Workshops
Future Uncertain Workshop
TRB Annual Meeting 2025
Future Uncertain: Research and Tools for Transportation Planning under Deep Uncertainty
Future Uncertain introduces Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU) and contrasts it with traditional Predict-Then-Act approaches in transportation planning. Participants will experience considering and mitigating uncertainty through a collaborative planning game with evolving future conditions. An expert panel will then use game results to challenge current practices and discuss strategies to better incorporate deep uncertainty in planning tools and practices. The workshop will conclude with a group discussion to synthesize key takeaways and initiate further research and practice developments.
Moderator: Marty Milkovits, Director of Modeling and Analytics, Boston Region MPO
Game Lead: Flavia Tsang, Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Panelists:
Prateek Bansal, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
Chandra Bhat, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Rachel Copperman, Vice President, Cambridge Systematics
Naomi Stein, Vice President, EBP
Tara Weidner, Climate Impact Analysis Program Lead, Oregon DOT-Climate Office
Overview and Game Play Slides
TRB25_FutureUncertain_OverviewSlides.pdfDecisions for the decade v10.pdfPanelist Presentations
Stein_UncertaintyWorkshop.pdfODOT_TRB_Uncertainty_20250109.pdfUncertainty_Session_CBhat_Jan2.pdfFuture is Uncertain_TRB2025.pdfFuture uncertain workshop (Prateek Bansal).pdfTRB 2024 Annual Meeting - DMDU Initiative Meeting
The DMDU Initiative met during the TRB 2024 annual meeting to hear about the latest updates on the NCHRP Study into Incorporating Uncertainty to LRTPs (slides linked in Meeting Minutes); discuss key uncertainties in our work (word cloud); and agree to rename the initiative from "Uncertainty" to the Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU).
Virtual Workshop / Poll - July 2023
The virtual workshop had over 30 attendees and we had 24 responses to the uncertainty poll, about 40% of the uncertainty list membership. Not bad for a summer poll! There was a nice mix of responses from newbies to advanced beginners and right up to the cutting edge. A few highlights:
The greatest interest/excitement (by average score) is to Develop methods and visualizations to effectively communicate uncertainty to stakeholders
Second place goes to hosting a Peer exchange of uncertainties identified vs. tested, input variables and ranges, output metrics.
All proposed topic areas averaged above a 4.0 except for case studies and a webinar panel, which averaged in the high 3’s.
There are also some great ideas on focus areas for the uncertainty initiative. These are included in the poll results linked below.
uncertainty_vworkshop_overview.pdfUncertainty Poll_Summer23.pdfTRB Innovations in Travel Analysis and Planning Conference - June 2023
Travel Forecasting Uncertainty Workshop
The purpose of this workshop was to advance the AEP50 Travel Forecasting Uncertainty Initiative. The workshop began with table setting presentations and then utilized breakout sessions to explore the four key challenge areas:
Identifying uncertainty areas and ranges
Exploring uncertainty space with quantitative analysis
Visualization and analyzing results
Translating results into useful inputs to the planning process
Moderator:
Marty Milkovits, Boston Region MPO
Presenters / Facilitators:
Tierra Bills, UCLA
Rachel Copperman, Cambridge Systematics
Naomi Stein, EBP
Sarah Sun, FHWA
Facilitators:
Jay Evans, RSG
Greg Macfarlane, Brigham Young University
Tara Weidner, Oregon DOT
Notes / Summary:
Vivek Yadav, Cambridge Systematics
Attendees: ~60 (6 breakout groups of 8-12)
Uncertainty Initiative Overview.pdfTransportation Planning for Uncertain Times.pdfUncertainty Modeling in Practice.pdfNCHRP 08-154 Planning for Uncertainty.pdf