WesternITE Newsletter October 2009 Is here!

What’s in this edition of WesternITE Online?

• President’s Message
• Changing Campus Culture: Making the Bus Cool
• 2009 Denver Awards
• Section and Chapter Updates
• 2009 Annual Board Meeting Highlights
• Call For Traffic Bowl Questions
• Student Initiatives Committee
• Legislative Update
• 2009 Denver Annual meeting
• Section and Chapter Spotlight: Alaska
• International Director’s Report
• Student Endowment Fund: A Winning Formula? We think So!
• Editor’s Corner

Enjoy! – and thanks to all of the wonderful contributors that make this newsletter possible!

President’s Message: A Year of Opportunity

Michael Sanderson, P.E., PTOE

Denver, Colorado was recently the scene of another terrific Western District Annual Meeting. Thank you to Nate Larson and Will Johnson for your leadership and thanks to all the hard working members of the Local Arrangements Committee.  All of us who attended enjoyed your Rocky Mountain hospitality  and I extend my gratitude to you for the great kickoff to my year as president.

Changing Campus Culture: Making the Bus “Cool”

Union and Classroom Express Route

Charles W. Huffine, P.E., P.T.O.E., A.I.C.P., and Joanna Morsicato

Abstract

Most colleges and universities are trying to solve parking problems these days.  People want to park near their destinations.  Parking supplies never seem to be large enough, and providing more parking brings more cars into the high pedestrian environment.  Faced with building huge parking structures on campus, the University of Wyoming has instead begun to shift its culture from single occupancy vehicles to transit/park-n-ride.  Starting with University of Wyoming Transportation and Parking Master Plan¹, the university was able to employ various methods to successfully get people to leave their cars and hop on buses.

Editor’s Corner

I would like to begin by thanking you, the reader, for checking out this edition of the Western ITE Newsletter. For those interested in the contents of this newsletter, please note that extended versions of some articles, such as the informative “Making the bus cool” technical piece, can be read only on the online newsletter. In the coming months we will be posting all of the technical papers submitted to Western ITE that unfortunately could not be fit into the physical newsletter. While on the topic of the physical newsletter, we have announced that from here on out there will be only two printed editions per year with the majority of our content now being placed on this website. This is in keeping with the theme of Michael’s message to us this month and we are doing our best to work in a manner that is more economically efficient. The upside of moving to a primarily web based format is that much more content can be posted, including both articles and photos that would have taken too much space in a physical newsletter. To go directly to our photo album which now includes photos from Denver, follow the link http://picasaweb.google.com/zakiladot. (or simply click the photos link to your right) From this point forward, I would like section updates, technical papers and any other prospective articles to be sent to ntmustafa@gmail.com. The newsletter’s new format is exciting for us all, and I cannot say enough how much I appreciate the readership.

Together We Are the Best– Interim Managing Editor Zaki Mustafa

2009 Denver Awards

Congratulations to the First Student Traffic Bowl Winners

University of Wyoming

Section and Chapter Activities

Colorado/Wyoming

The Colorado/Wyoming Section of ITE had a busy summer!  The Section kicked off the summer with our annual golf tournament on Friday, June 26th at the West Woods Golf Club.  There were 82 players at this year’s Colorado/Wyoming Section golf tournament, and generous donations from our sponsors made for some great prizes and allowed us to raise well over $300 for the scholarship fund.  The winning team included Mike Harmer, Skip Hlad, Chris Paiz, and John Sabo.  A special thanks to the golf committee:  John Seyer, Craig Faessler, Eric Boivin, John Muscatel, Scot Lewis, and Jeff Ream.

Call for Traffic Bowl Questions

ITE is assembling a database of questions to be used by ITE International, districts and sections in conducting student traffic bowl competitions. In the coming years, ITE is planning on conducting an Institute-wide competition among the student chapters, culminating with a competition among the district winning student chapters. Individual members, companies and student chapters may submit questions.

All who submit questions are entered into a drawing for $500 worth of ITE Script, which can be redeemed for meeting registrations, professional development courses publications, etc. The more questions you submit, the greater your chances

Please visit www.ite.org for additional information

Student Initiatives Committee

Danielle Scharf

We are pleased to announce that Danielle Scharf has been appointed as the new chair of the Student Initiatives Committee.  Danielle is an officer of the Intermountain Section, and she is an alumni and former president of the successful Montana State University student chapter.  Danielle has a great background in student chapter activities and she has worked extensively with mentoring students and younger members.  She and Alyssa will be working together for a seamless transition of the committee duties.  Please welcome Danielle to the board.

October Legislative Update

Lawmaker says gas taxes could fund road repairs

Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, NM)

Alamogordo Daily News (Alamogordo, NM)
By Steve Ramirez,

Posted: 08/21/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
“The possibility of an increase in the federal gas tax to fund transportation projects throughout the nation is not being ruled out,” the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Wednesday.

2009 Denver Annual Meeting

Through the thin air of a sunny Rocky Mountain paradise, another ITE Western District Annual Meeting came to pass; over 500 people went home enlightened with fresh knowledge, emboldened with modern perspectives, and enriched with new relationships.  From July 12-15th Denver, Colorado hosted the 2009 annual meeting of the western United States’ best and brightest transportation engineering and planning professionals and students. “Transportation in the Sustainable Energy Future” was the theme of the technical program, and it kicked off in grand fashion with a dynamic look into the future of sustainable transportation by Michael O’Keefe, a senior