The NJ State Transportation Innovation Council (NJ STIC) held its 2020 Winter Meeting on February 5th, 2020 in the NJDOT Multi-Purpose Room. The NJ STIC Agenda was distributed to the attendees along with handouts highlighting examples of past and ongoing NJ STIC innovative initiatives and how STIC incentive funding grants have been used.
After welcoming remarks from the NJDOT's Asst. Commissioner Michael Russo and Robert Clark, FHWA's Division Administrator, Helene Roberts from the FHWA NJ Division Office provided a brief update of the status of New Jersey's progress on Every Day Counts (EDC-5) innovative initiatives. Short presentations were given by the three Core Innovation Area (CIA) Teams—Safety, Infrastructure Preservation, and Mobility & Operations—reporting on the activities planned and underway. More detail on the innovative initiatives can be accessed here.
"Virtual Public Involvement" was the featured innovation topic for the meeting. Representatives of New Jersey's three MPOs—Alan Huff from South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization, Melissa Hayes and Ted Ritter from North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, and Alison Hastings from Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission—highlighted examples of their agency's efforts, performance metrics, lessons learned and challenges using social media, polling, videos, surveys, and mapping tools among other strategies.
Amanda Gendek, Manager of the NJDOT Bureau of Research and Ms. Roberts then conducted an interactive polling exercise that invited attendees to use their cell phones to collaborate with the NJ STIC leadership team. Participants were asked a series of questions exploring their interest and soliciting their input on possible topics for a future STIC meeting that would feature breakout sessions on the EDC-5 innovative initiative. The results from the interactive polling exercise and informal feedback given throughout its administration will assist the leadership team in planning a future event.
Ms. Gendek noted that "NJ STIC Examples in Excellence" will be featured at the NJ TransAction Conference 2020 to be held on April 28, 2020 at the Tropicana in Atlantic City at 4:00pm. And look for an article on NJDOT's UAS Demonstration for the TRB representative to be published in the Jan/Feb 2020 TR News. Attendees were also informed of an upcoming Tech Talk! Event, "Micromobility in New Jersey and Beyond" scheduled for February 20, 2020 in NJDOT's Multi-Purpose Room for which registration is open. The event will highlight research conducted by the NJ's Bicycle Pedestrian Resource Center and feature speakers intimately familiar with Hoboken and Asbury Park initiatives to bring bike share and e-scooters to their communities.
She also announced that the Bureau of Research would like to create short videos on STIC innovative initiatives that local agencies have implemented in order to highlight these accomplishments and encourage adoption by others. Contact her if you would like to participate.
Finally, attendees viewed the new NJ Build a Better Mousetrap video featuring Gerald Oliveto in NJDOT Operations Support and Engineering with the 2019 winning innovation, the Bridge Fender Navigation Lighting Reflective Backup System. The video and a fuller description of the competition and innovation, can be found on the Build a Better Mousetap page.
The Spring Meeting is scheduled for May 6, 2020.
The NJ STIC Winter Meeting Presentations can be found in sections below.
