Northwest Transportation Conference, with
workshops, presentations, hits CH2M Hill
By Tom Nightingale
The Daily Barometer
This week, Oregon State University will host the 2004 Northwest
Transportation Conference with more than 400 transportation
professionals from throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
expected to participate.
The conference, themed "Partners In Transportation,"
is cosponsored by the Kiewit Center for Infrastructure and
Transportation at OSU, and will feature workshops and presentations
on many transportation related topics, including a Segway
scooter demonstration that will kick-start the three-day event.
The event will be held on campus at CH2M Hill Alumni Center
with transportation experts and officials addressing a wide
range of issues, from how Oregon can utilize European bicycle
and pedestrian oriented designs to how homeland security and
an aging population will impact the region's transportation.
The OSU Kiewit Center for Infrastructure and Transportation
director, James Lundy, believes hosting the conference is
a fantastic achievement for the University.
"OSU have done this every other year since about 1949,
so we've been in the process for a long time," Lundy
said. "Originally the conference started out by focusing
almost exclusively on roads and streets but all modes of transportation
has grown to really be the scope now."
Lundy believes the conference will help gain exposure for
not only the university, but also the OSU engineering department.
"From the conference we get the chance to showcase some
of the research and work we have been doing," Lundy said.
Lundy also urged students to attend the conference, as it
is a chance for all to express their views on transportation
at OSU and in Corvallis.
"Part of what they can take away is information on how
they might interact with the community, and one example would
be bicycles," Lundy said.
"For bike and pedestrian safety and facilities to be
included in a typical community, the public has to get involved
and the way that might happen is if students could take ideas
away from the event and then start working with the city officials
and planning divisions," Lundy said.
"This is what we want and this is important to us,"
Lundy said. "There are ways that students can pull things
from this conference and how they can then take it out into
the public and let officials know what is important and what
they want."
Lundy also believes that OSU and its engineering school are
playing a major role in the community.
"The College of Engineering is playing a larger and
larger role in developing solutions to complex transportation
issues for Oregon and beyond, so its very appropriate that
OSU is hosting this exciting event," Lundy said.
"As Oregon continues to grow, efficient transportation
becomes critical," Lundy said. "We want to help
this state be a leader in innovative, creative transportation
solutions."
Registration for the conference begins at 9 a.m. today in
the CH2M-HILL Alumni Center on campus with all welcome to
attend.
"There's some excellent opportunities to gather together
the transportation side of this, but (also) how transportation
fits into everybody's lives -- whether you're a pedestrian
or a bicyclist," Lundy said.