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January 2000 (Washington, DC) - Meeting Minutes
A1A06: Transportation and Economic Development,
Washington, DC, 10 January, 2000, 2:00 PM
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PRIVILEGED INFORMATION
Minutes of all TRB meetings are regarded as privileged and not for public release without prior approval of the Executive Director
1. INTRODUCTIONS
Chairman Norman S.J. Foster called the meeting to order at 2:05 PM. He began by asking that each of those present introduce himself. 42 people attended all or part of the meeting.
2. SUMMER MEETING MINUTES
Norman handed out copies of the minutes of the committee's previous meeting on 10 July 1999. The committee voted to approve the minutes without amendment.
3. SESSIONS FOR 2000
Norman called the committee's attention to those conference and paper sessions at the 79th Annual Meeting which either included A1A06 members and friends among the participants or addressed topics of interest to A1A06. (A list of these sessions was printed in the Agenda.)
4. REQUESTS FOR PAPERS FOR 2001
Michael Bell called the committee's attention to a new journal, Public Works Management and Policy, which promises to deal with transportation infrastructure topics. While a copy of the latest issue circulated around the room, Michael encouraged those present to submit articles and/or to order subscriptions to the new journal.
5. JOINT SUBCOMMITTEE ON PRICING
Patrick de Corla-Souza is the new chair of the Joint Subcommittee on Pricing. Pat invited those present to attend the subcommittee's meeting at 7:30 PM Wednesday in the Hilton's State Room. He also invited them to attend the pricing poster session from 2:30 to 5:30 PM on the Hilton's Terrace.
6. TRB ACTIVITIES
Norman reported that the Year 2000 joint summer meeting of the economics, finance and planning committees will take place at the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego, from Thursday 6 July to Saturday 8 July. The summer meeting will include three breakout sessions. The themes provisionally chosen for the joint meeting are (1) sustainable transportation, (2) technology and ITS, and (3) transportation and economic development. Norman added that because A1A06 was stuck with an undesirable late meeting time slot at the 1999 summer meeting, A1A06 would have its pick of time slots at the 2000 summer meeting.
Randall Eberts spoke about the recent Conference on Information Requirements for Economic Analysis. He said most attendees felt that better data and method are required, especially on the demand side. Abby McKenzie added that much emphasis fell on methods and tools. Norman Foster added that the four resource papers from the conference are accessible via the A1A06 web site.
Norman passed around copies of the NRC-TRB response to Committee A1A06's triennial self-review, submitted in 1999. The comments were generally favorable.
[7. NCHRP RESEARCH UPDATE: combined with item 8]
8. RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Adjo Amekudzi presented highlights of her doctoral research on "Uncertainty Analysis of National Highway Performance Measures in the Context of Evolving Analysis Models and Data." Her chief findings were: (1) even a 5-10% variation in traffic forecasts caused only a small coefficient of variation in system performance measures such as the International Roughness Index (IRF); (2) variations in the model and data from 1997 to 1999 induced comparable variations in the results (i.e., in the values of the performance measures).
Glen Weisbrod presented an update on two NCHRP projects, Project 2-21 "Economic Impacts of Congestion", and Project 20-05 Task 30-05 "Synthesis of Practice". 20-05/ 30-05 has revealed a clear increase in the extent of economic impact assessments over recent years.
Xiaoli Han presented highlights of a recent report on "Four Measures of Transportation's Economic Importance", a joint project of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS, Dept. of Trasportation) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA, Dept. of Commerce). The first and narrowest measure, "transportation industry GDP," is value added by the transportation industry as a percentage of gross domestic product; in the U.S. this amounts to 5% of GDP. The second measure, "transportation-related GDP," adds to the first the value added by other industries in producing goods and services directly to satisfy transportation needs (principally the production of motor vehicles and motor fuel). The third measure, "transportation-driven GDP", adds to the second the valued added by activities that indirectly provide inputs or services to transportation; in the U.S. this amounts to 15-16% of GDP. The three measures above are supply-side measures. The fourth measure, "transportation final demand," is a demand-side measure.
Norman Foster passed out thirty copies of an "Interregional Corridor Study" completed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
9. COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP (RE)APPOINTMENT PROCESS
Norman plans to recommend nine people for appointments to three-year terms on Committee A1A06. Each of eight of these who were present offered a brief description of his current affiliation and interests: Adjo Amekudzi (Georgia Inst of Tech; asset mgmt), Nilam Bedi (Ontario Min of Transport; env, infrastr), Cam Gordon (USC and Am Council on InterGov Relations; econ, infrastr, method), Ron Poole (NCDOT ret'd; pub policy), Xiaoli Han (BTS; econ geog, reg sci, infrastr, cap stocks), Rob Ritter (ENO Foundation; transp planning & eng), Victor Kamhi (LA Transit). Also being considered for membership but not present are Loyd Henion (indep cons; formerly involved in weight-distance taxation for ODOT) and Marlon Boarnet (UC Irvine; hwys & econ dev).
Norman also will recommend that seven current members rotate off the committee, as required by TRB's guidelines. Norman noted that three years hence committee turnover could be higher. A large number of A1A06 members will have served for nine years. Except under "special circumstances", nine years is the maximum for which TRB guidelines allow. [NSJF: recommendations will go to TRB in mid March so expect an email around then on this. There are still one or two issues to resolve on the rotation.]
11. TRB update
Jon Williams made a few comments about the summer meeting agenda. He reported that 8,100 people participated in the annual TRB winter meeting last year, and he anticipated that a slightly larger number were participating in this year's annual meeting. He announced that TRB plans to make submitted (and accepted) papers accessible on its internet site. He annunced that TRB and BTS have signed an agreement to make the TRIS database, which TRB maintains, accessible via the internet. He also announced that, beginning next summer, paper submissions and paper reviews will begin the transition from hard copy to electronic format. Jon called the committee's attention to the TRB Finance Conference which is to take place from 20 to 27 August in Scottsdale.
Richard Begley introduced himself. He announced an upcoming "kick-off" conference sponsored by the newly-founded Appalachian Transportation Institute. ATI, affiliated with Marshall University, will focus on the role transportation can play in under-developed mountain regions.
10. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE
Norman Foster reported on the discussion at the conference organizers' meeting on Sunday. The conference is envisioned to last for 2_ to 3 days in the spring, summer or autumn of 2001. It will have a scope that includes both theoretical researchers and policy makers, with an emphasis on local and regional programs.
Norman asked for the committee's input on the scope, organizational structure, and topics of the conference. Michael Bell summarized the discussion he led at the Sunday meeting. Jim Gillespie remarked that while bringing together research and application was agreed, how to do so was not. Adjo Amekudzi replied that "bringing together" is not a goal of itself. Ron Poole suggested a two-pronged strategy: a call for abstracts to engage researchers, and a dialog format to engage policy-makers. Shirley Loveless reminded the group that the finance, insurance, and real estate sector (FIRE) is a third constituency that ought to be included. Xiaoli Han said, "Let's identify [suitable] topics."
Stu Butler remarked that the target audience for the conference may be wider than the transportation professions; in particular, it may be of greater interest to the economic development professions. He suggested that the conference be given an international flavor that would make it attractive to economic planners from less developed countries. Nilam Bedi proposed a focus on the questions "How does transportation matter?" and "By what mechanisms does it affect economic development?" Rob Ritter opined that smaller break-out sessions produce the most valuable exchanges of knowledge. Arlee Reno said the transp econ profession is changing "business as usual" and that the conference should try to acquaint professionals with new, unfamiliar tools.
Norman Foster asked for volunteers to form a program committee to produce a call for papers and a draft program in time for the joint summer meeting. He set March 1 as a target date for a first draft of the program committee's work. Michael Bell, Shirley Loveless, Jacqueline Llanos, Randy Eberts, Jay Higle, Glen Weisbrod, Stu Butler, Xiaoli Han, Nilam Bedi, and Rob Ritter agreed to work on it. Norman predicted that additional volunteers would be needed later to form a marketing group to publicize the conference. [NSJF update: group is underway and should have a draft program for comment by March 1.]
12. The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Norman Foster Chair
Recorder
James Gillespie
Note: This information is provided for the use of committee members and friends and is not endorsed by the Transportation Board TRB or the National Research Council.
