NJ STIC 3rd Quarter 2021 Meeting - NJDOT Technology Transfer

The NJ State Transportation Innovation Council (NJ STIC) 3rd Quarter Meeting, held on September 15, 2021, featured presentations about the NJDOT Safety Voyager Tool and the NJ STIC Communications Plan, among other topics. The STIC Meeting Agenda had been distributed to the invitees prior to the meeting. Participants were invited to use the chat feature to offer comments or ask questions of the speakers during the online meeting.

Amanda Gendek, Manager of the NJDOT Bureau of Research greeted the meeting participants, followed by Asst. Commissioner Michael Russo who provided the Welcome and Opening Remarks.

FHWA EDC Innovation. Helene Roberts, Innovation Coordinator and Performance Manager for the FHWA NJ Office, noted that the first six-month progress report for the EDC initiatives and STIC incentive grant update reports were submitted, indicating few changes in the stage of implementation except for E-Ticketing and Digital As Builts. She shared a graphic of the EDC-6 deployment stage for each initiative illustrating the baseline assessment and goals for the two year period.

Ms. Roberts reported that NJDOT will pilot FHWA’s Let’s Go! Workshop which is designed to help in the formation of cohesive teams and plans to advance the EDC innovative initiatives. The workshops are scheduled for September 21^st and 28^th with a focus on the Strategic Workforce Development team, and the E-Construction team that will address Digital As-Builts and 3D Project Delivery. FHWA resource specialists for these subject areas will be present to assist in instruction and coaching for the pilot workshop(s).

Core Innovation Area (CIA) Updates. The meeting continued with presentations from Core Innovative Area (CIA) leaders who provided updates of the status of EDC initiatives on the topics of Safety, Infrastructure Preservation, Mobility and Operations, and Organizational Improvement and Support

Featured Presentations.

Peter Brzostowski, NJDOT Bureau of Transportation Data & Support shared an instructive video presentation that demonstrated several major features of the Safety Voyager tool which was followed by a questions and answer session. Safety Voyager is based on the NJTR-1 traffic enforcement crash reports. The tool provides information on crash incidents at specific intersections and corridors. Mr. Brzostowski walked through several scenarios to explore the various queries that can be made, for example, by weather-related events, years, type of crashes, and location, among others, and the use of modules that explore topics such as sun glare, weather, and crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists. The tool includes an equity layer based on census data.

In response to a question, Mr. Brzostowski noted that employees of state government agencies, MPOs, and anyone working on a government project at any level can request access to Safety Voyager. Mike Russo added that the team had received input and feedback from various sources, and have been able to customize the tool to respond to primary customer needs. Expansion of the tool’s functionality continues.

David Aimen, Rutgers-Voorhees Transportation Center, presented on the NJ STIC Communications Plan, noting that the development of the Plan was funded in part by a STIC incentive grant and prepared on behalf of the NJDOT Bureau of Research – the administrative lead for the management of NJ STIC. The Plan seeks to improve the NJ STIC’s effectiveness through continuing communications and engagement with STIC stakeholders. The Plan increases awareness of the FHWA Every Day Counts Program and NJ STIC by identifying a toolbox of communication tools, methods and strategies that will be used to document performance, capture and share information on innovative initiatives, and promote implementation of these initiatives throughout the State. The Plan is posted on the NJ STIC section of the Technology Transfer website here.

Following the presentation, Amanda Gendek and Helene Roberts conducted an interactive exercise with attendees to help identify innovative practices that could be featured at future NJ STIC meetings, in future communications and/or other technology transfer activities. The interactive polling exercise solicited suggestions from attendees on innovations that have been advanced by organizations and provide useful lessons learned for others, innovations that should be more widely shared with the STIC and others, and topics for innovative case study videos. The exercise also solicited feedback on continuing training needs for specific EDC-6 initiatives.

Reminders and Updates.

Amanda Gendek closed the meeting with reminders about several resources that highlight the NJ STIC and other innovation topics funded through research and technology transfer activities, including: