Project Meeting 2024.08.29

Agenda

• Admin
  • Finding an Australia-compatible meeting time for once a month.
  • Conferences
    • Any TRB submittals?
    • AMPO Conference
• Technical Updates
  • Phase 9a updates / new ActivitySim release
• Administrative Transition
  • AMPO option (Mark Moran)
  • Starting something new and independent (Joe C)
  • Some other entity for an AMPO-like agreement
    • Transportation Pooled Fund (Joe C)
    • University / Research Center (Alex B to talk to TTI)
    • AASHTO (Guy)
    • RAND (Flavia)
    • Volpe (Joe C)
  • Hybrid of something new/independent plus under an existing entity:
    • Zephyr (Joe C and Lisa Zorn)
    • Talk to Alan Horowitz (Rebekah Straub)
  • Decentralized option (Alex B)

Meeting Notes

General Admin

• ActivitySim PM Transition - Rachel Copperman at CS will be taking over Michelle Bina's role on administrative coordination, meeting notes, etc. for ActivitySim. Please email Rachel ([email protected]) for any requests or other things that would have typically gone to Michelle .
• Australia-compatible meeting once a month - Joe sent out an email about potential times for this meeting. Please respond to that email if you are interested in joining a call with the Australia colleagues.
• Conferences
  • No one knows of anything related to ActivitySim that was submitted to the TRB Annual Meeting
  • AMPO conference - 3 agencies are presenting: MWCOG (Mark Moran), ARC (Guy), SANDAG (Joe Flood). Mark Moran will set up a separate meeting with the 3 agencies (adding Joe and the bench consultants as optional) to plan for the presentation

Phase 9a release

• If you are installing directly from the command line, everything will work (version 1.3.1). However, there’s a problem with the installer. Jeff is still working through why the installer (developed by PTV) is not working. Jeff to reach out to PTV if he cannot figure it out quickly.

Administrative Transition

• AMPO (Mark Moran)
  • Mark polled AMPO members, receiving feedback from 9 out of the 14 members: 8 wanted to go back to AMPO, but SANDAG preferred to find another administrative home.
  • Next steps: MWCOG Executive Director is talking to other executive directors. SEMCOG is trying to arrange a meeting with Bill and has invited both the exec directors and the technical representatives. The meeting has not been scheduled yet but expect it to be somewhere in the September 10-12 timeframe.
  • This is the path of least resistance but we want to continue exploring other options.
• Independent non-profit (Joe)
• Transportation Pooled Fund and Volpe (Joe)
  • Joe has a call set up for next week.
• University (Alex)
  • The pooled fund that Oregon currently uses with TTI is a federal pooled fund, through another state. It’s a big administrative effort for the state that takes it on. There is interest on the TTI side to form a strong connection with ActivitySim, regardless of where the administrative home of ActivitySim lands. TTI will have a contract mechanism to develop ABMs for MPOs, and ActivitySim has been on their radar as an option.
  • If the administrative home were to work under this structure, it can’t be called a “pooled fund”; it would need to be called something else but would function as such.
  • This option would still involve working with a university. It still has to be profitable/make financial sense for the university.
  • There’s interest in the TTI side to be involved in the code development to some degree. They want to be involved in the technical side, not just the administrative side.
  • Next steps: Joe and Alex will complete the list of requirements and follow up with TTI to see if they could fulfill those requirements and continue the conversation.
• AASHTO (Guy)
  • There was an oversight board meeting on Monday. They are overwhelmed right now, since Penelope left, and can’t take on anything else. Maybe when they hire a new person, they might be able to do something. For now, it is not an option.
  • Next steps: Deprioritize and maybe follow-up in January if there isn’t a clear path forward before then.
• NARC – no one wants to take this on.
• Zephyr (Joe/Lisa)
  • Ohio DOT gives Zephyr $10k already and could add another $10k to fund adding a contractor to do the admin stuff.
  • Zephyr would be the entity collecting the money, but the PMC would be writing the contracts.
• Alan Horowitz (Rebekah Straub)
  • Alan said that he’s retired and has no interest in this, but he did think a small consulting firm could be a home, where they would be the program manager.
• Decentralization (Alex)
  • No updates were discussed.
• Program Manager (Sijia)
  • WSP provides this type of service. Sijia will find out more.
• RAND (Flavia)
  • Flavia did reach out but no concrete information to share yet.
• Joe is working on a draft matrix of issues/considerations for the different options as a way to summarize and review the options. Right now, it’s conceptual and not exhaustive. Example "rows" of issues/considerations include:
  • Confirmation of administrative responsibilities
  • Duration: can the arrangement be held in perpetuity or is there a expiration date?
  • Cost / overhead %
  • Governance/management: who calls the shots and priorities for development, for example?
  • International entities: can they be contractually added?
  • Time required to set up
• Joe to list out questions that can be used to guide discussions with representatives of the different options.
  • Current list of ActivitySim Transition Tasks https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RvmdYIaehsm_kjBfDgAXwRHgBgaZxJJXCjHW-W85MY8/edit?usp=sharing