Past Events

The Mineta Consortium for Transportation Mobility organizes or participates in several transportation-related events each year. These include national summits, regional forums, industry conferences, or special events and broadcasts. You can find leading transportation experts at all of these events, making them an excellent resource not only for professional and research insights, but also for networking.

Dates	Events
September 17, 2020	MTI Research Snaps Webinar: "See the USA in Your Chevrolet: The American Road Trip Reconsidered" - Online Road trips, often understood as an embodiment of American freedom, are an essential summertime activity for millions even amidst a global pandemic. New research and recent events, however, complicate the vision of the great American road trip by revealing how it has been shaped by democratic ideals, commercial interest, and nostalgia. Reexamining the road trip through a historical lens can inform the work of transportation professionals – especially in the context of the mobility revolution, social justice reform, and pandemic shutdowns. View Recording. View Slides. Presenters: Dan Albert, PhD, and Allyson Hobbs, PhD
August 25, 2020	MTI Research Snaps Webinar: "Predicting Future Highway Maintenance and Rehabilitation Costs" - Online This webinar discussed the Caltrans-funded study investigating trends in the primary pavement materials’ unit price over time and developed guidelines for selecting unit price values for future maintenance and rehabilitation in life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Researchers collected 20 years of California socio-economic data, including oil price, population, and other key variables to identify correlations with pavement materials’ unit price. Researchers predicted future values through time-series analysis (auto regressive integrated moving average: ARIMA) and used them to estimate future prices. Additionally, they collected unit price records of the primary pavement materials for the same time period and categorized them by project size. Using this data, researchers predicted future price values and then used a case study to compare the results with the prices in the current LCCA procedure. View Recording. View Slides. Presenters: Changmo Kim, PhD and Ghazan Khan, PhD
August 20, 2020	MTI Research Snaps Webinar: "Rising to the Transportation Challenge—Students Applying STEM Solutions to Improve Transit" - Online With the Fresno State Transportation Challenge, K-8 students in the Central Valley learn about transportation while making a positive impact in their communities. This interdisciplinary program, led by Fresno State Transportation Institute founder Professor Aly Tawfik, opens up exciting paths to careers in transportation. This webinar documented the challenges and best practices for leveraging university resources to effectively engage youth. View Recording. View Slides. Presenters: Christian Wandler, PhD
July 30, 2020	MTI Research Snaps Webinar: "Lessons Learned From Public Transit Success in Metropolitan Areas" This research webinar covered research from Characteristics of Effective Metropolitan-Areawide Public Transit, which evaluates ten metropolitan areas in Australia, Canada, and Europe with highly effective regional transit. This research identified key traits that are correlated with high public transit usage, including: the “behind the scenes” or political and institutional characteristics; the customer-apparent transit service features; and funding and willingness to subsidize transit. View Recording. View Slides. Presenters: Michelle DeRobertis, PhD
June 26, 2020	11th Annual Mineta National Transportation Policy Summit presents 'Paying for Transportation in California: Does COVID-19 Change Everything?' The COVID-19 pandemic threatens every aspect of transportation funding in California. State revenues from federal, state, regional, and local taxes and fees are all at risk. Since California’s shelter-in-place order went into effect in March, the state has already faced plummeting revenues from gasoline taxes, tolls, transit fares, and sales taxes. These revenue sources will most likely continue to be severely threatened in the coming months and possibly even years. Panelists discussed the opportunities for every level of government to help recover transportation revenues in our uncertain future. Can we rely on our traditional mix of revenue sources? Will the COVID-19 crisis stimulate innovation in transportation finance? These and other revenue options were discussed at the 11th Annual Norman Y. Mineta National Transportation Policy Summit. View Recording. View e-program.
June 26, 2020	CANCELLED - MTI Banquet and Convocation Celebration 2020 All in-person MTI events have been postponed until the global pandemic passes and the shelter in place directive is lifted. As a result, the 2020 Annual MTI Banquet and Convocation Celebration has been cancelled. Understandably, COVID-19 is at the top of many people's minds; however, a webinar is the perfect way to social distance while engaging in knowledgeable research discussions. Join the conversation from anywhere online. We look forward to future event opportunities that will allow us to continue in our mission to improve mobility for all. Resources for Transportation Professionals
June 26, 2020	MSTM 2020 Virtual Graduation Celebration - Online In the unprecedented times of COVID-19 and social distancing the class of 2020 persevered. The MTI/SJSU community gathered to recognize and celebrate the graduating students in a virtual session. E-program. \| Congratulations from our trustees. \| View recording.\| View Slides.
June 4, 2020	MTI Research Snaps Webinar: "Mitigation v. Adaptation, Transportation and Land-Use Planning to Combat Climate Change" Recent extreme weather events in California—wildfires, droughts, and flooding—make abundantly clear the need to plan effective responses to both the causes and consequences of climate change. New Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) research, Harmonizing Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Transportation and Land-Use Planning in California Cities, analyzed the climate plans for 23 California cities in addition to interviewing 25 local, regional, and state officials working on climate planning. Identified transportation and land-use (TLU) strategies that both mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and successfully prepare communities to be less severely impacted by climate change remains a challenge. The study assessed existing city plans and identified the potential pitfalls between mitigation and adaptation. Then, it establishes methods the state can implement to help cities effectively incorporate integrated TLU actions. View Recording. View Slides. Presenters: Serena Alexander, PhD
May 21, 2020	2020 Garrett Morgan Sustainable Transportation Competition Much like Garrett Augstus Morgan, who, despite his humble beginnings as the son of slaves, recognized the importance of education, ideation, and entrepreneurship, we too are living in a time of great innovation. Most recently in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we’ve seen businesses adapt to ensure the safety of their employees and communities. Most significantly we’ve seen individuals and whole communities rally behind essential workers like nurses, service industry workers, and transit workers to ensure that they can continue to provide those critical services and keep all of us moving. And that is what we do in transportation: keep things moving. Regardless of this pandemic our industry is always teeming with new ideas focused on sustainability, traffic reduction, active transit, and others. And that’s where this competition comes into play by highlighting the significant creativity and innovation of these incredible students who put together projects despite the challenges associated with their schools closing as a result of COVID-19. Congratulations to the winners: In 3rd place and the winners of an official award plaque and $200 is American Indian Child Resource Center for their project ‘Day and Night,’ which looks into hybrid electric and solar charging stations for devices and double as light sources around transit stations! Congratulations! In 2nd place and the winners of an official award plaque and $300 is Aptos Middle School for their project ‘Eco Drive,’ which proposes a bioethanol powered car with CO2 absorbing components. Congratulations! Finally, in 1st place and the winners of $1,000 cash prize, a plaque, and a special recognition from our Trustees (drumroll) is California Montessori Project- Capitol Campus for their project ‘Fast. Easy. Smart: A Sustainable AV Plan for Cities,’ which proposes a system for the deployment of autonomous vehicles that meets societal needs as well as safety and environmental concerns.
May 14, 2020	MTI Research Snaps Webinar: "COVID-19 & State-Generated Transportation Funds in California" The COVID-19 public health emergency drastically changed every aspect of California life, including reducing personal travel by as much as half in many regions. As a result, transportation revenues plummeted because user fees produce a large share of resources needed to operate California’s transportation system. This research used simple spreadsheet models to estimate the impact of different scenarios for economic recovery from the COVID- 19 pandemic on state-generated transportation revenues. The model covers the package of SB1 gasoline and diesel taxes, as well as two fees levied on vehicles. Panelist(s): Drs. Martin "Marty" Wachs and Asha Weinstein Agrawal with Ms. Hannah King View Recording. View Slides. Presenters: Asha W. Agrawal, PhD, Martin Wachs, PhD, and Hannah King