This award represents funding for a conference-workshop to assess the state of the art and the state of the practice and suggest research priorities in the integration of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and automobile traffic systems under Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) in North, Central and South America. This conference-workshop will provide an extraordinary opportunity to bring together leading researchers and practitioners from the Americas to exchange ideas and information concerning the integration of BRT and other transit systems and automobile traffic networks under DTA and other ITS systems. During this activity and in follow-up activities, the participants will present existing DTA modeling approaches and BRT systems operations, suggest ways of integrating them, prioritize needs for research, and create hemispheric awareness of local and regional needs.
This conference-workshop, which will take place in Puerto Rico, will be an example of international exchange and collaboration as well as the integration of BRT technology into the DTA modeling approach to produce improvements in urban mobility in the near future. Puerto Rico has unique comparative advantages for joint North-South research and technology transfer because of its understanding of Latin American and US transportation environments.
This conference-workshop provides a special opportunity for hemispheric cooperation because it brings together countries with complementary knowledge, in a situation where sharing information will result in mutual benefits. This international conference-workshop will help identify the most advanced thinking and technologies from the US or other countries in the Americas; for example, modeling techniques developed in the US and successful implementation of BRT in major Latin American cities. In addition, this activity will foster the exchange of ideas in terms of future collaboration on cooperative research projects and international events.
