It is our pleasure to announce that the XIII NECTAR International
Conference will be held at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United
States of America), from 14 to 16 June 2015.
The transportation field is undergoing a technological revolution in information
and communication technologies including “big” data, connected vehicles,
modeling techniques, and—just over the horizon—self-driving cars. For these smart transport developments
to fulfill their promise, they need to be guided by and deployed in service of
smart planning: a planning that improves
the fairness of transportation’s distribution and lessens its environmental
impact and societal costs. Technological
innovations must be implemented in a way that applies the lessons of history on
the relationship of transportation and urban form to forestall unwanted
outcomes. Fundamentally, these
advances must be part of a shift that values accessibility over simple movement
as the overarching purpose of transportation.
The conference will facilitate interaction between North American and
European transport and communications researchers on all these topics. In addition, the conference will
incorporate a specialized subconference for researchers, professionals and
decisionmakers from both continents on “Accessibility-Based Evaluation: From Laboratory to Practice.” Researchers have long argued that
planning and evaluation of transportation should be on the basis of metrics of
accessibility, rather than travel speeds, highway level of service, or
vehicular throughput. Yet the
progress of this idea into professional practice and decisionmaking has been
halting, and nowhere has accessibility evaluation displaced analysis based on
the quality or quantity of human or vehicular movement. The specialized subconference will
consider obstacles to accessibility-based reform of transportation planning
practice, approaches to overcoming those obstacles, and instances of successful
implementation of accessibility-based evaluation.
Ann Arbor is the natural venue for such a conference. Located at the edge of the metropolitan
Detroit region, Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan have deep connections
with the North American auto industry cluster. These linkages have evolved with the cluster itself, and the
University of Michigan has emerged as a premiere location for the study of
connected and automated transportation. The town itself is a quintessential example of an American college town,
with a lively downtown, attractive facilities and destinations for visitors,
and a pleasant college campus.
The conference will provide a plenary session for keynote speakers,
sessions with presentations of submitted papers, and NECTAR Cluster
Meetings/Sessions Images courtesy of the Ann Arbor Convention and Visitors Bureau Looking forward to meeting you in the spring of 2015 in Ann Arbor, Michigan
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