Free Technical Assistance and Training for California Transportation
Planning Agencies
The challenges that regional transportation agencies face are growing
increasingly complex, and fiscal constraints are forcing agencies to make
crucial decisions about resource allocation, while at the same time ensuring
stricter regulatory compliance. The following training sessions and technical
assistance activities are designed to address these pressing needs and their
inherent conflicts in a practical, hands-on manner.
Arnie Sherwood, the former Director of Performance
Assessment and Implementation and former Director of Forecasting, Analysis and
Monitoring at the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), is
available to your staff to provide free, on-site, customized 2-3 hour informal
training sessions on the following topics:
Transportation Improvement Programs (TIPs)
What are the major do's and don'ts when developing TIPs and making TIP
amendments?
How will the Governor's budget reductions impact the TIP process?
How will projects under the Transportation Congestion Relief Program (TCRP)
be handled?
What is the best way to develop and use criteria for project
selection?
How should you go about prioritizing Transportation Control Measures (TCMs)
in the RTIP?
This session will answer these questions and more.
Air Quality Conformity
How do air quality conformity requirements impact the development of RTPs
and RTIPs?
What will the implications of new ozone and particulate matter standards
be?
What should you do to be ready for them?
This and other practical advice on how to make sense out of new and existing
air quality standards and procedures will be addressed in this session.
Regional Transportation Plans (RTPs)
What are the impacts of declining revenues and resources on the development
of RTPs?
How can you still get the job done and what cost-saving strategies work
best?
Do you have the right data, given changing demographics and growth patterns
in your region?
Data collection and analysis -- are you doing too little or too much?
What about air quality conformity, and how do TCMs fit in?
This session will provide a hands-on approach to the efficient development of
RTPs and address topics ranging from growth, environmental and modeling issues
to the relationship between RTPs and the State Implementation Plans (SIPs).
Your Agency's Needs
Technical assistance and training can be tailored to meet your specific
agency's needs. If you are interested in hosting one of these free sessions or
have suggestions on additional topics you would like to see covered, contact:
Laura Melendy
Institute of Transportation Studies Tech Transfer Program
email:
phone: 510-665-3608
fax: 510-665-3454
This service is made available through the CA-LTAP, a project of the Technology
Transfer Program with funding from
Caltrans
and
FHWA.
323/662-4446
2282 Ronda Vista Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Fax: 323/662-4446
e-mail:
Bio
In September of 1999 Arnie Sherwood became the first LTAP Field Planner. His
service area comprises the 43 Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs)
in California. He is currently developing and delivering customized informal
trainings for RTPAs throughout the state.
Prior to his retirement from SCAG, Arnie Sherwood was the Director of
Performance Assessment and Implementation. Arnie's work was varied during his
25 years at SCAG, including forecasting and demographics when he was the
Director of Forecasting, Analysis and Monitoring and federal and state
intergovernmental project review. He helped develop the state's Air Quality
Program in the late 1970s, and was instrumental in applying ISTEA's conformity
regulations on transportation and air quality conformity in the South Coast air
basin in the 1990s.
Arnie, like many planners, did not start out as a planner. After receiving his
Ph.D. in nuclear physics at UC San Diego in the 1960s, he did a post-doc in
Paris and then a second post-doc at Berkeley's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
before moving on to the University of Arizona in Tucson as Assistant Professor
of Physics. Not content with just working in physics, Arnie began taking
classes at the University, pursuing his lifelong interest in architecture. One
day he found himself in a planning colloquium. The rest is history. He studied
for a Master of Planning degree and spent the next quarter century as a
transportation planner in various roles at SCAG.
Arnie brings to Tech Transfer a solid reputation for professional achievement
in transportation planning, and familiarity with a nation-wide network of
experts upon which to draw for information and assistance. When asked just how
his physics background has helped him in his work as a planner, Arnie replied,
"Physics gives you an approach to problem-solving which is of great benefit."
Contact Arnie with planning questions or requests for assistance at
323.662.4446 or send e-mail to
.
