Breakout Session Recaps:
What Panelists Discovered

Making High Speed Rail a Reality

The breakout session discussed how to make the Anaheim to Los Angeles segment of the California high speed rail a state and national priority.

Moderated by OCTA CEO Will Kempton, panelists included MTA CEO Art Leahy, Carrie Pourvahidy Deputy Executive of the California High Speed Rail Authority, Peter Luchetti Partner at Table Rock Capital. The Parsons Brinckerhoff-sponsored panel made the following recommendations:

• Demonstrate a good and competitive rate of return on investments (for both federal and private funds)
• Include as many details as possible about the operation of the system
  Build consensus and support among all stakeholders, local communities, and key elected leaders
• Have a strong project organization in place with a proven project delivery track record and good project management models in place
• Maximize local financial contributions to the project
• Work with members of Congress to allocate more funds for the high speed rail projects

Raising Transportation Infrastructure Safety as a National Priority

This panel discussed and debated the challenges facing Southern California’s transportation infrastructure and the need for increased investment to make safety – across all modes of transportation – a national priority.

The Metrolink-sponsored panel, moderated by Assembly Member Mike Eng, Chairman of the California State Assembly Transportation Committee, included: Metrolink Board Chairman Keith Millhouse; Jacob Nelson, Director of Traffic Safety Policy and Research for the American Automobile Association; Doug Failing, District 7 Director for the California Department of Transportation; and Bill Davis, Executive Vice President for the Southern California Contractors Association.

The panel outlined a number of steps they deem critical to advance the transportation safety agenda, including the following calls to action:

• Leverage our regional and citizen power to make transportation safety a national priority and increase infrastructure investment, including advocacy efforts to increase funding in the new federal surface transportation authorization bill
• Highlight both individual and societal responsibility for safer transportation – a shift in our culture that will benefit policy, businesses and public safety
• Implement better technology and data collection systems so that safety-related decisions can be informed by the best available research
  Focus resources to maintain our aging infrastructure of roads, bridges, tunnels and rail lines to keep pace with current and future demand
• Execute multiple activities to keep safety at the forefront, including better engineering, stricter enforcement of laws and regulations, expanded public education and increased funding

Land Use and Transportation Planning: Moving Beyond SB 375

This panel of experts, representing the broad stakeholder community, provided insight on the passage and implementation of SB 375, which will fundamentally change the way California develops going forward; necessitating sweeping changes to traffic modeling and land-use planning. Several themes materialized during the presentations and discussion that followed with the audience:

• With the state suspending indefinitely all funding to the State Transit Account (STA), there is no state transit funding available to enhance current or build additional transit systems - this is a conundrum given that the purpose of SB 375 is to reduce green house gas emissions from cars and light duty trucks and transit is a primary mode to reduce vehicle miles traveled;
• There is an imbalance between economic centers and available workforce housing across the region - SB 375, by integrating transportation and housing planning, will help to address the imbalance but CARB should also take into consideration the impacts of implementing regulation on local and regional economic recovery;
• Market driven forces have already resulted in significant transit across the SCAG region. There was general agreement that we need to build upon and capture where market forces have already taken us.
• Without available new funding sources for transit and given current ecomomic conditions, is SB 375 being set up to fail?

The audience was very engaged and asked pertinent questions about compliance and the resources required to develop a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) for the SCAG region, as well as the methodologies, modeling and best management practices that will be used to determine the initial targets for green house gas reductions. The panel ended on a positive note that the Southern California leadership and marketplace has already embraced transit and transit oriented development in advance of SB 375 passage and that vital projects already underway - including the development of High Speed Rail and the LOSSAN Corridor- that will help to ensure the region reduces it's GHG levels to meet the mandates ultimately set by the California Air Resources Board.

The panel included: Terry Roberts, Planning Liaison, California Air Resources Board; Mike McKeever, Executive Director, Sacramento Council of Governments andChairman Regional Targets Advisory Committee; Hasan Ikhrata, Executive Director, Southern California Association of Governments; Lee Harrington, Executive Director, Southern California Leadership Council; and Todd Priest, Vice President, Curt Pringle and Associates who served as moderator.

More than Grade Separations: How a Corridor Approach to Goods Movement Investment Benefits Southern California.

The panel consisted of Patty Senecal (moderator), International Logistics and Warehouse Assn; Mike Keenan, Port of LA; Jim Gosnell, West Coast Corridors Coalition; Anne Mayer, Riverside County Transportation Commission; and John Doherty, Alameda Corridor Transportation Auth.

Mr. Keenan presented the Ports’ container forecast, which showed a major dip in container traffic during this recession with growth returning in 6-7 years. The theme of the discussion centered on using this time of low freight traffic volumes to plan and build goods movement system improvements today in order to handle dramatic future container volumes growth over the next 30 years.

One strategy discussed in particular was to plan infrastructure improvements along entire goods movement corridors, taking into account interplay between rail, road and highway and intermodal systems.

The panel recommended that a separate trust fund for goods movement infrastructure in partnership with the private sector and without preference to mode of transportation. Importantly, the panel recommended the concept that users should have say in how the system is planned to ensure that infrastructure supports existing freight patterns.

Multi-Modalism at its Best

This important panel wrapped experienced minds and exemplary careers around a topic of significance. What transpired was the emergence of a 21st Century dynamic of co-modalism that places multi-modal, inter-modal and sustainability systems management under one banner.

Sponsored by Parsons, this informative panel was moderated by Dr. Stephen Van Beek of the Eno Foundation. Panelists included Martin Tuttle, Caltrans; Mort Downey, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Brian Smith, Washington State DOT, and Paul Taylor, Metro.

The panelists identified investing in comprehensive data that sets the transparent performance measures required to earn public credibility, set policy, plan, fund, finance and operate optimum mobility for people and freight as the vehicle to success.

Sponsors: Mobility 21 presents the sponsors of the 8th annual Transportation Summit

Download: Summit 2009 Program (pdf)

Archives: Annual Transportation Summits began in 2004