CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS 2019 SUSTAINABILITY & MULTIMODAL PLANNING WORKSHOP, JULY 28 31, BOSTON, MA

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1 TO: All APTA Members DATE: January 7, 2019 FROM: Richard A. Weaver, Director Planning, Policy & Sustainability SUBJECT: CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS 2019 SUSTAINABILITY & MULTIMODAL PLANNING WORKSHOP, JULY 28 31, BOSTON, MA We cordially invite you to submit a proposal to be considered for presentation at APTA s 2019 Sustainability & Multimodal Planning Workshop in Boston, MA. Our host will be the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ( MBTA ), one of the largest and oldest transit systems in the U.S. The MBTA provides service via a diversity of modes light rail, heavy rail, commuter rail, bus, BRT, trackless trolley, paratransit, and ferry service and has earned Gold level recognition from the APTA Sustainability Commitment. While Boston has one of the nation s highest percentage of commuters utilizing transit and active modes, the transportation system faces challenges. With much of its system dating back to the 19th century, the MBTA is pursuing a modernization plan that will bring its system assets to a state of good repair. The MBTA is currently going through its largest transformation in its history, with the replacement of many parts of its subway fleet, the transition to electric vehicles, a complete re-imagining of its bus network, as well as preparing to launch its new and upgraded automatic fare collection system and the implementation of new customer-facing technologies. CALL FOR ABSTRACTS APTA seeks abstracts for presentations on innovative trends and practices in sustainability and multimodal operations planning in the industry. Individual abstracts will be considered for both traditional panel presentations and peer-topeer roundtable discussions that submitters would lead. You may submit your abstracts starting Monday, January 7 through Friday, February 8 via the APTA Call for Abstracts process on our Meetings webpage.

2 ABSTRACT TOPICS APTA invites abstracts and session ideas in the following areas: 1. Climate Action Planning Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resiliency The changing climate undermines the system s ability to perform reliably, safely, and efficiently. Heavy precipitation, coastal flooding, heat, and changes in average precipitation and temperature threaten the performance of the entire network, with critical ramifications for safety, environmental sustainability, economic vitality and mobility, congestion, and system reliability, particularly for vulnerable populations and urban infrastructure. How have transit agencies made progress in understanding and managing these risks? How are agencies collaborating and partnering with cities, states, universities, and nonprofits in developing climate action plans and leading the way towards a healthier and more sustainable future? 2. Station Area Access Planning The most effective first mile-last mile solution for transit is a safe and connected environment. Station-area environments that have a mix of land uses, appropriate density levels, and connections to pedestrian and bicycle networks give customers increased access to housing, jobs, civic opportunities, medical care, recreation, and more. Transit agencies and their counterparts at city DOTs are working together to implement complete streets policies, which embrace wider, wellmaintained sidewalks; safe, well-marked crosswalks; and more accessible transit stops. How is your agency pursuing a more connected urban fabric around transit stations/stops? What strategies is your agency taking to improve non-motorized access to transit to increase and sustain transit ridership? 3. Battery Electric Vehicles and Fleets: From Policy & Planning to Implementation Increasing numbers of transit agencies are integrating electric buses into their fleets, with many agencies making significant commitments to scale up their battery bus deployment. How is your transit agency planning for battery electric vehicles and fleets? While they provide clear environmental benefits, electric buses pose challenges in how to plan for large scale charging infrastructure, how to route and schedule buses to accommodate charging needs, working with utilities to address new electricity demand, and overall energy management and total cost of ownership assessments. Submissions should focus on solutions and practices addressing these, and similar concerns. 4. Sustainable Business Practices Abstracts should focus on manufacturing, procurement (e.g., green and DBE), project management, and long-term O&M contracts; sustainable organizations (including green offices and facilities); workforce engagement; performance metrics for projects, corridors and agencies; Environmental Systems Management (EMS) and implementing ISO 14001:2015; energy and waste management practices; sustainability reporting, including how-to s, lessons learned, and benefits; as well as experiences in realizing higher levels of recognition in the APTA Sustainability Commitment. 5. Integrating Health and Wellness for Livable Communities Creating safe, accessible streets and improving access to healthcare services and providers and healthful amenities go far in building and promoting healthy, livable communities. What are the 2

3 politics, processes and mechanics of integrating health, active transportation, and equity issues into the planning and design of livable communities? What is the link between how we build our cities and transportation networks, and the physical, social, mental and economic wellness of our communities? Share your techniques and perspectives in integrating health impact in decisionmaking and active transportation in service planning, community design, and planning for healthy corridors. 6. Technology and Transit The rapidly changing technology environment demands strategic planning and innovation from transit agencies and their regional partners. How is your transit agency positioning itself to use these technological advancements to improve ridership and enhance the customer experience while also addressing equity and accessibility issues? How will these technologies contribute to environmentally friendly and energy efficient corridors and regions? Abstracts should focus on best practices, new ideas, and opportunities related to the role of public transportation in strengthening communities. Potential topics: smart cities and connected communities, smart parking technology, vehicle and fuel technologies, alternative fuel, autonomous vehicles, and mobility hubs. 7. Universal Design Supporting the mobility of all people including children, older adults, individuals with disabilities, and people experiencing poverty means transit agencies are applying universal design concepts at their stations and stops so customers can easily navigate their systems. Therefore, the more intuitive, accessible, language neutral, and perceptible the transit environment becomes, the more it serves to benefit both the entire transit system and the population it serves. How are transit agencies including people of all abilities in the planning process for new projects? How are agencies implementing universal design to improve the ridership experience for everyone? How are transit agencies addressing the physical and environmental accommodations, equipment, and systems required to provide a fully-functional, operating transit station that enhances the experience of all users? 8. Sustainable Capital Projects and Process Transit capital projects can save energy, increase the comfort, health and safety of users, and help steward valuable environmental resources. Has your agency established requirements related to the energy and environment performance in its transit capital projects? How can these measures be incorporated into the planning, design, finance, construction, and maintenance of transit facilities and infrastructure? What standards, such as LEED or Envision, has your agency implemented? Share your agency s sustainable guidelines, best practices, and lesson learned. 9. Recent Topics in Scheduling How are scheduling needs changing and evolving? In this session, we invite you to describe a recent scheduling challenge and walk us through how you solved it. Current transit trends that affect scheduling include fallbacks, headway-based schedules, on-demand services, operator shortages, and battery electric vehicles. Old classic topics that we love include MOU changes, scheduling software changes, use of new features in scheduling software, timed transfers, customer information, terminal constraints, and IT system integrations. Presentations encouraged from 3

4 schedulers, service planners who accidentally created a scheduling challenge, and software vendors who will offer a unique perspective on trends they see in client requests. 10. Digital Communications and Data Mining for Transit Operations Digital signage & audio messages, social media, and agency mobile apps are a key means of interacting with transit customers. This session will focus on how agencies are getting the most out of customer communications and digital data. Tell us about cool new projects, unexpected challenges and solutions, lessons learned, and evaluation techniques related to the use of these technologies. This session also welcomes presentations on innovative uses of data collected with modern technologies, and how it is incorporated back into other parts of transit operations, such as planning, marketing, scheduling, and supervision. 11. Transit and Emerging Mobility The emergence of shared mobility services in recent years has encouraged a rethinking of how transit agencies can best meet their customers mobility needs. How has your agency incorporated (or not incorporated) transportation network companies (TNCs), bike share, scooters and other mobility concepts into its overall system design and into station area planning? Has the availability of mobility on demand led to development of a new application for tracking buses or reserving trips? How can new first and last mile strategies such as microtransit or on demand paratransit enhance the quality of life and deliver where fixed route cannot? How can new mobility services have an impact on the environment, positive or negative? Have partnerships been considered or developed to enhance service by mode, by geographic area, and/or by time of day? What are the effects, both positive and negative, of these partnerships from the agency perspective? 12. Reimagining the Transit Network Several agencies have taken a blank-slate approach to reimagining their transit networks. This is a good time to step back and hear the agencies assessment of the reimagining results. What has gone well in the process? What are the pitfalls of a system reimagining and how did you address or overcome these? How are agencies ensuring they meet Title VI requirements during this redesign process? Internally, how did planning, scheduling, and operations work together to design and implement the reimagined network? How did you unveil a new network overnight? What was the initial reaction from your customers, and has that changed as the reimagined network became more familiar? Are there lessons learned that would benefit other agencies what factors made the process work? Knowing what you know now, what (if anything) would you do differently? 13. Changing Transit Markets How are transit agencies adapting to changing local travel markets? Some of these changes include the suburbanization of poverty; continued growth in telecommuting; contracted workforces and non-traditional work weeks; connecting service to new high capacity transit corridors and changes in college student travel behavior. Where the existing weekday-saturday-sunday pattern is no longer valid, how are agencies modifying daily service levels? What about service span and orientation of services to non-traditional transit destinations? 4

5 14. Contracted Transit Operations and Service Planning Some agencies operate all their service with agency employees, but many (both big and small) utilize private contractors for some or all their operations. What are the unique lessons of agencies using operating contractors? Where is the balance point of services that are provided by agency staff versus contractors planning, scheduling, transportation, vehicle maintenance, facility maintenance, others? What are the best practices in managing the performance of contracted services? How does an organization manage its identity and reputation when many of its employees do not actually work for the agency? 15. Accessible Transit It s not just about Complementary Paratransit Many customers with disabilities would prefer to just ride the bus like everyone else. Encouraging customers with disabilities to use existing mainline services in lieu of paratransit can benefit both the rider (lower fare, more flexibility) and the transit agency (lower operating cost). How do we work with advocates for the disability community to encourage greater use of existing services by all riders? What are the challenges to shifting riders to existing services, and what solutions have successfully removed these barriers? How can improvements to existing services and policies benefit not just those using mobility devices but all riders? 16. Bus Rapid Transit is Grown Up Now that BRT is a well-established mode in North America, how has it changed the transit landscape in your city? Has ridership increased overall? How is BRT integrated with the existing transit system, and what is the impact on local service in the corridor? How is your agency designing BRT stations/stops and planning for connection to other services such as bikeshare or scooters? In your experience which BRT improvements score best in a cost benefit evaluation, and how is benefit defined? Is it useful to implement incremental bus priority measures over time if funding for a large-scale BRT project is not available? Share your best experiences and lessons learned on your BRT projects with interested workshop attendees. 17. East Coast Transit What is different or unique about working in transit on the East Coast, especially in the older and denser northeastern states? What issues/concerns are specifically faced by transit agencies in the eastern part of the country that are not experienced by transit agencies in the South, Midwest, or Far West? What lessons can be shared about successful projects, service implementation, funding, collaboration, or other areas with transit professionals who will attend from other parts of the USA and Canada? 18. Response to Declining Ridership Ridership, particularly on bus routes, continues to decline nationally. We have narrowed down the causes (TNCs, telecommuting, etc.) and have done a lot of reminiscing about the good old days but what steps is the industry actually taking to reverse the trend? Tell us about recent initiatives, both traditional and non-traditional, that your agency is trying to reverse the ridership decline. 19. Making the Most of a Moment Sometimes an unplanned event or situation allows us to try out ideas that would never be feasible under normal conditions. Special events, disasters and limited resources-not just dollars but also limited buses, operators or garage space- can be an opportunity to be creative and take a chance. 5

6 How has your organization reacted when presented with an unanticipated challenge or opportunity? 20. Successful Outreach and Engagement Most of us think about outreach in terms of engaging the general public and elected officials. However, it is just as important to include inreach engagement with operators, street supervisors, and other front-line staff. In addition, some medium and large cities have a riders union or some other advocacy group keeping a careful eye on your organization s work. They keep us on our toes and are often quick to criticize when we don t meet their expectations. How does your agency interact with these groups, who leads these efforts and is there a formal partnership? How can working with these various internal and external stakeholders help your work and affect positive change, even if you are unable to do everything they want? Other Topics APTA invites abstracts and session ideas on all other topics related to sustainability and multimodal operations & planning. We are always looking for new and innovative ideas for conference sessions and presentations, so if you have any ideas not discussed in the suggested topics above, please do not hesitate to propose them for consideration. HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL All abstracts must be submitted online through the APTA website via the Call for Abstracts process. Additional information on how to submit and required submission criteria are also provided. QUESTIONS If you have questions about the workshop or about abstract submittal, you can contact Rich Weaver at (202) or rweaver@apta.com or Elizabeth Lovinggood at (202) or elovinggood@apta.com. Further information about registration and fees will be available shortly on the Workshop website. Thank you for your proposal, interest and commitment to the APTA mission. We look forward to seeing you at this year s conference either as a speaker or as an attendee. 6