NEWS

In the media

Baher Abdulhai, Toronto among worst in the world for traffic, CTV News, January 12, 2023.
Eric Miller, Shoshanna Saxe, If you love traffic jams, you’ll love Ontario’s plan to develop the Greenbelt, Globe and Mail, January 11, 2023.
Enid Slack, Inflation, pandemic costs driving Ontario property tax hikes as upkeep backlogs grow, CP24, January 11, 2023.
Steven Farber, Ford government could have sold rights to develop greenbelt for millions, experts say, CityNews Toronto, January 11, 2023.
Shoshanna Saxe, EVs won’t cause roads to crumble faster, but our love of heavier cars is causing problems, Globe and Mail, January 4, 2023.

Hess wins "Equity Topics in Bicycle Transportation Paper Award"

Congratulations to Professor Paul Hess (left) of the Department of Geography & Planning on the "2023 Equity Topics in Bicycle Transportation Paper Award" from the TRB Bicycle Transportation Committee ACH20 for "Pandemic-time Bike Lanes in Three Large Canadian Urban Centres - Exploring Difference in Usage and Support among Socio-demographic Groups and Built Environment Types."

The award-winning paper was co-authored with Professor Raktim Mitra (Toronto Metropolitan University), Remington Latanville (PhD student, Toronto Metropolitan University), Professor Kevin Manaugh (McGill University), and Professor Meghan Winters (Simon Fraser University).

Learn more about the award & read the winning paper's abstract.

Mobility Network welcomes Dr. Nael Alsaleh

We welcome Dr. Nael Alsaleh as Mobility Network Postdoctoral Fellow for the City of Toronto Zero-Occupant Vehicle Project supervised by Professor Eric Miller.

Nael completed his PhD in Transportation Engineering in 2022 at Toronto Metropolitan University. His dissertation focused on exploring network designs, developing demand models, and evaluating the sustainability of on-demand public transit systems.

He earned his BSc in Civil Engineering and MSc in Transportation Engineering from the Jordan University of Science and Technology.

Nael's research interests include travel demand modelling, the operation and planning of CAVs, and on-demand shared mobility services. He says, "I look forward to working with the lead researcher, Professor Eric Miller, on the 'Zero-Occupant Vehicles' Project, which will inform the City of Toronto of the potential impacts of ZOVs and provide strategies to mitigate them."

Read more about Dr. Nael Alsaleh.

Ticket sales open for February 9 alumni reception

event graphic with text details, sponsor logos and background image

The University of Toronto Transportation Alumni Network (UTTAN) is proud to host an evening of re-connecting and networking for U of T grads working in transportation on Thursday, February 9, 2023, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m., at Massey College Common Room.

Reception tickets are $30 and include a drink and hors d’oeuvres.

Support from Tier 1 sponsors Dr. Mazen I.S. Hassounah, HDR, CIMA+, and IBI Group, and Tier 3 sponsors Streetlight Data and TraffMobility Engineering Inc. is gratefully acknowledged.

Space is limited, so please get your ticket early to join us for a great evening!

Click here for full details and to purchase tickets on Eventbrite.

EVENTS

January 13, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m., North America's Biggest Transit Expansion: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Reece Martin, RMTransit. UT-ITE Seminar Series. In person. SF3103. Free.
January 17, 5:30-7 p.m., Making the Case for Regionalism. Speakers: Don Iveson, former mayor of Edmonton and former chair, Canada’s Big City Mayors; Dr. Jen Nelles, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Brookes Business School; Zack Taylor, Associate Professor, Political Science, Western University. Moderator: Dr. Karen Chapple, Director, School of Cities and Professor, Geography and Planning. Presented by School of Cities and the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance. Hybrid. Free. Registration required.
January 18, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., Responsible Data Science, DSI@UTM: Data Digests - Data in our community. Featuring two talks, including "The Black Box of Mobility Data: Cities, Covid and Counting," Professors Shauna Brail and Tara Vinodrai, IMI, UTM. In person at UTM. Free. Registration required.
January 18, 12-1 p.m., Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2.0: Logistics in the Era of Big Data. Dr. Jean-François Arvis, Senior Transport Economist, The World Bank. Presented by McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics “In Conversation” Luncheon Series. Virtual. Free. Registration required.
January 18, 3-4:30 p.m., SDGs & the Transformative Role of Universities. University of Toronto speakers: John Robinson, Professor, The Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and The School of the Environment; Presidential Advisor on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability (CECCS); .Irena Creed, Professor and Vice Principal of Research & Innovation, UTSC; Erica Di Ruggiero, Director of Center for Global Health, and Associate Professor, Social & Behavioural Health Science. Presented by the Committee on Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability (CECCS) and the University of Toronto Scarborough Sustainability Office (UTSC SO) as part of the Adams Sustainability Celebration. Virtual. Free. Registration required.
January 18, 9-10 p.m., Knowledge-Based Planning: Prediction, Optimization, and Open-Access Advances. Professor Timothy Chan, University of Toronto. Joint CARTE & University of Seoul AI Seminar Series. Virtual. Free. Registration required.
January 20, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Roundtable on Mobility and Climate Justice: Finding Connections. Presented by Mobility Network, Mobilizing Justice, Positive Zero Transport Futures, and Suburban Mobilities. In person. Free. Registration limited to U of T faculty.
January 21, 4-7 p.m. Infrastructure Institute's +(Plus) 2.0 Exhibition Launch. Presented as part of the 2023 DesignTO Festival. In person. Free. Registration required.
January 25, 9-10 p.m., Machine Learning for Understanding Construction Resource Use and Embodied Greenhouse Gases. Big Problem/Small Data. Professor Shoshanna Saxe, University of Toronto. Joint CARTE & University of Seoul AI Seminar Series. Virtual. Free. Registration required.
January 26, 9 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Workshop on Rail Analytics and Simulation Research at the University of Toronto Mobility Network. Presented by Transit Analytics Lab at Mobility Network. Virtual. Free. Registration required.
January 26, 5-7 p.m., Future-Proofing Supply Chain in a Post-COVID-19 World. Speakers: Elkafi Hassini, Professor, McMaster University, DeGroote School of Business, and Chair, Smart Freight Centre; John Ferguson, President and CEO, Purolator Inc. Presented by Foresight Lab, McMaster University. In person. Fee and registration required.
January 28, 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., 2023 Sustainability Conference: Back to the Future of Sustainable Urban Development. Presented by Sustainable Engineers Ontario (SEA) U of T and TMU. Sponsored by Climate Positive Energy. Speakers Professor Matti Siemiatycki, Director, Infrastructure Institute, and others. In person. Fee and registration required.
March 1, 2023, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Esri GIS in Education & Research Conference.Register early as space is limited. Papers due January 20, 2023. Presented by Esri Canada, in person at Hart House, University of Toronto. Fee of $35 and registration required.

CONFERENCES

See our transportation related listings here.

CALLS

Call for papers, GIS in Education and Research Conference, Esri Canada. Papers due by January 20, 2023.
TAC Young Professional and Student Awards, Transportation Association of Canada (TAC). Application close January 31, 2023.
U of T students: Urban Data Science Corps, School of Cities. Applications close February 5, 2023.
U of T researchers: 2023 Schwartz Reisman faculty and graduate fellowships. Applications close February 5, 2023.
U of T students: Reach researcher, Reach Alliance 2023-24 cohort. Applications close February 12, 2023.
Postsecondary students: 2023 Foundation Scholarships. Transportation Association of Canada (TAC). Applications close February 28, 2023.
Postsecondary students: Transportation Student Awards and Scholarships. ITE Canada. Applications close March 1, 2023.
U of T PhD students: Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship 2023-2024. Applications close March 1, 2023.
Call for abstracts, 2023 Emerging Mobility Scholars Conference, Positive Zero Transport Futures and Mobility Network. Abstracts due by March 10, 2023.

OPPORTUNITIES

Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pandemic Recovery and Equity, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Open until filled.
Assistant Professor - Urban and Regional Policy, Department of Human Geography, University of Toronto Scarborough. Applications close January 16, 2023.

RESOURCES
PRINT

Designing the first national survey on transportation equity in Canada, Hedieh Keshavarz. Mobilizing Justice blog post, January 6, 2023.

PAST WEBINARS / PODCASTS

Managing Congestion in Real Time: Adaptive Traffic Signal Control with Deep Reinforcement Learning and High Dimensional Sensory Inputs. Professor Baher Abdulhai, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto. Faculti video recording, January 12, 2023.

Disclaimer: The information in this newsletter is true to the best of our knowledge at time of posting. All listings are made without guarantee on the part of Mobility Network, and we disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information.

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