The DalTRAC team promoted the Thumbs Up! Share the Road Nova Scotia campaign during SWITCH Spring Garden on Sunday, September 25. This well attended event allows HRM residents the opportunity to explore streets by foot, bike, or other modes of active transportation. Spring Garden Road was closed off to traffic to encourage recreation activities, markets, and entertainment.
Daniel Richardson Public Talk
On Thursday September 21, 2017, Daniel Richardson gave a public talk at Dalhousie University entitled “Ottawa’s BRT to LRT Conversion from an Operations Planning Perspective”. Daniel is the Team Lead of Service Reliability for O.C. Transpo in Ottawa. A native of the Greater Toronto Area, Daniel has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Ottawa, majoring in English Literature and Geography, as well as a Masters of Planning Degree from Dalhousie University. Prior to working for the City of Ottawa, Daniel worked as a Research Assistant for Dalhousie Transportation Collaboratory (DalTRAC). Daniel’s professional experience includes project management for various transit priority projects, transit oriented infrastructure projects, and other bus stop and station improvements. Specifically, over the past 3 years, Daniel’s work has focused primarily on the coordination of transit detours and construction impacts throughout the closure of the Transitway for the construction of the O-Train Confederation Line.
New Technology for Distracted Pedestrians in the Netherlands
A town called Bodegraven in the Netherlands is pilot testing a new type of pedestrian crossing signal. The crosswalk signal is embedded in the sidewalk at an intersection which is aimed at gaining the attention of distracted walkers. Global News interviewed Dr. Ahsan Habib regarding his thoughts on the new technology, and distracted pedestrians. Dr. Habib commented that with the rate of distracted pedestrians increasing in recent years, this innovative technology is a fabulous idea. Although the cause of distraction is not well documented, there needs to adaptive solutions to ensure road safety.
View the full story (minute 19:50) at http://globalnews.ca/video/3525788/global-national-jun-13-5
Dalhousie School of Planning student awards
DalTRAC would like to acknowledge and congratulate Shaila Jamal and Stephen McCarthy for receiving awards at the Dalhousie University School of Planning Convocation Tea on Monday May 29, 2017. Shaila Jamal, Master of Planning Studies graduate (’16) and DalTRAC researcher, accepted the award for School of Planning MPS Sexton Honor Roll and School of Planning Prize for Outstanding Graduate Research. Additionally, Stephen McCarthy, Master of Planning student and DalTRAC research assistant, was awarded a Rosetti Scholarship to enable his participation in the North American meetings of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) in Vancouver, November 2017.
CITE Atlantic Provinces Section 2017 Spring Meeting
Dalhousie Transportation Collaboratory (DalTRAC) will participate in the 2017 Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers (CITE) Atlantic Provinces Section Spring Meeting on Thursday May 25 in Halifax. Dr. Habib, DalTRAC director, will present a project entitled “Evacuation of Halifax Peninsula: A Dynamic Microsimulation Modelling of Halifax Peninsula” and Mahmudur Fatmi, Ph.D. student, will present his research work entitled “Results of the Agent-based Integrated Urban Systems model for Halifax”. Other members of the DalTRAC team will host a poster session highlighting some of the projects being conducted over the last year. These projects range from traffic microsimulation, vehicle transaction decision modeling, and smartphone use and travel.
8th International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies
Dalhousie Transportation Collaboratory (DalTRAC) research will be presented in Portugal for the 8th International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies. On May 17th, Dr. Habib will present a paper entitled Vulnerability in Transport Network during Critical Infrastructure Renewal: Lessons Learned from a Dynamic Traffic Microsimulation Model by MD Jahedul Alam PhD Student, Department of Civil and Resource Engineering; Dr. Muhammad Ahsanul Habib, Associate Professor School of Planning, and Department of Civil and Resource Engineering (cross); and Dr. Kevin Quigley, Associate Professor Scholarly Director, MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, Dalhousie University. On May 19th, Dr. Habib will present a paper entitled Baseline Synthesis and Microsimulation of Life-stage Transitions within an Agent-based Integrated Urban Model by Mahmudur Rahman Fatmi, PhD candidate, Department of Civil and Resource Engineering; and Dr. Muhammad Ahsanul Habib, Associate Professor School of Planning, and Department of Civil and Resource Engineering (cross), Dalhousie University. Dr. Ahsan Habib will present both papers on behalf of DalTRAC and Dalhousie University researchers.
Community Transportation Nova Scotia (CTNS) Conference
DalTRAC students will be participating in the Community Transportation Nova Scotia (CTNS) Conference and AGM on Tuesday, May 16 in Truro. The theme of this years conference is Transforming Community Transportation: Mobility for All! DalTRAC students will have posters displayed throughout the entire conference related to topics such as transportation sustainability, accessibility, smartphone use and travel, risk assessment and emission modelling.
For more information about the CTNS Conference please visit http://communitytransitns.ca/events/
MacEachen Institute Evacuation Roundtable
On Tuesday March 28, Dr. Ahsan Habib and graduate student MD Jahedul Alam attended the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance Evacuation Roundtable. The objective of this roundtable was to discuss research results and future direction of research for emergency evacuation of the Halifax peninsula. Dr. Habib presented “Evacuating Halifax Peninsula: A Dynamic Traffic Microsimulation Modelling Approach”, the research which was supported by the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response (MEOPAR) Network.

Dr. Ahsan Habib presents to MacEachen Institute of Public Policy Evacuation roundtable. Photo credit: Daniel Abriel
DalTRAC students invited to present in the 96th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board (TRB)
In January 2017, five DalTRAC students will present nine research papers at the 96th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington, D.C. The session information can be found below:
- Risk Assessment and Traffic Impact Microsimulation for a Suspension Bridge Re-Construction Project by MD Jahed Alam and Muhammad Habib, Session 222, Presentation 17-06416, Monday January 9, 8:00am-9:45am
- Microsimulation of Vehicle Transaction Decisions Within an integrated Urban Modeling Framework by Mahmudur Fatmi and Muhammad Habib, Session 508, Presentation 17-06844, Tuesday January 10, 8:00am-9:45am
- Who Do You Travel with and What Type of Vehicle Do You Get? Modeling Choice of Vehicle Type for Travel by Nazmul Arefin Khan and Muhammad Habib, Session 508, Presentation 17-06861, Tuesday January 10, 8:00am-9:45am
- Spatial Evolution of Neighborhood in Shanghai, China: Assessment of Urban Form and Street Network by Haomiao Cheng, Muhammad Habib, Bowei Wang and Jill Grant, Session 703, Presentation 17-05364, Tuesday January 10, 3:45pm-5pm
- Development of Prototype Integrated Urban Model: Microsimulation of Life-Stage Transitions and Residential Location Transitions by Mahmudur Fatmi and Muhammad Habib, Session 703, Presentation 17-05487, Tuesday January 10, 3:45pm-5pm
- Smartphone and Mobility: How Use of Smartphone Applications Affects Travel Decisions by Shaila Jamal and Muhammad Habib, Session 779, Presentation 17-06524, Wednesday January 11, 8:00am-9:45am
- Mobile ICT and Travel: Does Dependency on Smartphone Applications Stimulate Social Trips? by Shaila Jamal and Muhammad Habib, Session 779, Presentation 17-06802, Wednesday January 11, 8:00am-9:45am
- Impact of Smartphone Use on Vehicle Kilometers Traveled: Latent Class Logit Modeling Approach by Shaila Jamal, Muhammad Habib and Nazmul Arefin Khan, Session 779, Presentation 17-06103, Wednesday January 11, 8:00am-9:45am
- Cumulative Prospect Theory-Based Departure Time Choice Modeling for Dynamic Traffic Microsimulation by MD Jahed Alam and Muhammad Habib, Session 828, Presentation 17-06282, Wednesday January 11, 10:15am-12:00pm
MASc Thesis Defence
DalTRAC team member and graduate student in the Department of Civil & Resource Engineering, Babatope Olajide will make a presentation on his thesis entitled: Modeling of Emergency Vehicle Demand using Poisson Hurdle Regression Model
The presentation will take place on Monday December 5, 2016 at 1:30pm in Room D203a. Everyone is welcome to attend!