Category: Past Events

Hosted by the International Road Federation

Wednesday May 28th, 2014

Guest presentations by:
Laurie Schintler, Associate Professor at George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government and International Affairs and
Dr. Shanjiang Zhu, Assistant Professor of Transportation Planning and Engineering at George Mason University

Big Data in transportation has taken off, although the exact definition of this concept is still widely debated among researchers, practitioners, and government officials. Big Data usually refers to enormous volumes of information of diverse structures (or lack of structure) that cannot be analyzed using conventional relational databases and data mining techniques. Big Data for transportation can be generated by sources such as smartphones, digital photography, video monitoring systems, GPS, real-time control systems in automobiles, automatic vehicles, social media, etc.

The International Transport Forum (ITF) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will host a roundtable discussion entitled “Private Partnerships for Transport Infrastructure: Renegotiations, How To Approach Them And Economic Outcomes“ at the Center in October 2014. More than 20 invited experts will review the reasons for the renegotiations in P3’s as well as their potential impact on the economic outcomes of the existing and future projects. Experiences with renegotiations in different countries and the potential necessity of renegotiations in long contractual relationships will be discussed.

The International Transport Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development asked Center staff to write a White Paper on U.S. experience with the renegotiation of P3s. The paper will be presented at an ITF Roundtable on P3 Renegotiation to be held in the Washington, D.C., area in October 2014.

Center staff briefed the special Panel on Public-Private Partnerships of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Thursday, March 20, 2014 in Washington, D.C. Center Director Jonathan Gifford and Center consultant Porter Wheeler addressed Committee staff on P3s in highways, transit, aviation, maritime, rail, economic development and water, with a particular focus on financing, contracts and best practices.

Center Graduate Research Associates Nobuhiko Daito and Zhenhua Chen present papers at the 55th Annual Transportation Research Forum. March 13-15, 2014 http://www.trforum.org/forum/2014/program.php

Center staff briefed the Denver Regional Transportation District Board of Directors in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, March 11, 2014. Center Director Jonathan Gifford and Center consultant Porter Wheeler briefed the Board on current developments in the P3 market, best practices for P3s, and emerging issues. Denver is home to the Eagle P3 project, one of the first transit P3 projects in the U.S.