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May 3, 2023 – The Genesis of Terwillegar Drive Stage-1

Published on April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 by nacite

Freeway to Expressway

Details

Date: May 3
Registration & Social: 11:40 AM – 12:00 PM (MDT)
Luncheon & Presentation: 12:00 – 1:00 PM (MDT)
Location: Faculty Club at the University of Alberta, Winspear Room
11435 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G9
Cost: $35.00 ITE or APPI Member / $40 Non-ITE or APPI Member / $50 Late Registration (within 24 hours of event start)

About the Presentation

Since 2001 the City of Edmonton has been exploring options for the upgrade of Terwillegar Drive between Anthony Henday Drive and Whitemud Drive to accommodate evolving traffic demands along the corridor. In 2018, the original vision of a six-lane freeway complete with interchanges was recognized to incorporate several elements that were no longer consistent with the city’s transportation goals and an alternative strategy to meet current design standards, economic constraints and the wants and needs of adjacent communities was developed. Our presentation provides some insight on the genesis of the expressway concept, the extensive public engagement process undertaken by the project team and details some of the challenges and outcomes experienced through the planning, design and implementation of the expressway corridor that is currently being constructed.

About the Presenters

Brad Crossland is a Professional Engineer with Al-Terra Engineering, has almost 20 years of experience in the planning, design, management and delivery of urban transportation projects in the Greater Edmonton area. Certified as a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE) and a Road Safety Professional Infrastructure (RSP2I) Brad is a strong supporter of the safe systems approach to design and the goal of Vision Zero. In his personal life Brad is a proud girl dad, avid sports fan and an enthusiastic volunteer board member for the Koperoush School of Ukrainian Dance.

Scott Mensink is a Transportation Engineer with over 15 years of project management, design, contract administration, and technical expertise related to urban transportation engineering. Most of his career has been spent on delivering transportation projects for urban municipalities from concept through to construction. Scott works for ISL Engineering and Land Services and is the Manager of Urban Transportation. His work involves delivering complex urban transportation projects including arterial widening, neighbourhood renewal, complex multi-disciplinary projects and enhancing the public realm through delivery of major streetscape and LID projects.

April 13, 2023 – Mind the (gender) data gap

Published on March 21, 2023March 20, 2023 by nacite

Setting the agenda for understanding and responding to the public transit needs of Canadian women

Details

Date: April 13 (Thursday)
Registration & Social: 11:40 AM – 12:00 PM (MDT)
Luncheon & Presentation: 12:00 – 1:00 PM (MDT)
Location: Faculty Club at the University of Alberta, Winspear Room
11435 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G9
Cost: $35.00 ITE or APPI Member / $40 Non-ITE or APPI Member / $50 Late Registration (within 24 hours of event start)

About the Presentation

Gender has recently been emphasized as an issue to be featured on the agenda of sustainable and inclusive public transit planning practices. But, this knowledge mobilization study led by the University of Alberta researchers revealed that transport planning and design have paid little attention to gender. This can be attributed to a lack of gender-specific data, gender-neutral planning practices, and a lack of gender representation in the public transit workforce at all levels (from transit operators to senior leadership). With an absence of data collection practices designed to capture gender differences in public transit use and travel demand, little gender-specific insight can be generated. This is problematic as data are applied in several aspects of transit planning, such as developing service standards, fare policies, and business cases for major public transit projects. This presentation will focus on Canada’s gender data gap, specific to public transit but also more broadly related to transportation data collection practices, and its implications on transit planning, operations, and resource allocation. Lastly, action to be taken to close the gender data gap and build an evidence basis of how women use public transit will be discussed with emphasis placed on how we can put women at the heart of future public transit strategies.

About the Presenter

Dr. Emily Grisé is a forward-thinking transport researcher with specializations in the areas of transport & land use planning, customer satisfaction & loyalty with public transport, pedestrian & bicycle planning, travel behaviour of disadvantaged populations (seniors and people with disabilities) and public transport planning & operations. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Alberta and her work focuses on collaboration with several local and regional transport agencies to directly address issues of concern to key stakeholders. She is also frequently engaged in providing transport expertise in the private sector. The underlying goal of her research is to develop effective policies that contribute to a more livable and sustainable society.

March 1, 2023 – Rossdale Transportation Network

Published on March 21, 2023March 20, 2023 by nacite

River Crossing Business Plan – River Crossing Rendering (Left), Rossdale Road at Re-max Field (Right)

Date: March 1
Registration & Social: 11:40 AM – 12:00 PM (MDT)
Luncheon & Presentation: 12:00 – 1:00 PM (MDT)
Location: Faculty Club at the University of Alberta, Winspear Room
11435 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G9
Cost: $35.00 ITE Member / $40 Non-ITE Member / $50 Late Registration (within 24 hours of event start)

About the Presentation

“River Crossing is where the city meets the North Saskatchewan River at the heart of Edmonton. On both banks of the river connected by the impressive Walterdale Bridge, and on the water — this is River Crossing.”

The Rossdale Transportation Network project, identified in the River Crossing Business Plan (RCBP), aims to enhance public spaces and design the roadway network for all modes of transportation, including people walking, biking, taking transit and driving. The design considers the connections for this important link of roadways into and out of the Rossdale neighbourhood for commuters accessing downtown from the south and for those travelling east-west across the City. Concept planning for the Rossdale Transportation Network was completed earlier in 2023 to establish a plan that meets the Rossdale Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) and the community needs while balancing needs of businesses, active users and those who commute through the area.

Background: In anticipation of the changes adopted in the Rossdale Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP), City Administration initiated the Rossdale Transportation Network Analysis study with a focus on verifying and finalizing the changes to the transportation network outlined in the Rossdale ARP. The Concept Plan was completed as a follow up to the Network Analysis study providing the conceptual details to deliver the plan. This Concept Plan carries forward established objectives outlined in the Network Analysis Study, the RCBP, Rossdale ARP and River Crossing Heritage Interpretive Plan (RCHIP). The goal was to develop an integrated urban roadway concept and streetscape design that balances the needs of local and regional users. The Concept Plan also incorporates other aspects such as, but not limited to, land use, active modes connections, accessibility, stakeholder feedback, right-of-way requirements, traffic operations, transit service, on-street parking, utilities (existing and future), environmental concerns and historic resources.

The Rossdale ARP was adopted by City Council in 1986 without specific direction regarding West Rossdale. Following studies over the subsequent years, Council adopted the River Crossing Vision for West Rossdale in 2015 and directed Administration to take actions to help bring the vision of the area to life by preparing a heritage interpretive plan and business plan. Following this direction, the 2017 RCHIP and 2019 RCBP were completed. The RCBP integrates direction from the RCHIP by identifying areas for interpretive programming, considering connections and compatibility between heritage features and future development and by involving stakeholders and partners connected to the area’s heritage. Through the integration of the RCHIP, the RCBP provides a fresh redevelopment concept, along with proposed changes to the transportation network for supporting the proposed redevelopment.

About the Presenters:

Satya Gadidasu is an experienced Engineering Program Manager at the City of Edmonton with over 15 years of experience in modelling, designing, and managing projects related to roads, streetscapes, and bridges. Satya’s passion for creating safe, efficient, and sustainable transportation systems is admirable, as it speaks to his commitment to improving the lives of community members and ensuring that their needs are met. This passion drives him to approach each project with a high level of detail and thoroughness, ensuring that all aspects of the project are well-planned and executed. In addition to his technical skills, in his free time, Satya volunteers at the community centre and goes hiking with his family in the Rocky Mountains.

Daniel Zeggelaar is a Transportation Project Manager at ISL with over 15 years of experience and certified as a Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE) and Professional Transportation Planner (PTP). Dan specializes in transportation master planning, policy development, servicing studies, and network planning. In the community, Dan has volunteered with NACITE for many years and is currently serving as Past – President. He also helps as technical advisor and guest lecturer to the U of A CIVE 419 Capstone Class. Dan is a regular cyclist, rolling an average of 5,000 km+ per year and competing in various road races. Dan also rides indoors and recently became the 2023 Cycling Canada E-sports National Champion. Dan is a passionate transportation planner and thrives on finding balanced solutions to mobility needs.

December 7 – Evolving Edmonton’s Neighborhood Renewal Program

Published on March 21, 2023March 20, 2023 by nacite

Date: December 7
Registration & Social: 11:40 AM – 12:00 PM (MDT)
Luncheon & Presentation: 12:00 – 1:00 PM (MDT)
Location: Faculty Club at the University of Alberta, Winspear Room
11435 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G9
Cost: $35.00 ITE Member / $40 Non-ITE Member / $50 Late Registration (within 24 hours of event start)

About the Presentation

The City of Edmonton started renewing neighbourhoods in 1995, and since has established a long-term Neighbourhood Renewal Program. The Program has gone from a “like for like” replacement of transportation infrastructure to expand and look at neighbourhoods more broadly. As the transportation infrastructure is being completely removed and replaced, this provides the opportunity to add work related to other initiatives and programs including safe mobility, open space and park developments, LID, improvements to commercial properties and active transportation.

About the Presenter:

Jen Rutledge is a Professional Engineer with over 17 years of project management, contract administration, and technical expertise related to transportation engineering in both the public and private sectors. Most of her career has been spent on strategy, planning and design stages of transit, rail and roadway projects, with a heavy focus on neighbourhood-level infrastructure.

Jen currently works for the City of Edmonton and is a Supervisor in the Neighbourhoods Planning and Design section of Building Great Neighbourhoods. Her work involves stewarding the Edmonton’s Neighbourhood Renewal Program, feeding her passion for rebuilding Edmonton one neighbourhood at a time.

November 2 – Trans Mountain Expansion Project: Traffic Control Plan and Travel Delay Monitoring

Published on March 21, 2023March 20, 2023 by nacite

_{Photo Courtesy of ATS Traffic}

Date: November 2
Registration & Social: 11:40 AM – 12:00 PM (MDT)
Luncheon & Presentation: 12:00 – 1:00 PM (MDT)
Location: Faculty Club at the University of Alberta, Winspear Room
11435 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G9
Cost: $35 ITE member / $40 Non-ITE member

About the Presentation

In Trans Mountain Expansion Project, IntelliTrafik division of ATS Traffic is providing the services of: (i) traffic control plan quality reviews and (ii) travel delay monitoring and reporting. This presentation will discuss both aspects of this project with specific focus on travel delay monitoring. Application of innovative technologies for real-time travel delay measurements made it possible for better construction management and scheduling. Additionally, the large dataset obtained from this project-initiated data driven research for work zone delay prediction modeling using machine learning.

About the Presenters:

Mudasser Seraj has been a part of IntelliTrafik since 2021. Before joining IntelliTrafik for full time, Mudasser finished his master’s and PhD in Transportation Engineering from University of Alberta. For last 9 years, he has been actively involved in different types of ITS technology and their implementations including: variable speed limits, transit ridership estimation from cellphone data, connected and automated vehicles, video camera and LiDAR based data collection etc. Mudasser is extremely passionate about all things related to transportation which motivated him to volunteer in multiple transportation organizations involving Edmonton Transit Service Advisory Board, ITE Northern Alberta Section etc. Mudasser mostly enjoys the company of his family and friends in his spare time.
Steve Ennis has worked with ATS Traffic for almost 15 years and currently manages IntelliTrafik, the business’ newest division, offering ITS and data driven solutions. He has passion for emerging technology and the unique applications of these technologies to solve real world problems. He is fortunate to share an industry research chair at the University of Alberta’s Centre for Smart Transportation where research is focused on the infrastructure required to support autonomous vehicles. In the spare time, Steve enjoys spending time with his families or playing the guitar.

September 7 – Saskatchewan Drive Network Analysis: A Multi-modal Policy-based Approach

Published on March 21, 2023March 20, 2023 by nacite

Date: September 7
Luncheon: 12:00 – 1 PM (MDT)
Location: University Club of the University of Alberta, Winspear Room
11435 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G9
Cost: $35 ITE member / $40 Non-ITE member / $20 Student

About the Presentation

A concept plan was completed for the Saskatchewan Drive (99 Street to 109 street) rehabilitation project in 2018 that included the addition of a shared use path and widening of the existing shared use path. The project did not proceed to preliminary design due to significant costs and stakeholder concerns. During the Covid 19 Pandemic, the City implemented “mobility lanes” along Saskatchewan Drive (between 109 to 104 street) to provide additional space for active transportation users and received positive feedback from the public. The combined implications of shared use path widening costs and public feedback from lane closures prompted a review of the concept plan.

The Saskatchewan Drive Network Analysis project included a multi-modal evaluation to understand the impacts of lane reduction on Saskatchewan Drive for the implementation of a dedicated cycling facility. The primary goal of this study was to inform the next steps for the Saskatchewan Drive corridor and provide the City with information about whether an updated concept plan should be prepared to enhance the cycling and pedestrian facilities between 109 Street and 104 Street. A secondary goal of the project was to test out the policies related to City Plan as they applied to the evaluation. We will provide an overview of the evaluation criteria that were developed for this project, the process of evaluation, study outcomes and recommendations for future work.

About the Presenters:

Pablo Orozco is a passionate transportation professional and Edmontonian. He is currently the General Supervisor for Mobility within the Planning and Environment Services Branch at the City of Edmonton. His experience includes working as a transportation engineer for The City Plan project where he co-led a holistic analysis of Edmonton’s mobility system and land use patterns as well as the Mass Transit Study which identified the necessary mass transit network and policy for 2 million people. He has led the development of a Mobility Network Analysis and Mass Transit Planning work at the City of Edmonton both of which are implementation plans of the City Plan. He has also served as a Program Manager within the IIS department of the City of Edmonton. Pablo holds a Master of Engineering from the University of Toronto and is P.Eng, PMP and ELITE certified.

Erin Toop moved from Edmonton to Jasper in 2018 and has missed NACITE luncheons and events ever since. At WSP she is a Senior Consultant in the Sustainable Transportation Advisory team, where she has been leading and collaborating on multi-modal transportation projects across Western Canada, with a focus on planning for public transit and active modes.

Anika Muhammad is a Transportation Planning Engineer with WSP with 11 years of experience in multi-modal planning, Complete Streets, strategic transportation planning and policy development. Anika is a system thinker that applies her diverse experience in the public and private sectors in the development of long-term solutions that meet client needs. Anika’s combined experience in long-term strategic planning and implementation enables her to develop feasible and practical solutions for communities. Anika works on diverse projects that include active transportation network plans, Complete Streets design manuals, transportation master plans, public transit feasibility studies and concept design. Anika is also the Vice President of the NACITE 2022 board.

GBA+ Workshop Opportunity

Published on May 25, 2022 by naciteLeave a comment

The COVID-19 pandemic has once again revealed the disparities between the experiences that diverse groups of women, men, and people of all genders have with Canadian transportation systems. As transportation professionals, we always strive to make sure that our work brings benefits to our communities equitably, though it is also true that the state of practice for gender-based analysis plus in transportation projects is in its early stages.

Recently, NACITE has hosted an online webinar on this topic that was recorded adn can be found here. Now, NACITE is planning to host an online workshop focused on the application of gender-based analysis plus to your project (3 hours). It will be a practical training opportunity aimed at teaching participants to apply gender-based analysis plus to their projects.

Please, follow the link below to answer a quick 3-minute survey that will help us to gauge interest in such training and tailor our programming to your needs.

SURVEY

June 1 – Speed Limit Reductions in West Canada Panel Discussion

Published on May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 by naciteLeave a comment

Date: June 1
Time: 12 – 1:30 PM (MDT)
Panel Discussion
Cost: Free

About the Presentation In the past few years, more and more municipalities in Canada worked on speed limit reductions. It would be beneficial to hear from them about how they initiated speed limit changes, establish methodologies and processes to make the changes, and implement speed limit reduction measures, as well as what kinds of findings and lessons learned they obtained.

Our NACITE is excited to dive into this topic through our virtual panel discussion this coming June, “Speed Limit Reductions in West Canada”! Please join us and a panel of experts for an exciting and educational discussion. You will be hearing from: Dean Schick – Manager of Transportation with the City of St. Albert, and Daniel Zeggelaar (co-presenter with Dean Schick) – Transportation Project Manager with ISL Engineering and Land Services Ltd. Shewkar Ibrahim –Manager, Safe Mobility Engineering with the City of Edmonton Tony Churchill – Senior Traffic Engineer, Leader of Traffic Safety Roads with the City of Calgary Liliana Quintero – Senior Transportation Engineer with the City of Vancouver Each panelist will have a 10-min presentation to introduce speed limit reduction implementation in his/her municipality. There will be a Q&A session following all four presentations.

About the Presenters: Dean Schick A graduate from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Civil program, Dean has 18 years of experience in municipal transportation engineering and operations and has been with the City of St Albert for 15 years. His role with St Albert has changed with the growing community and within the Engineering department – from Transportation Coordinator to Supervisor to the Transportation Manager when the Transportation branch was created in 2014. During his time managing the Transportation branch there has been a targeted delivery of a variety of municipal strategies and guidelines, inclusive of Complete Streets Guidelines, Active Transportation Plan and Gaps Assessment, Intelligent Transportation System Strategies, and the St. Albert Transportation Safety Plan to which the city wide review of speed limits was a strategic action. He is proud of his team’s accomplishments in advancing traffic safety initiatives and network operational and capital improvements within the community he both lives and works in.

Daniel Zeggelaar is a Transportation Project Manager within ISL’s Transportation Group in Edmonton and has over 13 years of experience in transportation planning. Daniel is certified as a professional traffic operations engineer (PTOE) and professional transportation planner (PTP) providing a perspective from both an operations ‘ground level’ and planning ‘high level’ and is able to explain how planning level decisions carry through to design and operations. Generally, Dan specializes in transportation master planning, policy development, servicing studies, and network planning, traffic impact assessments, parking strategy and traffic operations. Dan’s mix of expertise in transportation planning and traffic operations reflects his ability for developing solutions sensitive to both areas. Dan also has expertise in state-of-the-art traffic modeling software packages including VISUM, Synchro, HCS and SIDRA. In the community, Dan volunteers as Past -president of Northern Alberta Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, technical advisor and guest lecturer to the University of Alberta CIVE 419 course (Capstone).

Shewkar (sh-wee-car) Ibrahim (eb-ra-heem) is the Manager of Safe Mobility Engineering with the City of Edmonton’s Safe Mobility Section. Thanks to the free time during the pandemic, Shewkar successfully defended her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia (in 2020) in the area of Transportation Engineering with a focus on Traffic Safety. An engineer by day and a researcher by night, Shewkar is very passionate about finding ways to improve safety and mobility for all road users to reach the goal of zero-fatalities and serious injuries in Edmonton by 2032. Shewkar was also very involved in leading the work to change the default speed limit in Edmonton to 40 km/h on residential, downtown streets as well as highly used pedestrian areas. She’s looking forward to sharing more about Edmonton’s holistic approach to how they managed the program from planning to evaluation to help keep the conversation “moving” on how speed limits can impact safety.

Tony Churchill is a Senior Traffic Engineer with the City of Calgary. He obtained a civil engineering technology diploma from SAIT Polytechnic prior to studying at the University of Calgary where he completed BSc. and MSc. degrees in civil engineering with a focus on road safety. Tony has been involved in discussions about lowering speed limits in Calgary for about eight years and recently coordinated the installation of about 5,000 speed limit signs to support the 40 km/h default speed limit that came into effect on May 31, 2022. He will be leading the evaluation of this change and is currently working on the Safer Collector Framework to redesign Collector roadways to encourage 40 km/h operating speeds.

Liliana Quintero is a Senior Transportation Engineer working at the City of Vancouver since 2015. She currently works implementing the City’s Moving Towards Zero safety program and the school active travel planning program. Her work at the City of Vancouver has focused on developing a strategy to reach Vancouver’s zero transportation related fatalities & serious injuries target. Including exploring alternative sources of data such hospital and ambulance data, revamping the existing school program, prioritizing safety upgrades and piloting new items (rectangular flashing beacons , leading pedestrian intervals and slow zones). Additionally, finding new innovative solutions for safety including organizing the VANquish Collisions Hackathon. Liliana grew up in Bogota, Colombia and moved to Vancouver in 2008 to complete a masters degree in Transportation Engineering focused on Transportation Safety at the University of British Columbia

May 4 – Moving Beyond Theory: How to Apply and Integrate GBA+ Practices Within Your Organization

Published on April 20, 2022April 21, 2022 by naciteLeave a comment

Date: May 4^th ,2022

Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm, Mountain Time (Edmonton Time)

Format: Virtual

Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) is a tool and approach that helps to analyze your services, products, and processes from a gender and intersectional lens. When applying GBA+ you are better able to explore the needs of different groups of people, as well as recognize their multiple identities (such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, religion, age and mental or physical disability etc.). that impacts their experiences.
While more and more people are familiarizing themselves with the concept of GBA+, many leaders and staff struggle with the “how to” aspect of the framework. What does it really mean to apply and embed GBA+ thinking to your workplace policies and practices? Where do you start and what pre-conditions need to be in place? This webinar focuses on GBA+ applications. The goal is to deepen your understanding of the utilization of GBA+ and demonstrate how you might integrate it into your current projects.

Participants will learn how GBA+ can be used to:

uncover barriers to accessing transportation services and new modes of transportation
build practices and policies into organizational structures to reduce barriers and biases in workplace processes
explore new ways of thinking and working that centres the experience of historically marginalized and underserved communities

A case study highlighting critical foundational components and outcomes will inspire participants to get started on their own GBA+ journey.

Register Here

Speaker bios:

Chanel Grenaway has over 20 years of experience focused on integrating equity, a gender lens, and intersectionality practice into workplace cultures. She has a range of expertise from work with Foundations, multi-service non-profit agencies and academic institutions. Chanel played a pivotal role in the research and planning of a new 5 course specialization on gender-based analytics developed and offered by the Institute for Gender and the Economy (available on Coursera). The course explores the ways that gender identity, Indigeneity, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and other intersections shape risks, opportunities and impacts of an organization’s activities, operations and outcomes. Chanel is the lead instructor for the qualitative data collection and community-based engagement module. She is currently supporting organizations to improve their equity and inclusion outcomes through equity assessments, training and knowledge building, community engagement, and action planning. For more information you can visit her website at http://www.chanelgrenaway.com

Hannah Rosen (she/they) is an intersectional gender equity specialist with experience applying GBA Plus in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Her work focuses on systemic integration and innovation of gznder equity and intersectionality into policy and practice. The broader goal of Hannah’s work is to ensure gender equity and intersectional analysis are fully integrated into everyday work, practices, and services. Hannah is a graduate of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and Queen’s University in Kingston, ON. She holds a Master of Global Affairs, with a specialization in feminist international policy, as well as gendered impacts of war and conflict. Her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) was in international relations, with a focus on the intersections of hypermasculinity, mental health, and military service.