing. Network best practices    

Where:Via GoToWebinar    
When:Wednesday, February 24, 2021 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Register Here Link to Flyer 
Free Registration for ITE Members! 
Registration ends on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 10:00 AM

District Outstanding Technical Paper Award Announcement

Notice

The Western District announced a new Outstanding Technical Paper Award that will be awarded starting this year. They previously had a paper award (called the Wayne T. & Patricia VanWagoner Award) for which only papers published in the ITE Journal were eligible. The Western District Board and District Technical Committee, decided recently to transition the award to broaden the eligibility requirements to allow more papers to be submitted for consideration.

The award seeks to recognize papers published during the previous calendar year (Jan 1st to Dec 31st) with a special emphasis placed on papers that are application centric or “practice ready.” Submissions are due to Western District Technical Chair Patrick Marnell via email by March 1st.


Please visit their website for more information on this new award.

Training Opportunity

Events

ITE Oregon Section Hosting Series of Virtual Meetings about Diversity and Inclusion

Voices of Diversity & Inclusion – How it Relates with the Transportation Profession

What does diversity & inclusion mean to you in your day-to-day work? Why is it important? What have folks been doing to improve transportation by considering diversity and inclusion? Come join the ITE Oregon Section who is hosting a series of four virtual Section lunchtime meetings from February until April. A fifth student-specific session will also be hosted on the topic. These sessions are open to all ITE members (as a Joint Sections Meeting through the support of WesternITE) and conveniently placed in the lunchtime hour (Pacific). 

Sessions are free to ITE members by registering at the WesternITE website. Proceeds from non-member fees will be contributed with the WesternITE Student Endowment Fund.

Save the Dates:

  • February 17th – Voices of Thought Leaders
  • February 24th – Business Voices in Transportation
  • March 3rd – Agency Voices in Transportation
  • March 31st – Voices of Professional Societies you may not know of
  • April 7th – Voices of Students