Appendix A: Samples of TMIP Webinar Announcements and Evaulation Reports

1.0 Tour-Based & Supply Chain Freight Modeling in Chicago-TMIP Webinar Evaluation Report

1.1 Summary

On January 31, 2013, Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) sponsored a webinar highlighting the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) experience developing and applying their activity-based model. The webinar was titled "Tour-Based & Supply Chain Freight Modeling in Chicago."

The webinar session included three presenters: Kermit Wies (Deputy Executive Director for Research and Analysis, CMAP), Monique Urban (Cambridge Systematics, CMAP Consultant), and Maren Outwater (RSG, CMAP Consultant). These presentations collectively provided a comprehensive summary of advanced freight modeling framework, development, and application in the Chicago metropolitan region. The presentations covered the following material:

Kermit Wies: Advanced Freight Model Development/Mesoscale model development

Data Sources
Sensitivity and Scenario Testing
Application

Monique Urban: CMAP's Innovative Approach to Freight Forecasting

Freight Modeling History
Freight Model Scales (Macro, Meso, and Micro)
Data Preparation
Firm Location Model
Supplier Selection
Flow Apportionment
Path Enumeration and Selection
Assignment
Example Results

Maren Outwater: National Freight Forecasting Model Framework

Freight Forecasting Model Improvements/Advancements
Model Framework in Chicago
National Supply-Chain Models
Regional Tour-Based Model
Demonstration and Implementation

A total of one-hundred and forty (140) individuals and agencies (some with more than one participant) from academia, private consulting firms, local, state and federal governments attended the webinar. A majority of these participants either worked for large MPOs (>1 million population), state governments or private sector consulting firms.

In a post-webinar evaluation, 94% of the respondents agreed that the webinar was relevant to their day-to-day jobs and that the format of the webinar was just right as is. The presentation received positive feedback in the polls, as well as various suggestions to guide the topics for future webinar sessions.

The following sections provide a detailed evaluation of the TMIP webinar on the Tour-Based and Supply Chain Modeling in Chicago webinar.

1.2 Promotions

This webinar was promoted via an email message sent to the individuals and institutions who have signed up to receive TMIP news and updates (approximately 2000 subscribers). The promotional email was sent using the GovDelivery, FHWA's news and email delivery service, on January 11, 2013. A reminder email was also distributed using the GovDelivery on January 29, 2013, one day prior to the webinar. The webinar announcement and reminder distributed via email can be found in Appendix B.

1.3 Participation

Of the 140 unique attendees (meeting connections), over 50% attended the webinar for over 90 minutes (of a duration of approximately 120 minutes). Figure 6 below presents a temporal profile of all the webinar participants.

Figure 6: Temporal Profile of Webinar Participation - CMAP Advanced Freight

During the webinar, attendees were encouraged to submit questions via the meeting room chat pod. Eleven (11) questions on the content of the presentations were asked in the chat. These questions are as follows:

Do you have a pipeline mode?
How do you choose between the competing Class I railroads?
Which year's make and use coefficient used in the study?
Could you explain one more time why the FAF3 was used in the study?
How to you determine truck load? Percent of light-heavy or perfect of heavy-heavy truck?
How were you able to develop a touring model using commodity flow database where records show delinked flows?
Where to you get information on how to estimate travel times and costs by mode throughout the country?
How does this model integrate into a typical regional model using TransCAD?
Is the software coded on R mentioned during presentation available now?
How will CMAP use this model day-to-day? Please comment on the relevancy with your planning process.
What was the budget for this project?

These questions were answered once the three presentations were complete.

1.4 Polling Questions

Five (5) polling questions were administered as part of the webinar. The remaining questions were answered at the end of the presentation. The results of these questions are listed below.

Question 1

How relevant was this webinar to your day-to-day job?

Table 10: CMAP Advanced Freight Evaluation Poll Question - Webinar Relevancy

*Response Options*	*Response*	*Percentage*
Very	27	42%
Somewhat	34	52%
Not Very	4	6%
Total	65	100%

A majority of the respondents found the webinar to be very useful at their current job.

Question 2

What changes would you like to see in the format?

Table 11: CMAP Advanced Freight Evaluation Poll Question - Desired Changes in Webinar Format

*Response Options*	*Response*	*Percentage*
More Time for Question & Answer	4	6%
More Presentation Time	3	5%
Just About Right As Is	59	89%
Total	66	100%

A significant majority of 89% viewed the webinar as "Just About Right As Is."

Question 3

What type of organization do you work for?

Figure 7: CMAP Advanced Freight Webinar Evaluation Poll Question - Type of Organization

As stated earlier, a majority of the attendees of this webinar were from large MPOs, state government, or private sector consulting firms.

Question 4

Question 4 prompted the participant for their agency or firm's name and location.

Table 12: CMAP Advanced Freight Evaluation Poll Question - Agency/Firm Name and Location

*Agency/Firm Name*	*Agency/Firm Location*
ADOT	Phoenix, Arizona
PAG	Tucson, AZ
Arizona DOT	Phoenix, Arizona
Michigan DOT	Lansing, MI
SEMCOG	Detroit, MI
DRCOG	Denver, CO
MORPC	Columbus, OH
Yakima Valley Conference of Governments	Yakima, WA
California Department of Transportation	Oakland, CA
MIT	Cambridge, MA
CDM Smith,	New Haven, CT
Denver Regional Council of Governments	Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO
data	Philadelphia, PA
Eco Resource Management Systems Inc.	Vashon, WA
Iowa Department of Transportation	Ames, Iowa
NCDOT	Raleigh, NC
M-NCPPC, Montgomery Planning	Silver Spring, MD
University of Connecticut	Storrs, Connecticut
SCAG	Los Angeles, CA
FDOT	Tallahassee, FL
Florida DOT	Tallahassee, Florida
SCAG	Los Angeles, CA
California Department of Transportation	San Bernardino, CA
North Florida TPO	Jacksonville, Florida
DVRPC	Philadelphia, PA
Puget Sound Regional Council	Seattle, WA
RST International Inc.,	Bellevue, WA
Christopher B. Burke Engineering	Rosemont, IL
METRO	Portland, OR
North Central Texas Council of Governments	Arlington, Texas
MAG	Phoenix, AZ
Alliance Transportation Group	Austin, TX
Central Transportation Planning Staff	Boston, MA
SA/BC MPO	San Antonio, TX
Michigan DOT	Lansing, MI
Puget Sound Regional Council	Seattle, WA
NJTPA	Newark, NJ
Citilabs	Tallahassee, Florida
SCAG	Los Angeles, California
Ministry of Transportation, Ontario	Toronto, ON
Parsons Brinckerhoff	Tallahassee, Florida
TCRPC	Lansing, MI
Metroplan	Little Rock, AR
Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission	Pittsburgh, PA
HNTB	Chicago, IL
CMAP	Chicago, IL
MDC	Miami, FL
H-GAC	Houston, TX
CDM Smith	Lexington, Kentucky
Oregon DOT	Salem, Oregon
Grand Valley Metro Council	Grand Rapids, MI
Ohio DOT	Columbus, OH
Alliance Transportation Group, Inc.	Austin, Texas
Kittelson & Associates	Oakland, CA
UPR Associates	Dallas, Texas
Cambridge Systematics, Inc.	Cambridge, MA
FHWA	Denver, CO
ADOT	Phoenix, AZ
City of Edmonton	Edmonton, Alberta
H-GAC	Houston, Texas
Champaign County RPC	Urbana, IL
Private	Dallas, TX

Question 5

Which of the following best describes you?

Table 13: CMAP Advanced Freight Evaluation Poll Question-Participant Professional Description

*Response Options*	*Response*	*Percentage*
I apply and maintain travel demand models (hands on)	37	61%
I manage a group primarily responsible for model applications and maintenance	5	8%
I manage/direct a group in which travel modeling is one of multiple technical services	5	8%
I'm an executive director of an agency	0	0%
I'm a developer of application software to support travel models	3	5%
I manage a model development group or practice	4	7%
I conduct or oversee research related to travel modeling	7	11%
Total	61	100%

The majority of the participants in the webinar apply and maintain travel demand models as part of their agency or firm role.

1.5 Participant Feedback and Recommendations

Participant response to the webinar was generally very positive. As indicated by the unedited comments below, the participants hoped that these seminars would continue with additional details and topics. A few common themes in the comments included requests for more detail on data and model components and suggestions for future webinar topics.

1.6 GovDelivery Webinar Announcements

Figure 8: CMAP Advanced Freight TMIP Webinar Announcement

Title: Figure 8: CMAP Advanced Freight TMIP Webinar Announcement - Description: Figure 8 presents the meeting announcment that was distributed to the TMIP email list on January 11, 2013.

January 11, 2013

CMAP Advanced Freight Modeling

TMIP is proud to announce an upcoming webinar highlighting the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) experience developing and applying a tour-based and supply chain freight forecasting framework. This webinar session will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the advanced freight modeling efforts underway at CMAP.

The webinar session will be held Thursday January 31st from 2:00pm to 4:00pm EST.

Photos of Kermit Wies (CMAP), Monique Urban (CS) and Maret Outwater (RSG)

Presenters

Kermit Wies is with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) where he serves as Deputy Executive Director for Research and Analysis. Kermit has over 27 years' experience in urban systems modeling and planning and is the principal author of the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan for the Chicago metro area. Over the past several years, Kermit has been overseeing CMAP's development and implementation of new modeling techniques including an agent-based economic application for freight. Kermit has overall responsibility for CMAP's analysis and evaluation work program in support of implementing Chicago's GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional plan.

Monique Urban is a Travel Demand Forecaster at Cambridge Systematics in Chicago, where she participates in a broad range of modeling studies. She has developed models of fare choice and ridership for regional transit agencies; is currently developing models of utilitarian and recreational trips by bicycle; and is equally interested in decision-making in goods movement. In the freight modeling area, Monique has helped develop aggregate, discrete choice, and agent-based freight models throughout the U.S., most recently for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. Monique holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Maren Outwater is currently the Director of Advanced Forecasting Methods at RSG and published on a wide variety of advanced modeling topics. She managed the research and development of a freight forecasting framework based on logistics supply chain and tour-based methods for metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in the U.S., sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and currently being implemented for the Florida Department of Transportation. Ms. Outwater has also developed trip-based and hybrid freight models for several states and regions in the U.S. She holds a BS in Civil Engineering and Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan and is a registered Professional Engineer in California and certified with the National Council of Examiners for Engineering.

Description

CMAP has been trying to address the inadequacies of the current models (that were developed for personal passenger travel) in freight demand forecasting. A new tour-based and logistics supply chain model for the Chicago metropolitan area has recently been developed and tested. This presentation will cover these new model initiatives, motivations and policy considerations. The presentation will also include a software demo by CMAP.

Meeting Information

Participants do not need to preregister to attend the webinar. Attendance is limited to 100 connections and is first-come, first-served.* You can log on to the webinar at:

http://fhwa.adobeconnect.com/tmipvirtualseminars/

The webinar will be close-captioned. The audio portion of the webinar will be broadcast by Voice Over IP. We will have a limited number of teleconference connections available for those that are unable to use the Voice Over IP. The teleconference number will be posted in the webinar room.

Please note, if the session fills up and you are unable to log on, don't worry - the close-captioned sessions will be recorded and made available at the TMIP Community of Practice site (TMIP|COP).

Contact Us

If you have other TMIP webinar topic suggestions or if you are interested in presenting, please let us know. If you have any questions or comments about TMIP, please contact Sarah Sun, FHWA.

CMAP4

Figure 9: CMAP Advanced Freight GovDelivery Webinar Reminder

This is a reminder that the CMAP Advanced Freight Modeling webinar will be held: Thursday January 31st from 2:00 - 4:00pm EST Description CMAP has been trying to address the inadequacies of the current models (that were developed for personal passenger travel) in freight demand forecasting. A new tour-based and logistics supply chain model for the Chicago metropolitan area has recently been developed and tested. This presentation will cover these new model initiatives, motivations and policy considerations. The webinar session will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the advanced freight modeling efforts underway at CMAP. Presenters Kermit Wies, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) Monique Urban, Cambridge Systematics (CS) Maren Outwater, Resource Systems Group (RSG) Meeting Information Participants do not need to preregister to attend the webinar. Attendance is limited to 100 connections and is first-come, first-served.* You can log on to the webinar at: http://fhwa.adobeconnect.com/tmipvirtualseminars/ The webinar will be close-captioned. The audio portion of the webinar will be broadcast by Voice Over IP. We will have a limited number of teleconference connections available for those that are unable to use the Voice Over IP. The teleconference number will be posted in the webinar room. * Please note, if the session fills up and you are unable to log on, don't worry - the close-captioned sessions will be recorded and made available at the TMIP Community of Practice site (TMIP\|COP).

Title: Figure 9: GovDelivery Webinar Reminder - Description: Figure 9 presents the meeting reminder that was distributed to the TMIP email list before the webinar.

This is a reminder that the CMAP Advanced Freight Modeling webinar will be held:
Thursday January 31st from 2:00 - 4:00pm EST

Description
CMAP has been trying to address the inadequacies of the current models (that were developed for personal passenger travel) in freight demand forecasting. A new tour-based and logistics supply chain model for the Chicago metropolitan area has recently been developed and tested. This presentation will cover these new model initiatives, motivations and policy considerations. The webinar session will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the advanced freight modeling efforts underway at CMAP.

Presenters
Kermit Wies, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)
Monique Urban, Cambridge Systematics (CS)
Maren Outwater, Resource Systems Group (RSG)

Meeting Information
Participants do not need to preregister to attend the webinar. Attendance is limited to 100 connections and is first-come, first-served.* You can log on to the webinar at:

http://fhwa.adobeconnect.com/tmipvirtualseminars/

* Please note, if the session fills up and you are unable to log on, don't worry - the close-captioned sessions will be recorded and made available at the TMIP Community of Practice site (TMIP|COP).

Top
<<
< Prev
Contents
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Next >
>>