Rob Pringle, Senior Project Manager at WSP Canada was at the ITS Lab and Testbed on November 8th to give a talk on “Traffic planning and management in the real (congested) world.”
Rob gave great insights into the industrial and technical challenges he faced in 38 years of experience in the sector. His presentation had three main thrusts:
- Challenges of working on highly congested environment
- Emerging tools used for traffic management
- Emerging data sources for traffic visualization
Rob also provided some visuals of “traffic-micro simulation” which is a very commonly used tool used in the industry these days. He mentioned how the tool was designed for the wider audience such as policy analyst, decision makers and planners. However he also discussed some of the limitations of the software that are still under exploration.
Presented by University of Toronto ITE Student Chapter, UT-ITE.
Abstract
- Traffic management in a congested urban/suburban environment – what is different about a congested environment?
- Micro-simulation as an analysis tool in congested environments
- Emerging trends (real-time/intelligent traffic management, managed lanes, connected and automated vehicles, tolling, etc.)
- Some quirks and paradoxes
Rob Pringle is Senior Project Manager at WSP Canada. He has 38 years of experience, split largely between municipal transportation planning at the former Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and consulting in the fields of transportation planning and traffic engineering. His experience includes most facets of transportation planning and traffic engineering – systems analysis and modelling of highways/roads/transit/active transportation, development of transportation policy and guidelines, traffic engineering and safety, impact assessment of policy initiatives/infrastructure improvements/development proposals, and data collection and research. He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering and an MPl in Urban and Regional Planning from Queen’s University and an MASc in Management Science from the University of Waterloo. He also undertook PhD-level studies and taught a 3rd year transportation course at the University of Toronto.
Over the past 15 years, Rob has led approximately 100 projects using traffic simulation and has played a significant role in the acceptance of simulation as an analytical tool by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. He led the evaluation of temporary HOV lanes and the development of an advanced traffic management strategy for major highway incidents for the 2015 Pan Am/ParaPan Am Games. He is currently leading the traffic and revenue analysis for the business-case evaluation of HOT lanes in five GTA highway corridors. His experience also includes the evaluation of HOV lanes at the corridor and network levels, construction staging and traffic management for highway and structure rehabilitations, safety evaluations, and specialized assignments involving TDM, transit and transit priority, roundabouts, pedestrian simulation, freight movement, and transportation emissions.
Rob does not see himself as a “modeller”, but rather as a planner/engineer who investigates transportation solutions using and adapting an analytical toolbox that prominently features traffic simulation.