Implementation of the Rapid Policy Assessment Tool (November 2, 2016)

Recording: https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/p94muobvjxy/

Date: November 2, 2016

Description: The Rapid Policy Assessment Tool (RPAT) is a free and open source software application used to evaluate land use and transportation investments and policies. After an overview of RPAT, presenters from the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO) and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) will describe how they used RPAT and other strategic planning tools to enable robust analysis in support of their transportation planning activities. The webinar will conclude with a discussion of the newly established partnership that will merge RPAT and other strategic planning tools into an open-source project, VisionEval. Current and prospective users are invited to join the VisionEval community, which will shape the capabilities of these tools moving forward.

Presenters: Brian Gardner, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Planning. Brian has over 25 years of experience in transportation engineering and planning. His experience includes work in transportation planning, traffic operations, traffic simulation, emergency preparedness and response, as well as travel demand forecasting. Brian is currently employed by FHWA where he is the team leader for the Systems Planning and Analysis Team in the Office of Planning. He is also an active participant in various TRB committees and national cooperative research programs. Brian graduated from NC State University with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Civil Engineering.

Eric Pihl, FHWA Resource Center. Eric is a member of the FHWA Resource Center’s Planning and Freight team. He provides training and technical support to state and local agencies for the development, refinement, and application of travel forecasting and planning analysis methods. Eric has contributed to national research projects on project forecasting and the integration of planning, land-use, and operational analysis tools. He holds graduate degrees in urban planning and transportation engineering from Georgia Tech.

Brian Hurley, ODOT. Brian is a Senior Transportation Planner with the Oregon Department of Transportation. He has experience implementing scenario planning models at the MPO level, and he participated in an FHWA Environmental Excellence Award winning scenario planning project with a small MPO in Oregon. Throughout his career, Brian has worked to make active modes and public transit more connected to the transportation system.

Yanping Zhang, DCHC MPO. Yanping is Modeling Team leader at DCHC MPO, and has more than 18 years' experience in travel demand modeling (TDM), traffic study, corridor/subarea study, and long-range transportation planning (LRTP) as well as land use modeling and sustainable development study. In recent years, Mr. Zhang has led and involved the development and application of TDM, GIS data and other software tools to support the LRTP study and to address development policy concerns.