In May, a Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) project designed to improve community bicycle facilities will receive the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) International 2011 Innovative Solutions Award at the organization’s annual conference in Denver.
The project, Using Smartphones to Collect Bicycle Travel Data in Texas, was first honored with the WTS Heart of Texas (HOT) Chapter’s Innovative Transportation Solutions Award at its Awards and Scholarship Gala March 30 in Austin. International winners are selected from the many local chapter awards winners.
“This was an unexpected honor locally, but to win on the international level as well was especially exciting,” says TTI Associate Research Engineer Joan Hudson, who led the project. “We teamed up with the Center for Transportation Research at The University of Texas for this project, and that was very rewarding.”
Using volunteers from May through November of last year, the project tested a smartphone application’s effectiveness in tracking bicyclists’ travel routes. A total of 3,000 bicycle trips were logged by participants. A final report will determine if the data collection method will be useful for communities wanting to improve bicycle facilities.
Goodin Named Chapter’s Woman of the Year
Also at the WTS HOT Chapter Gala, the group honored TTI Senior Research Engineer Ginger Goodin as the local 2011 Woman of the Year. Goodin is TTI’s Planning and Environment Division Head, as well as leader of the Institute’s Austin Office. The award “honors a woman who is an outstanding role model and has contributed to the advancement of women and minorities in transportation.”
“I’m very humbled to have been selected for this award,” Goodin says. “The women recognized in the past are community leaders, women I look up to. To be included in the company of such an elite group is a huge honor for me.”
A graduate of the 2010 Leadership Texas program, Goodin is nationally known for her research on mileage-based user fees and as an expert on managed lanes. She often testifies before the Texas State Legislature on important technical transportation issues. Goodin is the TTI-Austin lead for the Mobility Investment Priorities Study, which is helping the region prioritize projects to pursue using the area’s share of $300 million in funding allocated by the Texas Legislature in 2011.
Other TTI-related nominees for WTS HOT chapter awards recognized at the Gala were: TTI as Employer of the Year; Cinde Weatherby as Member of the Year; and the Texas 2030 Committee’s efforts were recognized with the Innovative Transportation Solutions Award.
TTI’s Weatherby Elected to WTS International Board
Cinde Weatherby, director of TTI’s Center for Strategic Transportation Solutions, will begin a two-year term on the WTS International Board of Directors in May. She has been an active member in both the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth and Heart of Texas chapters of the organization.
WTS International boasts nearly 5,000 members — both men and women — in 49 local chapters across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. There are four WTS chapters in Texas: Greater Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and the Austin-area Heart of Texas chapter. The HOT chapter has also sponsored one of the few student chapters in the country at The University of Texas.
The international association was established in 1977 to help women “find opportunity and recognition in the transportation industry.”