| TRB Committee ABJ80: Statistical Methodology and Statistical Computer Software in Transportation Research |
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Draft Minutes of Committee Meeting: January 2003Statistical Methodology and Statistical Computer Software in Transportation Research, A5011 Washington
B4, Marriott Wardman Hotel The Chairman, Michael Griffith, called the meeting to order at 8:00 am. Agendas were distributed (agenda attached). 1. Introductions The chair opened the meeting by welcoming committee members and friends, which was followed by self-introductions of attendees. An attendance roster was sent around in absence of the usual members/friends address validation list (attendance list is attached).
2. Minutes of 2002 Annual Meeting Minutes from the 2001 annual meeting of the Committee were distributed and approved by a unanimous vote (minutes attached). 3. Review of the Mid-Year Meeting Minutes Mike Griffith presented a brief overview of the issues discussed at the mid-year meeting. The meeting was held in New York City in conjunction with the ASA Joint Statistical Meeting. ASA members are in the process of forming a Transportation Statistics Interest Group (topic covered later in minutes). John Orban did a presentation on “ITS”. Overall it was a good meeting and the committee decided to continue having meetings in conjunction with ASA. Attendance at the meeting was approximated at 10-15. 4. 2002 Paper Reviews Mohammad Qureshi coordinated the 2003 TRB paper review process. 16 papers were received (all electronic), of those 11 were accepted for presentation, and 5 were rejected outright for both. Eight of the eleven papers are in the re-review process. The online review process ran a little better this year. A few problems/idiosyncrasies were noted as: 1) the email messages from TRB appear to be coming from Mohammad; 2) there is no place for authors to upload their own comments to the review comments for their paper – Mohammad had to send and receive separately; 3) some people have multiple logins – still a few gliches in the system. In summary, Mohammad mentioned that there are still several re-reviews that need to be completed before the end of January in order to make the deadline for publication submittals. After final decisions are made on the publication status, Mohammad will send a message to the author with a blind carbon copy to the reviewers. 5. Conference Sessions
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Session 337, Applied Sampling
Techniques in Transportation · Session 512, Statistical Methods and Techniques for the Transportation Industry (Poster Session)Tuesday, January 14, 2003, 2:30 PM - 5:30 PM, Shoreham
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Session 562, Markov Chain Monte Carlo
in Action 6. ASA Transportation Statistics Interest Group Cliff Spiegelman has been working hard to put together a full section within ASA for Transportation Statistics. The first item on his agenda was to solicit a petition of interest from committee members and friends. 100 paying member signatures are needed. The cost of an ASA membership is $150, and the cost to join the Transportation Statistics Interest Group is $5. It is very difficult to find funding for statistical analysis/methods developments. The health of BTS will have a lot to do with the success of these efforts. Cliff will be posting more information to a web site at a later date. 7. TRB Committee A5011 – “2003 and Beyond” Michael Griffith gave a presentation to stimulate discussions about the development of a strategic plan for the committee. The committee has not been operating on a strategic plan, but rather reacting to events that are occurring on a yearly basis. The membership is lacking in state DOT membership. Mike recommended that the first standing subcommittee of A5011 should focus on Strategic Plan development. Mike also mentioned that we need to keep advertising our committee through liaisons to other committees (A sign up list was passed around and members and affiliations are appended.) Links to technical groups should be established – ASA is probably the most important. A handout was passed around with the proposed scope and potential activities for the next 5 years (handout attached). The scope reads as follows: Scope: The A5011 committee is concerned with the appropriate application of statistical methods in the field of transportation. The committee will serve as a resource on statistical matters for all other TRB committees and activities; will foster understanding and use of statistics through dissemination and educational activities; and will identify and foster research needed in statistics for use in transportation. Mike ended the presentation soliciting feedback from committee members and friends to discern weaknesses. After some comments from the committee and some word-smithing, the Scope reads: Scope: The A5011 committee is concerned with the appropriate application of statistical methods and software in the field of transportation. The committee will serve as a resource on statistical matters for all other TRB committees, related NAS committees, and activities; will foster understanding and use of statistics through dissemination and educational activities; and will identify and foster research needed in statistics for use in transportation. The committee moved on to discuss activities that might be relevant to the committee. A friend of the committee recommended sessions on statistical methods grouped by technique, where the committee may solicit by method – much like the Markov Chain session. Glenn Roberts mentioned that we may want to develop a toolkit of statistical techniques. Glenn Roberts also mentioned that A5011 should liason with the Conduct of Research Committee A5001. Mike Griffith agreed that this was important and that we should coordinate activities with A5001. Delbert Stewart mentioned that he had developed a methodological filter for concrete research. Jennifer Ogle mentioned that the HSM subcommittee was looking for a similar filter for research to be considered for the manual. Dominique Lord mentioned a function analysis where you have a practical problem and show tools to solve it. Gary Davis suggested a statistical analysis – write the premise of the argument and identify logical structure. This could be a possible session topic, “Logic of Statistical Inference”. John mentioned that we should not focus on statistical sessions, but rather on getting statistical talks into other sessions – presenting statistics on their topics in their terms. On the area of outreach, Delbert Stewart suggests going to committees – make it a point to define assignments to visit the meetings and get a spot on the agenda. Brian Park added a potential session entitled, “Evaluation of Simulation Models”. Mohammad Qureshi brought the idea of standing subcommittees to the table as a means to make all of these ideas come to life. The following subcommittees were formed and volunteers were solicited as shown. Outreach
Delbert Stewart (Chair) safety Paper Review
Mohammad Qureshi (Chair) Communications
Jennifer Ogle (Chair) Strategic Planning
Mike Griffith (Chair) ASA Liason Peter Bajorski It was decided that one of the
interim functions of the strategic planning subcommittee would be to draft
general session ideas/topics. Mike Griffith asked each of the subcommittees to
put together mission and goals statements and bring them to the mid-year meeting
for discussion. Proposals should be submitted to Jennifer Ogle at least two
weeks prior to the mid-year meeting so that they can be distributed for comment. Conference Session Ideas Many ideas were suggested during the discussion of ‘2003 and Beyond’ – one idea that will be moved forward by Promod Chandhou is the showcase of previous BTS grant winners. Session ideas need to be coordinated with Rick Pain around July 1 – August 1, 2002. Human Factors Workshop No Human Factors Workshops were suggested for the 2004 Annual meeting. Deadline for entry is March 15, 2002. 9. Rick Pain, TRB Update Rick Pain said that there is not a great deal to report this year. TRB received 2,150 papers, 1400 will be presented this year, and approximately 700 will be published. There is a continuing need for statistical reviews from this committee. The idea for use of this committee in reviews was recently pushed in the committee chairs meeting. Topics for synthesis within the statistics area are solicited. A one paragraph description is all that is necessary. IDEA program has a safety sponsorship through FMCSA/FRA and there is possibility of funding up to $100,000 for statistical research ideas. The IDEA panel meets two times per year. Proposals are 25 pages maximum length. Information can be found on the TRB website. There are no specific RFPs – only instructions for submitting. TRB is reorganizing by creating a series of new groups. Group 5 Council is going away to allow cross-cutting issue committees. Management and Administration, under which will reside Data and Information Systems. A5011 Committee will be under this umbrella. There will be a draft plan for the reorganization on the web after the Annual Meeting. April 1st is the proposed timeframe for the new structure to be in place. Mohammad provided feeback on review process as noted previously. Upcoming conference – Traffic Safety on 3 Continents in April/May 2004 in Poland. We have been invited to organize a session for the conference. Research papers are reviewed by abstract. A call for papers will be out in early summer. In the past, a very small amount of travel money has been available – comes from Swedish support. Rick would need to know something this summer if we would like to participate. 10. Big Issue Candidates for Policy Studies Mike Griffith handed out a memo regarding the solicitation of Big Issue Candidates for Policy Studies (as attached) for committee review. The deadline for submittal is January 28, 2003. Cliff Spiegelman suggested a study of economic gains achieved by placing statisticians on every federally funded research project. Bob Scopatz mentioned a study of Government Policing for Advocate Groups producing invalid studies. 11. Mid-Year Meeting 2003 Options were presented for the mid-year meeting location including Joint Statistical Meeting, NATMEC, Data Committees, and Traffic Records Forum. The committee voted and agreed to meet at the ASA meetings in San Francisco, August 3-7, 2003. Mike suggested that we try to sponsor a session at the meeting (no decision made), and find a presenter for our meeting. 12. Expertise Matrix Mohammad Qureshi handed out the expertise matrix for individual review by committee members. The matrix has successfully been completed over the last two meetings. Blank matrices were passed out for the acceptance of changes and/or additions. The expertise matrix is used to simplify the distribution of papers for review. 13. BTS Update Promod Chandhou gave a brief update on BTS activities. The main item of interest is the grant program. All information is currently on the web for new BTS grant applications. Six grants were awarded last year. Promod will organize a session for showcasing this work. 14. Other Items ATSIP – Traffic Records Forum will be held July 13-18 in Denver, CO. ATSIP is turning into a membership organization. This year at TRB the organization is sharing a booth with the NHTSA vehicle defects program. Join now, don’t pay til later. Associate memberships will be $500, full membership $100, fellow member $200. – Bob Scopatz Peter Bajorski passed out flyers for a shortcourse, “Statistical Analysis in Transportation Applications”. (see attached) Delbert Stewart presented “NYSRTE 33 Kennsington Corridor Safety Study”. (Slides attached) 15. Adjourn The Committee adjourned at 11:50 am.
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| Michael S
Griffith, Chair mike.griffith@fhwa.dot.gov |
Ida van Schalkwyk, Secretary |
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van Schalkwyk, Webmaster idaua@engr.arizona.edu |
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